Is Your God Big Enough?

2 Corinthians 3:17-18   (NRSV) 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 

Last Sunday, as we were being blessed by Dr. Fulbright, I realized I needed to change what I was planning on doing this week. Actually, what I was planning for today, I will do next week, but what I planned for next week, will just have to wait.

As Dr. Fulbright talked (and remember, I had the opportunity to hear her twice) I was struck by a thought.

One of the things that keeps us bound is our perception of God.

And my hunch is --- for most of us --- our God is way too small!

In Genesis we are told:

God created humanity in God’s own image,

        in the divine image God created them,

            male and female God created them.

                             Genesis 1:27 (CEB)

And while I trust that to be true --- I think that we have in reality turned that phrase on its head.

          Humanity created God in their own image

                   In our personal image we created God

Too often, without even realizing it --- we have substituted a paltry and puny God for the great and gracious God made known in Jesus.

We’ve manufactured a god from our fears who is limited, narrow and tame – a little god who does nothing saving, surprising or amazing.

This small god we have made diminishes our souls and shrinks our world because this meager god is strictly local.

The little god is stingy with mercy; there is only enough for our kind of people – our nation or tribe or race or family or social class or religious group.

There is not enough love in this god to go around

This diminutive god doesn’t have the capacity to change anything in our world or in us;

the best we can hope for from such a god is sympathy and advice.

This tiny, tin god is a totem for the status quo, so we hope less and less for the justice and peace that would transform and change everything.

What many of us need is to recover, or maybe even to discover for the first time --- is a sense of wonder at the mystery and absolute magnificence of God.

The God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ is vast beyond our comprehension, beautiful beyond our appreciation and wonderful beyond our imagination.

God encompasses everything we understand and fail to understand

what we have discovered and what remains hidden

what is near and what is far

God is above and beyond

among and within

high and holy

close and compassionate.

And God’s love is breathtakingly all-embracing.

Paul captures this well in this powerful prayer from the Letter to the Ephesians:

I ask that he will strengthen you in your inner selves from the riches of his glory through the Spirit.  I ask that Christ will live in your hearts through faith. As a result of having strong roots in love, I ask that you’ll have the power to grasp love’s width and length, height and depth, together with all believers.  I ask that you’ll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

In 1952, J. B. Phillips wrote a small but provocative book entitled Your God Is Too Small.

The idea behind this book is that we have many notions of God which are simply inadequate for God.

Since our ideas about God are flawed, our behavior toward God is often equally flawed.

·         If we see God as a benevolent grandfather, we tend to take God’s mercy for granted and overlook God’s judgment.

·         If we think of God primarily as a stern and harsh disciplinarian, we are likely to emphasize God’s punishment and overlook God’s grace.

Perhaps the greatest problem Phillips addressed was our tendency to make God into a bigger version of ourselves

we try to create God in our own image.

We make God think like us --- and react like us --- and feel like us.

Thus, not surprisingly our perception of god has the same biases, and prejudices that we have.

Too often, we become the yardstick against which the character of God is measured.

Our worship of this kind of "god" quickly degenerates into a worship of ourselves.

          But that is a discussion for another day.

In order to live out our Wesleyan understanding of grace --- we must have a BIG God

Do you understand what I mean by our Wesleyan understanding of grace?

What makes us unique as United Methodists is our understanding of how God operates in the world.

While someone from the reform tradition believes that a person must seek out God --- and invite God into their lives

          We believe that God comes to us FIRST

We call this PREVENIENT GRACE

Prevenient grace refers to the grace of God in a person's life that precedes conversion (or salvation).

The word "prevenient," considered an archaic term today, was common in the King James English and simply means to "go before" or "precede.

What makes this important is that we believe that this is true in EVERY PERSONS life.

It is not just some people whom God seeks out --- it is EVERYONE

In order to trust that --- you must have a BIG God

          A God who is bigger than our rules

          A God who is bigger than United Methodism

          A God who is bigger than even Christianity

That probably got some of you uncomfortable

          But are you limiting God?

