James 4 – Let’s draw near to God

Lectionary Readings for July 10, 2022         5th Sunday After Pentecost, Year C
Amos 7:7-17   Amos’ Vision of the Plumb Line
Psalm 82 v3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Colossians 1:1-14    v11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father…
Luke 10:25-37    The Parable of the Good Samaritan

 But this week we’ll dig into James chapter 4 as we continue our series in James.

Peace through Leadership Quotes

“Love is when you’re missing some of your teeth but you’re not afraid to smile because you know your friends will still love you even though some of you is missing.”  ~ Emma, Age 6

When we accept and love ourselves and others WITH our imperfections (not despite them), we are far more likely to have internal peace and be able to share that peace with others. A peace-filled future means being able to find our common bonds and celebrate every person’s inherent value as children of God.

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

Did you ever have a friend or co-worker who was abrasive to the point of being off-putting, even when you knew they were right? I certainly have, and, quite frankly, some people would describe me that way. Based on the past few weeks, I’m starting to think the author of James was… that guy – too right and too direct.

Today we dig into the 4th chapter of James’ letter to his fellow Christians, perhaps the community of Jesus-followers in Jerusalem. As we’ve seen in previous chapters, James can get pretty fired up and direct to say the least.

In today’s text, James is upset that the new community of Jesus-followers is not acting like he expects them to – there’s jealousy, fighting, and judging. But let’s be realistic about this community of new Christians; they are adjusting to a new set of life values. A pastor once asked me, “What do you get when a lying, cheating, jerk decides to embrace a relationship with God? You get a lying, cheating, jerk of a Christian… WHO is trying to figure out a new way of living.”

That might describe the situation James was addressing. People were accustomed to craving what others had and were willing to fight about it. They were socially torn – on the one hand, they understood the values and ambitions of their broader culture; on the other hand, they have heard Jesus’ teachings which were very different. All of us may be able to relate to that tension.

James goes on to rightly warn against judging each other WHILE he also holds his community of faith accountable to the standards of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. This is why it’s important for us to remind ourselves of our baptismal vows, our expectations of ourselves and each other.

Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we overhear James admonishing AND encouraging his community to live to a higher, more Jesus-like standard.

Read James 4.

Our Bible Study this week was filled with great insights about this chapter.

Verse 2: “You crave something that you do not possess, so you murder to get it.”
Pam said that verse explains most wars – people who are willing to kill others in order to get what they want. It also explains the brutality of any society or system that functions with unbridled selfishness.

We talked about the different ways you can murder someone. Connecting back to last week’s warnings about the power of words, just one comment can kill someone’s dreams. I recently heard a woman explain how she got into trouble as a teenager and her parole officer told her, “you’ll never get more than a minimum wage job.” It’s taken her more than a decade to believe that she’s capable of more than society’s minimal expectations.

You can kill someone’s joy, someone’s reputation, someone’s faith… with just a few careless or malicious words. These are wounds that we often never see, but can be more debilitating than an injury or disease. The good news is that our Christian faith is grounded in the values of healing, new life, new opportunities… redemption. When we are at our best, we offer the wounded a safe place to recover and be made whole again.

In verse 2, James goes on to say what many of us have heard and perhaps quoted, “You do not have because you do not ask.” In my experience, we Americans are really good at asking for stuff. We train our children to create wish lists for birthdays and Christmas. As a child, I regularly asked God for a BB gun and a skateboard, but I never got either. Why not?!?

The very next verse is far less familiar to our ears but gives us a more complete understanding of our relationship with God. “You ask and do not receive because your motives are all wrong – you continually focus on self-indulgence.” OK, well that explains me not getting a BB gun; nothing good would have come of that! At some point in our lives, most of us have wanted more; perhaps we’ve asked God for a winning lottery ticket. But what would many of us have done with a massive windfall? Used it to help the most vulnerable people in our society – what James told us was “pure religion” (v1:27).

James is not advising us to not ask God for stuff, but rather, to examine our motives for what we want. To make this personal, if our church asked our community for money, we might get a few dollars. But when our community sees our food pantry serving 120+ families each week, donations – and new volunteers – just show up. What a blessing! These blessings enable us to continually expand our service to our community.

Our service to others has led many people to ask me, “When can we worship with you?” Continuing our culture of serving others, I plan to start a new worship service every Friday afternoon for our food pantry volunteers and guests. We can ALL pray that God will guide and bless this new chapter in our church’s history.

Back to James, verse 8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” What a beautiful, interactive image. Imagine how you feel when you are naturally drawn to a beloved person or pet. Think about that desire you have to share time, touch, conversation. This is the kind of intimate relationship God wants with us. Notice that there is no qualification or “entry fee” to connect with God – if we simply make the effort, God is always ready and anxious to connect with us.

No matter who you are, what you have or have not done, what you have or have not achieved… none of that matters. The Kingdom of Heaven’s doors are open to all. Let’s draw near to God, together.

Amen? Amen!