James: The Emptiness of Riches

James 4:13-5:6   Common English Bible

Pay attention, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a town. We will stay there a year, buying and selling, and making a profit.” You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes. Here’s what you ought to say: “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But now you boast and brag, and all such boasting is evil. It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it. 

Pay attention, you wealthy people! Weep and moan over the miseries coming upon you. Your riches have rotted. Moths have destroyed your clothes. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you. It will eat your flesh like fire. Consider the treasure you have hoarded in the last days. Listen! Hear the cries of the wages of your field hands. These are the wages you stole from those who harvested your fields. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of heavenly forces. You have lived a self-satisfying life on this earth, a life of luxury. You have stuffed your hearts in preparation for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who doesn’t oppose you. 

I don't view myself as wealthy, but that is not probably surprising, because my guess is most of you don't see yourselves as wealthy either.

According to Charles Schwab's 2019 Modern Wealth Survey they found some interesting data.

          59% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck

          44% carry a credit card balance

          only 38% have built up an emergency fund

I doubt there are many here who struggle with those realities

But the other thing they found is what people consider being "wealthy"

          Having a million dollars isn't enough

The responses varied by generation.

Boomers, for example, said they needed $2.6 million to be considered wealthy

Gen Z’ers said they needed significantly less: $1.5 million.

It averages out to about $2.3 million for one to be considered "wealthy" in this survey

You all know what I make a year, as the church council approves my salary and financials are always available to anyone who wants to see them.

And I am pretty certain that I am not in the top half of the income levels of this church

But if I take my after tax salary and run it through a world-wide calculator, and you will get slight variations based on the calculator you use --- But the average suggests that I am in the top 1.5% of all the people in the world

Yet, I would imagine that Nancy and my pay does not put us in the top quarter in the USA

The median USA salary is 60,366 and in a family of 4, (2 adults and 2 children), are still in the top 6.4% in the world

But that is irrelevant --- by any standards, I am rich --- we are all rich

          We do not live paycheck to paycheck

          We have money in the bank

And James is speaking to ME to all of us

In Lima, Peru there is a concrete barrier that literally separates the rich from the poor.

Lima has some of the poorest slums in the world, and multitudes live in squalor.

The wealthy built a wall to protect themselves from the high crime rate of the slums. But the wall has become a symbol of the vast divide existing between the rich and the poor.

Can you, for a moment, imagine a man clambering to the top of the wall?

Imagine if you can James, the brother of Jesus, climbing up there because he wants to preach to the folk on both sides of that wall.

First he turns toward the rich people and boy does he give them an earful --- that's Chapter 5 verses 1-6.

And if you have read this chapter (as I hope you have read the entire Letter of James) you know that verses 7 - 11 are intended for the folk who live on that poor side of the wall.

I am not going to focus on that part of the Letter, but instead want to focus on what James has to say to us.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!" James calls out to us.

And the words he speaks echo the words that his brother Jesus spoke.

Jesus spoke more about money than he did anything else.

He knew the challenges that wealth can bring to people.

Mark 10

As Jesus continued down the road, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God. You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother.”

“Teacher,” he responded, “I’ve kept all of these things since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him carefully and loved him. He said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” But the man was dismayed at this statement and went away saddened, because he had many possessions.

Luke 12

Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.” Then he told them a parable: “A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods. I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?’ This is the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren’t rich toward God.”

Matthew 6

“Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!", then James continues: "Weep and moan over the miseries coming upon you."

Is that what Jesus wants? 

          Misery to come upon us?

I think he wants us to be mindful of what Jesus taught and what Paul affirmed:

(1 Timothy 6:10 Common English Bible (CEB))

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.

And if we are honest --- making money is often our goal.

So what are we to do?

As I began working on this week's sermon, I was drawn to a book that I read decades ago.  It has been revised and republished many times since.  It is Ron Sider's Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger.  If you have never read it, I highly suggest it.

In conclusion, he offers us three suggestions on what we must do if we are to follow the mandate of Jesus.

He writes:

We need to change at three levels. Appropriate personal lifestyles are crucial to symbolize, validate, and facilitate our concern for the hungry. The church must change so that its common life presents a new model for a divided world. Finally, both here and abroad, we must make the structures of society more fair.

By appropriate personal lifestyles he argues we need to simplify our life.

And he uses the founder of Methodist, John Wesley as an example.

Christians, Wesley said, should give away all but “the plain necessaries of life”—that is, plain, wholesome food, clean clothes, and enough to carry on one’s business. One should earn what one can, justly and honestly. . . . But Wesley wanted all income given to the poor after bare necessities were met. Unfortunately, Wesley discovered, not one person in five hundred in any “Christian city” obeys Jesus’ command.

