James and the Poor

Text: James 1:19-27

A couple of weeks ago I preached on this passage.  If you want, you can listen here.  Throughout his letter James repeatedly addresses matters of wealth and poverty.  He warns those who enjoy affluence or success in this world.  And he persistently exhorts Christians to humble themselves, befriend the marginalized, and care for the poor.  At the end of his first chapter, James goes so far as to say that the only kind of religion God is interested in is tending to the needs of the vulnerable.  His message is difficult to receive.  It's even harder to live.  One of my favorite contemporary Christian writers published a recent blog post that does this topic far more justice than I'm able to do.  I strongly encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.

The Superorganism

Passage: James 4:1-12

So far this has been an exceptional summer in a number of ways.  One is the heat.  And related to the heat, at least in my neighborhood, has been the proliferation of ants.  Every morning there’s a new ant mound somewhere in our yard or along our sidewalk.  Any scrap of food or discarded popsicle stick is, within minutes, alive with a seething mass of shiny brown bodies.  Only the diligent placement of ant baits and the use of various folk deterrents (some more effective than others) has stemmed the potential tide of insects just waiting to pour into our house. 

This morning my oldest daughter and I were watching ants forage and build in our driveway.  I said, “Ants are what some scientists call ‘superorganisms.’”  I went on to explain that ants (as well as many other insects, and some animals of other classes) live their lives in intense community.  So much so that each individual ant operates less like a single creature and more like one part of an enormous creature.  Each ant has its own specific job to do within its colony.  Individual ants who search for food or defend their colonies often do so at the cost of their own lives.  Each one exists for the whole.  And as a whole they can do amazing things.  They consume detritus and carry away trash inordinately larger than their bodies.  They tunnel the earth, pile up mountains of dirt, and undermine sidewalks and buildings.  They change the landscape. 

The authors of the New Testament repeatedly talk about the church as a kind of superorganism.  In several letters the Apostle Paul describes the church as a body consisting of many parts – each member of the church plays a role that serves the whole.  With each others' support, Christians can not only thrive in their faith, but they can change the landscape.  In his exceedingly practical book, James confronts behaviors that undermine the collaborative power of the church.  He challenges Christians to stop fighting, coveting, and slandering.  He identifies pride and self-centeredness as poison that destroys community.  Ultimately, says James, God cannot bless Christians who oppose the fellowship and unity of the church:

You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

In our super-individualist society, we are called to be a superorganism.  To commit ourselves to the well-being and submit ourselves to the will of the Body of Christ.  At times this feels like death.  In fact it’s the opposite.  We weren’t made to live in isolation.  God in his mercy reconnects us to a community that supports us, challenges us, and keeps us alive.  And it’s only as members of this greater body that we realize our capacity to change the landscape.  

Expect Something Amazing

Passage: James 1:2-8
James comes across as harsh.  No sooner has he gotten the obligatory apostolic greeting out of the way than he launches into this little gem:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

This is the New Testament equivalent of your dad saying, “Stop complaining – those splinters are building character” or, “When I was twelve I already had seniority down at the plant.”  James is all about sucking it up and getting down to the hard work of being a Christian.  

But behind his gruff utility is an invitation to a better life.  A life not of practical necessity but of wonder.  The wonder of belonging to a God who is real.  A God who shows up. 

A few verses later James says,

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Do you hear what he’s saying?  Not, “Stop complaining about not having enough wisdom and go get some.”  But, “Ask God, and believe that he will answer.”  Expect something amazing.

James, like all the apostles, is the ambassador of a true and living God.  A God who took on flesh and took on the forces of evil.  A God who turned water into wine and summoned miraculous catches of fish and raised the dead.  If you were going to ask this God for something as simple as wisdom, or your next meal, or the restoration of a broken heart, why would you doubt that he could deliver?  “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt…”  Not because God only rewards those who believe really hard.  But because when you pray you’re connecting with a God who is able to do more than you could ask or imagine.  Give God his due.  When you appeal to him, expect something amazing.   

