But all of this is still to come. Christ has died; Christ is risen--Amen! But we are still waiting for Christ to come again. God has promised us much; God has given us a downpayment in Jesus’ resurrection, but we’re still waiting for God to make good on the rest. In the meantime, we’re very much aware that everything is not right. The poor stay poor, the mourning continue to mourn, justice is still denied those dying for lack of it. We pass children even in our own community who know hunger. News broadcasts from Syria remind us of that war is still a reality tearing people’s lives and communities to pieces.
I’ve heard people say that Jesus’ followers are so future-oriented that we turn a blind eye to the hard reality of the world around us. We’re so focused on “pie in the sky in the sweet by and by” that we lose touch with the here and now.
I wonder if the original Jewish home churches who received James’ letter two thousand years ago entertained that same thought about James. Last Sunday we the shocking words that open James’ letter; v 2 says, Consider it pure joy . . . whenever you face trials of many kinds. I can picture a few members of those home churches that received this letter raising their eyebrows at these words. These original believers were the descendants of Jewish refugees and exiles. They were quite familiar with trials. I can almost hear one of them muttering, “It’s well and good for James to say that people should consider trials to be pure joy while he’s safe and secure in the big church in our Jewish homeland, but he’s a little out of touch with life for us here in the belly of the Roman Empire.” Maybe we think something similar: “Pie in the sky and promises that God will one day make things right are fine between 10:45 and noon on Sunday morning, but for the rest of the work week, those promises feel a little out of touch.”
I think the Spirit anticipated this skeptical reaction from people who read James’ letter. So in vv 9, 10, and 11, the Spirit led James to tackle head on probably the most concrete reality facing the original believers or us today: money.
(Check out the whole sermon after the jump. . .)
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I remember when my parents bought the family’s first modern computer. I was a teenager, so I was quite excited. This computer had a dial-up modem that would allow me to surf the World Wide Web. I felt like a new world was opening up to me. Whatever I was curious about, with a few clicks of the mouse I could easily look up all sorts of information about it on the Internet.
As we pulled it out of its styrofoam packaging and then plugged in the telephone wires, my dad warned me that Internet access also brought some new dangers. The same Internet browser that could answer all my questions about my science project or my favorite comic book character could also lead me to places I shouldn’t be. Chat rooms where the conversation was a bit too adult. Financial scams in glaring pop-up ads. Blackholes of Internet pornography.
It seems that each new technology has brought along with it new risks, new dangers. The Internet brings identity theft and new forms of sexual addiction. Cell phones have brought us distracted driving. The regular old telephone brought telemarketers and opened up a new pipeline for gossip. Automobiles allowed us to get from town to town more quickly, but they also ushered in the breakdown of strong small town community and solid family structures. We could look back over history and name the positives and negatives that came with each technology, going all the way back to the plow, the wheel, and fire.
From a different perspective, we could probably also look back and name a few examples of hard times that have brought unforeseen benefits with them. I do not believe that “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” That is certainly untrue. There are certainly times when people suffer where no fringe benefit makes the suffering worthwhile. But as TV news commentators like to point out, often when tragedy strikes, people pull together. We learn to depend on one another more. We often have a clearer view as to what’s truly important in our lives.
For instance, this last Christmas my uncle lost his battle with cancer. It was a long and painful struggle with the disease. When he died, it was hard on the family. But in the midst of doctors with bad news and chemotherapy destroying his body, I saw something good happen. My uncle had long been estranged from his family. But in the weeks before he died, the family gathered around him and made a kind of peace.
Now I don’t think a measure of family reconciliation justifies my uncle’s cancer or his death. Only God can make that right--and I trust that God will make it right when Jesus comes again to bring justice. But even in the midst of suffering, we can still catch glimpses, reflections of God’s unchanging good plan to heal our world.
I think this is part of what God’s Spirit has to say to us today in James’ letter. Listen to vv 16 and 17: Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters! Each good gift and every perfect things that’s given is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. So often our circumstances lead us astray from our hope. When good times come or when bad times come, we are prone to get distracted and lose sight of the great hope of God’s good promise to set thing right.