When we start putting constraints on whom God’s grace can touch we need to recognize that we are limiting God

Timothy Jones in Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace shares a story about taking his daughter to Disney World.

Our middle daughter had been previously adopted by another family. I am sure this couple had the best of intentions, but they never quite integrated the adopted child into their family of biological children. After a couple of rough years, they dissolved the adoption, and we ended up welcoming an eight-year-old girl into our home.

For one reason or another, whenever our daughter’s previous family vacationed at Disney World, they took their biological children with them, but they left their adopted daughter with a family friend. Usually — at least in the child’s mind — this happened because she did something wrong that precluded her presence on the trip.

And so, by the time we adopted our daughter, she had seen many pictures of Disney World and she had heard about the rides and the characters and the parades. But when it came to passing through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, she had always been the one left on the outside.

I thought I had mastered the Disney World drill. I knew from previous experiences that the prospect of seeing cast members in freakishly oversized mouse and duck costumes somehow turns children into squirming bundles of emotional instability. What I didn’t expect was that the prospect of visiting this dreamworld would produce a stream of downright devilish behavior in our newest daughter. In the month leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth. She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible — and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied.

A couple of days before our family headed to Florida, I pulled our daughter into my lap to talk through her latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re not going to take me to Disney World, are you?”

In retrospect, I’m embarrassed to admit that, in that moment, I was tempted to turn her fear to my own advantage. The easiest response would have been, “If you don’t start behaving better, you’re right, we won’t take you” — but, by God’s grace, I didn’t. Instead, I asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?”

She nodded, brown eyes wide and tear-rimmed.

“Are you part of this family?”

She nodded again.

“Then you’re going with us.”

I’d like to say that her behaviors grew better after that moment. They didn’t. Her choices pretty much spiraled out of control at every hotel and rest stop. Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised.

In our hotel room that evening, a very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled around, I prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at Disney World?”

She closed her eyes and snuggled down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so slightly. “Daddy,” she said, “I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”

It wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.

That’s the message of outrageous grace --- but it takes trust in a BIG God to believe that could be true.

The challenge is to trust in a God that is greater than we can even fathom

          A God that has way more love and compassion than we could ever dream of

JB Philips suggests: 

[God] must not be limited to religious matters or even to the “religious” interpretation of life. [God] must not be confined to one particular section of time nor must we imagine [God] as the local god of this planet or even only of the Universe that astronomical survey has so far discovered.

But putting our trust --- our faith --- in a God that loves so large is dangerous.

Because this same God wants us to love the same way.

What would it look like if we sought to live our lives with the same kind of love as God.

The truth is -- we do --- we just need to let our hearts see the fullness of God's love and quite trying to make God into our own image.

What Will The World Miss, If You Don't Tell Your Story?

Acts 9:3-9   

Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Henry David Thoreau is often credited with writing “Most men (people) lead lives of quiet desperation and die with their song still inside them”

As I sat down earlier this year and wrestled with this year’s theme: FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS --- I tried to imagine what some of the barriers were to achieving it.

I pondered this long and hard, and I came to the conclusion that the biggest barrier is myself --- and that may be true for you as well.

My inability to be honest with myself --- let alone with you --- is always a huge barrier to me building a deeper relationship with Jesus and of course with each other

In 2014, I had the opportunity to attend Don Miller's storyline conference --- the fact that it was in San Diego -- in February --- just made it all that more attractive.

The premise of the conference was to help us live out our story (or using Thoreau's words) our song that is inside us.

In order to live a great story, we have to change the way that we approach life.

To live a great story, we need to know who we are, what we want and understand the conflict that we will need to engage so that we can take action.

Miller argued that living a great story is like learning to ride a bike.

          It takes patience and practice

To be able to live a great story we have to change the way we think about life

·         We need to identify our dreams

·         understand the potential conflicts to achieving those dreams

·         and create a plan of action

Once we begin this journey we can begin to embrace what is at stake --- the song that is trapped inside you.

