James 1:1-8 July 30, 2008

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” – James 1:1-8

To begin with, James (again, probably James the Just, brother of Jesus Christ) introduces himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” One of the major themes in this book is humility and equality. Many of the other letters written in the Bible begin with introductions that contain credentials of apostleship or elder status. Of course, there was good reason for these credentials to be given in those instances. But with James it is different. No matter if James was James the Just, James the Great, James the lesser, or any other person named James, he introduces himself as “a servant.” This sets the tone of this epistle. James does not feel the need to give any credentials, other than the ones that we all share. The only credential that matters is that of servant-hood. This is what Jesus Himself was trying to get across when He washed the feet of the apostles. Jesus taught, “Unless I wash you, you have no part of me.” And He continued, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” In other words, “Follow my example. I have come to serve you. Now you serve one another.” Lao Tzu puts it another way in the Tao Te Ching:

“Straighten yourself and you will not stand steady;
Display yourself and you will not be clearly seen;
Justify yourself and you will not be respected;
Promote yourself and you will not be believed;
Pride yourself and you will not endure.These behaviors are wasteful, indulgent,
And so they attract disfavor;
Harmony avoids them.”

When we put anything in front of our servant-hood to God, then we are outside of what God wants for us.From this servant-hood, James teaches us to count it, not only as joy, but as pure joy, when we face many trials. Trials build character. Trials also show us where we lack character. James was writing to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations.” He was writing to Jewish Christians who were scattered because they were being persecuted for their beliefs. This is a pretty extreme example of a trial. But the principle applies to us in our lives as well. We should be grateful for any trials that come our way. Those trials may be as small as a bad day at work. They may be as great as abuse, sickness, or death. But either way, these trials are working to grow us. It is not until we try time and time again to weather our trials on our own power, and in our own way that we learn that we are wholly incapable of doing so for long.

We work as hard as we can to fix our own issues. Some of us do it with our moral efforts. Some of us do it by trying to numb our pain. Whichever way we try to deal with our trials, the result is the same. We end up at rock bottom. Each time we make a mistake, each time we weather a trial, we tell ourselves, “I will redouble my efforts. I will do better next time,” or “I won’t let this thing beat me. I’m going to fight it.” Or we resolve ourselves to shove it down, not think of it, numb it away. Then we get that much more disappointed when we inevitably fail again, and the next trial comes up to bite us. But James teaches us that we should be grateful for this process as well. Each time we try and fail, each time we endure a trial, we are growing. But we grow like a seed.

A seed cannot become a flower until it has shed its need to be a seed. Not only that, but the seed cannot really stay a seed forever without finally becoming so useless that it will not grow. The seed has to willingly sacrifice its “self.” The seed can’t become what it was intended to be until it admits to its self that it may be a decent seed, but a pretty useless flower. We, like that seed, have to sink down to the depths of our rottenness, break apart, and let the potential that God put in us spring out. And each time we go through a trial, we are growing in the compost. Like that flower, we grow from hardship, trials, and death. We need good sunny days, but we also need the rain to fall. We need the rotten, decaying compost. We need the worms to crawl through our soil. We need to count our trials as pure joy!

This is the root of our wisdom, to know that God is in charge, and to know that we are nothing without Him. But no one can do this perfectly. This is why James tells us that we are to ask God for wisdom. God will give this without favoritism. We have to believe and not doubt, and God will give us what we ask of Him.

There are many who take this verse and others like it, and set up a false doctrine that has come to be called the “prosperity gospel.” It is the “name it and claim it” doctrine. It is a lie. A group of super rich people have gotten even richer by telling people who have very little that if they will trust God, send what they have in faith to their “ministry” then God will bless them ten fold. Then, when the blessings don’t come the “minister” can point to the “do not doubt” part of the verse, and lay the blame solely on the victim. I even heard one “pastor” (who I will not name publicly) say that Jesus was a rich man. He said that God would not come to earth and live the life of a poor person. God does not want us to be poor, and that Jesus was wealthy. When the interviewer asked him about the verses that mention things like Jesus not having a place to lay his head, the “pastor” replied, “I have been to seminary. You have not. Leave interpreting the Bible to those who have studied it.”

So, if that is not what James means here, then what does he mean? He means that we are to trust in spite of what our emotions or our logic tell us. Emotions tell us lies to one extreme. Logic tells us lies to another extreme. Faith is trusting that between those two extremes, God is righteous and will deliver on His promises. James says that if we lack wisdom we should ask God for wisdom. God will not deny this request. Like most things, our answer from God will most likely come in a way that surprises, shocks, and maybe even offends us. But He will give us exactly what we need, when we need it.