A lot of our Christian faith looks toward the future. Each Sunday I step behind this pulpit and remind you again of the good things God has promised for our world. I say over and over that God has promised to make everything right, to make blessings of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount a reality: The poor will really be blessed with God’s kingdom, and those who weep and mourn will really find comfort. Those people starving for justice will be satisfied when God finally brings justice. Like the prophets Isaiah and Micah foretell, God will bring justice to the nations, and then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Is 2.4; Mic 4.3). A day is coming when drought and famine, trade embargoes and warlords will no long leave millions to starve to death. A day is coming when disease will no longer wrack our bodies, when loneliness and grief will no longer bring tears to our eyes.
But all of this is still to come. Christ has died; Christ is risen--Amen! But we are still waiting for Christ to come again. God has promised us much; God has given us a downpayment in Jesus’ resurrection, but we’re still waiting for God to make good on the rest. In the meantime, we’re very much aware that everything is not right. The poor stay poor, the mourning continue to mourn, justice is still denied those dying for lack of it. We pass children even in our own community who know hunger. News broadcasts from Syria remind us of that war is still a reality tearing people’s lives and communities to pieces.
I’ve heard people say that Jesus’ followers are so future-oriented that we turn a blind eye to the hard reality of the world around us. We’re so focused on “pie in the sky in the sweet by and by” that we lose touch with the here and now.
I wonder if the original Jewish home churches who received James’ letter two thousand years ago entertained that same thought about James. Last Sunday we the shocking words that open James’ letter; v 2 says, Consider it pure joy . . . whenever you face trials of many kinds. I can picture a few members of those home churches that received this letter raising their eyebrows at these words. These original believers were the descendants of Jewish refugees and exiles. They were quite familiar with trials. I can almost hear one of them muttering, “It’s well and good for James to say that people should consider trials to be pure joy while he’s safe and secure in the big church in our Jewish homeland, but he’s a little out of touch with life for us here in the belly of the Roman Empire.” Maybe we think something similar: “Pie in the sky and promises that God will one day make things right are fine between 10:45 and noon on Sunday morning, but for the rest of the work week, those promises feel a little out of touch.”
I think the Spirit anticipated this skeptical reaction from people who read James’ letter. So in vv 9, 10, and 11, the Spirit led James to tackle head on probably the most concrete reality facing the original believers or us today: money.
Beginning in v 9, James writes,
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I remember when my parents bought the family’s first modern computer. I was a teenager, so I was quite excited. This computer had a dial-up modem that would allow me to surf the World Wide Web. I felt like a new world was opening up to me. Whatever I was curious about, with a few clicks of the mouse I could easily look up all sorts of information about it on the Internet.
As we pulled it out of its styrofoam packaging and then plugged in the telephone wires, my dad warned me that Internet access also brought some new dangers. The same Internet browser that could answer all my questions about my science project or my favorite comic book character could also lead me to places I shouldn’t be. Chat rooms where the conversation was a bit too adult. Financial scams in glaring pop-up ads. Blackholes of Internet pornography.
It seems that each new technology has brought along with it new risks, new dangers. The Internet brings identity theft and new forms of sexual addiction. Cell phones have brought us distracted driving. The regular old telephone brought telemarketers and opened up a new pipeline for gossip. Automobiles allowed us to get from town to town more quickly, but they also ushered in the breakdown of strong small town community and solid family structures. We could look back over history and name the positives and negatives that came with each technology, going all the way back to the plow, the wheel, and fire.
From a different perspective, we could probably also look back and name a few examples of hard times that have brought unforeseen benefits with them. I do not believe that “Whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” That is certainly untrue. There are certainly times when people suffer where no fringe benefit makes the suffering worthwhile. But as TV news commentators like to point out, often when tragedy strikes, people pull together. We learn to depend on one another more. We often have a clearer view as to what’s truly important in our lives.
For instance, this last Christmas my uncle lost his battle with cancer. It was a long and painful struggle with the disease. When he died, it was hard on the family. But in the midst of doctors with bad news and chemotherapy destroying his body, I saw something good happen. My uncle had long been estranged from his family. But in the weeks before he died, the family gathered around him and made a kind of peace.
Now I don’t think a measure of family reconciliation justifies my uncle’s cancer or his death. Only God can make that right--and I trust that God will make it right when Jesus comes again to bring justice. But even in the midst of suffering, we can still catch glimpses, reflections of God’s unchanging good plan to heal our world.
I think this is part of what God’s Spirit has to say to us today in James’ letter. Listen to vv 16 and 17: Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters! Each good gift and every perfect things that’s given is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. So often our circumstances lead us astray from our hope. When good times come or when bad times come, we are prone to get distracted and lose sight of the great hope of God’s good promise to set thing right.
