Godly Wisdom-- September 23 sermon from James 3:13-4:3, 7-8

Remembering that sermons are part of a larger service of worship and that being in and with community doesn't replace our individual study, I post about half to two-thirds of my sermons, in case someone somewhere can benefit. May it be so.
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Here is the sermon from September 23rd, "Godly Wisdom", from James 3:

“Godly Wisdom”

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a (CEB)

September 23, 2018 (18^th Sunday after Pentecost)

Fort Oglethorpe UMC, Simpson UMC

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a (CEB)

¹³ Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural and demonic. ¹⁶ Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil. ¹⁷ What of the wisdom from above? First, it is pure, and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine. ¹⁸ Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.

4 What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? ² You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. ³ You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.⁸ Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. (This includes all of 8.)

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THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

THANKS BE TO GOD.                

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We have been working our way through James this month and we have seen that James doesn’t mince words.  He tells it like it is. We have learned that if our God-talk doesn’t match our God-acts, then it doesn’t mean anything.  Last week we heard about the tongue and the power of words to build up or tear down. 

If we thought James was through with us, we were wrong.  In fact, it seems James was just getting warmed up in the previous portions of his message and now we are getting the full attention, “both barrels”, so to speak.

James brings up several questions for us in this passage.

First, what is the “Godly Wisdom” that is spoken of in today’s passage and how can we take it and apply it to our lives personally and to our church and community?

The wisdom that comes from above, godly wisdom, is described in verse 17:

• pure
• peaceful
• gentle
• obedient
• filled with mercy and good actions
• fair
• genuine

What practices or habits can we live into to help us live into God’s wisdom?  We can practice what John Wesley calls the “Means of Grace”, what we’ve come to call spiritual disciplines or practices.  As a reminder, the Wesleyan Means of Grace are broken down thus:

Works of Piety

Individual Practices – reading, meditating and studying the scriptures, prayer, fasting, regularly attending worship, healthy living, and sharing our faith with others

Communal Practices – regularly share in the sacraments, Christian conferencing (accountability to one another), and Bible study

Works of Mercy

Individual Practices - doing good works, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison, feeding the hungry, and giving generously to the needs of others

Communal Practices – seeking justice, ending oppression and discrimination (for instance Wesley challenged Methodists to end slavery), and addressing the needs of the poor

As we practice living into godly wisdom, we will live into verse 18--“Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.”

On a side note, this past Friday, September 21^st was International Peace day.  On the official website, “internationaldayofpeace.org”, I learned this about it: “Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.”  https://internationaldayofpeace.org/

As citizens of the world, this is a wonderful goal.  As citizens of the kingdom of Christ, our responsibility goes beyond one day a year for us to sow seeds of justice by our peaceful acts.

Another question James touches on is this: where does conflict and dispute originate?  While we recognize that disagreement and conflict is normal and will come up in any relationship, family, or community, it is another matter if there is ongoing and systemic conflict and dispute. 

Beginning in 4:1 and going through verse 3 James addresses this question: “What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? ² You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. ³ You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.”

James is clear that conflict and dispute arise from seeking to do things in a manner that are not consistent with the ways of God or from seeking and following God.

Though it wasn’t a true conflict or dispute, I found myself craving/coveting something on Friday.  My spiritual director shared with me that she will be going on a cruise in October and making a stopover in Cuba.  I wasn’t jealous over the cruise, as I was Cuba.  That has been my dream country since I was a little kid and my grandfather told me stories of his days as state forester of Georgia and his trips to Cuba.  After telling my spiritual director I was jealous, I saw a morning prayer a colleague had posted:

“Save us from envy, God our Redeemer,
and deliver us from the chains of wealth,
that, ransomed through your Son,
we may inherit the crown of everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Praying to God to save us from envy is a way to guard our hearts from jealousy and coveting.

Being jealous of someone going to Cuba may not be your issue.  Whatever pushes your buttons to cause the conflicts, struggles, and fights, we find that James addresses a third question that provides a solution for us all: “what does God want?”

We see in verse 7 that we are to submit to God and in verse 8, we are to come near to God:

^“7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.⁸ Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

This submitting to God is repentance, a turning away of our wants and desires and allowing God to be in control, to lead, to guide.  After all, we have submitted ourselves to God as followers in our creeds, in our songs, so why not do so in our daily living?

It is a daily choice to draw near to God.  We choose to draw near to God daily as individuals as we live into godly wisdom, practicing the spiritual disciplines we mentioned earlier.

What does life look like in the church community?  In my studies this week, this quote stood out to me: “Our primary identity is measured by our closeness to God…” (Feasting on the Word, Kathy Dawson, 90)

For us as individuals and for us as a church community, if our primary identity is measured by our closeness to God, how are we doing?

The shepherd king David gives us a great example of how to respond when we slip away from God.  In Psalm 51, verses 10-12  he prays to God, saying:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit. (NRSV)

May, we, like David, be willing to admit when we’ve done wrong and make right our relationship with God.

Will you pray with me?

