CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 146:1-10
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!
Song #1 – Steadfast by Sandra McCracken
Song #2 – Grateful by Brandon Lake
Dismiss Kids
INTRO |
It is good to be with you this morning. I say it every time I get to preach or share in God's Word with you in this way, and I will say it again: I always enjoy it. It is always a struggle and a challenge, but on the occasion that it happens, I am glad to be with you. I am delighted to share what the Lord has been with me about this week and how He has been with me.
We are going to be in James 5:1-12. We will be picking up right where we left off last week from chapter four and continuing. So, we'll jump right in.
PRE-SERMON READING | James 5:1-12
Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. And above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
SERMON | Protest, Patience, and Presence
Keep in mind... as we will come back to this. But who is he speaking to? Is this for us? Who is this in his time? Who are the rich?
Lets hear that opening one more time:
"Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you."
This morning, I'd like to consider these verses under three headings:
The Protest:
The Patience
The Presence
The Protest
James begins: "Come now, you rich." Obviously, in some sense, a very clear indication that he wants us to have in mind the prophets, whom he will mention explicitly in a few verses. But even here--"Come now, listen. Weep. Howl."--the language is that of Amos and Jeremiah, Malachi and Hosea, those who spoke out for the oppressed, those who spoke out against not rich people per se, but oppressive wealth, unrighteous wealth.
So the sermon will not be this morning about how to be a proper steward and not be unrighteous in wealth, although it will have something to do with that. But we should be more precise. James is not saying that every person like you or I, who might find themselves better off than others, is therefore condemned. Obviously, the people in view here--in the literal sense of what James is speaking of--are those who hoard, those who defraud, those who, as he says, live in self-indulgence, those who use their power and their means as a means of oppressing, as a means of keeping their heel on the head of the righteous.
One commentator says the designation "you rich" in verse one therefore essentially means "the unrighteous rich." We have it all throughout our Scriptures, where wealthy people are commended for their generosity, for their righteousness. So obviously it is not just mere wealth.
The question for us this morning is not "Are we wealthy?" Because comparatively speaking, everyone in this room, to some extent, is wealthy. Now, I don't have to bore you with statistics or anecdotes about the common average wealth or the way that modern Western Americans kind of stand in relation to the rest of the world. Everyone here, I'm sure, has heard those statistics. The question for us this morning is not "Are we wealthy?" but rather, "Are we righteous?" Do we rightly relate to those around us, to the things, the possessions that we have?
Some of that question might include quantity. There is a quantity of wealth, and of hoarding, and of things that steps over a line and becomes no longer a right relationship. But more than anything, I think James is inviting us to take up this question of the qualitative relationships that we have to the things, to the people, to the money.
So nobody this morning gets to listen for the next twenty or so minutes and think of someone who happens to be wealthier than them. I think in the immediate context, there are clearly, and there literally were, the wealthy landowners who were oppressing the flock in James's care. But, there is a way in which this raises a question for us in our time and place: Sometimes I am the person who is waiting, who is not getting what I am owed, who has been slighted, who has been taken advantage of. And sometimes, relative to the situation, I am the rich person. Sometimes I am the one who has swindled someone or been deceitful. I think James can comfort us in one and confront us in the other. We need only consider our behavior.
I don't know where I saw this--I couldn't find it when I looked it back up--but it's like the evil S's: scrolling, shopping, spending, saving. Think about the amount of time that you spend scrolling, shopping, spending, or saving. And a lot of us think saving is just an unequivocal good, that to save is simply a good thing. Again here, the problem was hoarding up riches that, as we will see in just a moment, ultimately were not worth much.
The problem with riches: Scripture repeatedly warns us that wealth can become a rival, a seductive rival, as to where we place our ultimate trust and allegiance. As Jesus says in Matthew 6,
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Look at the language in verses 2 and 3:
"Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you."
The funny thing is, gold does not ordinarily corrode or rust, neither does silver. The point is that it is already, from a certain perspective, worthless. The thing that looks priceless to us, when held up in the kingdom's light, is corroded, rotted, rusted. Again, Douglas Moo, one of the commentaries that we consulted for this series, puts it this way:
"those possessions are already, from the standpoint of the spiritual realm, worthless."
James says that this corrosion will ultimately be evidence against you.
"Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."
The whole idea of these first opening verses--and the hope, I hope, that I can communicate to you--is this: this is serious. The strength of the language that James uses here. In some of the commentaries I read this week, some of the words and some of the strength of the verbs and the tenses in which James chooses to use here are rarely found in the New Testament. And the idea is that the Lord's position on the oppression of the vulnerable, the injustice of those who have less, is serious, and James's language reflects that.
He personifies the wages that have yet to be paid; those are that which cry out. And he places this cry importantly between the oppressed and the oppressor, and then puts it right next to this odd phrase, which occurs only one other place in the New Testament: "the Lord of hosts." We get it all throughout the Old Testament, but it is a rare phrase in the New Testament, and it is a way of communicating God as strong, God as redeeming and saving, He who comes with an army to strike down the wicked and the oppressor.
James keeps going:
"You have lived in luxury and in self-indulgence. And you have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter."
