Faith that Works, a sermon series for the Fall from the book of James, week 4 of 4, preached Sep 29, 2024
First Scripture Exodus 13:1-9
3 Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, because the Lord brought you out from there by strength of hand; no leavened bread shall be eaten… 8 You shall tell your children on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips, for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
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Children’s Time Promises of Passover
Great grandparents? Okay, grandparents? How about parents? They were once little children. One day, you’ll be older, and there may be people in your family who are younger, way younger than you.
But all of you, no matter how young or old you are, how big or how small you family is, we all have the same parent… God. And we are all brothers and sisters in the same family, God’s family.
Their stories, what happened to them long ago, or what’s happening to them somewhere now, the good stuff or the bad stuff, God tells us to tell those stories, and to feel them like they are happening to us, because they happened, or are happening to someone in our family.
Question of the Day
Today’s question is, “What would you rather have, patience or endurance? Are they the same?” Group up in twos or threes and discuss this question together a few minutes. Ready, Go!
(Open YouTube livestream, muted, on iPad, and chat with online attendees?)
Great! For anyone wishing to share, in person or online, what did you come up with?
Context
This September, our sermon series is called “Faith that Works”. This is the fourth and last Sunday in the series. So far, James reminded us our faith, belief, is dead unless it comes out of us in good works. James warned us about words, and called us to express our faith and explain our works with good words. Last week, Caitlan showed us how James teaches us this wholeness of faith, works, and words depends a solid core, an honest, true, inner, spiritual life, where we measure the differences between what God wants and what we want, and we practice deferring to God.
Now, we are at the end of the letter. Before we read and preach, let’s pray…
Prayer for Illumination
God as we open your word, may it open us. As we read your word, may it read us. And may these words we say or hear point our minds, hearts, and whole selves toward you. Amen? Amen.
Scripture James 5:1-20
5:1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming toward you. 2 Your possessions have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your monies have rusted, and their decay will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire.
You’ve been storing up treasure[a] (for yourselves) during the last days. 4 But listen! The wages of the essential workers who tended your gardens, which you kept back by fraud, they cry out. And the cries of the immigrant farm workers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 (Meanwhile) You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You all have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who doesn’t even resist you.
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. (Like) The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains, 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.[b]
9 Brothers and sisters, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. Because, THE Judge is listening at the doors!
10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, remember the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. And you have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about, for this Lord is compassionate and merciful.
12 Above all, brothers and sisters, do not swear a promise, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, Just let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.[c]
13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will help them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you all might be made whole. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded its harvest.
19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth[d] and is brought back by another, 20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s[e] soul from death and will cover over a multitude of sins. (The end)
This too is the word of God for the people of God… (Thanks be to God)
Sermon
Yeah, that really is how James’ letter ends… Have you ever gotten one of those? That letter or email from someone where it just ends so abruptly, you find yourself digging through the envelope for a missing page… or trying to scroll down in the email thinking surely there’s more… maybe it just didn’t download? I wonder if James was out of paper, or ink, or if the messenger was tapping his foot at the door.
Popular movies, fairy tales, our favorite fiction stories often portray the final moments or final words of characters so glamorously. Remember when Darth Vader finally grabbed the evil emperor and through him over the railing? Vader asks Luke to take off his mask. Luke gets to see his father, at the very end, not Vader. We even seen Obi Wan, Yoda, and Annakin Skywalker around the fires as Luke, Solo, Leia, and all the Ewoks celebrater. That’s how our faovirte stories often end. Storytellers write scenes of ending, thin moments between this moment, this life and the next, as if one there, in the last moment, with last words, might we finally figure out what to say and do, might we finally say or do what we should have said and done all along.
James has been warning us about this for the whole letter. James calls out our brokenness… the way we show partiality, especially with regards to worldly things like money, status, power… or the way we judge others, envy, resent others over worldly measures. James' advice for four chapters is to get our thoughts and feelings about one another to match how God thinks and feels about us. We are all created in God’s image, all God’s children, created to love God and to love one another, to share generously with one another whatever God has given each of us. Then James begs us to put our actions and our words into the broken world now, to express God’s will and God’s way now, not later, not someday, but now.
I believe that’s why we church. When we come together like this, it is to become aware of any differences between our ways and God’s ways, and to confess those differences to God and before one another. Then in church we hopefully find the courage and strength to go from here choosing and doing God’s way today.