James has some pretty strong words here about doubters. He says that they are like waves tossed by the sea. He says that they should expect nothing from God. Does that mean that if I ever question God, or have any doubts, that God will not bless me? Of course not. The doubt that James is talking about here is a deep questioning of the reality of God. It is about people who have experienced the grace and wonder of an almighty God, but who have believed the lies of their emotions or their logic to the extreme. When God has performed, and continues to perform miracles in their lives, and they turn their backs on it. A doubter in this sense is one who has experienced a taste of God, but then starts to trust their emotions when they tell them that they could not be safe or loved or cherished by God. Or, when their logic tells them that there is no way that miracles happen. God probably doesn’t even exist. And even if He does, He surely doesn’t have time to bother with intervening in my little life. These are people who will be “tossed about like a wave on the sea.” They cry out for God when times are tough, all the while not trusting that He can deliver. Then when times are better they find some reason why it was their own inner strength, or coincidence or whatever that got them through.

A person who has doubts, but is not a doubter in James’ sense is one who has experienced God’s Grace and miracles, and may experience the transient thoughts that come from logic and emotions, but who does not fall into their trap. Zen Buddhists attempt, in part, to free themselves from suffering by clearing their minds of thought in meditation. In one way they are onto something. They realize that emotions and our logical mind both will lead us astray at some point. We should not cling to either of them. We have to see them as the transients that they are. They speak of watching your thoughts come into your mind and then letting them pass, observing them as clouds drifting in the sky. This is an aspect of the Buddhist mentality we would do well to emulate. We should take our emotional responses and our logical responses and see them as clouds that pass. They serve their purpose, but they are not solid ground to stand on.

A skimming of the Gospels shows that we are in good company when we have these type of doubts. The apostles, every one of them, turned their back on Jesus. They were with Him. They saw Him feed five thousand on a few loaves and fish. They saw Him heal the sick. They saw Him cast out demons. They saw him raise people from the dead! They, with their own eyes, right there in broad daylight, watched Jesus Christ raise people from the dead! And then, when they saw Him crucified, even though He had told them it would happen, and that he would be resurrected, they went right back to their old way of life. They went right back to fishing. But still this was not the kind of doubt that James was talking about. They were those of “little faith.” Even the “faith of a mustard seed” will allow us to command a mountain to fall into the sea!

God knows where we are. He not only made us, but He became one of us Himself. He knows the struggle of doubt. He knows exactly how much we want to turn away, give up, and go back to fishing. He Himself cried out in agony, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”) But the difference is that He went through with God’s plan anyway. That is the difference of faith. We can’t go through with the plans perfectly as Jesus did, but we can keep trying. We can allow God to guide us, step by step. When we fail, we can trust that God will lift us up, dust us off, and set us aright. And the beautiful thing, the thing that is pure joy, is that God give this “generously to all, without finding fault.” He doesn’t fault us because our fault has been absorbed by Jesus on the cross and in His resurrection. Now it is a process of perfecting us one trial at a time to turn us into the type of Heavenly creatures He intended us to be.

So, let’s say with the man in Mark 9:24…

“And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.’”

I mention the so-called prosperity “gospel” in this post. Below is a short excerpt from a sermon by John Piper. He says it better than I could…

when’s the last time your god said “no”? July 23, 2008

“When is the last time your God contradicted you?” – Scott Stewart“…all loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love. If you love a person and you see someone ruining them–even they themselves–you get angry…The Bible says that God’s wrath flows from his love and delight in his creation. He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity.” – Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

A few Sundays ago my friend, and our pastor, Scott Stewart made a point about people creating God in their own image. It was almost a passing comment, but it stuck with me. He simply asked the question, “When is the last time your God contradicted you?” I have heard the argument, and even made it myself, that God must not be real because of such and such. Or, I’d believe in God if only this or that weren’t the way He acts. It was only when Scott said what he said that I realized exactly what was wrong with my thinking.

I will admit, I don’t like it that certain things are true. I don’t like it that there is a place of eternal damnation and separation from God called Hell. I don’t like it that I can’t do what I want to do when I want to do it without consequence. I don’t like the fact that “as long as it’s not hurting anybody” I can’t just do what I want. I have to have my heart in the right place. I have to behave out of love and respect for God and for others. I don’t like it that I can’t just behave on my own self interest. But, it is true. And the question of God saying “no” to me is one that I have to face.