Who among us doesn't? Or who among us hasn't had that sense in which we felt that kind of nagging guilt, that maybe we have too much? It is easy to think of our comfort and our opulence. And again, for many of us, it is hard to imagine that we exist as wealthy because we don't see how other people tend to live, and we don't recognize that indirectly--as it was in his time and as it still is today--that when we bury our head in the sand and refuse to see some of that disparity, what we ultimately contribute to is the condemnation and the murder of a righteous person: those who do not resist, the voiceless, the weak, the vulnerable, those who are out of sight, out of mind, as they make our clothes and our products, and we buy them for pennies on the dollar.
Now, clearly, whenever James references the righteous person here, I think the idea is to point us toward the trial, the passion of Jesus. I know we can't read these verses and not kind of have that image in our minds. We could force that. It seems like it's still an open debate to some pretty large extent, but I don't think it requires much forcing to just ask and to say it this way: who is it that Jesus most identifies with in the Scriptures, in the Gospels? Who is it that He says He Himself is, in some sense, when we bring cold water, visit in prison, visit the sick, the orphan, the widow? Who is it that James himself identifies true religion with?
Before James says one word about the patience of the wounded, the patience of the oppressed, before he said anything about the response to oppression, he speaks for six verses in powerful protest against the oppressor. He does not tell them to calm down. He does not try to initially comfort the oppressed or to calm down. But he turns to the rich and gives them the imperative to weep and to howl.
The Patience
In verse 7 we get the patience, the turn. "Therefore."
"Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains."
If you recall, last week we ended in chapter four, and we were given this picture of the person who says, "Tomorrow we'll do such and such. We'll go into this town and we'll do such and such." And with a certain confident boasting, with certainty, can just declare what will happen tomorrow. As we see here in these verses for today, there is a kind of humble trust and faith. This is illustrated for us in the farmer, quite a contrast to the landowner.
There is a certain amount of passivity that is involved in farming and working the ground. You are in a certain kind of control. But as you know, if anybody has tried to garden, you are also wildly out of control. You have no control. You can steer and kind of guide some things, and you can participate in the abundance and the crop and the growth. But ultimately, as our Scriptures even remind us, God gives growth. Contrast this with the wealthy person or, in this case, in this example, the landowner, who with a certain certainty is sure that their means, their control of the situation, will be that which brings the abundance, the crop.
The farmer cannot order the rain. Cannot stand over their seed or their sowing and will it to grow any faster. They can wait. They can water. They can work. But they don't pretend that they have sovereignty over the plants or the produce. And this is why James says,
"You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
We've talked about this several times at Christ City. Patience is not doing nothing. Patience is not stopping doing, but patience is active. It is doing the faithful thing without pretending that you are in control of the end. Whether riches or suffering, there is a product. There is something produced in us. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And there is a parallel danger here, not only for the comfortable, the wealthy Christian, but for the one who suffers.
James then turns and says,
"Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door."
Both suffering and riches tend to produce grumbling. They train us toward impatience or entitlement, as the case may be, or resentment and blame and the other. James is clear: "Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged." In other words, pain will look for somewhere to go.
Earlier I mentioned to pay attention to the idea that the cries had reached the Lord of hosts, and that it was kind of sandwiched between the oppressor and the oppressed, but then placed particularly next to this phrase, "the Lord of hosts." It is a clue back in verse 4 for how to turn the corner. He says, "The harvesters' cries have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." Now I'm not a Greek scholar, but the Greek word here is eiselēlythasin.
εἰσεληλύθασιν — HAVE REACHED
The point is simple: James uses the perfect tense. It is completed, done. It has arrived. The cries have arrived, and they are at an end. They have reached their end, their purpose has been thus fulfilled, with a result that has already taken place, completed.
In other words, it is not as though the promise, or what James is intending to say, is that the cries will someday reach God, but that they have already reached God. That God has already heard their complaints, has already heard the cries, and stands ready. Not "might reach," not "will reach someday," but "has already reached." Patience is a confidence that the cries have already reached. Patience is how we remain faithful in the midst of ongoing, long-lasting suffering. God's delay is not God's deafness. It is not His turning away.
In fact, James--just to pause on this perfect tense language for a moment. Verse 8: "the coming of the Lord is at hand." The coming of the Lord has drawn near. Now. The Lord has drawn near. The coming of the Lord--the coming or the presence points to the expected coming--has drawn near. And behold, in verse nine, "the judge is standing at the door." In other words, the Lord is present to those who wait, to those who suffer, to those who feel like they got the short end of the stick.
Again, as I said at the beginning, on the one hand, I think these verses--at least verses one through six--challenge us to reflect on our kind of comfort as people who live in Dallas, Texas, twenty-twenty-six, and to reflect on the ways in which we ourselves have lived in self-indulgence without a care or concern for those that are less off, and that we in some sense turn a blind eye to. But at the same time, each one of us, many of us anyways, can also see in our own life that we too feel like we're sometimes on the other end, and are the ones who are struggling. And to those people--if that's you this morning--this last part is for you. The Lord is present in your need, in your waiting.