“Any ‘Christian’ who takes for himself anything more than the plain necessaries of life,” Wesley insisted, “lives in an open, habitual denial of the Lord.” He has “gained riches and hell-fire!”

. . .

We need not agree with Wesley’s every word and concrete standard to see that he was struggling to follow the biblical summons to share with the needy. How much should we give? Knowing that God wants every person to have the resources to earn a decent living, we should give until our lives truly reflect the principles of Leviticus 25 and 2 Corinthians 8.

And what are those principles?

In Leviticus it is the principle of the year of Jubilee, when all debts are forgiven and people are given a fresh start.

In 2nd Corinthians, Paul was writing to the church in Corinth sharing what the Macedonians had done.

They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.

And he reminds the Corinthians why they should do this

A gift is appreciated because of what a person can afford, not because of what that person can’t afford, if it’s apparent that it’s done willingly. It isn’t that we want others to have financial ease and you financial difficulties, but it’s a matter of equality. At the present moment, your surplus can fill their deficit so that in the future their surplus can fill your deficit. In this way there is equality. As it is written, The one who gathered more didn’t have too much, and the one who gathered less didn’t have too little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded us of this principle when during the great depression he proclaimed:

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

So for Sider, the second challenge is that the church must model this behavior.  We must become a beacon in reaching out to lift up our sisters and brothers.

Does our budget show our priority in ministries that are focused on compassion and justice?

And then finally, we must seek to make the necessary societal changes so that fairness is what rules the day.

But where does one start?

          With you

According to The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy charitable giving among individuals is down this past year.  Most studies suggest charitable giving is about 3% of income in the USA with the poor giving a higher percentage than the rich.

One of the things we can do is evaluate our own giving patterns.

Nancy and I give 10% to the church and support numerous other charities as well.

How about you?

Are you following the teachings of James, or John Wesley --- or for that matter Jesus --- in how you use your wealth?

Start by evaluating your spending

          Are the things you are purchasing necessary?

         

          Seek to find ways to give away more

                   Our current clothing drive for Family Promise

In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates made a pledge --- to give away at least half their wealth.

          Today 204 billionaires have joined this pledge

We may not have the resources that those families have --- but we can make a difference, by doing our part.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!", because James is showing us the biblical way of living

Bishop White shared this prayer as a benediction to the 1996 General Conference.

And now, may the Lord torment you. May the Lord keep before you the faces of the hungry, the lonely, the rejected and the despised. May the Lord afflict you with pain for the hurt, the wounded, the oppressed, the abused, the victims of violence. May God grace you with agony, a burning thirst for justice and righteousness.

May the Lord give you courage and strength and compassion to make ours a better world, to make your community a better community, to make your church a better church. May you do your best to make it so; and after you have done your best, may the Lord grant you peace.  

James: The Power of the Tongue

James 3:1-12   (CEB)

My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers, because we know that we teachers will be judged more strictly. We all make mistakes often, but those who don’t make mistakes with their words have reached full maturity. Like a bridled horse, they can control themselves entirely. When we bridle horses and put bits in their mouths to lead them wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.

Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are needed to drive them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder. In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.

Think about this: A small flame can set a whole forest on fire. The tongue is a small flame of fire, a world of evil at work in us. It contaminates our entire lives. Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire. The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.

People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish. No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!

Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do they? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a saltwater spring either.

In March of 1862, the publication The Christian Recorder, shared in a publication for the first time, what they called an old adage and one I am willing to bet most of us are pretty familiar.

          Sticks and stones will break your bones

                   But names will never hurt you

Unfortunately, many of us, over our lives have learned just how untrue that statement is --- as we have been wounded greatly by others words.

Yehuda Berg, former director of the Kabbalah Centre once said:

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”

This has been one of the most challenging sermons that I have ever worked on.

The rhetoric that comes from politicians of both stripes has become so uncivil and downright hurtful, and the last thing that I want to do is turn this into a bashing of anyone.

But I would highly suggest that you take a look at the statement that came out of the National Cathedral in Washington DC this past week.  Almost every news outlet covered the story except for a few, that often seem to miss these kinds of stories.

I encourage you just to Google it.

Quoting from the pastors from The National Cathedral: “We have come to accept a level of insult and abuse in political discourse that violates each person’s sacred identity as a child of God,”

Declaring “the time for silence is over,” the statement continues: “What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.”