If the god I have imagined never contradicts me, then that god is not real. If God never says “no” to me, then I am perfect. And surely, I am not perfect. If God never says “no” to me, then I have set up a false god in my mind that will give me, as my dad says, “all e’s and no b’s” for the rest of my life. It is a god who has no substance. It is a god of “love” not a God who is Love. The difference is subtle on the surface, but is fundamental. A god of “love” is a non-god who is all hugs and flowers while I am destroying myself. A God of Love is one who rebukes me, and corrects me because He wants me to know better and to be better.

I have spoken with so many people who have had permissive parents. They allowed them to drink and smoke and cuss and fight, and basically do what they felt like doing from as early an age as they wanted. When I was younger, I thought that must be the coolest thing ever. I thought how much I wished I could smoke a cigarette at 13 years old in my bedroom. As I got older the friends of mine who had the permissive parents started to change their minds. More often than not they began to complain that they didn’t really feel loved by their parents. Still, I wasn’t convinced. I thought how odd it was that they would not think that having a buddy for a parent was the best of all situations. But as I got older I finally started to realize the truth of the matter. A parent who allows their child to do whatever they feel like doing, even though they themselves know the consequences, is basically saying, “I’d rather avoid an argument right now, and be the ‘cool parent’ than to protect you from your stupid choice.” A parent who says, “No, absolutely under no circumstances will I allow this to happen.” Is saying, “I love you. I know what will most likely happen if you do this, and I will not allow you to do this to yourself.” Even if that parent errs on the side of being too strict, in the long run they are showing more love. (Of course there are parents who are too strict, and for the wrong reasons as well. There are parents who say no to things because they are afraid of what their child’s actions will make them look like to the community. These are the parents who provoke their children to wrath. This is acting from a Pharisaical, legalistic, and self-centered heart, and is not the type of “strict” parent I am referring to above.)

God is like the good parent, but multiplied infinitely. He knows the things that we are doing that will ultimately harm us, and/or those around us. A god who lets us get away with whatever we feel like is no God at all. A god who didn’t get upset with us for acting in a way that brings harm to ourselves or those around us would not be a God of Love. In other words, when is the last time your God said “no”?

I, like so many others, have used the excuse that since I disagree with what God says, then God’s authority is void. That it offends my sensibilities that this or that aspect of God’s law is there is no reason to doubt God. In reality, it is evidence that He is real. Timothy Keller puts it this way:

“For the sake of argument, let’s imagine that Christianity is not the product of any one culture but is actually the transcultural truth of God. If that were the case, we would expect that it would contradict and offend every human culture at some point, because human cultures are ever-changing and imperfect. If Christianity were the truth it would have to be offending and correcting your thinking at some place.”

Anything that never contradicts my thoughts is my own relativistic ideal. I know from experience that my own ideals can be dead wrong. And relativistic morality is no way to go either. I cannot claim that all morality is relative to the situation. To say so means that I have to agree to the “morality” of groups like the KKK or the Taliban. I have to agree that under the socio-economic standing of the majority of people living in Nazi Germany, the actions of the Nazi government are justified. We can’t have it both ways. If my morals are relative, then everyone else’s have to be as well. That means everyone. There is an absolute morality that we appeal to. The question is which morality do you subscribe to? And beyond that, who will you hold accountable to that morality? Do you hold the conservatives accountable for their lack of interest in moral social issues like the plight of the poor and immigrants? Do you hold the liberals accountable for their lack of interest in personal moral issues like sleeping with whomever I want whenever I want? Or both? Do you hold yourself accountable for whichever side you tend to err? Does your God ever contradict you? If you answer “no” to that question, you might want to reconsider your “god.”

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” – Revelation 3:19

now…what did you learn from your bloody knuckles? July 2, 2008

So, my right hand hurts….bad.

I’ve been working two jobs full-time for roughly 3 weeks now. I did it for a little over a year when I was 24 or 25 years old. I am not 25 years old anymore. What I have learned is that as long as I am well rested, well fed, and things are pretty well going my way, I can be a pretty decent person. I can fulfill my list of things I have set up for myself that in my mind make me an okay sort of a guy (I try to deny the existence of such a list, but deep down, I know its there. You probably have one too if you look hard enough). But going on 3 to 4 hours of sleep at night, not eating right, and not seeing my wife and son (at least not seeing them awake) took its toll on me pretty quickly.

