The Round Church
at St Andrew the Great
Cambridge
A Sermon Preached
on Sunday 12th November 2000
by Mark Ashton
The letter of James is a seamless robe once we start to
look closely at his thought: there are always strong links running from one
passage to another. Indeed he keeps returning to the same themes and ideas and
going over them again from a slightly different angle (previously we compared
it to French-polishing a piece of furniture).
So it will be good, on this Remembrance Sunday, to
start where we finished last time (4:1-3), in order to see what James has to
say about the cause of conflict. That is our first point.
1. Selfish Desire is the cause of conflict according to James (verses
1-3)
‘What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t
they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but
don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want’ (vv. 1, 2a). The heart of
the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Every Remembrance Sunday
we come right back to that.
There are those who would propose solutions for our
world’s problems, but who show no awareness at all of where the root of the
problem lies. It lies in our hearts, where frustrated desire (not getting what
I want) sets me against others and it is fundamentally what sets one nation
against another. So if a man shows no evidence of understanding the problem at
the personal level, he has little right to expect us to trust him to solve it
at an international level. At the end of the day, the private lives of
politicians are relevant to their public careers, however much we may
want to deplore the activities of the gutter press and the paparazzi and their
digging and exposing people’s private lives. If a man thinks he can cheat on
his wife he will also think that he can lie to his country. Human behaviour is
consistent from the personal level to the international level. A realistic view
of the human heart is fundamental to understanding and governing the human
condition.
But within our selfish hearts there lies an even
more fundamental divide, according to James.
2)
Selfishness and Godliness are diametrically opposed (vv. 4-6).
‘You adulterous people [says James – he usually
calls us brothers (meaning brothers and sisters), but he strikes a different
note here] don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God?
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.’
(v. 4). Now, by the world James means the frame of reference that leaves God
out. You and I know that vast areas of human thinking and human endeavour
completely exclude God. But if there is actually a God at all, there can be
nothing within His creation that does not relate to Him in some way or other.
And if we adopt a mindset and accept behaviour patterns that leave the
existence of God out of account, then we are not just ignoring Him, we are
opposing Him, according to James.
So, ‘the world’ = ‘No God’ thinking and
behaving; and to be a friend of that is to be an enemy of God. I well remember
the power with which this thought hit me as a non-Christian: that I was not
just indifferent to God, I was actually His enemy. I felt at that time that we
were just on very distant terms from one another – maybe somebody here today
and feels they are on distant terms with God. But then I saw that actually God
and I were opposed to one another. We were at loggerheads, we were at enmity.
In fact we were on a collision course – which is a rather less comforting
thought.
‘You
adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred
towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God. Or do you think that Scripture says without reason that the spirit he
caused to live in us envies intensely?’ (vv. 4, 5). There is an intense battle
between good and evil in this world. We know that if we are honest, don’t we?
If there’s somebody here who doesn’t quite agree with that let me just
challenge you with this thought, Can I be
a better person for the rest of today? Give me a ring tonight and tell me
if it was easy. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for your phone call.
There is a picture that
keeps recurring in James: he keeps talking about being double-minded – the word
is going to come again in verse 8 – he talks all the time about people who try
to put their trust in two things at once. People who try to disembark from a dinghy
or a punt before it has been tied up to the side, and who find themselves
between the two, which are gradually separating from one another. “The two are
moving apart,” says James, “and you can’t stand on both for long. Put all your
weight on to the bank, on to what is solid. The boat is floating away, but
God’s grace is drawing you to Him.”
3. Submitting to Grace (vv. 6-10).
If God is to be God, then everything in our
relationship with Him is going to flow from Him. And what a lovely promise that
is (I used it for the title of this sermon): ‘He gives us more grace’.
