Luke 18. 15-30 - "Little and Large"

(NB This is a short talk given at an All-age service)

Our two stories - the children, and the rich man, are in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Not only that, but they are right next to each other in all three. Sometimes stories are in different order in different Gospels. So the fact that these two stories have stuck together in all three Gospels tells us they really belong together. Let's see what we can learn by looking at them together!

What these two stories do is make a contrast: between opposites: 


* Little and large.

* Babies, and a grown-up.

* Children who have nothing, and a grown-up who has everything.

• All the children had to offer Jesus was simple, total faith.  No strength. No cleverness. No polite introductions ("good teacher"). Not much understanding.    All they had to bring was weakness, need, and delight in being there with Jesus.  Simple, total faith. Dependency.  
• The rich man thought he had lot to offer Jesus.  He was smart. He was powerful. (He was a ruler). He had education: he knew the law. He had good behaviour.   He had things: he was rich.  He had influence, money, education. He had a lot to offer Jesus...  

* Children who have a share in the kingdom of God, and a grown up who can't get eternal life. The Kingdom of God.

• Little people already have the kingdom. It belongs to such as these. In fact, Jesus says, "If you want to enter God's Kingdom, you have to come like a little child."  
• Big people, rich, powerful, clever people, find that what they have can separate them from the Kingdom. Jesus said, "It is hard for rich people to enter God's kingdom." 

Photo by Ikiwaner: used under GNU License

Photo by George Shuklin used
under creative Commons License

WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE?

Listen: you can come to Jesus two ways.  You can come like a child: with nothing; in total dependency; in simple, total faith, like a child.  The Kingdom belongs to such as these.

Or you can come with something. Something you want to hold onto. Something you think you can keep and use. Something you can rely on. Something you like to have. You come depending on yourself, your cleverness, your gifts, your money, your know-how; your traditions, your history, your religion.

The rich man was holding onto his money.  When Jesus saw that and told him that he had to give all his money away, he went away sad.  It seemed impossible for this rich young man to become a follower of Jesus.  The things he had were too much to give up.  It seemed impossible for him to have eternal life.

Jesus said that it's easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get a rich man into the Kingdom of God. A camel through the eye of a needle is a tight squeeze. It's a bit like me saying "I can squeeze Iain (who's well over 6ft tall) through a hole in this piece of paper!".  It's impossible.  But I think we can make a hole in this piece of paper, and squeeze Iain through it. Even the impossible is possible with God.  It takes a miracle inside us to make us let go of the things we want to hold onto.  But God can do it.

Children, it seems, come with simple total faith, always expecting Father to do the miracle.  Sometimes adults come with a complicated, partial faith: we trust ourselves, our abilities, our know-how and our things; we'd maybe like a miracle, but we don't, frankly, expect our heavenly father to work too many miracles.

But when we come like children, God changes us. We are able to make a difference in our world, to show God's love for the poorest in or world. We are able to take risks for God's Kingdom. We are able to let things go, and as we do, we get a reward: we see the Kingdom making a difference in our lives and in the lives of other around us.


© Gilmour Lilly March 2012

James 4. 13 - 5. 12 The Rich, the Poor, and the Short-sighted

1 Who are the rich?
Who is James speaking to when he says 'Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"'?  He is speaking to the rich, who have an ability to make plans.
1. They have freedom of choice.  They have options. They have the possibility of going to another town, setting up shop there... Listen, the more money you have, the more choices you have.  If you are able to choose where you live, where you work, when you retire, you are one of the better-off people in our world.  Let's just think about house prices in Rosyth. If you can raise £230.000 you can buy any house that's on the market in Rosyth. If you have between £70,000 and £100,000 you can buy an average terraced house.   For £45000 you can get a one bedroom flat. But if you can't raise £45,000 you have to rent somewhere.  Less money, less choice.  And that is repeated hundreds of times...
2. They have predictability.  They can be pretty sure about the outcomes of their financial dealings.   There is a sense of security.  If they go to another town, they don't have to worry about how to survive. I heard of a man who became the riches guy in a town in America.  One day, when he had made his millions, he bragged, "When I first came to this town, I had all I owned in one suitcase." But what he didn't mention was that the suitcase contained several hundred thousand dollars in government bonds and cash.  The rich can feel secure: mo matter what happens, they will be OK.  They are not going to be made homeless. They are not going to starve.
3. They are full of confidence for the future.   They are confident in their powers to trade and make money.  Their circumstances give them a strong sense of self-belief, which stands them in good stead in lots of ways.  They can convince other people to invest in their business. They can sell.  They can think clearly and quickly.

If you have choices, a measure of security, and of confidence, that puts you among the rich.