Too many people struggle to find the meaning and purpose of life.

Don Miller said: "What if life is not meaningless --- but your life is meaningless?"

          Don't you want to unlock the meaning and live it out?

It was Maya Angelou who said: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

The question is how do we free that story and live the life we were meant to live.

I am NOT a Calvinist --- I do not believe that God has foreordained our lives. 

I believe that God walks with us --- not grabs us by the hand and pulls us along.

In other words --- quit looking for the perfect story.

          I am not sure there is such a thing as a perfect story, anyway

                   But I am convinced that there are millions of good ones

Jon Acuff says that to have a meaningful story it requires two things

          Heart and structure

And he offers five ways to start living your best life

1.       Don't wait for a perfect vision of what your story is to be

                   You just have to start

2.       Yes, you will be afraid

When asked in a Forbes interview what keeps people from achieving their potential he said the most common trap was fear.

He said:

I've never met a 20 year old or a 50 year old who says, "I've never had a single passion, dream, hope or desire." We all have them, but a lot of us give in to fear as soon as we get close to them. The reason is that fear only gets loud when you do things that matter. Fear never bothers you if you're average but the second you dare to be more than ordinary, fear awakens.

Fear is not the same as regret

          Better to face your fear today instead of living your regret forever

3.       People will criticize you

4.       Be patient

5.       You have to say YES

So how do we write our story?

          Our story --- not the story that the world tries to give us!

It starts with you getting out a piece of paper

I did this the other day, and after I finished, the next day I found the list I made while at the conference --- what amazed me was two things

·         Almost everything was the same

·         What changed --- on this new list I was more honest with myself

I was more willing to admit my failure (and how those failures turned into something positive!)

And I think that is the key --- HONESTY

So the first thing to do is to write down all the important positive events in your life

          The ones that have left a legacy --- been a turning point or marker

After making that list --- go back and add to it, the negative turns.

          This is where it gets hard to be honest with ourselves

But the goal is to begin to see the redemption that is found even in those hard places

          Much like Paul’s story this morning.

I am going to trust you enough, and share some of my journey (some things I have NEVER shared before) --- I do this fully understanding the risks involved --- but I am convinced --- that if Meridian Street wants to reach it's potential in leading people into discipleship with Jesus ---THE ONLY WAY that is going to happen is if we can be dangerously honest with each other.

I know that this could explode

          But I embrace Jon Acuff's third principle

                   PEOPLE WILL CRITICIZE YOU

This is a sampling of my combined list --- just some of the highlights

When I look back on my life --- the first seminal moment took place when I was about 9 years old.

I was in the elementary school production of The Wizard of Oz, I was so good, I was (along with the rest of my class who didn't get selected for a part) invited to be in the chorus.

During the dress rehearsal --- Mrs. Boone (who was not only a member of the church, but our families were very close) --- Mrs. Boone walked over to me and suggested I turn and face the back of the stage and not sing so loudly.

                   I was devastated

Obviously, I still hang on to it 50 years later, that is my first real significant memory

And it took a long time for that story to redeem itself --- but it actually did (that’s another story for another day)

A year or so later I found myself in the hospital in Jackson, TN sharing the room with a boy who was sick like me.  It was my first encounter with someone of a different race and I learned a powerful lesson.

While his skin might have been darker than mine --- and the end of the day --- we were both equally scared.  God gave me a gift, a glimpse of what brothers and sisters are really like

When I went to High School, I joined the debate team (I certainly wasn't joining the choir) and I found great success.

          Not only were we good --- I was respected (I am not sure I felt that before)

It gave me a confidence that I had never had

When I went off to college, I chose the school I chose not because of the school, but I wanted to go someplace that all my friends were not. 

It may have been one of the wisest decisions in my life.