Remember grace is a direction word, an initiative word. Who takes the
initiative in the relationship? Not us. Biblical Christianity is entirely about
a God who reaches us – men and women who do not deserve His affection. That’s
what grace is about. And James advises us to submit ourselves to that grace:
‘Submit yourselves, then, to God.’ (v. 7a). And that means taking the
same attitude to evil that God takes to evil. Which is why James goes on as he
does there: ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he
will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,
you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and
your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’
(vv. 7b-10).
It will take humility to accept the Bible’s verdict
on us, won’t it? Those verses sound a note that we don’t hear very often today.
It was heard more frequently in some of the older forms of words that we used
in church services. Perhaps you remember them in the Book of Common Prayer.
This is the Confession: ‘Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker
of all things, judge of all men. We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins
and wickedness which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by
thought, word and deed, against thy divine majesty, provoking most justly thy
wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry
for these our misdoings. The remembrance of them is grievous unto us. The
burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us most
merciful father, for thy son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Forgive us all that
is past.’ There are some here, I’m sure, who love the sound of those words; but
we need to ask ourselves when we say them do we really mean them? It is a very
dangerous thing in church life when there are those who love the outward form
of words, but deny in their hearts the true meaning of them.
The modern equivalents are significantly lower key:
‘Almighty God, our heavenly father, we have sinned against you and against our
fellow men in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault. We are truly sorry and repent of all our
sins. For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all
that is past and grant that we may serve you in newness of life to the glory of
your name. Amen.’ That is from the Alternative Service Book.
There is nothing wrong with those words, but it is
pretty clear which of those two prayers picks up this New Testament note. And I
want to ask if that New Testament note is present in your and my life. Look
again at verses 8 and 9 and read them quietly for a moment: ‘Come
near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and
purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your
laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.’
At a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous they begin with
everyone acknowledging that they are alcoholics: “I’m Mark. I’m an alcoholic.”
As we gather here at church we need to begin every time with every one of us
acknow-ledging that we are sinners, “I’m Mark. I’m a sinner.” It’s the only way
we have access to God’s presence.
The grace of God will only be enjoyed by those who
accept their need for it: ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he
will lift you up.’ Those of us in church now who are not grieved
by our sin, and have no sense of it, need to be. And those of us who are
grieved and troubled by our sin need not be. That’s the extraordinary
paradox of grace. We will not be overthrown by our sin ultimately if we take it
sufficiently seriously now. Just take it to the Cross (which is exactly where
this Communion service is going to encourage us to take it. It’s what the
Communion service is all about.) ‘Blessed are those who mourn,’
taught Jesus, ‘for they shall be comforted.’ Joy in this life
comes for the Christian not in minimising sin, but in knowing that sin is dealt
with.
So that is what it is to ‘submit to God’ there in
verse 7. It is to resist the devil, draw near to God, purify ourselves and
lament our sinfulness. We must take sin seriously if you and I would know the
grace of God.
And, to help us do that, James immediately directs
our attention to two specific and practical areas of our lives: the tongue
(which is one of his favourites) and time.
4) So what
does that mean?
a) The Tongue – no
condemning others (vv. 11, 12).
‘Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who
speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.
When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.
But you––who are you to judge your neighbour?’ (vv. 11, 12). When I
condemn a brother or sister Christian, I usurp God’s role. God alone can
determine the fate of His creatures. I can’t pronounce the verdict on someone
else’s destiny. We are to exercise discernment and to judge in doctrinal
matters, he advises us very strongly to do that. But we must beware of
questioning the reality of one another’s faith.
My role is not to administer the law, but to
obey it. How quick I am to apply what I hear to others! It may be something in
this passage today and we think, “That really applies to so-and-so.” Beware!
The 19th Century American preacher D.L. Moody used to say that
some-times when he was preaching he got the impression that each of his
listeners was applying the message to the people in the row behind; and so the
message would get passed right back, row by row, down the church and out of the
door at the back without anybody taking it seriously on the way!