There are certain Facebook pages that I avoid because they seem to want to encourage belittling of each other.

          And, quite frankly, I have had enough

Words are powerful

And words can be used to hurt or they can be used to heal.

And as I read the news this morning --- two senseless mass shootings --- one in El Paso, and the other just down the road in Dayton.

One has to wonder when WE will say this culture of destruction must come to an end --- and we accept the price that it will cost to truly follow the Christ and put an end to this madness

It was Abraham Joshua Heschel who said:

          “Few are guilty, but all are responsible”

Chew on those WORDS for a few moments.

I am not going to focus on the negative aspect of our words --- each of you could probably come up here and give a testimony on how words have hurt, or maybe even devastated you --- I know I could.

"But what good is that?", as James asked us last week.

So let's look at ways that we can put our faith in Jesus --- who teaches us to love God completely and to love others --- let's look at ways we can live our faith out through our words.

Johnny attended a business training that was conducted by Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glands that was given to 3,000 front line workers of grocery stores and retail outlets across the country.

They talked about the power of words and how what you say really does make a difference in people’s lives.

A month after the event, Barbara said she got a call from a guy named Johnny, who was at the training.

Johnny told her, “I’m nineteen years old. I have Downs Syndrome. I work as a bagger at a grocery store. I went back to the store and I didn’t know how to apply your statements. I liked your talk but I didn’t know what to do with it. I went home and talked with my dad and got an idea. My dad and I sat down at the computer and every day we come up with a statement that is affirming of people, that’s encouraging. If I can’t find one in a little quote book, I’ll make it up. We’ll type it up six different times on the computer. I print off fifty sheets and cut all of them.”

So he has three hundred of these quotes.

Then, every night, Johnny signs each one of them personally.

The next day at the grocery store he puts this stack right by where he bags the groceries.

          He gets everyone’s groceries bagged up.

Then on the last sack he puts the quote of the day, the encouraging word.

He makes sure he looks them in the eye and says,

“I put something very special for you in this sack. I hope it will brighten your day.”

Johnny does this --- every --- single --- day.

Barbara said after about a month she got a phone call from the manager of that grocery store. He said,

“Barbara I can’t believe it. Something really amazing is beginning to happen. I was walking around the store and I noticed while we had lots of checkers at the checkout line, there was almost no one there but maybe one or two people. The line where Johnny was doing the bagging went all the way back to the frozen food section.”

He continued,

“I would tell them over the intercom that there were other lines you could move over to. I would walk down the line and tell people there were other lines open. People would just look and say, ‘No, we’ll wait because we want Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’

One woman came by and grabbed the supervisor. She said, ‘I used to only come to the grocery store once a week or once every other week. Now I come by almost every day. I buy something just so I can get Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’”

After about a month had passed, the store manager again called Barbara and said,

“It’s changing our entire culture of our store. Even in the floral department when a flower was broken they used to just throw it away. Now they walk out into the lines, on their own initiative, they pin it onto elderly women or young girls. They brighten their day.”

Every day we are given the opportunity to be a positive influence in the world.

Now I am not telling you that we shouldn't call out those who are speaking vile and hurtful words --- I think we must --- but we need to figure out a way to do it in a positive way.

More than anything else we need to celebrate our commonality

We are letting others divide us

Think of what would happen instead of saying someone whom we disagree on a position is unpatriotic, we looked and celebrated the way we both love our country in our own special ways.

Choosing to be positive requires a conscious choice --- every moment of every day.

At the end of every Rotary Club meeting we would say the four way test --- i still remember it even thought I haven't been a Rotarian for a number of years.

          Is it the TRUTH?

          Is it FAIR to all concerned?

          Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

          Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

We need to be conscious of the choice we have to share a kind word rather than a divisive one.

So ask yourself

·         what can I say to encourage that person today

·         What can I say to affirm them in some way and help them to realize how important and special they are to God?

Parker Palmer shares a great story.

It actually comes from Carter Hayward, the great womanist theologian.  She shares

Once there was a wise old woman who lived in a small village. The children of the village were puzzled by her—her wisdom, her gentleness, her strength. One day, several of the older children decided to fool her. No one could be as wise as everyone said she was, and they set out to prove it. So they found a baby bird. One of the boys cupped it in his hands and said to his friend, ‘We’ll ask her whether the bird I have in my hands is dead or alive. If she says it is dead, I will open my hands and let it fly always. If she says it’s alive, I’ll crush it and she’ll see that it’s dead.’ So they went to the woman and presented her with this puzzle. ‘Old woman,’ the little boy asked, ‘the bird in my hands, is it dead or alive?’ The old woman became very still, studied the boy’s hands, then looked carefully into his eyes. ‘It’s in your hands,’ she said.”

