Sermon for July 16th, 2017
James 1:1-27
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
9Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, 10and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
12Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved.
17Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 1: Wisdom from Above
It was the first day of school, and the teacher was asking the new student about his family: "What does your father do for a living, young man?" "He's a magician, Ma'am." "That's very interesting! And what about your mother?" "She's my father's assistant." "A family act, I see! And what's their favorite magic trick?" "They saw people in half." "Oh my! And do you have any siblings?" "Yes Ma'am. Two half-brothers and one half-sister."
There's an episode in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, where Jesus comes to preach in his hometown, and people ask each other "Who does this guy think he is? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us?"
The point of the story is the famous line that a prophet gets no respect in his own hometown, but what we also learn from the story is the interesting fact that Jesus came from a pretty big family. I'm not sure if you were keeping count, but that's four brothers, at least two sisters plus Jesus himself, so all in all Mary and Joseph had seven children, possibly more. Big family.
James is the first one mentioned in that list, indicating that he's probably the oldest among those named, and therefore the closest brother in age to Jesus (Mary and Joseph's firstborn son).
I imagine that if anyone in the world truly knew Jesus better than any other, watched him and followed him from the time they were children together to the very end, it was his brother, James. We know from many different sources that after the death of Jesus, James became the undisputed leader of the Christians in Jerusalem, where he was known as "James the Just."
He was so much loved and revered that when he was killed in __AD, Longstanding tradition holds that he is the author of
1. CONTEXT -growing church in jerusalem -instability in jerusalem -James gives us an idea of what Jesus might have been like at the age of 60.
2. GOOD THINGS COME FROM ABOVE (generosity, wisdom, prosperity) for the purpose of blessing others
3. HEARING, SPEAKING, DOING (as opposed to being deceived)