But God has brought me to church today to change …
me! Not anyone else. And He has brought
you to church to change you, no-one else – for all our thinking how nice life
would be if only God would change everyone else and leave us alone. And if
you’re not open to being changed today forget this church service. You’ve
wasted an hour of your life. There’s absolutely no point in gathering like this
on a Sunday unless you and I are prepared to let the living God get to grips
with us. And there’s no distinction there between the Christian and the
non-Christian. Non-Christians here today if you’re not prepared to let God
touch you you’ve wasted an hour of your life. Christians here today, if you are
not prepared to let God touch you, you’ve wasted an hour of your life too.
Look at verse 12a: ‘There is only one Lawgiver and
Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.’ He wants to do
business with my soul. ‘But you––who are you to judge your
neighbour?’ Me judging my neighbour is only a way of trying to avoid
what the one Lawgiver and Judge wishes to do with me; it’s a way of avoiding
submitting myself to His Grace.
b) Time – no calling it our
own (vv.
13-17).
‘Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will
go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are
a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to
say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you
boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he
ought to do, and does not do it, sins’ (vv. 13-17).
That has a very contemporary ring to it, doesn’t it?
Notice it is not forward planning that James objects to, nor is it the prospect
of profit. It is boasting about the future: ‘… you boast and brag. All such
boasting is evil’ (v. 16). Boasting is another ‘punt’ word (if you will
forgive me referring back to that picture once again). It is to do with putting
our confidence in something. Our attitude to time is another way we can put our
weight on something insubstantial, unstable and non-existent. You see, it
simply isn’t true, as we often say to ourselves, “My time is my own.” Is that
something you find yourself saying, “My time is my own to do with as I choose”?
All our time is a gift to us. It comes to everyone of us at exactly the same
rate (60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour) and not one of us can hold on to
or recall or skip one single second of it if we try. Every moment of our lives
time is coming to us as a gift from someone else. We do not deserve it, we did
not earn it; we didn’t choose to start in time, and we will not choose to end
in time. ‘Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your
life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this
or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil’ (vv.
14-16).
James is saying remember your
dependence. We like to speak and act as though we own time. “Oh, I’ll be in
Luxembourg next week and in New York just after Christmas,” we say. And we’re
proud of it, aren’t we? I certainly am when I have the chance to say things
like that. When we think of time like that we soon start to find ourselves
trapped in time. Then we fall into one or other of the two common pitfalls of
time: either in the Western world’s frenzied enslavement to the tyranny of time
– do you remember Rudyard Kipling’s words, ‘To fill the unforgiving minute with
sixty seconds’ worth of distance run’? Or, as is sometimes ascribed to the
East, the more fatalistic resignation of Omar Khayyam:
‘Fill full the cup. What boots it to repeat
How
time is slipping underneath our feet?
Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday –
Why
fret about them if today be sweet?’
(I like to think of those two different attitudes to
time as those of a student either side of his finals exams.)
But we are not to be trapped in time. It is actually
a gift of God’s grace to us and we become liberated by submitting to that grace
and accepting our time as a gift to us for doing good in. Do you see how verse
17 fits now? That odd little verse at the end of the paragraph that didn’t seem
to make much sense when it was first read. What is time for? Achieving your
goals? Filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run?
No, it’s for doing good in. If you’ve done good in your time you haven’t wasted
one second. If you’ve failed to do good in your time you’ve wasted every
second. If by God’s grace you and I wish be free of the tyranny of time, then
we need to submit to that grace, and accept our time as a gift for doing good.
What is life for? For conflicts that spring out of our frustrated selfish
desires? No. Life is for doing good; submitting to God’s grace and letting Him
have His way with us.
Let’s pray:
‘Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do, and does not do it,
sins.’
Father God we are deeply conscious of
that sin in our lives. We haven’t done the good that we ought to have done; but
we are also conscious of that grace of yours that reaches out to us. Please
give us more grace we pray. Help us to submit to your will, to accept your
verdict upon us, to bring our sins to the Cross and to seek your face every
day, that we may do the things you put us on this earth to do and not the
things we think up for ourselves. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.