Thursday night I had the privilege of attending the closing celebration of Project Transformation.

          153 kids participated

          285 persons volunteered

          Over 3,000 books were read

And most impressively of all, 99% of the kids, avoided the summer slid in their reading abilities

The theme book this summer is one of my all-time favorites, The Lorax, and I want to end by quoting from that great 20th century theologian --- Dr Seuss

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."

It is in my hands and in yours --- lets lift each other up with words of hope and love.

James: What is Faith

James 2:14-26   (CEB) 

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. 

Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. 

In the fall of 2002, Biblical Archeology Review (BAR) shared an announcement with the world. 

          An Ossuary (a bone box) had surfaced in Israel.

Now this in itself is not an uncommon occurrence

For about two hundred years ending when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple -- there was a widely accepted practice among the Jewish people using what we call ossuaries in their burial practices.

According to BAR what would take place is:

"A corpse would first be laid in a niche carved into the wall of a burial cave; about a year after this primary burial, when the corpse’s flesh had decayed, the bones of the deceased were gathered together and placed in a box or chest, usually made of Jerusalem limestone, called an ossuary. Sometimes the bones of more than one person were placed in the same ossuary. The practice . . . made room for additional primary burials inside the burial cave.

But what made this particular ossuary intriguing was an inscription written in clear Aramaic letters: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

For the past 17 years, there has been a fight over whether or not this inscription is authentic.

In 2012, after a seven-year trial, an Israeli court concluded that the ossuary was not a fake and cleared a number of people who had been under accusation for making a forgery.

Hershel Shanks, then editor of BAR, in an opinion piece concluded:

In all the hubbub and flurry of the verdict last March in the “forgery case of the century,” one question—the central question—seems to have gotten lost: Is the ossuary inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” genuine or not? And if it is, does it refer to Jesus of Nazareth? After all, “Jesus” was a common name at the time.

These are enormously important questions to the world of Christianity, as well as to anyone else interested in the material world as it existed at the time Jesus walked this earth.

As to the authenticity of the inscription, while we should not avoid reasons for doubting the authenticity, neither should we dismiss it simply because it is “too good to be true.”

Is the inscription authentic? The court held only that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the inscription was a forgery. But it surely did not find that the inscription was authentic.

My bottom line is simply this: There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the James Ossuary. Whether it refers to Jesus of Nazareth remains a question.

Since that discovery, I have been fascinated by James, the brother of Jesus in ways that I was not before.

For the next month, Mary and I will share some of the key themes from the letter that James, the brother of Jesus wrote to the Jewish Christian community.

James can be rather uncomfortable for many in the protestant traditions.

Elisa Tamez, professor of theology at the Latin American Biblical University in Costa Rica in her powerful book: The Scandalous Message of James wrote:

If the Letter of James were sent to the Christian Communities of certain countries that suffer from violence and exploitation, it would very possibly be intercepted by government security agencies.  The document would be branded as subversive.

I hope that you have taken the time to read the Letter of James.  If not, I strongly encourage you to do so --- and to read it and compare the ways it has been translated.

Like I often say -- Jesus has been homogenized and pasteurized by the church today --- it is clear that many translators struggled what to do with some of his challenges to us.

James 2:14 in the translation The Message says:

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?

Or as the NRSV has it: "Can faith save you?"

For many of us, we have grown up with the idea of FAITH ALONE --- faith is all we need --- but James, here in this second chapter wants to challenge that idea.

For James, faith alone is never enough

There is no part of the Bible, other than the Letter of James, that better illustrates what Jesus meant when he was asked: What must one do to inherit eternal life.

Do you remember what Jesus answer was?

For years, Evangelical Christianity has argued that the way to eternal life begins with praying what is known as The Sinner's Prayer.

Campus Crusade and Billy Graham may have been its biggest proponents:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

But is that what Jesus said?  Nope!

Jesus said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

For James, "works" means a life of loving God and loving others,

          and loving others means deeds of compassion toward those in need.

James would go so far as suggesting that you can have all the faith in the world, but if there is no action behind the faith --- then you will not be saved.

He goes on and in an example that would be funny if it were not so tragic and often true says:

"Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity."

How often have we driven past a needy brother or sister on a winter morning --- maybe even on our way to church.

James doesn't mince words to us.