2. Rich and short-sighted
But James says to this rich person: as you busily make your plans, just remember you are a mist that appears and then vanishes, a Firth of Forth haar that disperses as soon as the sun gets hot.  We can be short-sighted and need to perspective of eternity.  We have to recognize that there is something wrong with a self-sufficient and self-centered life.
1. We need to remember that we are mortal.  When I was a kid, it was quite common for Christians, particularly the older generation to say "God willing" (or DV meaning deo volente) when they were talking about future plans.  It seemed then, and still seems, rather quaint. It might be good to apply the principle.  Celtic Midday prayer has a line that says "Teach us O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom..."  We need that in our arrogant and self-sufficient society. However the lesson goes deeper...
2. Instead of just saying "God willing" we need to bring God actually into our planning. Surely other things than death, should make us change our plans: like God saying, "I have another plan for your life!"  It's a reminder of the importance of asking God to lead us and guide us.  Last summer when we went down to Gloucester for Josh & Cass's wedding, we planned to have a week or so on holiday, and to visit friends in west Wales. We were going to go to Church on Sunday Morning, visit our closest friends in Gloucester later on the Sunday, then head off on Monday to Pembroke.  But as the wedding day wore on, Pam began to get a sore throat and to feel cold.  She managed to go to Church on Sunday morning but went back to the guest house where we were staying and went to bed feeling really quite feverish and ill and we had to head straight back home.  I realised at the time that my frustrated plans were just that: my plans.  We hadn't taken them to God.  Instead of just doing what we want to do, let's get in the habit of saying, "What do you think Lord?"
3. But sometimes we don't even have to ask. We can check our plans against what God says in his word.  James says, "whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."  If we know the good we should be doing, and we don't do it - maybe because we are too busy making a fortune - it is sin.  God expects us to use our resources for the benefit of others.  James reflects the teaching of Jesus when he writes to the rich in this way.  See Matthew 25. 31-45.  Jesus tells us that God will judge people on the basis not just of whether we have trusted Jesus as Saviour, but on the basis of whether we have taken the opportunity to do something for the poorest of the poor. If you know what God's word says, and you see the opportunity, and you don't do it, it's sin.

3. Judgement
But there is worse to come.  In chapter 5, James warns the rich: "Come now, you rich, weep and howl ... Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten."  It's s prophetic past tense. James is so confident about this future reality, that he talks about it as though it was already happening. God judges the rich for a luxurious lifestyle obtained at the expense of the poor. They hoard what they should share.  James criticized the rich for storing up treasures in the last days.  They commit extortion and fraud; for living in self-indulgence while condemning and murdering the innocent.   The day-labourer had in Bible times - as they often have today - a struggle.  The Old Testament law says The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning (Lev 19. 13); and You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin. (Deut 24. 15)

Harsh?  Maybe, but just prophetic harsh.  James goes back to the Old Testament Prophets. See Isa 58. 6-10; 61. 8. Amos 5. 21-24; Micah 6. 8 ("justice" appears 28 times in Isaiah.). God cares about matters of international justice.  William Wilberforce struggled over two hundred years ago to bring an end to slavery; yet slavery still exists in the United Kingdom today.  People are trafficked into this country for the sex industry. Some of those who work picking vegetables and fruit in the UK are treated as barely more than slaves.  Cheap clothing made in the Far East is sometimes made by child labour or bonded workers who are paid in kind rather than in cash.  Tea, coffee and chocolate are harvested and processed on estates where often there is scant attention given to the wellbeing of workers, including children, in cottage industries where small growers struggle to receive a fair price for their produce.  We are all part of that. We like to buy cheap clothes and food.

Now listen, I know that there are people in this church for whom fair trade is a luxury choice.  People who literally can't afford to buy anything but the cheapest item in the shops. But I want to suggest that if we can, we should respond to the issues of world poverty.  I want to suggest a simple phrase: "If you're able, check the label." Sometimes we have no choice. Another item just doesn't exist. Sometimes we just don't know; the information isn't available. Sometimes we can't afford it.  So if you're able, check the label. We maybe can't do everything. But we can do something, either by how we spend, by how we share,  or by how we speak.

© Gilmour Lilly March 2012

James 4. 1-10: Conflict management

Introduction: James has been writing to his Christian friends about practical discipleship; he wants to see them becoming more like Jesus and making disciples.  He deals with the kind of practical things that can make the difference: things like favouritism, taming the tongue, wisdom - and dealing with conflict.

"Pregnant Woman" by
Ken Hammond (USDept ofAgriculture)
Image in Public Domain

Now conflict is going to happen. It is unavoidable.  There will always be tensions between different ages, different cultures, and different hopes and needs represented among us. There is an ongoing tension between the needs of the church community and the needs of a lost world.  Conflict, tension, that feeling of being stretched (that Anne was talking about last week) is inevitable in the real world. Indeed it is both a sign of health and a prerequisite for achievement.  Pregnancy stretches a mum's body, puts her resources under stress - but is actually a state of health not a state of illness. If you have ever tried stringing a bow and firing an arrow, you know that there is huge tension in that bow.  But that stress is what provides the momentum for the arrow to fly.   So we need to accept the reality of difference and tension.