When I came home at Christmas my Freshman year I shared to family and friends that I felt God calling me into the ministry

                   Nobody was surprised --- which was a huge disappointment

          And a comment was given to me that has stuck

                   "You will be good because you get along with people"

It has taken me a long time to unpack the influence (good and bad) that that little statement has had on my life

My last year in college I became a Resident Assistant and while in that role met another Resident Assistant we dated our senior year and I headed off to Duke Divinity School

We were separated during that year, but we decided to get married so we could be together. 

A few months before the wedding, my best friend and I had one of those talks --- he knew --- and I knew --- that getting married was a mistake --- but I kept feeling that I would disappoint people if I broke it off. 

Because my story was that I got along with people and should be able to work it out (Right?)

I didn't break it off and we were married that summer.

                    It lasted a semester --- the reasons why it didn’t work are irrelevant

                             Both of us were to blame

The next big transformational event in my life was meeting a young woman named Nancy Hollowell

She has been amazing

She was with me when Stewart died --- and I am not sure that I could have made it thought that period without her

And that event --- probably more than any other on this list has been profound on my life’s story.

I would not --- I could not --- be a pastor without having gone through that terrible tragedy

I do not believe Stewart died so that I could be a pastor, but through the pain and agony --- Stewart taught and shaped me

Shortly after that Nancy and I got married

          Best thing I have ever done!

Each of the girls births have been transformational

When I was 29 years old, having only served a small county seat church, I was invited to become the founding pastor of a church in Warsaw Indiana.

That was the most stress filled and exhilarating time of my life

          two of the girls were born during this period

But after 6 years, I was out of balance and I knew I had to leave

Jump ahead almost 20 years (not that there are not important things in-between)

But about 12 years in as pastor in Munster, for reasons I have not fully comprehended even to this day a family that we were very close too fell away --- not from the church mind you --- just from our lives.

While they had been some of our biggest supporters, and as family we did many things with ----Now they were distant, and behind the scenes not always honest

                    I still sting from that experience

                  

One of the challenges of staying a long time as the pastor of a church is you have to re-invent yourself.  I managed to go through three such transitions while I was at Munster, but as I faced the reality of a fourth transition, I (to be honest) could not figure out which way to turn.

I was still hurt by the broken relationship and was tired of always trying to keep everyone playing nice together.

So I decided to jump ship. 

My mistake was I jumped at the first thing that came along.

I went to work for a non-profit and quickly found myself dealing with some questionable practices.

I remember coming home when I was looking to hire an assistant and I told Nancy that I had two excellent candidates, but I could not hire one because she was too pretty and I perceived that some in management had a tendency to prey on pretty women.  But there was nothing I could do to change that.

After six months, I was fired --- mainly because I asked too many questions, and I learned a surprising lesson.  When someone wants you gone bad enough they will pay you to leave (if you get my drift).

The day before I was fired, was the day I got a phone call from Bert Kite asking me if I would be interested in coming to Meridian Street.  A month earlier, I had made the decision that I needed to be back in the church.

Why is all this important?

Because knowing where I have been --- helps me examine my future dreams and help make sure that they are aligned and that I have the strength to deal with the inevitable conflicts that will come.

A few years ago, a hospice nurse put together a list of the regrets that she had heard shared by those who are dying. (Bronnie Ware)

1.    I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2.    I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

3.    I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4.    I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5.    I wish that I had let myself be happier.

In response to those, Don Miller created what he called the 5 Commandments of the Living

1.    Don't ignore your dreams

2.    Keep work and relationships in balance

3.    Project your God-given self into the world

4.    Cultivate deep friendships

5.    Be grateful

Pretty good list, and as I enter begin to dream about the next stage of my life, they are certainly things I need to be more cognizant of

Your story matters

Take action --- to make YOUR story count

Not everyone will want you to change

The stakes are high

By living fully the story God intends you impact other people --- and model for them what living their own story can be like

And I am convinced ---

You cannot fully fall in love with Jesus unless you are honest about your story and let it be known --- to YOU and GOD.

My favorite thing that Don Miller said --- If you don’t like your story --- write a new one!