The Presence
James points us to the prophets as an example of suffering and patience. "Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord." They too suffered. They were patient. They spoke. And the prophets did not confuse passivity with patience.
Perhaps the most famous example of the patient sufferer:
"Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."
But Job tore his robe. Job fell to the ground. Job argued with the Lord. Pleaded with the Lord. Job wept. Complained. Lamented. Questioned. And this is counted as a kind of steadfastness in the eyes of the Scriptures. He kept talking. Job is no groveling, passive, unquestioning submission. No. Job struggled and questioned and sometimes even defied. But the flame of faith was never extinguished in his heart.
Lament is not the lack of faith. In fact, it is the expression of a grieving faith. Tears sometimes wept at the loss or the wound or the suffering, either in our own lives or those that we see and that we care about. Asking "How long?" This is just to stay in the fight. This is just to stay present to He who is present to you.
James says, "You have seen the purpose, the end"--a word we use a lot around here--the *telos* of the Lord. You know where all this is headed. Job's story ended with restoration, but I don't think that's the point of James bringing this story to our minds here. It is not to say that everything will work out here and now, in this time and place, necessarily for each of us. One commentator says James does not mean that patience and suffering will always be rewarded with the restoration of material prosperity. If that were the point, James would end with Job's prosperity, but he does not. He ends:
"You have seen the purpose, the end of the Lord. How the Lord is compassionate and merciful."
This is the point: compassionate and merciful.
Recall the confident boasting, the certainty of the wealthy person, the confident person, of the one whose trust is no longer in the Lord, who no longer has the patience of the farmer who can sit and be tuned to and related to this compassionate and merciful God, and relinquish a certain control over their life and the world around them.
And how that's expressed in the final verse, 12:
"But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation."
Just a simple yes or no is enough. I'm reminded of the Shakespeare play King Lear... Many of you may have read the poem or the play, or will have seen a movie adaptation of it. King Lear is clearly supposed to be a kind of negative depiction/stereotype, maybe a stand-in for, like, a father, a God figure in some sense. Shakespeare maybe is trying to say something about our relationship to God.
But his youngest child, Cordelia, refuses to play the game that King Lear sets for them in Act One. And he comes to her after going to the other two daughters, and he looks at Cordelia and he wants her to eloquently, verbosely express her love for him. And he asks her to profess her love for him, her father... It's kind of reminiscent of the end of John's gospel. Except... King Lear's question comes across as the kind of "Do you love me?" that feels somehow, suspicious, paranoid perhaps. "Do you love me, Cordelia?" And she says, "Yes, no more, no less." And the idea is that he's wanting her to somehow express this very grand gesture, to prove not necessarily to him per se, but to maybe show off a little. It seems as though he was doubtful in some sense--that he wasn't sure that she was sure. And so there was a sense in which her simple "yes, no more, no less"--in Shakespeare's play at least, wasn't enough for King Lear. And as you may remember, he had to learn things the hard way.
But I think God, is nothing like King Lear... And that our simple yes is enough. God seeks humble, patient presence, not only to Him, but to those around us. And this is enough.
Jesus tells us at the end of Matthew 6, in that same little span of verses: "You cannot serve both God and money. You'll love the one and hate the other." Wealth may be received as a gift and used in love and generosity and stewardship. Or it can be that pressure, that weight, that brings us, changes us, conforms us into something ugly and corrupted, such that we begin to think our confidence is in our control, whether that be riches, wealth, status, or some other security.
But...
... the Lord is deeply compassionate, tender-hearted, merciful. As we read in Psalm 149 this morning as our call to worship, as we're reminded in the broken body of Christ for us on our behalf... His wealth, His riches, His status, poured out, given away, not counted as anything in a sense to draw near, to be present to us, to the wealthy, to the oppressor and the oppressed. So that we might feel the Lord's presence and nearness to us.
REFLECTION |
There will be a few questions on the screen. You're going to have a few minutes to reflect and consider:
Do I trust in my riches more than I trust in God? And what does that produce in me or around me?
When or why do I grumble? And how does this affect my relationships with family and friends?
What would be different tomorrow if I humbled myself through faith at work within me?
CORPORATE CONFESSION & COMMUNION[1] |
(Celebrant)
The table is ready,
here waiting for your arrival.
It is the table of company with Jesus,
and all who love him.
It is the table of sharing,
with the poor of the world,
with who Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of communion with the earth
in which Christ became incarnate.
So come to this table,
you have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time;
and you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed;
come.
It is Christ who invites us to meet him here; on the day made for us, at the table he prepared for us.
Invite People to the Table to Receive the Communion elements
(ALL)
Loving God,
through your goodness
we have this bread and juice to offer
which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made.
May we know your presence
in this sharing,
so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
among his family of faith through the centuries,
and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts
and with them ourselves,
a single living act of praise.
Amen.
Song #3 – Greater Than by Citizens
Song #4 – Faithful by SisterBrother
BENEDICTION | James 5:7-8
As we rest in the day made for us, we prepare to enter into the work for which we are made [LIGHT THE CANDLE], remembering to…
Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
[1] Adapted from Common Prayer: a liturgy for ordinary radicals, 564.