But how do we manage conflict? How do we prevent the creative tension we all experience, from becoming a toxic thing, a fight, a quarrel?  James gives us some answers as he addresses this subject head-on:

1. Get to the roots.  What causes fights? James asks.  Then he answers, giving a simple, powerful analysis... three things that cause fights...
a. Frustrated desires. Simply put, you can't get what you want. Unpleasant fights are always, always caused by frustrated desires. Someone wants, maybe feel they need, something.  But it's not happening.  So they become angry. Blocked goals, says Neil Anderson, cause rage. He illustrates by telling of a Saturday when he planned to cook a special breakfast for his family. But one of his kids came in and took down a box of cereal and a bowl. Dad says "Hey Karl, we're having a special breakfast today: I'm cooking muffins for everyone.  Karl says, "I don't like muffins. I want cereal."  It becomes a big argument. Why? Because Dad's goal was to have a family breakfast, and Karl blocked that goal. Goals can be good: you want the ministry you are involved in to grow and prosper. We want our Church premises to be warm, welcoming - and paid for. Good goals.  So recognising that you have goals that are being blocked, is part of the solution. You may need to consider whether your goals are valid or purely selfish...

b. Unbelief.  James says, "You don't have, because you don't ask." (v2b) Part of what causes anger, is the underlying feeling that if our goals are good, (and some of them are!) we have to achieve them ourselves.  It's all down to us! And if it's all down to us we will fight to ensure these goals don't get blocked. It is basically about unbelief. There may be certain things, around our goals and desires, that our Heavenly Father just wants to pour out upon us, in his generosity and his love. But we don't ask.

c. Wrong motives.  You don't have what you pray for because you pray to spend it on your own desires (v3). Sometimes our desires are frustrated because they're just not right.  We're praying all right, but only because we can see how we benefit from getting the prayer answered.

2. Dealing with our hearts.  I was at college with Steve Chalke, and Steve liked to play table tennis. Steve's friend Bruce was very competitive, and was probably a better player than Steve. Once they were playing when Steve lost a point and Bruce was laughing.  Then almost immediately Bruce lost a point and Steve was laughing, and said "You ought to suss out your own game first, mate."   In dealing with other people we need to suss out our own game first. When there are tensions and we want to say the other party is stepping out of line, "suss out your own game first."  We need to deal with our own hearts...  nad that means....

London_Met_Police_riot_gear
by Hozinja
Image in Public Domain   

a. Choose your priorities. (Verses 4-5) James says "you adulterous people".  The literally meaning of the word is actually "adulteresses".  Now James isn't talking merely someone having an affair; and he's not just singling out the women. He's thinking of Hosea, the prophet whose marriage was an acted parable: eh was told to marry a prostitute, called Gomer. But Gomer kept returngin to her old wawy of lfie. Hosea;s message was that when God's people go to worship idols it is unfaithfulness like a married woman becoming a prostitute.  We need to ensure that none of our goals become so important they take the place of God himself. Because when it does it becomes an idol, a rival husband - and our God is a jealous God.  We thought about what happens when good goals become blocked goals. It's the world's way to pursue personal goals and to fight for them. But friendship with the world - doing things the world's way - equals a fall-out with God.

b. Resist the devil. (Verse 7)  Here is a simple little principle. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. It applies in all sorts of situations. But in particular it applies when the devil is trying to get a hold of your thoughts and to disable your witness.  Now listen, the devil loves to dress up as an angel of light.  He doesn't come to tempt us by putting on his black cloak, sharpening up his horns, picking up his pitchfork, and saying "Hey, you shouldn't be spoken to like that. You go and put that person in their place. You've been treated really badly and have every right to feel worry for yourself."  No! What he does is sow the ideas in our minds, but he lets us think they are our ideas. So, we find ourselves saying, "Hey, I shouldn't be spoken to like that. I'm going to go and give as good as I got. I've been really badly treated; I feel so sorry for myself."   When those thoughts arrive in your head, they are from the enemy. Resist him, and he will scarper. Leslie Mitton says we must NOT treat the enemy "with timid and misguided courtesy, nor yet with neutral indifference, but with determined defiance." Bill Johnson says "I cannot afford to have one thought in my head about myself, that is not in Jesus' mind."  Wrong thoughts, enemy thoughts, self-pitying, critical angry thoughts, are to be resisted - and they will go. They don't need to be in control.

c. Submit to God. (Verses 7-10)This involves... Intimacy: getting close to God, joining ourselves to him, looking for him. (another of these big principles, but it applies in this situation.)  It involves holiness - which isn't about making ourselves good enough for God but rather, letting him clean us up. It involves repentance: being really sorry, mourning, crying, about the rubbish in our lives.  It involves taking the lowest place in God's presence. When we come in absolute dependence, sorrow for our sin, and recognition that we really haven't got much to offer, God lifts us up.  It's when we are submitted to God that we are safe in relationships.