When We All Get To Heaven

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

It was almost nine years ago that Rob Bell published his brief, but controversial book simply titled Love Wins --- I don't know if any of you have read it.

By the controversy you would have thought that Rob Bell had come up with some radical new ideas, but really all he did was take ideas that have been around for 2000 years and put them in the main stream.

And what made it even more intriguing, is Rob Bell, at the time of the books release was the founding pastor of Mars Hill, a mega-church on the outskirts of Grand Rapids Michigan.

What was it that set the evangelical world into a thither --- and even made many in moderate churches uncomfortable?

          Rob Bell challenged our conventional ideas about heaven and hell.

I want to pause for a moment, and I would like you to grab the pencil out of the pew, or your pocket and I want you to write down what you believe about heaven and hell.

          Who is in hell?

                   Where is hell?

          How does one get to heaven?

                   Where is heaven?

John 14:1-6 Common English Bible (CEB)

“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going.”

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Take a moment and write down what you believe.

What did you come up with?

Heaven

          Place that Jesus prepares for us with God

          Where one goes when they die

          Eternal rest with God

          Only get there through Jesus

Hell

          Place where sinners go

          Eternal torment

          Separation from God

I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I am very conflicted in what I understand heaven and hell to be.

I have looked at images taken of the galaxy and no-one has as of yet found the heavenly realm like our ancestors believed

Nor do I believe that Hell is down there someplace

So what are heaven and hell?

Let me share with you a little parable found in Amy-Jill Levine's book: The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  Amy-Jill Levine, is a Jew, but may be the best New Testament Scholar of today.  She teaches at Vanderbilt Divinity School.  She writes:

“After a long and happy life, I (Amy-Jill) find myself at the pearly gates (a sight of great joy; the word for “pearl” in Greek is, by the way, margarita). Standing there is St. Peter. This truly is heaven, for finally my academic questions will receive answers. I immediately begin the questions that have been plaguing me for half a century: “Can you speak Greek? Where did you go when you wandered off in the middle of Acts? How was the incident between you and Paul in Antioch resolved? What happened to your wife?”

Peter looks at me with some bemusement and states, “Look, lady, I’ve got a whole line of saved people to process. Pick up your harp and slippers here, and get the wings and halo at the next table. We’ll talk after dinner.”

As I float off, I hear, behind me, a man trying to gain Peter’s attention. He has located a “red letter Bible,” which is a text in which the words of Jesus are printed in red letters. This is heaven, and all sorts of sacred art and Scriptures, from the Bhagavad Gita to the Qur’an, are easily available (missing, however, was the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version). The fellow has his Bible open to John 14, and he is frenetically pointing at v. 6: “Jesus says here, in red letters, that he is the way. I’ve seen this woman on television (actually, she’s thinner in person). She’s not Christian; she’s not baptized - she shouldn’t be here!”

“Oy,” says Peter, “another one - wait here.”

He returns a few minutes later with a man about five foot three with dark hair and eyes. I notice immediately that he has holes in his wrists, for when the empire executes an individual, the circumstances of that death cannot be forgotten.

“What is it, my son?” he asks.

The man, obviously nonplussed, sputters, “I don’t mean to be rude, but didn’t you say that no one comes to the Father except through you?”

“Well,” responds Jesus, “John does have me saying this.” (Waiting in line, a few other biblical scholars who overhear this conversation sigh at Jesus’s phrasing; a number of them remain convinced that Jesus said no such thing. They’ll have to make the inquiry on their own time.) “But if you flip back to the Gospel of Matthew, which does come first in the canon, you’ll notice in chapter 25, at the judgment of the sheep and the goats, that I am not interested in those who say ‘Lord, Lord,’ but in those who do their best to live a righteous life: feeding the hungry, visiting people in prison . . . ”

Becoming almost apoplectic, the man interrupts, “But, but, that’s works righteousness. You’re saying she’s earned her way into heaven?”

