Tough Times, Tough People James 1: 1-12

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1 Tough Times, Tough People James 1: 1-12 Greet your trials with joy. Persevere when your faith is tested. Be mature and complete. Ask God for wisdom. Never say, God is tempting me. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Don t just listen to God s Word; do what it says. Live by the law that gives freedom. Care for the needy. 1 And that is just the first chapter of James. Just reading it makes me want to take a nap. I mean holy smoke that s a lot of stuff. Who could accomplish that in a life time? Who was his writing to? We know first century Christians. Historically we know that there was episodic persecution of Christians by Rome. Increasingly, they were being discriminated against in the synagogues. And they were persecuting each other. James was writing to encourage and support them. Demographically they were rich and poor, slave and free, gentile and Jew, foolish and wise, humble and proud. Our congregation looks a whole lot like them. And we experience some of the same struggles and trials as they. So, it is pretty easy to identify with these first century Christians. James was writing as their pastor. While Paul was a great church planter and evangelist, James was a home boy and pastor and as such he was familiar with his congregation s weaknesses their bad theology, gossip, greed and grumblings. As their pastor he knew that if they were going to survive in an increasingly hostile world they were going to have to change. A good leader and teacher know their people. James knew his. He exposes their weak points and lays out a plan for them grow and mature in their faith. He renews their trust in God through Jesus and nurtures them back to a vibrant faith and excites them into humble action. You might want to turn to the person next to you in the pew as say, I think you better pay attention to this! James is a pastor and teacher; he opens up the Old Testament and exposes us the teachings of the Wisest of the Wise, his brother Jesus, the verses he cites punctuate his point true happiness is to 1 DeVries, William C. Living on the Edge. Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources Forest Hills Presbyterian 1

2 put our hope in Jesus Christ regardless of the trial or consequence. It is only in Christ that our hearts can experience and share the deep peace that is pure joy. James is quick to focus on the positive tools available when troubles and trials come, but he does not ignore the very real negative forces that will test us. We cannot deny nor can we escape pain, sorrow, and suffering just because we know God, nor should we ignore the reality that tests and trials. Death happens. Divorce happens. Cancer happens. Job loss happens. It happens to Christians and non- Christians. The Bible is explicit, the Lord causes the rain to fall on the fields of the just and unjust (Matt. 5:45). There is a school of theology out there that ignores that biblical truth. It goes something like this, If you just have enough faith, if you give enough money, then God will bless you with health, wealth, and happiness. That does violence to the biblical narrative and it makes out to be a cosmic Coke machine. Put in the dollar, punch the button, and out comes what you ordered. The theological term for that is baloney! Ask parents about the cosmic Coke machine. Most parents know what it was like when their children were young. Many in this congregation can relate to this right now children are persistent. When my Lizzie was little, she was more tenacious that a pit bull when she wants something. Come to think of it little has changed. She would ask over and over and over again. She would annoy the sock off of you. And could she ever work the triangles. If I said no she would go straight to Mom, never letting Mom know that she had asked me. If Mom said no, then the whining started. It was more annoying than fingernails scrapping across a blackboard. If the whining didn t work then came the flood of tears. On two occasions I began to build an ark! Can I get an Amen from somebody or am I the only one to have experienced this? James tells us to have joy in the tough times. But James goes the extra mile beyond his advise to consider it pure joy when we face trials. He shows us how to do it. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ presents a way of living that enables people to be so renewed in a way so that evil cannot make a claim on their lives. He calls for Christians to be so attached to the gospel of Jesus Christ that faith becomes a way of life. How do we do that? Forest Hills Presbyterian 2

3 James only identifying name in this epistle is a servant. He selfidentifies as a servant of God and his Lord Jesus Christ and offers himself as a example of a life lived in faith and obedient service. In Luke, Christ warns us that we cannot serve two masters. Two points come to mind: If we are servants of Jesus, we must be obedient to God s ways. We must go the way Jesus went and Jesus walked faithfully on the path that God purposed for him. We cannot follow God without following Jesus. To serve God we must accept Jesus as Savior and Lord and this acceptance must extend beyond the walls of the sanctuary on Sunday morning and inhabit the everyday practical matters of life. Remember we are not to deny the reality of pain and suffering. We should not always smile as if nothing is ever wrong. That s just delusional. People who follow Christ deal realistically with the trials of life. But we do not yield to defeatism and negativity. James teaches us that trials or testing turns simple faith into tenacious faith; that s what he means by endurance (1:3). The trials and events of our lives work in us like an athlete in training endurance runs, strength training, sweat and pain, all for one purpose to win an athletic contest. For Christian trials are part of our workout, they tone us and deepen our trust in God and in Christ. James tells us that they move us into a mature faith. As we endure and mature into the image bearers of God in Christ and as we grasp this wondrous reality, a deep peace and pure joy invades our conscientious and takes hold of our being. Equipped with this, we can face and preserver increasingly difficult trials. Now fear not. At this point we have talked about the trials of life. I don t know about you, but I am not one to run towards a trouble. Here s the fear not - God does not expect us to face trials unequipped. God gives us the resources to face tough times. The first resource: God give us wisdom. This wisdom grows from our understanding of our destiny and how God s love shapes us. God sent Jesus so that we could be who God intended for us to be. God sent Jesus to take away the sin that held us down. Then the Holy Spirit came to equip and empower us. Look at the boldness of Peter on the day of Pentecost. His preaching was empowered by the Holy Spirit. Before The Upper Room Experience, he was hiding in fear, then power Forest Hills Presbyterian 3

4 It takes wisdom to see ourselves within God s plan. James says that we get this wisdom through prayer, by asking God. God will not withhold wisdom that will show a Christian what God has called them to do and who God calls them to be. The second resource: God gives us faith. When we ask for wisdom, James says we must believe and not doubt. James is not getting down on us for having doubts and enquiring minds. James knows that every prayer is not answered exactly as we had hoped. God does not play favorites. He does not sit at his cosmic control panel and decide who has enough faith to get what they ask for. What that does would make faith works righteousness those who worked hard enough would get what they asked and the rest of us would come up short. What James is calling us to do is to keep our feet in the faith camp. Don t try to straddle both worlds the world of faith and the world of unbelief. We are not to be people who are willing to set aside our Christian values for convenience sake. James says that people who do that are like people at sea who are blown and tossed in every direction. God s gift of wisdom can have very little practical effect in our lives if we put aside our Christian values and move in a different direction when convenient. The third resource: is a new perspective. During James day, a person without material goods was occupied a low place in society. But if the person is in Christ, they are a sibling of the King of Kings. James point out that material wealth will fade. And here he presents an interesting twist, it parallels the teaching of Jesus, those who would be first should be the servant of all. The truly rich must see themselves first of all as servants. Jesus taught us this on Maundy Thursday when he washed his disciples feet this is the source of our righteous pride. Such service establishes our worth and destiny. It has us walking the same path that Jesus walked. As we practice prayer, deepening our wisdom, strengthen our faith and gain a new perspective we begin to experience peace and joy. We begin to see and we become the person intended for us to be. In a sense believers in a trial are becoming the person God intended for them to be. The crown of life is a natural result of Christian trials. The word for crown in the Greek is the same word that is used for the laurel wreath placed on the head of the winning athlete; it is a wreath of honor. It is the wreath worn by those who have gained a new perspective in Christ. Amen Forest Hills Presbyterian 4

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