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Grace, mercy, and peace be upon you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading, but it’s the Old Testament that gives the meat to what is said in the Gospel reading. You may be seated.

All of us are waiting on something. Regardless of what it is, we are all waiting on something. And if we’re middle-aged, maybe it’s a new job. Our Heavenly Father knows there have been many men and women within our parish family who have been put out of a job and are looking for others. Some have found them recently. Some have not. But they’re waiting. They’re also waiting to make sure their bills get paid, that the economy improves so that their retirement has something there to be retired upon, and then they’re also thinking and waiting in terms of when should they retire, or when can they retire.

If they’re younger, they’re thinking in terms of waiting for high school to hurry up and get over, or college, or to find that first job, to find the woman or the man who was meant for them to be married unto. And then it’s waiting for the first birth of their child, for the marriage of that child, for that child to find that place in this world. And if we’re older, we’re waiting for our health to improve or waiting for the next family get-together. We’re waiting for what’s next, or we’re even waiting for death.

As God’s children, we wait all of our lives. We’re always waiting for that next thing, whatever that thing may be. And in that waiting period, it is when God sifts us and molds us and shapes us and stretches us more than any other time in your and my life. That’s the waiting game that we’re in.

When Jeremiah wrote, “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord,” he is a man who knows what it is like to wait. Remember, Jeremiah was the one thrown into the dry well because they didn’t receive his preaching, because he kept telling the people of Israel about the impending seventy years of exile in Babylon that they were going to have to endure, and they just completely pooh-poohed him. And he had to wait, quietly. Although you know during that waiting time, did he struggle within himself, and did Satan leave him alone? By no means. Constantly nagging at him like a steady drip did Satan continually attack at Jeremiah.

The same for Jairus. My firstborn was a girl, as well. And for us as daddies, my goodness, when our girl shines with her smile, we really are putty in her hands. I can only imagine what Jairus must have felt to see his little girl at twelve years old be very, very ill and near death. We men, for better or for worse, are known for men of action, and we get ourselves in trouble sometimes because we act before we should think. But nevertheless, this Jairus was taking matters in his own hand, and he had to rush to get Jesus. You and I as men would not put up with dillydallying around if we wanted to see our daughter be made well and knew that He was the one to make it happen. But what did Jesus do to this frantic father for the blessing of his dear daughter but wait? Because no more had he been told the news of his daughter’s impending death did Jesus then get completely thronged about by a crowd, as the text says, so enthronged about that it slowed Him down, that he couldn’t get to then Jairus’ house, which wasn’t just down the street but almost a day’s walk.

And then in the middle of this slowing down and waiting did Jairus have to see somebody else get in the way of his daughter’s healing, and that was the woman who had waited twelve years, twelve long years, twelve years that she never ever got to go to a synagogue or the temple to worship but had to worship in her own home because she was unclean due to the discharge of blood. And for twelve years did she spend vast amounts of money, seeing vast numbers of doctors, and after doing so, she was not better but the text said she actually was worse. But she had to wait.

It is in this meantime between when we have cried out to God and when He answers us that there is this meantime, this waiting game. Whether it’s for a job, whether it’s for our children to attain our goals for them or their own goals, whether it’s for those things that we have prayed for so fervently for ten, twelve, twenty years and are waiting for its fruition, we are in this waiting game in this meantime. And it’s difficult.

Some days, we’re the ones who are on top and can say, “God be praised. He will bring it about according to His will.” And other days, we are so overwhelmed with our own emotion and Satan’s pounding incessantly at us and that we are, as we talked about this morning in Bible class, like a crumpled rag in the corner of the room and only God can pick us up and shake us and get us back on track. In that meantime and waiting game is it very difficult to live out our faith, and yet, you know what? That’s most of our life; isn’t it, because the moment that that prayer has been answered, it’s over with. Done. But we’re still waiting for something else; aren’t we. Very interesting indeed.

In the moments when we are understanding God’s will as best as can be understood by us in faith, we give thanks and praise to God, and we wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord without burdens. We know that both for Jeremiah, for the people of Israel during their seven years of exile, for Jairus, for the woman, their waiting was difficult.

Now, the glory at the end is the glory in the text of the Gospel reading. All of us will be delivered at the end. We know that because we are God’s people as Christians who believe in the resurrection, that this world is not all that there is, and that we will win and be triumphant, no matter how it looks like in this life. But in the meantime, yes, in the meantime, the woman was healed. God be praised for that healing. And our complete and total healing will come when we finally close our eyes, in faith and trust, and die.

For Jairus’ daughter, it’s the resurrection before their very eyes and your and my very eyes, and we will wait for our final resurrection, as well. Can you imagine, and maybe you can because you have seen it, but it’s not a very good or enjoyable thing to see, and that is one of God’s saints who sits in a bed and can’t move and can hardly feed himself or herself and waits for what? The same thing that we wait for as we’re busy about working at jobs and earning money and making payments and saving money, the same thing we’re waiting on. It’s just that, for that person, we can see it. For us, we can’t, but God tells us we are to be ready at all times for we know not when God will call us. Jairus didn’t know when his twelve-year-old daughter would be afflicted, and yet, she was. The woman didn’t know when she would be afflicted with this discharge, and yet, she was. And you and I, we know not when we will be afflicted, and we can say maybe we’re being afflicted right now. But in the meantime, God shapes us with His promises. That is all we have, isn’t it….His promises. We don’t have promises from people in this life. We don’t have even promises from family members, but we do have promises from God. And it’s those promises that we trust in and will not yield to Satan’s torments but will stand upon and be comforted as we wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

It’s never easy to wait. Remember that little nuance saying: “Patience is a virtue.” It’s a heck of a hard virtue, but don’t worry. God will shape it in you whether you and I want it or not. But He will not shape it in us without at the same time setting before our eyes His answer. Listen again. He will shape us whether we want to be shaped and wait or not, but He will shape us with, before our very eyes, His promise to assure us He will deliver us. And that’s the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light. That is the hope that God has placed within you and those two young girls who can’t even say their name but can call upon God already and whose flesh isn’t tormented like your and my flesh with doubts, with inconsistencies and unfulfilled expectations, but they cry out with praise of their God as they await when they can tie their own shoes…“No, Mommy, I do it, I do it.” When they can feed themselves and so on. This waiting game in which God has placed us has an end as we wait quietly for His salvation.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting.

Amen.