Tipping the Scale Toward Redemption

This week I read through C.S. Lewis’ sermon TheWeight of Glory.  As with the bulk of Lewis’ work, it’s a masterpiece that bears reading in its entirety.  But one his final paragraphs cuts me to the heart:

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

After reading this I thought about all the people I’ve hated.  The bullies I’ve refused to forgive.  The marginally-abled drivers who cut me off on the expressway.  The slow people in line in front of me in the checkout.  Colleagues I’ve considered obtuse or annoying.  I thought about the people to whom I attribute the brokenness of the world.  Politicians whose greed or ignorance perpetuates injustice.  Terrorists or the agents of corrupt governments who murder kids.  Human traffickers.  Bigots.  Cheats. 

All of us are destined for eternity.  Each of us is a work in progress.  And each of us has been given the tremendous weight of responsibility to steer that eternal work.  Each of us has the potential to contribute to a trajectory of either redemption or reprobation.  Which will it be?

Last summer I heard a presentation from a guy who spent part of a year living in Uganda.  While there, his work brought him into contact with the officials of several different governments.  Some of these were either complicit with known human rights violations, or had connections to active warlords.  Evildoers.  One of these individuals told him, on one occasion, “Once you start killing people, it’s hard to stop.”  So he thought, “The best thing is to keep them from starting.”  He started a non-profit that mentors boys and young men.  Instills in them the ethics of honesty; compassion; peacemaking.  Reaches and redirects human beings who could, under the wrong influences, become the “nightmare creatures” Lewis talks about.   

When we see the depravity of our fellow image-bearers, our instinct is to condemn.  Lewis issues this caution.  It could be our act or attitude of condemnation that tips the scales of that person’s heart.  How much better to err and act on the side of hope – hope that in every person there lies the potential for redemption that the Savior sees in us.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

Age-ism as a Violation of Divine Law

A year and a half ago I attended a Sufjan Stevens concert.  And as the crowd filled the Royal Oak Music Theater, I noticed an unsettling trend: everyone was younger than me.  I was surrounded by slim college kids wearing the latest fashions, tweeting and texting on their smartphones.   I saw my middle-aged, spectacled self through their eyes.  I was suddenly self-conscious.

Ours is a culture that values youth, beauty and vitality.  These are our currency of choice.  A year ago Time magazine published an article entitled “Amortality”.  Its author observes that the lines between adolescent, young adulthood, middle and old age have blurred significantly in recent years.  Young teens are dressing and acting like adults.  Their parents are dressing and acting like teens (LOL).  Older persons are availing themselves of pharmaceutical and surgical options that maintain the illusion of youth well into their sixties, seventies and eighties.  Why? 

Because we all know that when we no longer seem youthful, we will no longer be relevant.  One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard among local job seekers is that no one will hire anyone over 50.  Those nearing “senior citizen status” (and even those significantly younger) are immediately perceived as out of touch with the skills and technologies of today’s economy.  Obsolete. 

This is a radical shift from the way older persons were treated in the cultures that produced the Bible.  In the Old Testament God insists that his people show due respect to those who have gone before them:

You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. (Lev. 19:32)

There are practical reasons for this command.  Our elders have lived what we’re living now.  Even if they lived it poorly, their mistakes have given them wisdom.  All of us can benefit from those whose experience exceeds our own.  It makes sense to respect people with more life experience than yours.

There are also sentimental and spiritual reasons for it.  Each of us (God willing) will one day be the age that “old” person is now.  When that day comes we hope we will have something relevant to say, and someone to whom to say it.  But as people of faith, we also recognize that we exist on an eternal playing field.  Not only are you and that 70-year-old not that far apart compared to eternity.  But you are on the same lifelong journey – a journey not to achievement but improvement.  Doesn’t it make sense to pay attention to the ways God has used the experience of years to improve the people around you?  Could God’s work in your own life be enhanced if you allowed yourself to be influenced by those who have been there?  As with all God’s commands, Lev. 19:32 has great relevance.  We and our culture suffer when we disregard it.

The Manna Principle

Passage: Exodus 16

Note: After a couple of months of inconsistent Bible reading, I have started a new reading plan.  I’m using Youversion.com’s “Bible in 90 Days” plan.  This will be the source of any passages I discuss here for the next few months.