God, as we seek to grow in godly wisdom, we ask that you remove all bitterness, envy, strife, disloyalty, and every other kind of evil from us.  Create in us clean hearts so that we may love you and others as we love ourselves, as beloved children of God.  Help us to serve you wholeheartedly, to submit to your ways and your plans, and to continually draw near to you.  May we grow as disciples of Christ so we can make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. Amen.

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LINKS TO RECORDED SERMONS:

Click here to listen to the recorded sermon at Fort Oglethorpe UMC.

Click here to listen to the recorded at sermon at Simpson UMC.

BULLETIN COVERS:

Worship music at Fort Oglethorpe UMC:
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", UMH 133

"Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord"
"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing", UMH #400
"Blessed Assurance", UMH #369

Special music: "Christ is Enough", sung by Stacy Wells. Here is a YouTube video of the song:

Music at Simpson UMC:

"Lord, I Want to be a Christian" -- UMH 402

"I Am Thine, O Lord", UMH #419

Anthem by Susan Peel and Paul Stone: "Come Unto Me"

"Near to the Heart of God", UMH #472

A multifaceted time out....making time to rest and listen

This past week I took several "time outs" or breaks, if you want to call them that.  After I finished my paper for Pastoral Care two days early and had worked on Hebrew quite a bit, I needed some quiet time. 

I was able to attend the Wednesday night Mid-week Vespers at Hixson UMC and that space for quiet, prayer, and reflection was a balm to my soul. 

I took several solo walks at the Greenway Farm which allowed me exercise plus the silence and solitude time. 

I rested.  I stayed at home more than normal, even skipping TaeKwonDo, a Bible Study, and a meeting.  Some of that was so I could get that Pastoral Care paper written and some of that was because I wrote the paper. 

Along with studies, life has its challenges and it can be overwhelming at times.  That's why I am grateful for "time outs".  Time to stop and listen.  Time to remember and/or be reminded of what is truly important.

I am glad that I've learned to take them.  I may not always take them when needed, but I continue to listen to my body and God. 

This past week God has encouraged me through songs, through the body of Christ, through prayer, through Creation, and writings (Nouwen's Bread for the Journey, Jesus Calling (October 31), quotes from A Guide to Prayer For All Who Seek God, through worship, through Holy Communion, and through Scripture.  I was even blessed (though a little surprised) to hear praise music playing in the background this morning at my doctor's office.  I was able to take time to "be still" right there in the doctor's office and enjoy some praise music. 

For several days it has been on my mind to pick up Macrina Wiederkehr's Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God and see what God might have for me there.  I didn't particularly like the message that awaited me where I had left off, but I decided that was the message I needed to read and digest.

The message?  "Called to be Holy" from the section The Beautiful Struggle of Daily Life.  I could definitely relate to the 'struggle of daily life' part.... but I wasn't so sure how I was going to accept the 'call to be holy' part. 

The Scripture reference: 1 Peter 1:13-25.  I looked it up in the NRSV, The Message, and the CEV on Biblegateway.com.  I decided to go with the CEV:

¹³ Be alert and think straight. Put all your hope in how kind God will be to you when Jesus Christ appears. ¹⁴ Behave like obedient children. Don’t let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. ¹⁵ Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. ¹⁶ That’s why the Scriptures say, “I am the holy God, and you must be holy too.”
¹⁷ You say that God is your Father, but God doesn’t have favorites! He judges all people by what they do. So you must honor God while you live as strangers here on earth. ¹⁸ You were rescued from the useless way of life that you learned from your ancestors. But you know that you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don’t last forever. ¹⁹ You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb. ²⁰ Christ was chosen even before the world was created, but because of you, he did not come until these last days. ²¹ And when he did come, it was to lead you to have faith in God, who raised him from death and honored him in a glorious way. That’s why you have put your faith and hope in God.
²² You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. ²³ Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. ²⁴ The Scriptures say,

“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
    like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
    to the ground.
²⁵ But what the Lord has said
    will stand forever.”

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

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There is much to chew on here, to digest.  As I prayerfully read through these verses, the end of verse 17 caught my attention: "...honor God while you live as strangers here on earth."  Easier said than done.  But that is my heart's desire. 

As I looked at Macrina's words on the chapter, several things caught my attention.

"Our call to holiness is, in reality, a call to obedience." (112)

"Thus the first call is to listen." (112)

"We listen to our desire to be the person God is calling us to be, in Christ.  Our faithfulness to this listening is the beginning of holiness.  When we look at holiness in this way, it is easy to see that holiness is a process." (112)

"Our sojourn on this earth can pull us in many directions." (113)

To avoid being taken off the path, we must abide and listen carefully to and for the One Voice.  For me, this requires taking "time outs" so that I can hear more clearly. 

Macrina closes with this: "Remember, then, that we are holy and we have been asked to love on another intensely.  Let us bend our ears in obedient listening to this call to live forever in the abiding Word of God." (114)

May it be so!

Blessings on your journey,

Debra