3. Guard your speech (Verses 11-12)
And one last practical thing. James says, "Don't speak evil of each other or judge each other."   The word James uses is to talk someone down. To belittle them and speak contemptuously of them; to slander them.  Whether it is behind someone's back, or face-to-face, if we talk someone down, we're setting ourselves above God's law itself.  People I the North of England have their own way of expressing things: Years ago I visited a shop in Pickering, Yorkshire with a sign over the low door, that said "Duck or Grouse!"  But it was in Lancashire that I saw a sign that says "Mud slung is ground lost."  And it's true. Always. When we insult other people, or slander them, or threaten them, or stand in judgment over them, we raise the stakes in a conflict and make it so much harder to mend.  In our speech, we need to avoid like snake venom anything that will rack up the level of conflict.

Conclusion. So let's guard our speech. Let's understand the roots of conflict - blocked goals, unbelief and selfish motives. And let's deal with our own hearts first of all.

© Gilmour Lilly March 2012

"Zacchaeus" Talk for All age service: Luke 19. 1-10

 Note: this talk was designed to present for all ages the lessons in Scripture Union's "Light" resources, which prescribed completely different Bible passages for under-5's and over-5's.  However, common themes emerged from the smaller children's story of Zacchaeus and the older kids' material on the Sermon on the Mount.  Each section began with a drama presentation prepared earlier in the service by members of the congregation (aged from preschool to older adult)
The three delightful pieces of artwork in this talk are © Henry Martin.  Free use for ministry purposes.  Not to be used for publication or profit.  

Drama presentation 1: Matthew 6. 19ff - "Money; treasure"
Question: What was the person in the sketch wanting/worrying about?  Answer: Money.

Art © Henry Martin.

Zacchaeus had loads of money. He liked having money and always wanted more and more money. His job was collecting tax - taking money off people to give to the Roman Government. What Zacchaeus used to do was take extra money from people, and keep it himself.  Money mattered to Zacchaeus. He had a nice house big enough to have a dinner party in. He was rich. Do you think he was happy?  No. He knew something was missing from his life and that's why when he knew Jesus was coming, he was desperate to see Jesus.

Lots of people today are like Zacchaeus. They have loads and loads of nice things. They get nice presents at Christmas. They have loads of money to spend. But still there is something missing inside.  Some people are like Zacchaeus and want more money, more nice things - and do silly and wrong things to get more.  If someone takes money that doesn't belong to him or her, does it make them happy? No, it makes them unhappy.  Jesus was right. There is no point worrying about money. As well as treasure on earth, we need "Treasure in Heaven," the kind of Treasure Jesus gives.  I wonder what Jesus gave to Zacchaeus?

Drama presentation 2: Matthew 7. 1-6 - "Judging"
Question:  What was the first person thinking and saying about the other person?  Answer: Judging: he could see what was wrong with the other person but couldn't see what was wrong with himself.

Art © Henry Martin.

Loads of people were "judging" Zacchaeus.  Maybe you and I have judged him today as we have heard his story. What a silly, greedy man.  I guess because he was little, and because he did a job that made everyone hate him, people would push him around.  I guess that is why he had to climb the tree. Maybe Zacchaeus was even judging himself, and thinking "I'm such a bad person..."

Lots of people today are like Zacchaeus: they have other people thinking "what a bad person; what a stupid person; what an ugly person; we don't want that person as our friend; we don't want a person like that in our gang; or in our street or our Church..."

But Jesus stopped, and found Zacchaeus hiding up the tree, and went to his house.  I wonder what kind of treasure Jesus gave Zacchaeus when he went to his house.  He gave him friendship and acceptance.  And then some people judged Jesus too.  They said "How terrible to go and have dinner with a bad man like Zacchaeus."

Drama presentation 3: Matthew 7. 7ff - "Asking"
Question: what kind of gifts does our heavenly father give?  Answer: Good gifts.

God had given a really good gift to Zacchaeus.  Jesus talked about it when he said "Salvation has come to this house"...

Art © Henry Martin.

But what is salvation?   It is having the bad things taken way from your life.  It is a new fresh start, a brand new life instead of the one you have messed up.  It is having God live inside you to help you live for him. That's what Zacchaeus was looking for when he climbed the tree to see Jesus.  That's the treasure Jesus wanted to give him...

Some of us are like Zacchaeus - we want a fresh start, a new life; we want to be new people.  Jesus wants us to do two things:
(1) Ask Jesus for it
(2) Make Jesus the boss in your life. Zacchaeus stood up and made a little speech: he promised Jesus he would be different.
These two things, asking in faith, and putting Jesus in charge, are how we begin  as Christians; and they are also how we continue and keep going as Christians. If we need to receive God's good gifts today, whatever stage we are at in our walk with him, he invites us to come and ask, and to put him in charge.


© Gilmour Lilly February 2012

James 3. 13-18 - True Wisdom...

The Christians James wrote to had the pressure of living between two worlds, the Jewish and Greek ones, and not fitting fully in to either, because of a faith which was itself in the process of finding the right words to describe itself - so not everything was all neatly tied up (the way some of us like things to be!) There was pressure inside and outside the Church.    As he tries to nail down what Christians need in order to survive and thrive, James asks, "Who is wise and understanding among you?"  "Wisdom" is moral insight and skill, rather than the academic knowledge we Western Christians like to possess. "Understanding" in Greek literally means "over-standing", looking down over the subject, possessing a comprehensive knowledge, seeing the whole picture.  


