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James 4:1-10; Philippians 4:1-9
September 10/11, 2011 • Portage First UMC
It is this generation’s “where were you when” moment. September 11, 2001. In response to a question on our church’s Facebook page this week, several of you shared your memories of where you were that day and many of the stories contained remarkably similar reactions. Shock, disbelief, offices vacated, fear of Chicago being hit, wanting to know more and more, not being able to turn off the TV. I remember being in my car, headed toward a pastor’s prayer meeting when I heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, and like a lot of you, at first I thought it was tragic pilot error. I had no idea something bigger was brewing. As the pastors were meeting, a lady in the church interrupted us to say another plane had hit the other tower, and soon we heard about the Pentagon and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. Our hearts were heavy. Our thoughts and conversation turned toward the next Sunday. It was Tuesday, but we knew instinctively that coming Sunday, we needed to be able to speak hope into a world suddenly turned upside down. I remember going home after the meeting and beginning to work on my sermon. The television was on the entire time as I listened to the stories and watched the videos over and over and over again. I remember staying up late that night, and even when I did finally turn off the television to go to bed, I felt like I was abandoning all those people who were, we thought, trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center.
I remember gathering for prayer on the courthouse square in Rensselaer that night. I remember gathering in our sanctuary the next night for more prayer. I remember going to pick Christopher up at kindergarten and just wanting to hold onto him. I remember trying to explain to him why the buildings burned. And most of all, I remember the surge of conflicting feelings that washed over me. Who had done this? Why had they done it? What would come next? Would we survive? How should we respond? Answers to some of those questions came in the days and weeks that followed. A response was formed as well, one that continues to go on even ten years later. And yet, we have to ask ourselves if the world is really a safer place today than it was then? Have all of our attempts to make ourselves secure resulted in actual security? When you look around, it seems like the world is more divided than ever. Religion vs. religion, husbands vs. wives, church against church, this person against that person. Certainly, these sorts of things didn’t start with 9/11, but it seems that since that day, we’ve become ever more aware of just how divided the world is, even how divided our own world is. Perhaps 9/11 just woke us up.
Of course, I don’t know that we really should be all that surprised. Jesus once told his followers that he came to divide the world between those who believe and those who do not (cf. Matthew 10:35). But the dividing lines today aren’t just drawn between followers of Jesus and others. Oftentimes, as we talked about last week, even those who follow Jesus have a hard time getting along. It wasn’t any different in the first century. In the church that centered around Jerusalem, there was a leader named James who was, in fact, the half-brother of Jesus (Acts 12:17). But he didn’t always believe in Jesus. I’d imagine it’s a hard thing to believe that your brother, who you used to share a room with, is the long-awaited Messiah or Savior. In fact, at one point, James agrees with his mother and brothers that Jesus is “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21). Like brothers do, they were bound to have argued and fought amongst themselves, and I can’t help but wonder if he didn’t remember those childhood arguments when he writes to the church, because it sounds like he’s addressing children in this chapter. James writes, “Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves (4:1-2, The Message Bible, pg. 2206). In other words, he tells them. “You’re acting like children. It’s time to grow up.”
You’ve undoubtedly watched children play together. They’re in a room filled with toys, but they all seem to zero in on one particular toy. It is the toy that MUST be played with, and soon the race is on. One child grabs it and another demands the first one hand it over. “I got it first! It’s my toy!” And soon the weeping and wailing begins. A huge fit is not far behind. “I want to play with it!” So we try to reason and we calmly ask, “Can’t you share the toy?” No! “How about if you play with it for a while and then take turns?” No! “It’s mine and I’m going to keep it!” And the crying gets louder until you’ve had enough and you finally take the toy away so no one can play with it. We want what the other person has. That’s what James says. Wars and quarreling come from wanting our own way and not caring who gets hurt as we try to get it. At a very basic level, that’s the root of every conflict, from the interpersonal level to the international level, from the argument between friends to the horrific events of days like 9/11. We want what we want, and attitudes of pride and envy propel us to do whatever it takes until we get it. This is not something new. It was envy that caused Cain to kill Abel. The very first siblings in the very first family on earth were victims of this kind of strife (Genesis 4:5). It was envy that caused the nation of Israel to reject God and demand a human king so they could be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:6-7). One of the early church fathers described our condition this way: “When a man has bought a large enough field and sees that his neighbor’s is larger still, he wants to increase his own so as to make his house greater” (Bray, ACCS: Vol. XI, pg. 45). We want more, we want what we want, and we’re not going to be content until we have exactly what we want, right now, even if we have to take it from someone else. That happens in many places: families, workplaces, between nations, and in churches.