Scot McKnight in his commentary writes:

The description here is tragic: the messianic community is connected to the Messiah who became poor in order to make others rich and who taught in word and deed to show mercy to those in need; the community is connected to the Scriptures of Israel, which from beginning to end advocate mercy and compassion for those in need; and the community is filled with poor who know the underside of oppression.  Yet --- and this is what perplexes James into strong words --- this group of those who say they have faith in Jesus the Messiah, the glorious one who became poor, does nothing for those who make their needs obvious.

I don't know about you --- but those words hurt!

I have lots of rationalizations and explanations of why I didn't stop --- or a list of the few times that I did help --- but James keeps asking: WHAT GOOD IS THAT?

Suppose I told you about a family that has stayed as our guests here at Meridian Street, they are close to getting back into their own home, but just as they are about to move the only car they have breaks down and needs $500 in repairs, and now they are stuck with a choice of getting the car fixed (so that they can get to work and keep their job) or moving into their own place.

          Do you care about their plight?

                   Of course you do --- many of you are filled with compassion and empathy

But what if I took $100 out of my pocket and said --- I care this much --- how about you?

Faith for James is not simply trust, or the ability to recite creeds --- faith for James always flowers into full blown acts of mercy toward the poor and marginalized --- or it isn't faith.

James then uses two examples from the Hebrew tradition to demonstrate what he means.

          He uses the stories of Abraham and Rahab

When we talk about Abraham we get the argument of Justification by faith, that is developed by Paul particularly in his letter to the Romans.

I could spend another 20 or 30 minutes just on these two little sentences of James, but let me just say that for James: "To be justified is to be brought into a saving relationship with God thought the new birth (1:18), in which one lives out God's will as taught by Jesus, particularly in showing mercy to those in need." (McKnight p247)

James wants to articulate a working faith --- not a faith plus works.

What I mean is faith works itself out in works and faith is completed by works.

Scot McKnight concludes this section of his commentary on James with these words (you may want to grab on to your seat or walk out now):

James has argued that, since faith and works are inseparable, (1) the messianic community's prejudice against the poor and favoritism toward the rich are contrary to faith (2:1-4), (2) experience itself should inform the community's members that God is with the poor, while the rich are oppressing the community (2:5-7), and (3) the royal law to love one's neighbor as oneself demands care for the poor, while the community's disrespect for the poor proves that its members are transgressors. . . . Faith can only be shown to be saving by works (2:18b), creedal faith is not enough because even the demons that have (2:19), and the examples of the unquestioned faith of Abraham and Rahab prove that they had the kind of faith that worked.

McKnight goes on:

faith is confessional and works behavioral, but for James a saving faith is one in which the confession is manifested in works of mercy toward those in need.  Faith alone, by which he means a minimal creedal faith, cannot save.  It is useless, ineffective and dead.

What motivates us?

          What gets you to do good or to do as James would say: Works?

Sure, we’re saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone.

If we are not changed by our relationship with Jesus, something isn't right.

Joey Prusak began working at his local Minneapolis Dairy Queen at the age of 14. 

          He was now the manager at age 19. 

One of his regular customers, who is visually impaired, dropped a $20 bill on the floor. 

Standing directly behind this man was another customer in line, a woman, who picked up the $20 and put it in her purse. 

When the woman who picked up the $20 came to the counter Joey refused to serve this woman until she returned the money to its rightful owner. 

The woman herself refused and stormed out of the store. 

So Joey took $20 out of his own pocket, found the visually impaired man outside and gave him the money he had lost. 

What motivates you?

          What gets you to do good or to do as James would say: Works?

James demands that we pay attention to the ragged homeless person who stands on the street corner.

He demands that we pay attention to the orphans and widows.

He demands that we pay attention to the alien in our country.

If you’ve really put your faith in Jesus, it’s going to change you.

The Spirit is going to move into your live, and start to make changes.

You won’t be perfect, but you’re sure going to be different.

You’ll move in fits and starts, and sometimes take backward steps, but over time you’ll see real change.

It will change the way you see people.

          It will change your heart for God.

          It will cause you to struggle with sins you used to love.

You won’t be perfect — we never are in this life — but your faith will start to change you.

James says if you don’t see that happening, you may say you believe, but you really don’t.

Real faith is believing and acting.

And it is available to anyone who wants it.

Don’t settle for assent to ideas or even creeds.

Come and encounter the real Jesus.

Receive Jesus' grace in your life, and you’ll never be the same.

The Power of Courage

Changed a bunch of this on the fly Sunday.  You may want to check out the audio recording instead.

http://meridianstreet.org/sermons/

Deuteronomy 31:6 (Common English Bible)

Be strong! Be fearless! Don’t be afraid and don’t be scared by your enemies, because the Lord your God is the one who marches with you. He won’t let you down, and he won’t abandon you. 