But, says James, real wisdom and understanding are about conduct, and they are also about character. .  J A Motyer says James give us not verbs but adverbs.  In other words, he is not so much concerned with what we do but how we do it.  The Message translates "Live well, live wisely, live humbly."     The conduct James is looking for is basically the "Meekness of wisdom".  Meekness is a difficult word... J A Motyer suggests it means a "properly low regard for ourselves". Various translations suggest "Quietness; humility, modesty."  It is a readiness to learn, to be corrected."  See James 1. 21. "With meekness receive the word..."   But meekness doesn't mean that we are timid.  It is not what Leslie Mitton calls "a colourless neutrality."  Numbers 12. 3 tells is "Moses was very meek"  What do you say when your brother and sister are criticising you, totting up your weaknesses (including your foreign wife!) and kind of saying "Hey Moses, do you think you are the only person God speaks through?"  Well, at that point Moses was very humble, quiet, and modest.  But that quiet confidence goes hand in hand with heroic courage and determined purpose, and as the story of Moses and his brother and sister shows, God is on the side of the meek. He spoke and affirmed Moses' place of leadership. Wisdom and understanding is able to be teachable and humble.  


Proverbs 30:21-23 says "Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress."  When I was a kid in East Kilbride, the government started to allow council tenants to buy their council house at a discount, and our neighbours across the road bought theirs.  It was great.  We had a grey front door because that was the colour the Council painted the doors.  They had a purple front door. It was a statement. "We used to be council tenants and now we are home-owners."  It used to rile my Mum.  Whenever people come from nothing, they can be a pain: like a slave who becomes a king.  What's the problem with people who come from nothing? The problem is that they still have the mindset of the slave, so are not secure in being king. But Moses was raised with royalty, as the adopted grandson of pharaoh, so he was secure in leadership.  


On the other hand, if we have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts (We'll look at what they are in a moment), we should not "boast and lie against the truth." That's what the Greek literally means ... In other words do not deny it.  

Nile in Uganda by Michael Shade.
 This work has been released into
the public domain.

Our Pete has a friend who went to Uganda, and went swimming in the Nile... where he caught a very nasty parasitic infection called bilharzia and was very unwell when he came home. Point of the story?  "Denial" is not a good river to swim in.  
* We are in denial, boasting and lying, if jealousy and selfish ambition are there but we don't recognise them. We are saying how much we love the people around us, when really we can't stand them.   We are claiming, "I don't have jealousy and ambition..."
* Alternatively we can be in denial, boast and lie against the truth, if we say that jealousy and selfish ambition are OK.  "It's just the way I am made.  You need to be tough to survive. I know I'm right.  Nobody messes with me.  He/she had it coming to them!"  We freely recognise that these things are present in our lives... but we have turned them into a virtue to boast about - and in so doing we lie against the truth.  
So what is in our hearts?  It does no harm to have that scan...  to be absolutely honest about what is going on inside us. 


There is a wisdom that is marked by bitter jealousy (Greek zelos - Zeal.  Not always a bad thing, we might say: when Jesus cleared the temple, John 2. 17 says the disciples recognised "Zeal for God's house".  However, in the NT the word is usually something ugly. Certainly when Zeal becomes bitter and is accompanied by selfish ambition, (the desire to be noticed and recognised, be part of the powerful party, looking for things to argue about) it becomes something ugly. Zeal for God can so easily become distorted into a personal dislike towards others who are different to us and a then become a sense of rivalry towards them.  


Now that may be the wisdom of the world.  James agrees: it is (literally) earthly; it's the world's way; but it is also unspiritual or sensual (the Greek is literally soulish, from the psyche) and demonic.  It the world's way but it is an act of indulgence in our lower nature just as much as getting drunk or having a one night stand just because you feel like it.  Ultimately, that kind of wisdom comes from the earth - the world and its way of being; from our inner drives, and from the enemy himself.   It doesn't come from God.  In Galatians 5. 20 it is part of the works of the flesh.

London Met Police riot gear,
by Hozinja; work has been
released into the public domain.

That wisdom from below, does produce results, though. The world likes to get things done.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practise. (ESV)  Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.  (The Message)  This kind of wisdom results in disorder, where things fall apart, and all kinds of mean dealings.  

That's worldly wisdom; and if it is in our hearts, we had better face up to it.


So who is wise and understanding?   What is Godly wisdom like?
* Godly wisdom is first pure - its motives are not mixed. 
* It is  peaceable. Just as worldly wisdom divides and causes fighting, godly wisdom unites and makes for peace. 
* It is gentle; it treats broken people with a generosity and a tolerance that enables them to grow.  That is a quality we need in a diverse fellowship where sometimes "hurt people hurt people"  
* It is open to reason, easily persuaded. Not easily led but prepared to look again at the facts and reconsider the conclusions.  Too many Bible-believing Christians reject what they cannot understand: "Don't confuse me with facts: my mind is made up!" 
* It is full of mercy (which means we are prepared to care for others even if their problems are their own fault!) and good fruits, 
* It is impartial not judgemental; not putting people into wee boxes. Once you have boxed someone up as a boring old traditionalist or a raving extremist, it's easy to dismiss them and their concerns. 
* It is sincere, unconcerned about making a good impression.  
There's something there for all of us.  