It’s difficult to see the difference. Its difficult to risk doing something or saying something we’ve been too afraid to do or say for so long. So James knows church can feel like a thin risky uncomfortable place sometimes. I think that’s why his letter calls us not to turn on one another, or abandon or betray one another, or give up, but begs us to hold onto one another and to be united in faith, works, and words, despite whatever difficulties or differences there may be between us.
See, James is not writing a story book, but a letter to friends, with a realistic outlook on living in a broken and fallen world where war and greed seem to have way more influence than peace and generosity, where our preferences and comforts seem more important than God’s priorities and guidance. The world around James, and those James writes to, was equally broken, dangerous, and divided as ours. His people had retreated from the brokenness of their world to church, to one another, and for good reason. Because in Christ, they were all forgiven. In Christ, there will be peace. In Christ, they are equals, and have a new way of doing community and relationship. At some point, maybe for just a moment, they believed it… that God’s way, Christ’s way has a truer power that is better, and that lasts forever. That is the faith that brought us together.
But we bring with us some of the worldly expectations of more… more wealth, more success, more independence, more control. We bring with us some of the world’s judgments of worthy, or beauty, or status… personal preferences, politics, traditions, rituals… We bring all that into a congregation of Christ, who asks us to do what he did, to lay all of that down in faith for what God says, what God wants. Its scary, so some complain, or quit, or break themselves off into cliques or congregations or denominations that match their worldly wants and preferences, rather than staying united in faith and deferring to whatever God wants and prefers.
James’ words are wisdom to any church struggling against worldly forces of numbers, growth, wealth, prestige… any church that divides itself by class, race, politics… any church that struggles inside itself because of the personal preferences of members to change or not to change… or any church that focuses on making everyone content and comfortable versus making God pleased and proud.
So why does James end the letter so abruptly? If this were at the movie theater, James might have finished with something like, “But you and I know that Christ, who made all and loves all, also gave his life for all… and even now, that sacrifice of God’s own self, God’s own son, is bringing all things back together, is forgiving all our brokenness and greed, and is reuniting all people, all creation in the abundant garden of grace. Friends, trust in Christ always, in his life, death, and resurrection, for yourselves, for your family and friends, for your fellow members in any church anywhere, for those who have left church for another church or for no church at all, for those of other religions or no religion, and even for those you think of as enemies. Look ahead, beyond our differences and divisions to the day Christ comes again in glory and will bring the unity and peace he promised, and speak, act, and live as if that day is today!”
James could have ended on a higher note like that… but he doesn’t. He doesn’t remind us God made it all, and God has it all, and in the end, not one thing will stand that stands against God. Not one of our preferences or comforts or traditions or denominations or churches will stand, unless they are perfectly in tune with God and God’s justice and love.
I trust James believed all that positive stuff to be true, just as I do. I imagine James might have even considering writing that to his good people. I'm kind of surprised some later editor didn't add in some glowing positive ending. I suppose if the people James was writing to had been truly oppressed, suffering and struggling under unjust principalities and powers of this world, then maybe James would have written more hopeful, uplifting language like that.
But when James looked, he saw plenty who were holding plenty to themselves rather than risking the radical generosity and grace of God. He saw many who said they believe, have faith, but whose words express their own wants and preferences more than God’s will and way. James saw too many who valued the camaraderie and privileges of church, but whose actions did not boldly give away those benefits of belonging and inclusion to all peoples in all communities.
So, James leaves the ending open... without a final uplifting word of comfort or promise. In his final sentences, he reminds us that we are prone to wander from the will of God, the way of Christ, toward disagreement, division, selfishness, self-indulgence, impatience. We are prone to envy, resent, or judge one another, when God alone is judge. Then he gives one last sentence. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
I think James leaves the ending open like this on purpose, because the ending wasn't his to write. It’s ours. Will we lay down any beliefs, any words, any actions that do not bring peace, justice, and love to all people today… and will we trust and pray and persevere while we wait for God’s ways to be the only way for everyone? James prays so... and leaves it to us to write the ending.
To God be all glory and honor, now and forever more, Amen? Amen.
Charge
Let's turn ourselves from the errors of our ways. And if we find a friend, someone who no longer reflects the God we know in Jesus, whose faith is center more on what they want from church than what God wants, whose words sound divisive or dismissive of the brokenness in our world, or whose actions are not bringing peace, justice, and love to all people, especially the poor and oppressed, then lets go to them and help them turn home.
Benediction
Now blessing, laughter, and loving be yours, and may the love of a great God who names you and holds you as the earth turns and the flowers grow be with you this day, this night, this moment, and forever more. Amen? Amen.