A lot of our Christian faith looks toward the future. Each Sunday I step behind this pulpit and remind you again of the good things God has promised for our world. I say over and over that God has promised to make everything right, to make blessings of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount a reality: The poor will really be blessed with God’s kingdom, and those who weep and mourn will really find comfort. Those people starving for justice will be satisfied when God finally brings justice. Like the prophets Isaiah and Micah foretell, God will bring justice to the nations, and then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Is 2.4; Mic 4.3). A day is coming when drought and famine, trade embargoes and warlords will no long leave millions to starve to death. A day is coming when disease will no longer wrack our bodies, when loneliness and grief will no longer bring tears to our eyes.
But all of this is still to come. Christ has died; Christ is risen--Amen! But we are still waiting for Christ to come again. God has promised us much; God has given us a downpayment in Jesus’ resurrection, but we’re still waiting for God to make good on the rest. In the meantime, we’re very much aware that everything is not right. The poor stay poor, the mourning continue to mourn, justice is still denied those dying for lack of it. We pass children even in our own community who know hunger. News broadcasts from Syria remind us of that war is still a reality tearing people’s lives and communities to pieces.
I’ve heard people say that Jesus’ followers are so future-oriented that we turn a blind eye to the hard reality of the world around us. We’re so focused on “pie in the sky in the sweet by and by” that we lose touch with the here and now.
I wonder if the original Jewish home churches who received James’ letter two thousand years ago entertained that same thought about James. Last Sunday we the shocking words that open James’ letter; v 2 says, Consider it pure joy . . . whenever you face trials of many kinds. I can picture a few members of those home churches that received this letter raising their eyebrows at these words. These original believers were the descendants of Jewish refugees and exiles. They were quite familiar with trials. I can almost hear one of them muttering, “It’s well and good for James to say that people should consider trials to be pure joy while he’s safe and secure in the big church in our Jewish homeland, but he’s a little out of touch with life for us here in the belly of the Roman Empire.” Maybe we think something similar: “Pie in the sky and promises that God will one day make things right are fine between 10:45 and noon on Sunday morning, but for the rest of the work week, those promises feel a little out of touch.”
I think the Spirit anticipated this skeptical reaction from people who read James’ letter. So in vv 9, 10, and 11, the Spirit led James to tackle head on probably the most concrete reality facing the original believers or us today: money.
Beginning in v 9, James writes,
Brothers or sisters of humble means should take pride in their high status, but the rich [should take pride] in their humble station, for just like a flower in the field, they will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and it dries out the field; then its flowers fall off, and its fine appearance is ruined. In this way also the rich will wither in the midst of their pursuits.Perhaps a bit like the Internet, money can open up new, good possibilities for us, but it can also lead us astray. On the other side of the equation, poverty is a terrible thing to suffer, but there may be, according to James, unexpected blessings that even poverty brings to us.
We don’t usually see the peril of wealth and what James calls the privilege of poverty right now in this present moment. From where we stand, money is something that brings many things to be thankful for--a comfortable house, plenty of tasty food to eat, an enjoyable retirement, security, pleasure, status. And poverty, well, some of us can remember all too well the anxiety of whether the money will stretch to pay all the bills and how our empty cupboards will feed the kids. Feet-on-the-ground common sense seems to say that those with plenty of money have something to be happy about, while those without quite enough are the ones in trouble.
James’s letter, however, puts money in a new perspective. Last Sunday we heard how James reminds us that when we suffer hard times we have to fix our hope on God, the righteous Judge who has promised to set everything right. Here in vv 10 and 11, James tells us again to remember that God is coming as our great Judge. He compares rich people to the wildflowers that bloom in the fields. While we might hope that our petunias or marigold will stick around all summer, the wildflowers in the arid country where James lived had a very short life expectancy. A hot, clear day would scorch the grass, and a field that was green and dotted with poppies and daffodils and anemones would within hours be brown and dry.