And that kind of wisdom, it produces results too.  
We want the harvest of righteousness. We want people to pull their socks up and be better people.  We want our kids to be polite.  We want people to treat us right, and to behave properly.  How do we get that? Not by sowing righteousness: not by always telling people how they should behave towards us. We get it by sowing peace.   




Where does all this come from? It's such a tall order. But James is talking about  "The wisdom that comes down from above."  It is God's gift, God's grace at work in our lives.


© Gilmour Lilly February 2012

James 3. 1-12 - Taming the tongue (or, controlled communication!)

James writes this letter to encourage struggling Christians to survive and thrive in their faith. Remember he wrote to a society where almost everything was spoken. We live in a multi-media world where most of us have books and many have very sophisticated forms of communication like email and Facebook. So when James talks about "taming the tongue" he means controlling our communication. And he mentions the importance of taming the tongue - controlled communication - in every chapter of his letter. It is that important. In particular, we need to avoid

* Quick-tempered words (1. 19f)

* Empty words (2. 15f) (Words need to be backed up)

* Critical words 4.11

* Presumptuous words 4. (13ff)

* Complaining words 5.9

* Careless Promises 5.12

In this chapter, though, James gives us some motivation for controlling the tongue and some hope of being able to actually do it...

Bible believing Christians recognise the importance of words - at least in theory.  See verse 1.  We have developed in a culture of the spoken word. Christian maturity is seen in things like being able to put up a good prayer; Christian service is often about saying something: a sermon, a testimony, teaching a class.   Even the earliest evidence of conversion is seen in terms of declaring verbally that Jesus is Lord.  (Nothing wrong with that - so long as room is left for demonstration as well as declaration. And so long as we remember, faith without works is dead)

We sometimes say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". But our words can be works too. Taming the tongue is vitally important. 

Let's find out why...

Firstly, the power of our words. Taming the tongue is key to taming the whole of life.  James has three "Little and large" illustrations -

Hunt bridle head by Thowra uk.
Used under Creative Commons License

The bit in the horse's mouth. Now I like horses - I think they're generally quite nice creatures.  But I'm not really a horsey person, and whenever I'm around them I'm conscious that they're big! They're way taller than me, they're heavy, they're strong. A kick could send you reeling; if the horse decides to assert itself, I'm in trouble!  But when the horse is set up for riding, it has a saddle, stirrups, reins, and crucially at the end of the reigns, a wee bit of metal in its mouth - called the bit.  So longs as the reigns are attached to the bit, and the bit is at the back of the horse's mouth, you're OK. You can turn it or stop it.  The bit controls the horse's behaviour, affecting its inner urges. It sees nice green grass in someone's garden, and turns his head towards it - but you want to go down the road so you pull it back into line. It sees an attractive filly in a field, and turns in that direction - but you pull it back.  The bit prevents the animal from begin controlled totally by its inner passions.  If we speak out of despair, self-pity, rage, or bitterness, we make it more likely that we will go on to act out of the same negative emotions.  Bad language, complaining, self pity, dishonesty in our words, and negative statements about ourselves, all steer us onto wrong paths. Honest, pure and positive words will steer us towards right ways of behaving.

Rudder of a Roman Boat.
Image in Public Domain

The rudder on a ship.  Here is a picture of the sort of thing James was thinking about.  Just an oar, adapted with a basic tiller.  But with that rudder the helmsman could control the direction of the boat.... If the galley slaves weren't evenly matched, the man at the rudder could keep the ship on course. If the wind blew and the waves pushed the ship in one direction or another, the helmsman with that tiny rudder could keep the ship on course...The rudder controls the ship's behaviour, and prevents it from being ruled by outside pressures.  It is uncontrolled speaking, an untamed tongue, that speaks negativity and despair in the midst of a challenging situation.  Wrong words allow us to be hammered by the external pressures of life. If we learn to speak the truth about ourselves, we can prevent ourselves from drifting into wrong situations.  Right words help us to steer a right course through these pressures.  

A spark, setting the forest on fire.... This suggests the influence that our words have over other people... Many years ago when our boys were little,  (that was the excuse!) we went for a trip on the North York Moors Railway near Pickering.  It was summer time and at one point the train stopped because sparks from the engine had set the bracken on fire. Most of the able-bodied men on board were thrilled to have the opportunity to help out by climbing onto the trackside and grabbing beaters to beat out the flames.  We realised that in the summer, the guards have to be very vigilant about that. It only takes a small spark... And it only takes a few careless words to do immense damage to other people: to reputations; to relationships; and to emotional health,

We can use our tongues to bless, or curse.  To bless is to speak well of something.  It can mean we praise someone.  We speak good about that person.  When the psalms tell us to "Bless the Lord" they invite us to speak well about God.  And it can mean we speak good into their lives.  "Go in peace..."  And to curse is to call evil down upon a person. To ask evil over them.