I remember my older sister coming home from school one day and telling us that her 5^th grade class had gotten donuts.  She went on to say that initially her teacher had thought there were enough for each student to have two donuts.  But as they were distributed, he quickly realized they would run out (I have to assume my sister lost about a year’s worth of arithmetic in that teacher's class).  He asked students who had already gotten two to return one so there would be enough for everyone.  Several students (she claimed they were all boys.  I have my doubts) quickly took a bite out of both their donuts.  They were more concerned with having more donut than they needed than they were with everyone getting enough.

Throughout the Old Testament, God communicates his great interest in everyone getting enough.  In Numbers God distributes his people’s inheritance – the Promised Land – not on the basis of merit but per capita.  In the latter prophets – Amos in particular – God condemns the injustice that runs rampant amongst his people.  He gives these examples: the selling of people for profit, the oppression of the poor, and the inequitable distribution of resources.  God promises to give his people everything they need.  And God demands that his people share their surplus so that everyone has enough.

This principle is introduced long before God’s people enter the Promised Land.  Early in their journey from Egypt, the Israelites detect a problem.  They’ve marched out into the middle of the wilderness, and have no apparent source of food or water.  They immediately accuse Moses of plotting to kill the lot of them.  God then fills Moses in on his plan.  God says,

I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.

God delivers on his promise.  And this is what happens:

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.  And when they measured it…, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.

They had enough.  And whatever surplus they gathered went bad.

Fast forward to the present.  God’s promise to provide applies as much to his people now as it did to the Israelites in the wilderness.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reiterates the promise:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t worry.  If you belong to God, you’ll have enough.

Of course we don’t listen.  We don’t trust that God will actually give us what we need.  So we hoard.  We collect more stuff and shore up more resources than we need to live.  And while half the human race goes without enough to eat, our stores go bad.  We throw out food.  Our clothes go out of fashion.  Our electronics go obsolete.  Our hearts grow hard and our spirits wither as we obsess about getting more and protecting what we have.  Our surplus, like day-old manna, rots around us. 

The peace and the compassion and the generosity that are inextricable from the Christian life all start with simply taking God at his word.  Trust that God will show up tomorrow like he did today.  Try living like you trust.  Give away what you don’t need.  And become part of God’s system for ensuring that everyone has enough.   

Again They Did Evil in the Eyes of the LORD

Passage: Judges 13

The Book of Judges is a tough read. It follows the Book of Joshua chronologically as well as sequentially. And its narrative picks up immediately where Joshua’s leaves off. The Israelites have settled in the land God promised to give them. And life is good. At least it should be. But there’s this troubling prediction God makes in Deuteronomy 8:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

It seems impossible – that God’s people would forget about God at the moment they finally partake of God’s promised abundance. Yet this is precisely what happens. The refrain throughout Judges is this: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD… The story of Judges is the story of a people who repeatedly get themselves into trouble. They do so by turning their backs on God – the God who has rescued them without fail in the past; the God who promises to protect and provide for them every day of their lives. How in the world could God’s people forget his provision and his promises? It’s really very simple. There’s always something that feels more solid than the promises of an unseen God. A pocket full of coins. The touch of a stranger’s skin. The barrel of a gun. There’s no mystery here.

The story of Judges is our story. We trade in the promises of an unseen but unfailing God for the allure of someone we can see or something we can touch. Yet invariably people and property and politics fail us. Miserably. Judges ends with God’s people literally at each others’ throats, clawing and killing to save themselves. How much of our lives do we waste competing with each other for the stuff of life? Desperate to save ourselves?

The sliver of good news in Judges is this: every time the Israelites come to their senses and cry out to God, God shows up. Judges 13 introduces Sampson, a deliverer possessed of the power of God, sent to rescue God’s people from their troubles. When God rescues, he does so effortlessly and miraculously. All his people have to do is call. What do you need to be rescued from today? Don’t waste your life looking for help in the wrong places. Appeal to God, who responds to our cries for help without fail.