Hebrews 13:5-6 (Common English Bible)

Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. This is why we can confidently say,

The Lord is my helper,

    and I won’t be afraid.

What can people do to me?

What does it mean to have courage?

The dictionary defines courage as: “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.”

·         I have jumped off a cliff into the ocean

·         I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane

·         I have helped create a non-profit organization that raised over $15 million dollars and helped 3,600 families devastated in flooding caused by Hurricane Ike in 2008

§  In the process, it was the first and only time in my life that an elected official asked me for a bribe

§  I stood up to union workers in NW Indiana in order to help more families and was able to convince them to join us and not fight us

·         I started a church with Nancy, Jessica and a hope and a prayer

By our definition above, I certainly did not demonstrate courage --- because believe me FEAR was a factor in all of them.

On July 20th, 1969 I was at Camp Edwards in East Troy, Wisconsin when we all gathered around a transistor radio to listen in as Neil Armstrong took that first "Giant Leap for Mankind"

Now that took courage --- but again, by our definition, was it courage? 

You could hear the fear in the voices of Mission Control, and Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong when their computer gave them a warning signal shortly before landing on the lunar surface.

So maybe our definition of courage isn’t completely accurate.

In 1953, Paul Tillich wrote: The Courage To Be.

Tillich was consumed with the existential questions of human existence and more specifically what is called ontology --- the study of being.

Since the nineteenth century, belief in God has become more difficult than at any point in human history.

Tillich writes:

“Feuerbach explained God away in terms of the infinite desire of the human heart; Marx explained [God] away in terms of an ideological attempt to rise above the given reality; Nietzsche as weakness of the will to live."

Consequently, we live in an age of unprecedented anxiety he suggests.

Tillich outlines three types of anxiety and offers three ways to display --- what he calls --- the courage to be.

Tillich writes:

We are struck with the anxiety of fate and death --- this is the most basic and universal form of anxiety --- for without God, we cannot be assured that we will continue existing after our bodily deaths.

          It is the recognition of our mortality

We become anxious when we are unsure whether our actions create a causal damnation which leads to a very real and quite unavoidable death

We display courage when we cease to rely on others to tell us what will come of us, (what will happen when we die etc.) and begin seeking those answers out for ourselves.

Tillich call this the "courage of confidence"

Second, we are struck with the anxiety of guilt and condemnation --- we know that without God there can be no assurance about the reality of any moral principle and therefore we cannot perform morally meaningful actions

This anxiety afflicts our moral self-affirmation.

We as humans are responsible for our moral being, and when asked by our judge (whomever that may be) what we have made of ourselves we must answer.

The anxiety is produced when we realize our being is unsatisfactory.

Tillich writes: "It [Nonbeing] threatens man's moral self-affirmation, relatively in terms of guilt, absolutely in terms of condemnation".

We display courage when we first identify our sin; despair or whatever is causing us guilt or afflicting condemnation.

We then rely on the idea that we are accepted regardless.

Again Tillich writes:

"The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself as accepted in spite of being unacceptable".

Third, we are struck with the anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness --- for without God, we cannot be assured that existence has any real, concrete meaning or purpose.

This Anxiety of Meaninglessness and Emptiness attacks our being as a whole.

We worry about the loss of an ultimate concern, goal or purpose.

This anxiety is also brought on by a loss of spirituality.

We as beings feel the threat of non-being when we feel we have no place or purpose in the world. "It [Nonbeing] threatens [one’s] spiritual self-affirmation, relatively in terms of emptiness, absolutely in terms of meaninglessness".

We display the courage to be when facing this anxiety by displaying true faith, and by again, self-affirming oneself.

We draw from the "power of being" which is God for Tillich and use that faith to in turn affirm ourselves and negate the non-being.

We can find our meaning and purpose through the "power of being".

Tillich writes that the ultimate source of the courage to be is the "God above God," which transcends the theistic idea of God.

Thus for Tillich, courage is the courage to be YOU whom God has created.

          To recognize that God gives us purpose

          To recognize that God accepts us

Or as Krista Tippet described Tillich’s understanding of courage --- courage is about the way that we live our lives --- every day . . .

On June 22, 1996, 18-year-old Keshia Thomas attended a counter rally in her home town of Ann Arbor Michigan

Hundreds of protesters turned out to tell the white supremacist KKK members that they were not welcome in their town.