So we take small disputes and disagreements and make large arguments out of them, sometimes even to the point of breaking relationships. James saw that happening in his church, and so he asked the believers there, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” (4:1). The words he uses to describe what’s happening in his church were normally used to describe national warfare, which means that whatever antagonism is going on in the church is not something hidden or beneath the surface. It’s beginning to affect the life of the whole church, the community of faith. He goes on to answer his own question, saying that the root of all of this is the “desires” of the people involved. The word for “desire” is the root word of our English “hedonism,” which describes a life completely devoted to nothing but pleasure, a life that seeks “good feelings” over everything else (Burdick, “James,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12, pg. 192). James says the church was out of focus. They had forgotten who they were. They had forgotten their purpose as the church. They had forgotten the basics.
No matter how old we are or how good we get at whatever we do, we have to remember the basics in any area of life. Remember back in 1998 when Mark McGwire broke the record for the most home runs hit in a single season? He held that record until 2001, when Barry Bonds claimed the title with 73 home runs. Prior to McGwire, the record had been held by Roger Maris, who had hit 61 home runs during the 1961 season; that record wasn’t officially acknowledged, by the way, until thirty years later. Before that, the original record holder had been Babe Ruth, who had hit 60 home runs during the 1927 baseball season (Britannica 2003). But McGwire went on to hit 70 home runs during that 1998 season. However, the most important one, the 62nd, the one that broke Maris’ record, almost didn’t count. McGwire got so excited about the hit he forgot to touch first base. His first base coach literally had to grab him and remind him to touch the base as he went by. Had he not done that, of course, McGwire would have been called “out” and the home run would not have counted because he neglected the basics (Coyner, Prairie Wisdom, pgs. 85-86). It’s easy to do. It’s easy to lose focus, to forget what is important.
James tells his congregation, “You’ve forgotten the basics. It’s not this world that’s most important. It’s falling in love with God that’s most important. And when you remember that, these disputes and arguments will seem so less important, because they come from your desire to be first, to have everything, to be noticed.” So how do they get back in touch with the basics? James says there are three things God’s people must do when they are faced with these kinds of clashes. In verse 7, he says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” And then in verse 10, he says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Let’s take a look at these three things, and see how they can lead us down the road toward healing and forgiveness.
First, James says, “submit yourselves to God.” The word James uses is a military word. It means to put yourself in right ranking, to arrange the troops under the command of a leader. Submitting ourselves to God means voluntarily giving in to God’s leadership, while still assuming responsibility for our part in the mission. Think about those who are serving our country in places like Iraq and Afghanistan—and in many other dangerous places around the world today, much of which is a result of what happened ten years ago today. Whatever you might think about those places and those wars, think about what would happen if the chain of command wasn’t precise. What would happen if every soldier simply did whatever they wanted to do? What if a private said, “Yes, I know the General said to do this, but I’d rather do something else, something that draws attention to me.” The unit would fall apart, and the mission’s goals would never be accomplished. In any setting, whether it’s the military or a corporation or a sports team or a church committee, there has to be an understanding of each person’s role in order for anything to be accomplished. If everyone’s trying to be in charge, nothing gets done. James says in the spiritual life, we have to understand our place in relationship to God. We are under God’s authority. God is in charge. The symbol the church has for that is baptism. In the words we say during every baptism, there is the underlying assumption that we are placing ourselves under the authority of Jesus Christ, that we are God’s child and no longer our own, we are submitting ourselves to God. In our Methodist tradition, there is a prayer along those lines we usually use around New Year’s, a prayer that says, “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt…” Do we really understand that every one of us is under God’s command? And do we realize that means every one of us is equal to everyone else in God’s eyes? If so, why do we fight for position so much? Why do we worry so much whether or not we get our way in every issue? James says God is in charge. We can trust him to work through us and others to accomplish the mission. “Submit yourselves to God,” James writes. Understand your position in relationship to God.
As we do that, James says, we will be able to “resist the devil” (4:7). Sometimes we hear people say, “the devil made me do it.” We really should do away with that phrase. The devil doesn’t make us do anything, any more than God makes us do anything. We are responsible. God gives us choice, free will. There are many situations in our lives where we have the choice to give grace or give greater grief. A while back, I found myself at a crossroads in an argument with a particular person. We had gone back and forth and gotten nowhere, and I could come up with a hundred reasons why I was right and how I could prove that to the other person. But every time I thought about one of those approaches, it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t see a good end. I couldn’t see a place where I could extend grace to the other person if all I was concerned about was proving I was right. I finally found the wisdom to just not say anything, to let things run their course. Sometimes the devil’s temptations aren’t big and flashy. Sometimes it’s more subtle, more pride-filled, more me-focused. Sometimes it’s just the desire to beat the other person down, to prove our “right-ness.” “Resist the devil,” James says. Resist those impulses that will not bring grace to the situation. The temptation is always to remove grace rather than give it. That’s what we’re called to resist.
