James 1 – Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger

Lectionary Readings for June 19, 2022                    2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
1 Kings 19:1-15a   Elijah Meets God at Horeb
Psalm 42 v1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
Galatians 3:23-29   v26 …for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
Luke 8:26-39  v39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. 

But this week, we’re kicking off a 5-week series digging into the book of James.

Peace through Leadership Quotes

“Pure religion is this: care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”  ~ James 1:27

“You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”  ~ Malcom X

Like the widows and orphans of Jesus’ day and today, who are the vulnerable people in our community?

• How can we offer them peace-filled words, actions, and spaces?

• What can we do to ensure everyone in our community enjoys the mental, physical, social, financial, and spiritual freedoms we often take for granted?

• When others share their stories of lack of peace with us, how can we meaningfully respond, individually and as a community of faith?

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

James is one of my favorite books because it’s practical and direct without getting too theoretical. As we’ve done with other Biblical books, we’ll tackle one chapter a week for the next five weeks. Each chapter will challenge us to personally put our faith into action each day; that’s not only good, it’s also a very Jewish approach to faith.

Based on contextual clues, the author of James appears to be a devout Jew living in a Greek world. Throughout the book of James, the author interweaves Greek philosophy and cosmology with Jewish values and ethics in a way that anyone living in the Mediterranean region 2,000 years ago would have immediately understood the connections he was making. They would have also understood how the emerging Christian theology upheld or built upon many of their existing beliefs.

Trust me on this, our modern Christian faith is fundamentally shaped by ancient Greek thinking FAR more than any of us (myself included) even begin to realize.

But James also challenged the Greek concept of a hierarchical universe and society by teaching that ALL people are created equally in God’s image AND are equally loved by God. That was pretty radical thinking back then and sadly remains radical for many people today.

As we celebrate Juneteenth this weekend, James reminds us of humanity’s equality and the need – really, the Christian imperative – to treat ALL people as God’s children, even the ones we don’t like.

Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we hear James urge us to restrain our words and our anger while we also freely share our compassion on vulnerable people in our community.

Read James 1:1-5, 12-15, 19-22, 27 and all of James 1 sometime this week.

“be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger…”
Easy for James to say! Actually, I think it was probably as challenging an idea for him and his community as it is for us today.

As an extrovert, my more introverted friends (including my wife) have taught me the immense value of listening. Really listening. Not listening for a pause so I can jump in, but listening to the words and the tones of voice used to express those words. Listening with my heart as much as my head. Listening for God’s leading as people share their joys, sorrows, and questions with me. Listening for what is not said as much as for what is. My introverted friends have taught me that sincere listening can be exhausting work.

About 10 years ago, my boss and mentor told me, “the best salespeople are great listeners.” I would say the same is true of the best diplomats and negotiators. In both business and church, I have also seen how listening builds trust over time. Listening can build bridges of respect and understanding between people who initially focus more on their differences than their similarities. Think of all the times someone conveyed God’s presence to you by simply listening. Perhaps we can more consciously look for opportunities to listen with our faith before we speak about our faith.

“be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger…”
Our American culture values speed. Faster is better, that’s all you need to know. It doesn’t matter what or who we’re talking about, faster is always better. Or at least that’s what our society seems to reward – the fastest athlete, piano or guitar player, fastest to earn a promotion or make a fortune. As we approach mid-term elections and political debates, a quick wit or rebuttal often wins cheers.

But if you interact with other cultures such as Pacific Islanders, you may find yourself frustrated that they frequently don’t immediately jump into discussions or respond to your comments. That is often because one of their cultural values is to take time to process what they have heard before responding. Good Lord! How much happier might our American culture be if we did the same?

“be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger…”
“…be slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God’s justice.” Perhaps you’re thinking, “But Charles, the Bible has numerous stories that describe God as getting angry.” You are correct! Exodus chapters 15 and 32 describe God’s anger at how the Egyptians abused the Israelite slaves; later on, God was angry with the Israelites for their selfish, self-abusing behavior. In both cases, God was angry as a response to witnessing suffering, selfishness, and destructive excess. Exodus 34:6 offers God as a model for how to manage our anger, “The Lord said to Moses, “The Eternal God is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and abundant in loyal love and truth…”

The key to fully appreciating James’ urge for us to be slow to anger is being able to first recognize our emotions and the emotions around us and then understand how everyone’s feelings are responses to our environment. Wrapping that in prayerful conversations with God can lead us to managing our anger (and other emotions) so that we’re motivated in a positive way to fulfill what James calls the purest definition of religion: caring for the most vulnerable people in our society (in his case, widows and orphans). How can our anger at social injustices motivate us to be quick to listen to the needs of our community, to the cries of the vulnerable? How can we then speak out for their needs? By listening quickly, speaking slowly, and acting with great compassion, we can be God’s loving, transformative presence for our community. Amen? Amen!