Listen, our words can either bless or curse each other.  We can speak well about each other; we can speak well about our children; we can speak well about our brothers and sisters in the Church and about the Church itself. We can even speak well about ourselves.  Or we can speak bad stuff into our lives and the lives of others. We can talk down the Church and its life and its place in our society. If we tell our kids they are stupid, they will believe us. After all, we know everything. And guess what? They will start to act stupid. Our insult has had the effect of a curse over our children. Too often we place ourselves in a place of defeat by what we say about ourselves.  If we call ourselves useless, or wicked, that will settle on our souls like that freezing rain they have been having down south this week. As soon as the supercooled raindrops hit the below-zero surface, ice forms. But if we can recognise the beauty and creativity in our kids, and tell them we do, we bless them. We can either talk the church together or we can talk the church to bits. I believe that God has commanded the blessing where brothers dwell together in unity. Why do I believe that? I believe it because that is what God says in his word. If we can speak positively about ourselves, we bless ourselves.  I'm not suggesting some sort of power of positive thinking here. I'm not suggesting some sort of self-indulgent, namby-pamby psych-babble. All I'm asking us to do is to start agreeing with what God says about us in his word. If we are busily telling ourselves "I can't cope..." we probably won't. But if we can tell ourselves "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" we are on the way to victory.

Secondly, it's a matter of consistency

"No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. (verse 11)  It's not possible for blessing and cursing to come from the same source.  Sometimes in Israel, you will find pure water springs and salt springs right next to each other - because of chemicals in the rock. But t you will never find a spring that changes from one to the other.  You never come with your bucket and say, "I wonder if I'll be able to drink the water today?"  The very idea of one mouth pouring out worship and criticism is just so inconsistent as to be impossible.

Hope?

I said earlier, that James gives us hope of being able to actually tame the tongue.   But the hope comes through hopelessness.  "No-one can tame the tongue."  People have tamed wild beasts. But the tongue is wilder than them all.

It's not possible for a fig tree to bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs. James is quoting straight from Jesus himself. Jesus said (in Mat 7:16-20, Mat 12:33; Luk 6:43-44)  "Each tree is know by its fruit; figs don't grow on thistles."  And Jesus is talking about the fruit coming from the heart. He says, "make the heart good, then the fruit will be good."  The whole message of Jesus isn't that we have to get on and bear good fruit.  He says, "He who abides in me will bear much fruit." (John 15. 4-5)..The transformation of our hearts - and our actions and our words -  is a work of grace through the blood of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.

Paul has a little phrase he uses seven times in Romans: "What shall we say? What shall we say to this?"  I want to ask us that question today: what shall we say?  What are we going to say about poverty and injustice in our world? What are we going to say about our nation? What are we going to say about the task announcing the Kingdom of god in Scotland? What will we say about the church in our nation? What are we going to say about our weaknesses and struggles?  What shall we say?     Maybe one of the following.

Lord, I'm sorry for my wrong words.    

Lord, I'm sorry for my impure words    

Lord, I'm sorry for my angry words    

Lord, I'm sorry for my critical words  

Lord, I'm sorry for my self-pitying words  

Lord, I'm sorry for my words have hindered my own growth and progress    

Lord, I'm sorry that my words have harmed others.

Lord, thank you that you love me and that you call me your child

Thank you that there is no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus.

Thank you that if the son sets me free I shall be free indeed

Lord, please send your Spirit to make me a tree that will bear good fruit.

Jesus, You are Lord in Scotland.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done.

Thank you Jesus, that you said 'I will build my Church'

© Gilmour Lilly February 2012

James 2:14-26 Faith with a runny nose?

Paul was probably in prison by the time James wrote his letter. I don't know whether James ever read anything that Paul wrote.  It's likely that he knew about Paul, and had even met him and knew what he taught. It's very likely that he met Christians who were using the teaching of Paul to get away with living a kind of Christian life that said "Hey, God has forgiven all my sins. I am put right with God by grace through faith.  So long as I agree with these doctrines, it doesn't matter how I live my life."  James doesn't agree. He tackles it head-on: verse 14: "If someone says he has faith but it doesn't make any difference to his life, can that sort of faith save him?"

Beny-sur-Mer_Cemetary by Burtonpe;  GNU License 

Faith without works isn't faith with a runny nose. It isn't faith with the flu, of faith with high blood pressure. It isn't faith with a terminal illness. It isn't even faith on life support. It is dead.    Scottish Bible-believers need to take this on board.