At one point during the event, a man with a SS tattoo and wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a Confederate flag ended up on the protesters' side of the fence and a small group began to chase him. He was quickly knocked to the ground and people began kicking and hitting him.

As people began to shout, "Kill the Nazi," 18-year-old Keshia, fearing that mob mentality had taken over, decided to act.

She threw herself on top of the man she had come to protest, protecting him from the blows, and told the crowd that you "can't beat goodness into a person."

In discussing her motivation for this courageous act after the event, she stated,

"Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'this isn't right'... I knew what it was like to be hurt. The many times that that happened, I wish someone would have stood up for me... violence is violence - nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea."

Several months after the event, a young man came up to Keshia to say thanks, telling her that the man she had protected was his father.

For Keshia, learning that he had a son brought even greater significance to her heroic act. As she observed,

"For the most part, people who hurt... they come from hurt. It is a cycle. Let's say they had killed him or hurt him really bad. How does the son feel? Does he carry on the violence?"

Mark Brunner, was a student photographer that day and took the now famous photograph, added that what was so remarkable was who Keshia Thomas saved:

"She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her. Who does that in this world?"

COURAGE!

Last Monday evening, a dear friend was invited to sit in front of a camera and tell his story.

To tell why, despite being gay, he had not left the church or the God he loves.

That is courage.

I have never stood up like Keshia did and risked my life, or even really risked my livelihood for someone else.

Throughout the Bible, God promises, not only the Israelites --- but all of us --- that we would never be abandoned.

How in the midst of the Holocaust someone like Eva Kor kept her faith --- I have no idea.

          I have never been challenged like that

          But Keshia and Eva demonstrated amazing courage

Not the courage to jump out of an airplane --- but the courage to live their life fully --- every day

Each morning I read Richard Rohr's daily devotion that comes by email.

The focus has been on prophets lately.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran Pastor who was executed by the Nazi's in 1945 at Flossenburg prison camp --- shortly before it was liberated, once wrote:

We live by responding to the word of God . . . since this word is addressed to our entire life, the response, too, can only be an entire one; it must be given with our entire life as it is realized in all our several actions.

Following Christ is a matter of engagement in this world, Bonhoeffer writes:

“living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world . . . That, I think is faith, that is metanoia.” (transformation)

Bonhoeffer like Tillich, came to understand that courage is about the work we do.

          How we live every day

So how do we live courageous lives?

General Tom Jones shared with me a wonderful quick read called: The 10 Second Rule, written by Clare De Graaf

The simple premise of the book is that throughout the day, most of us have impressions that we are to do something --- and we are reasonably certain that it is Jesus that wants us to do it.

It could be an impression to either do something good for someone or it could be a warning about not doing something that would not be honoring to God.

While we can feel the nudge from Jesus, it is amazing how often we almost simultaneously sense another voice whispering: “You don’t have time to do that – helping that person could get messy – you can’t afford to help them right now – it’s okay, one more time won’t kill you – send it, you’ve been wronged!”

And when we listen to that other voice, the moment of opportunity passes (often to our relief).

DeGraaf writes:

Because I knew that almost every decision to obey would cost me something – time, money, embarrassment, inconvenience, or a momentary pleasure denied . . . By choosing not to obey Jesus, I could avoid all of that! As a result, I found myself settling for good enough almost daily – which is kryptonite for any would-be followers of Jesus!

He explains how he learned a simple rule that helped him break that cycle.

He called it:  The 10 Second Rule:

“Just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do.”

(and do it immediately before you change your mind!)

The question remains --- how do we know exactly what Jesus wants us to do!

Most of us have never actually heard God speak.

But, the more we fall in love with Jesus, through prayer and study --- the more confident we can become in responding to the opportunities that DAILY come our way.

Sure, we can never be 100% certain.

But I would suggest that the need for certainty is often the enemy of doing what God wants us to do!

Let’s just say this impression wasn’t from God.

So what?

You’ve still done something good for another human or kept yourself from something harmful. How can that not be the will of God?

This simple rule gives you a place to begin following Jesus, right now – today --- maybe even for the first time.

It’s following Jesus made simple and being led by Jesus, moment by moment, day by day (or even in just the next 10 seconds!).

Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23.

Simply put, it’s trusting Jesus enough to say “no” to what we want, and “yes” to what Jesus wants.

If you want to know what courage is --- it is saying YES, when the opportunity presents itself later today.

Courage isn’t about BIG, heroic deeds --- it’s not about jumping out of an airplane, or even walking on the moon --- courage is about recognizing that you are a child of God, and as God’s child, you can make a difference every moment of every day in how you live.