I have been angry, quick tempered, grumpy with my wife on the few occasions that we have had to sit down and talk, and just an all around jerk to be around. There are a few people around me who have said that I wasn’t as bad on the outside as I felt on the inside. But I suspect they were just being nice. Even if they were telling the truth, my insides have been boiling. Basically I have become myself in the 8th grade!

I am 30 years old. You would think that I would know better by now. But obviously I don’t. I was so angry at a customer at the day job that I decided it would be a good idea to take it out on an old pallet on the loading dock. It was one of my most shining moments as a human. I haven’t punched inanimate objects in years. Suddenly I was in eighth grade again, punching a wall because Darnell Lyerly said that Heavy Metal was for devil worshipers. It was then that I realized…finally…once again…that I am in desperate need of help. I absolutely cannot be a decent person on my own power.

Of course I have my reasons and excuses. There is the aforementioned insane work schedule. There is the lack of sleep. There is even the fact that the customer was honestly acting like a spoiled child who did not get her way. But it still comes down to me. I allowed my anger to get the best of me. Try as I might to always put on the face of a happy, healthy, and decent person, I failed. Try as I might to force myself into actually being a happy, healthy, and decent person, I failed. I was trying to reach deep down in my insides and find reserves that simply weren’t there, and to call upon those non-existent reserves to hammer my will into submission. All of this is on my own power because, I hate to admit it, I still want to be my own savior. And that is nothing more or less than my denial of God’s sovereignty over the universe and my place in it.

Proverbs 29:11 teaches, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” So, does that mean that we should just take our anger, roll it into a little ball and swallow it? Should we put on some false calmness? Should we pretend to be the zen master when our insides are boiling? Of course not. But neither should we allow our anger to overwhelm our reason. I may well have been justified in my anger toward this customer. But it was foolish for me to let that anger boil over to the point that I lost it on the pallet. The pallet wasn’t doing anything to me. And to be honest, the pallet won the fight. It’s a week and a half later and it still hurts!

There is a righteous anger. There are times that the Holy Spirit inside of you cannot tolerate something. You should be angry when the House of God is turned into a den of thieves. You should be angry when you see children going to be hungry when we have the means to feed them. You should be angry when people are being oppressed. In other words you should be angry because God is inside you, and God is angry. You should not be angry because some lady upset you because her furniture was going to be two days late! If my anger is because someone is being mean to me, or hurt my feelings, or expects more from me than I think I ought to have to give, then it is about me. That is ego. That is a pebble in the vessel.

I don’t have to ball that anger up and swallow it. That is not healthy either. But I have to, once again, return on my knees to God. I have to ask God to show me where I went wrong. I have to ask God to help me see that pesky bit of ego that is still filling up the places in my heart where God wants to be. God wants an empty vessel. Ego is like putting rocks in a vase. God wants to be the water that fills the vase. A vase full of rocks cannot be filled with much water, and it is therefore useless to the one who wants to fill it.

The good news is that we can be grateful for these bits of insight into the dark little caverns of our selves. When you realize that you are acting like a first-rate jerk, it tips you off to the fact that there is another ego-rock you didn’t know about. If you didn’t, from time to time, trip over your ego and fall flat on your face, you might just go on forever dragging those stupid rocks around. Robert Anton Wilson (futurist writer, philosopher, definitely not a Christian, and not for the faint of heart) has what he calls his “cosmic schmuck principle.”

“The Cosmic Schmuck Principle holds that if you don’t wake up, once a month at least, and realize that you have been acting like a Cosmic Schmuck again then you will probably go on acting like a cosmic schmuck forever; but if you do, occasionally, recognize your Cosmic Schmuckiness, then you might begin to become a little less Schmucky…”

Ol’ Bob and I definitely part company when it comes to how, on whose power, and why to become less schumcky, but the principle applies. It is easy to beat up on yourself (or a pallet) when you realize how you’ve been acting. But that is just another form of schmuckiness. Francois Fenelon said, “Our pride is disgusted at our faults and we mistake this disgust for true repentance.” There is a part of me that is angrier at myself for losing it on the pallet than I was at the lady who I allowed to make me that angry to begin with! That part of me is my ego, and it is in the way of what God wants to use me for. The mistake, and the shame at the mistake are both coming from the same prideful heart. Thank God for bruised and bloody knuckles and a bruised and bloody ego that reminds me once again that I need the love and rest of Jesus.

“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…” – Isaiah 66:13