The word “resist” means to be able to withstand an attack, to oppose an enemy, to not allow the devil to have his way. A spiritual director of an earlier generation wrote, “We must be not be surprised that we are tempted. We are placed here to be proved by temptations. Everything is temptation to us. Crosses irritate our pride and prosperity flatters it; our life is a continual warfare, but Jesus Christ combats with us. We must let temptations, like a tempest, beat upon our heads, and still move on” (qtd. in Dunnam, The Workbook on Lessons from the Saints, pg. 139). James said our fights and quarrels begin when we give into the temptation to place our desires ahead of someone else’s, especially if we’ve not taken time to align our desires with God’s desires. When we have all found our proper place under God, we will be able to resist the devil together, to stand against the powers of evil that threaten to undo us. In fact, James says, when we do that, the devil will flee from us.
Submit to God; resist the devil. Then James gives a series of instructions that culminate in verse 10. Coming near to God, purifying your hearts and all the rest are really summed up in the command to “humble yourselves before the Lord” (4:10). This is different than submitting ourselves. Submission means we place ourselves under God’s authority so we can stand against the evil of the world. When we humble ourselves, we stop looking for the attention of others. We realize that it’s not about us, it’s about God, or as the psalmist put it, “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness” (Psalm 115:1). Humbling ourselves means we give the credit and glory back to God, not seeking glory for ourselves, for God is the one who has really done anything that’s worth doing. Paul puts it this way: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3). This will take much prayer; James knew that. According to church tradition, James was known as “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses that had built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer (Peterson, The Message Bible, pg. 2201). To humble ourselves, we pray. Remember what Paul told the Philippians: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer undergirds everything we do in resolving conflict. We instinctively know that; that’s why people so quickly turned to prayer ten years ago. But it’s hard, because when we pray, we are submitting ourselves to God: “Hallowed be thy name.” When we pray, we’re resisting the devil: “Deliver us from evil.” And when we pray, we’re humbling ourselves before God: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
Prayer is not a natural thing; if someone tells you it’s easy, they’re probably not doing it right! It’s hard to focus, hard to shut everything else out in order to connect with God. We learn prayer not by reading books about it, or taking a class about it, but by doing it. We learn by watching others, asking them to pray with and for us. That’s the sort of thing Paul saw in his young friend Timothy, and he reminded him of it in one of his letters: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5). Come to God in prayer as you learned from those who have gone before you. The goal is to have a heart that prays continuously (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:17), because that kind of heart that seeks God’s glory and not our own.
Humble yourself before the Lord, James says, because then we begin to sort out which desires are ours and which desires are God’s. God’s desires are worth going all out for; our desires often are not. The whole point of prayer is to align our will with God’s will. So when a church is a praying church, and when a Christian is a praying Christian, when the will of each person is being conformed and shaped to God’s will, when we’re together seeking God’s glory rather than our own, then these fights and quarrels fall away. They’ll no longer seem so important because we’ll be focusing on what really matters. Paul told the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).
As those other things are left behind, we’ll find our hearts begin to be molded into what they need to be so that we can pursue forgiveness toward the other person. There have been times in my life when I believe I can’t forgive that other person for what they said about me or did to me. The reality isn’t that I can’t, but that I don’t want to. When I submit myself to God, when I resist the devil and humble myself before God, I begin to realize that I shouldn’t be one who is forgiven, either. I’ve done some awful things. And yet the Bible says that those who trust in and begin to follow Jesus find everything they have ever done wrong is, in fact, forgiven. How can I withhold from someone else the same thing God has given me? The most helpful responses after 9/11 ten years ago were not the calls for revenge or the angry words that were hurled by Christians and non-Christians alike. The most helpful responses were those who offered words of grace, word of hope for peace and reconciliation. And while we’re most likely still working on forgiveness, and will be for some time, the hope and prayer is that God’s people will somehow respond in a way that always gives more grace.
To those who give themselves first and foremost to God’s calling and mission, who set aside their pride and envy and selfishness, James says that’s what God gives: “more grace” (4:6). Can you imagine getting more grace than you know what to do with? Can you envision a church, or a world where pride in God’s work takes precedence over pride in our own work? That’s the effect of grace given and grace received, of forgiveness given and forgiveness received. God calls us to lay aside our own agendas so we can show and share grace with others. So who needs grace from you? Who do you need grace from? Maybe this evening/morning, you’re thinking that you’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. Then we still extend grace, because that’s exactly what Jesus does. To those who nailed him to the cross, he offered grace and the hope of forgiveness—even for those who did him the most harm. In what ways do you need to pray this coming week for those who have hurt you, for those whom you are arguing with, for those you disagree with? Can you continue to pray for blessings for those persons, even if you never find complete reconciliation? Do you want to be a healing presence in your community, in your home, in your church, in your world? Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, humble yourself before God, and James says God will lift you up by giving you all the more grace…grace we can then give to others.
Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within!
Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!