Faith
We have learned - rightly - to insist on the importance of faith... believing the truth; taking that personal step of faith involved in receiving Jesus Christ as your personal saviour. If you haven't taken that step, that is where you need to start.  You can't work your way into Heaven. You can't impress God. There's in fact no point trying. He's perfectly holy and good. We keep messing up. Tuesday of this week I went for something like two hours of being really good. My wife will confirm that; well, may be it was an hour and a half.  But that's unusual.  We can't impress God. Simple as that. If getting anywhere with god depends on our impressing him, we're stuck.  Right? And in fact, we don't need to impress God. This holy, perfect, being is our heavenly Father. He loves us and offers us a relationship with him, a new life, a hope - as a gift.
The only way to receive that is not by impressing God, by paying our own "debt", by being good, but by coming to God in repentance and faith. A faith that implies a complete reorientation of everything in my life to center around Jesus.

Real faith creates good works.  
So if someone comes along trying to work out a compromise, and says, "Hey James, we all have different gifts. Some are good at faith; some are good at works. Can't we just live and let live?" James answers, "No! I challenge anyone who claims they have faith to show it - of not by how they live, then how?  You can look at how I live, to see the evidence that I have faith." (V. 18) So there's no place for two different kinds of Christians: those who have faith in the great doctrines, and those who get on with the good works.  Real faith creates good works.

James illustrates that with two stories:

Abraham. He had a son called Isaac, the one God promised; the one born to Sarah in her old age; the one who was supposed to give him a whole tribe of descendants.  God tested Abraham by calling him to sacrifice Isaac. What an atrocity. Yet it wasn't an atrocity in the world Abraham lived in: the Canaanites probably made child sacrifices. And we will doscover that to sacrifice a child was an atrocity to God as wthe story pans out. If we're tempted to think "What a horrible thing for God to do.  What an ugly kind of God" we shouldn't make our conclusions about God's character from this story; rather we should read this story in the light of what we know about God's character.  That's what Abraham did.  When asked to do this thing, Abraham's faith was prepared to say, "I still believe my heavenly Father is a loving and faithful Father. I still believe he is able to keep his promises to me."  That is faith, confidence in the truth of God's character.  And that faith resulted in his being willing to take his precious wee boy up that mountain. The end of the story is that it was only a test, and God had another sacrifice ready and waiting. But faith in God's loving character had to be put into action on that mountain.  Despite the possibility that the promises God had made would literally go up in smoke, Abraham had to say, "I don't understand but I trust you, and You're in charge, Lord"

Rahab. When Israelites came to spy out the city of Jericho, they found lodgings in the place least likely to rouse suspicion: the brothel. Rahab, the prostitute believed that God was with Israel and would give Jericho over to Israel.  So she hid the men, and in return they promised that she and her family would be safe when the city fell to the Israelites. Her faith led to action.  Despite the possibility that she could be accused of treason, she had to say, "I don't understand but I trust you, and You're in charge, Lord"

There is grace in the way God chooses and calls people. An old guy and a prostitute. We may not amount to much, but we respond to God's call with faith that leads to action... "I don't understand but I trust you, and You're in charge, Lord"

God knows what is going on inside us. God can tell the difference between someone who is simply saying the words, and someone who believes the words.  God can tell the difference between someone who really believes, and someone who simply accepts assents to stuff that is outside of the realm of reason...

"What about Grace?"
It almost looks as if James was arguing with what Paul says in Romans 3. 28: " We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law."  But James isn't taking issue with Paul. He is taking issue with those who used Paul for their own ends.     The works that Paul was talking about were "works of the law". And James isn't calling us back to a legalistic kind of Christianity. He is talking about faith that goes into action.  Verses 14-15 are examples of the kind of works that James expects as the evidence of faith. He is talking about works like compassion for the poor and needy. It is seeing situations to which we can respond with compassion, and doing so.  It is stepping out with nothing but faith, to pray on the basis of what God says in this word. It is giving what you haven't got, to those who have nothing to give back in return.

We misunderstand faith and we misunderstand works, if we imagine they are two different things.  Works is part of faith, because faith, the kind of faith that saves a person, involves repentance, and that, if it is real, is handing control of your life over to Jesus.  "I don't understand, but I trust you, and You're in charge, Lord"

Faith works because God is at work

Daffodils in Spring.
The life within produces beauty

And in fact works are not just something we have to do because we have faith.  Faith and repentance are a dynamic step on our part, that are matched by a dynamic step on God's part. The works are the result of the faith.  Eph 2:10 says  "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."  What matters is "faith working through love" (Gal 5:6)  "God can do more than we ask, or think, according to the power at work within us" (Eph 3:20); "God works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)  Works are the energy of God, the activity of the Holy Spirit, making a difference in our lives. "I know that if I give you my heart, whatever I do will follow my new heart," said Ignatius of Loyola

The answer that God gives in his word is this. Faith works.  When faith works, we know there is the reality not just the words, of repentance and faith.  "Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived." - says Christian activist Shane Claiborne.    Faith is meant to be a dynamic, living thing that releases the power of God in our lives and produces love, compassion, service, faithfulness.  If it's living, it works. But faith without works is dead.


© Gilmour Lilly February 2012