“No,” replies Jesus, “I am not saying that at all. I am saying that I am the way, not you, not your church, not your reading of John’s Gospel, and not the claim of any individual Christian or any particular congregation. I am making the determination, and it is by my grace that anyone gets in, including you. Do you want to argue?”

The last thing I recall seeing, before picking up my heavenly accessories, is Jesus handing the poor man a Kleenex to help get the log out of his eye.”

What I loved about Rob Bell's book is that many places he does not give us the answers --- he just poses challenging questions that we must wrestle with.

One example is when he is discussing atonement theory

“The point, then, isn’t to narrow it down to one particular metaphor, image, explanation, or mechanism. To elevate one over the others, to insist that there’s a ‘correct’ or ‘right’ one, is to miss the brilliant, creative work these first Christians were doing when they used these images and metaphors”

Amy-Jill Levine does the same thing.

But how we individually answer those questions is important, because it impacts how we view so many other issues.

If we are certain that salvation is about believing in a RIGHT set of beliefs: I imagine that you found the story from Amy-Jill and the premise of Rob Bell's book disconcerting.

But if salvation is about relationship --- that changes everything

Amy-Jill Levine again:

“The kingdom of heaven is not, for the Jewish Jesus of Nazareth, a piece of real estate for the single saved soul; it is a communal vision of what could be and what should be. It is a vision of a time when all debts are forgiven, when we stop judging others, when we not only wear our traditions on our sleeve, but also hold them in our hearts and minds and enact them with all our strength. It is the good news that the Torah can be discussed and debated, when the Sabbath is truly honored and kept holy, when love of enemies replaces the tendency toward striking back. The vision is Jewish, and it is worth keeping as frontlets before our eyes and teaching to our children.”

Let us gather at the table, not because we have believed correctly or even because we have earned it --- but let us gather together at this table because Jesus has invited us.

James: The Power of Community

James 5:13-20

If any of you are suffering, they should pray. If any of you are happy, they should sing. If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve. Elijah was a person just like us. When he earnestly prayed that it wouldn’t rain, no rain fell for three and a half years. He prayed again, God sent rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

After the past four weeks, which I am sure at times felt like one was getting beaten up by James, --- we come to the end of his little letter and suddenly the tone shifts.

If I were to try and sum up the overall message of James it is quite simple: That Christians should be easy to pick out of a crowd by how they live their lives.

Now the way that James does this, is often with a knife, rather than coddling us.

James likes to tell it how he sees it, and to be honest --- most of us are not too sure we really like his message --- or at least his method in telling it.

Throughout this letter, James mentions several specific ways we have opportunities to demonstrate our faith in the ways we live our lives.

We began by looking at how James believes that our faith must be exhibited in our works (in other words --- how we live our life).  And that plays out in whether or not we exhibit the fruits of the Spirit

Believing certain things is important --- But James would tell you it is not THE most important thing. 

What is most important? --- Do we demonstrate --- through our lives --- those same things we claim to believe

He continues to challenge us by asking: can people see we are a Jesus follower in

·         How we handle trials and difficulties in our lives

·         How we handle success

·         How we handle temptations

·         Recognizing that we have the power to heal or destroy with our words and are we seen as a uniter with them

·         Do we have concern for the widow and orphan

·         Do our prejudices effect our words and actions

·         Do we help those in need

·         How we approach the future --- do we seek God's kindom or do we seek one of our own creation?

·         And then last week --- with I am sure everyone's favorite sermon --- what we do with our wealth

If you have been reading along at home, you probably noticed that this change in one actually took place a little earlier in chapter 5.

Starting with the 7th verse, James begins to exhort us to patience

But then he shifts

James again affirms, what he has been saying all along --- that ALL OF YOUR LIFE --- every single part of it must flow out of the richness of our relationship with God.

·         If you’re in trouble pray to God about it

·         If you’re happy – praise God in your prayers

·         If you’re sick (on any level: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual) call the elders and have them pray over you and God will heal you, God will set you free.

And these practices that James is describing might best be summarized as elements or hallmarks of a caring community.