The imagery of the sun scorching the field is a frequent Old Testament picture of God’s judgment. It’s an image that is repeated often by the prophet Isaiah. We might remember this picture from Isaiah 40, a passage we often read during Advent in connection with John the Baptist’s ministry. In Is 40.3, the prophet describes God coming to bring justice for the oppressed and suffering Israelites. He describes
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for Yahweh; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of Yahweh will be revealed, and all people will see it together.” (40.3-5)God is coming as Judge and Liberator for his people, Isaiah says. The exalted places--and people too!--will be humbled, and the lowly will be lifted up. In the next verse, the prophet is instructed to announce that
“All people are like grass, and all human loyalty is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of Yahweh blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (40.6-8)The arrival of God’s judgment--what Isaiah pictures as Yahweh’s breath--reveals the fleeting nature of every human endeavor. If we turned to Is 24.4, 33.9, or 34.4, we’d hear this image of withering up used in other descriptions of God’s coming judgment.
How to deal with wealth and how to respond to poverty was a major question for the original Jewish believers in their home church, much the same way that we often wonder how our commitment to Jesus should shape the way we handle money. It’s a question that James returns to repeatedly in this letter, each time growing more and more practical in what he has to say. If we skipped ahead to ch 1, vv 26 and 27, we’d hear how people with money should use it to care for others. Or we could read on to ch 2, where James addresses how we should treat those with money and those without when we gather for worship. Or, if we turned all the way to the end of the letter in chs 4 and 5, we could read where James tells the rich how to make their business plans and how to handle payroll. Very, very practical instructions--maybe more practical than we or the original audience would like. All of these instructions, however, flow out of this basic teaching to remember that God is coming as a just Judge to set the balance books of the world in order. James says that believers must fix their minds on this sure and unchanging hope.
In v 12, James uses plain language to remind us of God’s promise to judge the world and set it right. He says, Blessed is the person who endures when tested, for being proven he will receive the crown of life which was promised to those who love [God].
Cindy and I have a good friend who’s quite the runner. Regularly throughout the week, she goes on these incredible long-distance runs. It’s all part of her training so she can reach her goal. Her goal has been to run the Chicago Marathon. In her training program, she’s run into shin splints and stress fractures. She’ll take some time off to heal up, and then she’ll be back at it, running miles and miles every week. Why? Why doesn’t she simply quit when she develops some new injury? She keeps on running because she has the goal fixed firmly in her mind. She wants to run all 26 plus miles of the Chicago Marathon.
What my friend the runner shows is endurance. I remember running distance one year in high school track and field, the mile and two-mile races. Training in the early March sleet and snow, there were many times I wanted to give up. I would wake up in the morning with all my muscles aching. Endurance is not giving up even when we our desire to go on is tested, choosing to keep on even when we’re suffering.
The test most of the believers in the home churches to which James originally wrote was poverty. They were poor Jewish immigrants and refugees living in Gentile cities that, for the most part, were not happy to have them there. These believers, as you might remember from last Sunday, faced a double disadvantage because they were committed to Jesus as Messiah. Even their Jewish neighbors looked down on them, were reluctant to hire them or do business with them, refused them the helping hand up through a loan in hard times.
Poverty is a test that grinds people down. In Chicago I knew many families who had recently immigrated to the US as refugees from violence in Central Africa. The United States’ immigration and refugee resettlement programs provide very limited benefits to these newly arrived families. As a result, they were often desperate for work. Most prior training and education from other countries is not recognized by US employers, and language was nearly always a tremendous barrier. The result was that these adults would end up working in the worst conditions, often enough under the table for little pay and with no job security. I remember visiting a man in his home. Before civil war had uprooted him and his family he had been a school teacher. Now he chased all over the city in hopes of a job driving taxi or handling bags at the airport. He and his family were no longer in the camps in Rwanda, but life in Chicago didn’t seem to offer much more hope.
Poverty, for believers then and now, is a test. Can we hold on to hope when we’re hungry, anxious, sick, and have no prospects for pulling ourselves out of this situation?
On the other hand, what about when we’re wealthy? Money, just as much as poverty--perhaps even more--tests our faith. Poverty tempts us to give up hope in God altogether. Money encourages us to exchange our hope in God for hope in something else. When our wallets are full or our bank accounts are brimming over, we’re tempted to put our hope in the comforts of a nicely decorated home, the security of smart investments, the pleasure of a retirement spent traveling, golfing, and fishing. James says that those who endure these tests will receive the crown of life from God. This is the kind of life Jesus promised: peaceful, just, joyful, and eternal. Poverty steals away our vision of this kind of life. When we have plenty of money, however, we begin to live for a different kind of life, one full of high-end possessions, the satisfaction of cunning business deals, the pride of not needing to ask others for help.