I invite you to live courageously!

The Power of Kindness

Ephesians 4:25-32    (NRSV)

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

The theme of our Vacation Bible School, in case you haven’t figured it out yet was “To Mars and Beyond”.

Our children became Voyagers on a journey through space, exploring where God's power can take them.

Each day they began here in our Sanctuary which became their outpost on Mars and the they would blast off to distant planets on special missions to collect power sources.

The purpose of these power sources was to help a spaceship that was in trouble.

Along the way, they learned how God walked with heroes of the Bible,  

---- and that God is always with,

--- not just them,

--- but all of us every day

One of the daily themes this week was kindness.

The world is in desperate need of a little kindness.

Becky Bechtel shared with me a 30 Day Kindness Challenge, that she had come across --- the goal of the challenge is to help persons experience the transformative power of kindness.

In the challenge they stated:

“People have always had a remarkable capacity for both graciousness and harshness, but today it seems harshness is more easily let loose.”

We all know this is true

It often seems that when you watch the news it is just one negative story after another.

I have been forced to unfollow certain people on Facebook because everything that they post is negative and is designed to get people fired up.

          And the comments that get posted --- are just unbelievable.

We have stopped trying to point out the merits of what we believe and instead have taken to personally attack each other.

          We seem to personalize almost everything

                   For good and bad

And if that is not enough

          We all know people that complain about everything.

          They are like a black cloud wherever they go.

Our souls can be fed with so much negativity, grumbling, and frustration, that we simply become numb to it.

President George W. Bush said in 1988:

          “I want a kinder, gentler nation.”

Almost twenty years later, President Barack Obama declared,

“Qualities like kindness and compassion, honesty, hard work -- they often matter more than technical skills or know-how.”

What has happened to kindness in our world today?

And maybe more importantly --- How do we live kindness today?

I think our Biblical writers have offered us some great suggestions.

In Colossians 3:12  (New Revised Standard Version) the author writes:

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Clothe yourself with kindness

Peterson says it even clearer in his translation known as the Message:

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. 

Paul says we need to put on kindness

          We need to choose to wear it everyday

Jesus teaches this rather clearly in the familiar story of the Good Samaritan.

If you are not familiar with that story I encourage you to pick up Luke's Gospel and read how Jesus tells us what love in action looks like.

In Ephesians 4:32 we are instructed by Paul to:

"be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."

Earlier in Luke's Gospel, Jesus shares what many call the Sermon on the Plain and he lets us know what is really expected of his followers: (Luke 6:31-36 The Message)

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

“I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

I know that it is difficult to be kind all the time --- but that is the challenge that Jesus gives to us.

He wants us to literally put on the clothes of kindness

--- every --- single --- day.

So maybe this idea of intentionally trying to be kind for 30 days isn't such a bad idea.

Shaunti Feldhahn reminds us:

Remember: Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Kindness not only has the power to change the other person --- It has the power to change you.

If there is anything I have learned about this wonderful community of people that we call Meridian Street is that you want to make a difference in the world.

You want to leave the world a better place than where you found it.

It is easy to forget just how powerful kindness can be --- Dr Marin Luther King reminds us of just how important it is.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Kindness is the key to changing the world

And who knows just what your simple act of kindness might do. . .

          the ripple effects can be amazing

Friday, Roger and I were interviewing candidates for our open youth position.

Between interviews I was given a card from some of the youth at VBS thanking me for “helping our church and the world.”

          You have no idea how precious that is to me

On a cold December evening, Kelly McGuire and her husband Sean were leaving a Bears game in Chicago when she spotted a homeless woman across the street. The woman held a sign reading "I am in need of winter boots and winter clothing items."

McGuire had a bag of warm clothing with her because she had worn layers for the game. She wrote: "I had everything in that bag that she needed. Shirts, sweatshirts, gloves, scarves, etc."

After giving her the bag of clothing, McGuire sat down next to the woman and started removing her boots, intending to walk to the train in her socks. That's when the woman stopped her and offered her the old, dirty boots she had been wearing. McGuire wrote, "She, who had nothing, offered me these boots. Her boots. I wore them all the way home."

McGuire concluded her: "If you have the urge to do something kind for someone, I encourage you to do it."

Aesop reminded us: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.    

For many of us, it is not truly a New Year's celebration unless we join together with friends to sing that wonderful poem from Robert Burns

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and old lang syne?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

So let us take a cup of kindness --- and share it with the world.

          Do something kind today

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.    

For there is great power in that cup of kindness.