Year B, Pentecost 22 James 3:13-4:3; 7-8a
I often hear
people bemoan the current political discourse and long for those days of the
past when people were more dignified and kind.
I would agree that what we have experienced lately has been toxic,
immature, and at times cruel and irresponsible. I was a political science major in college and
have always followed campaigns closely, even as a teenager. They seemed more civilized back then. I saw
a clip recently of a candidate from several election cycles ago respond to
someone who said they were scared of what would happen if the other person
won. This candidate defended his
opponent and said he was a decent person and not someone to be feared. Given that fear mongering has become an
Olympic sport in our politics today, that response was astonishing to hear now.
Being
in the church where our founding fathers worshipped, I hear people occasionally
hypothesize what those same founding fathers would think of our current political
climate. The assumption of course is that they would be horrified. As a result,
I have read a bit about their rhetoric and it wasn’t always as kind and
dignified as we might imagine.
We
have been reading the book of James for 4 weeks and this is our 2nd
week on chapter 3. In the first half of
the chapter, James spoke of the power of the tongue—how such a small part of
the body can do so much damage. The
author compared the tongue to a fire, a fire that cannot be tamed. He wrote, “but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of
deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse
those who are made in the likeness of God…” It seems hopeless, does it not? If
it is impossible to tame (as it would seem in these verses), then what are we
to do about it? Perhaps we can’t even
blame those people who speak carelessly or even purposefully hurt others with
their words. They just can’t control
their tongue.
Our reading for this
Sunday picks up where we left off, but there is a shift. James is no longer talking about the
uncontrollable tongue, but instead, the focus is on wisdom. You see wisdom is what controls the tongue. It
is what is inside you that affects what comes out of our mouth. He then
differentiates the wisdom from above versus earthly wisdom. Earthly wisdom is associated with envy and
self ambition. God’s wisdom, the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle,
willing to yield, full of mercy…without a trace of partiality and
hypocrisy. Can you imagine how different
our world would be if our decisions, our actions and yes, our words—were
infused with that kind of wisdom?
I was struck by the words
peaceable, gentle, willing to yield. So
often, when we are convinced that we are right (which we so often are) we feel
that we have to be forceful with the truth, perhaps even get a little
louder—because we have truth on our side.
Why would we yield if we knew that we were right?
When James differentiates between the wisdom from above and
earthly wisdom, it’s natural to assume he’s talking about facts---what is right
and what is wrong. If we are guided by
God’s wisdom, then we would know that we are right, that we have the truth on
our side. We could be confident in those words and choices—like so many are.
I am not sure it’s
about what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. When James speaks of wisdom, it’s about
mercy, gentleness, peace, and righteousness.
It’s more about the way we interact with people that actually displays
wisdom and understanding rather than what arguments we win. If we are willing
to yield and meet someone half way, we might not always get our way, but we
might accomplish something that would otherwise be impossible when we are so
entrenched in our conviction of what is right.
When we can listen to the wisdom of others, when we are not so fixated
on what is right, then it’s amazing what we can actually learn from one
another, the wisdom we can gain.
James says that if we are seeking the wisdom from above and
living into that wisdom, then “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for
those who make peace.” I talked about
righteousness a few weeks ago and how we really don’t like that word very much
because we associate it with self-righteousness. At the time, I defined righteousness as being
in right relationship with God and our neighbor. I still stand by that. However, when I was reading about this
section of James, one commentator defined righteousness as: “living as though
God were the determiner of who was worth loving and who wasn’t.”[1] In
other words, God is the one who gets to decide who is worth loving.
That might sound way too
obvious, but look at our Gospel reading. The disciples, the ones closest to
Jesus, were arguing about who was the greatest.
We spend so much time in our nation, and in our church to a lesser
degree, arguing about who is worthy. Yet
what God said over and over again, throughout the entire Bible, is that
everyone is worthy of God’s love, and therefore our love. We are not the arbiters of who deserves love
and compassion. When we can admit that, then a harvest of righteousness is sown
in peace, for those who make peace. You see peace doesn’t just come to us. We have to create it.
It’s ok to have strong
opinions and be passionate. Strong
opinions and passion can be incredibly motivating, especially when it leads us
to positive action on behalf of another.
However, we could accomplish so much if we tried to emulate those
characteristics of God’s wisdom—peaceful, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy. That is what curates wisdom, not the act of
being right.
We can critique our
politicians (and many times we should) but given that they are never on the
receiving end of my sermons, I wonder if we could start closer to home. We can
start our pursuit of wisdom in our interactions at work, at school, in our
families, with our friends, with others in church. Those are places that also need peace, gentleness,
mercy and some flexibility. And because many of us are tired, weary, and have a
little decision fatigue—let’s remember what righteousness is. It’s living as though
God were the determiner of who was worth loving—not us. We do not get to make that decision. God
already has. God’s infinite wisdom has decided
that we all are worthy of love and compassion. When we can see that and feel
that—then we won’t need to worry as much about the words that are coming out of
the mouths of others or ourselves. All
are worthy.
[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/doers-of-the-word/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes
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