As I’ve said, this is a theme James returns to. We’ll hear more about how to faithfully handle money--as well as our tongues and our desires--in coming weeks. Today it’s important for us to hear that when God comes as Judge, those who’ve endured much will be rewarded with the kind of good life Jesus promised. This is what God has been planning for a long time, for ages and ages. Already in Isaiah’s day--some seven hundred years before Jesus--we hear of God’s plans. If we looked to God’s words to the Israelites after the exodus from Egypt--another seven hundred years further back in history--we could pick out glimpses of God’s plan to set the world right. In fact, God’s first words to Abraham, centuries before even the exodus, we hear an echo of God’s plan. God says to Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12.3). From Abraham’s day right down to our own, God’s unchanging plan has been to bless all those who suffer by setting the world right. Those who full of faith and hope and love for God see their trials through will rejoice in the good life that God will bring to them on that day.
We might hear this and ask, “If God’s plan all along has been for our good, why then does God let us go through such hard times and trials?” Some may want to point the finger back at God, to say, “If you didn’t want us to give up hope in your promise, you shouldn’t have made life so hard and hopeless.” We could chart out all of the tragedies of history, all the difficulties of our personal lives, and bring them like a court case against God. “You promised something good,” we could say, “but look what you’ve given us.”
This is the question that James addresses in vv 13-15. He writes, When tested, no one should say, “I’m being tested by God.” For God cannot be tested by evil, and he does not test anyone, but each of you is tested when your desires tug at you and lure you away. According to James, God does not test people. The times when life is hard and the times when living is easy--these are not, according to James, circumstances sent down from a jealous God who wants to see if we’ll still faithful to him or not. God is not like that. That kind of evil manipulation has no place in God.
When I was a teenager, I might have angrily asked my parents if they’d bought a computer with the express purpose of seeing whether I’d become addicted to online video games or get sucked into a habit of Internet pornography. If I had, I suspect my parents would have laughed at me. They didn’t buy the computer to face me with the temptation of bad habits. In fact, I suspect their purpose in buying the computer had far more to do with the ways in which it would benefit me and my siblings.
Like a teenager with a computer, our circumstances only become a test of faith for us when our desires or lusts get involved. Rather than waiting for God to deliver on God’s promise, we want the good life now. Rather than waiting on God, we want something to distract us. Our hope seems too far off in the future, so we get dragged away by our desires until we’re completely wrapped up in our present pains and wants. Our hearts become warped by our present situation, our poverty or our wealth, and God’s promise to one day make all things right begins to sound like a flimsy excuse for why things aren’t right already.
Don’t be deceived! Don’t be led astray! That’s what James has to say to us when our hearts start feeling this way. Listen to his words to the believers in vv 16 through 18:
Do not be led astray, my dearly loved brothers and sisters! Each good gift and every perfect thing that’s given is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow caused by turning around. He chose to give birth to us by the word of truth so that we would be firstfruits of a sort of his creatures.Instead of seeing our hardships as drawing into question God’s good plans to make the world right, James tells us to see every little hint of goodness, every glimmer of peace or justice or joy as evidence of God’s good and unchanging plans. These are previews of the great redemption God is working for everyone. If my uncle’s cancer worked some reconciliation in his family, that reconciliation is one instance, one glimpse of the way in which God desires to redeem the sufferings of the whole world.
God has already called us--gave birth to us--as James says, through the word of truth, through the true message, the true promise. In Jesus, God has reaffirmed the promise that God will accomplish his plans to set the world right. Us believers, as the people who know God’s good plan and believe his promise--we’re the first fruits--the first bit of a much larger harvest. The Israelites would bring the first sheaf of wheat or the first basket of produce from their harvest to the temple. They offered it up to God in praise for the bigger harvest they knew was yet to come in. James says that our thanksgiving to God for the bits of good that we see here and now in the midst of our trials is like that. When we praise God we become that firstfruits offering of the bigger fulfilment of God’s good promise yet to come.
It’s easy for our trials--or even our privilege--to trick us. Our circumstances lead us to believe that God has changed his mind. That God has given up on us or our broken world. We begin to think that promise is really after all only a cruel joke. James tells the original Jewish Christians and us too that God is ever constant, ever sure. There is no hint of change about him. God does not turn around and walk out on the good he’s promised ever since Abraham. No. No matter what our sickness, our heartache, our pain or even our wealth might suggest, God is indeed coming to judge the world in righteousness and make all things right.
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