They include prayer, the singing of songs of praise, and the ministry of presence and touch in the laying on of hands and anointing, all while invoking the power and promise that belongs to the community in the “name of the Lord.”

All of these actions assume a community that surrounds and sustains each other in their individual and personal needs.

At the very beginning of the letter James encouraged us --- that if we don't understand this message (and the word he uses is wisdom) --- that if we don't understand --- we should turn to God in prayer.

anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask.

In these concluding words to the community of the followers of Jesus, James returns to this same theme, --- but now, James, notes that the power of prayer holds out some rather telling content and promise.

James speaks of its power to “save” the sick, to “raise them up,” and to occasion the “forgiveness of sins”.

James is saying that in the community’s exercise of prayer --- the very promise and power of the resurrection remain not just some future hope but now impinge on, recreate, and sustain a living and active community of faith.

And I want to reiterate, because it is easy for us to miss (and I will come back to this in a couple of weeks) that the exercise of prayer that James is referring to is neither by nor for persons in isolation.

Because what is the central theme from his brother Jesus’ life that James is constantly emphasizing --- that we are to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS.

It goes without me even saying it that we live in a very individualist oriented culture.

Self-help books proliferate on our bookshelves.

And even so-called “social media” is often structured or utilized primarily to focused on exalting individual identities and chalking up the greatest number of “friends” on our tally sheets (friends for whom the greatest insult might be that I might “unfriend” them at any moment).

For James --- this community that he is espousing is --- well --- it is communal, especially in its faithful exercise of prayer.

Twice he charges that confession should be “to one another,” and that we should pray “for one another,” if we have any expectation that the promised healing is to take place.

Such prayer exercised within and on behalf of the community has power -- James says it is “effective.”

It is effective because it is exercised within the context of a community endowed with God’s gifts in creation, and because it belongs to ones who have been forgiven and empowered by the implanted word of promise in Christ Jesus.

In James’ language it is the prayer of ones who are “righteous.”

What James really seems to be saying --- is we need to care for one another. 

We need to build a community.

Greg Jones, in an article in Interpretation wrote:

Each of the activities that James describes—singing, truthful speech, praying, anointing, confessing, and engaging in mutual admonition—is difficult to learn to do well, much less to learn to do in relation to the others. But part of the gift of Christian life is that we do not learn to do any of them alone. We learn them as we learn any craft, with the assistance of mentors—"saints"—who help us, over time, to discover the fullness of God's gracious and forgiving love by shaping us to become active recipients of that love.

The capacity to discover what it means to be forgiven and to forgive depends, in part, on the richness of one's communal habits, practices, and disciplines. If we want to be faithful in our witness to God, then we ought to focus more attention on cultivating and crafting communities whose practices are marked by the crucified and risen Christ and bear witness to the eschatological work of the Holy Spirit.

In other words --- it is all about community

James then wraps up this letter with this easily misquoted verse.

My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

Luke Timothy Johnson in The New Interpreters Bible remarks:

James concludes this section and the letter with an encouragement to mutual correction.  Such correction was a staple of ancient moral teaching, both in Hellenism and in Judaism. . . . Mutual correction is a form of edification that takes the construction of a community of character seriously.

We live today in a culture that says --- if I don't get my way I am going to take my stuff and go somewhere else.

I think James would be appalled.

Looking at the current fight in the UMC --- wow --- James would have a few things to say.

He would plead for us to put first things first

          And throughout this letter, he has tried to demonstrate what that is all about.

But in the end --- it all takes place within community

          Family Promise

          FreeWheelin’

          Habitat For Humanity

          MLK & School 43

          House Groups/Bible Studies/Ministry Teams

Community that cares for each other

          Community that prays for each other

          Community that shares with each other

Community that loves each other enough that they can work to seek forgiveness and not escape

James calls us to the radical lifestyle that Jesus proclaimed and that we have experience when we embrace the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to change us

To bring us together

Can we find this radical community that Jesus spoke of and James affirms?