What Do You Expect?

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What Do You Expect? A sermon preached on January 3, 2016, for the Perinton Community Church, Tim Alexander

Today we begin our winter’s walk through the book of James. Today is an introduction. 1.1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James defies quick description. Most of us know James for its most famous phrase: “Faith without works is dead.” We tend to remember James for its phrases. There’s a reason for this. James is unlike any other book in the New Testament, but it is like some books in the Old Testament. Which books? The Wisdom books, like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. In the New Testament, James is a Book of Wisdom. But James defies description for another reason. There’s nothing specifically about the “gospel” in the book of James. Only mentions Jesus twice. Other New Testament writers spend more time on these kind of questions: “Who is Jesus?” “How is salvation experienced?” James addresses these questions: “How is saving faith recognized?” “How do I live … saved?” James assumes we are followers of Christ. James assumes we are following Christ in a community of fellow believers. Often, we assume we already know what it means to follow Christ and follow Him in the context of a believing community. We assume we already know these things. And we don’t.

Ran across a news story from 15 years ago. Membership in the Church of Scotland dropped 22 percent between 1994 and 2002. Daniel Hawthorn, pastor of Belhelvie Church in Aberdeenshire, took an unusual approach. He sent a

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letter to the 600 members of the church, of whom less than a third – less than 200 – regularly attend, and less than that number actually volunteer their time or give their money. Pastor Hawthorn, reminded members of their confession of faith, which says, members are “bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services." Pastor Hawthorn’s letter asked all members to consider their membership vows. He wrote if they are unwilling to give of their time and resources, attend their gathered worship, read their Bibles, pray, and bear witness to their faith that they should decide whether or not they wish to remain members. One of the 160 members who left immediately was quoted: "Surely this goes against everything the church stands for." Worship, prayer, Bible, sacrifice and service, witness: “Surely this goes against everything the church stands for.” The Book of James is a Book of living the gospel life. James is a sermon of Gospel Wisdom.

James was the brother of Jesus. James was the primary leader of the Jerusalem church? Does he bring these things up? No, he does not. His only point of self-reference is that he is a servant – actually, a slave – of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who are the 12 Tribes of the Dispersion?   

Back in Isaiah, God promised to “recover the remnant that remains of his people.” In Jeremiah God promised to “gather [His remnant] from the farthest parts of the earth.” In Ezekiel God said he would gather His people from among the nations among which they have gone.

“12 Tribes of the Dispersion” is a kind of shorthand for the idea that God has a special and chosen people for Himself scattered among the nations. 1 Peter uses the phrase this way: To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bythinia. So James is preaching a sermon to the church throughout the world. What he says applies just as much to us in 2016 as it applied to them then.

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“Greetings.” What comes next?  

“[God] wants you to live in abundance. He wants to give you the desires of your heart.” “You will often receive preferential treatment simply because your Father is the King of kings, and His glory and honor spill over onto you.”

Is that what comes next in your Bible? In my Bible the next words are, “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” Not, “if” you meet trials. “When” you meet trials. You can no more avoid trials in a Christian life than you can avoid sand when you walk on a beach. “Trials” are part of the Christian life. Notice, James says, “When you meet trials.” There are only two other times this word is used. When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan he set the stage by describing the man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and “he fell” among robbers. “He fell” among robbers. He certainly wasn’t looking for robbers. He wasn’t seeking them out. But “he fell” among robbers. Same word for when we “meet” trials. We aren’t looking for trials. We aren’t seeking trials. But they’re certainly out there and we will “fall” into them. Second time the word is used in Acts 27, when the Apostle Paul suffers shipwreck. There the word is used this way: “But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.” I’m sure the captain of that ship wasn’t aiming for the reef. I’m sure he was doing everything he could to avoid anything like the disaster of striking a reef. But it happened. There was a storm and he struck the reef. Again, the same word for “meeting” trials. It is wise to so order our lives that we seek to avoid trials. But storms happen in our lives. And sometimes, in the midst of those storms, we strike a reef. And I labor on this word for two reasons: 

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First, when you go through a trial – and you will – you ought not to imagine the immediate cause of the trial is because you are weak, that your faith is weak; that the experience in your life of a trial is an indication that you are displeasing to God or that you are not trying to live a faithful life. Second, when you go through a trial – and you will – you ought not to believe, “God has abandoned me. God doesn’t care. God is not powerful. God is weak. God is mean. My mother died. My wife left me. My son has cancer. If God were truly God then these things would not happen to me.”

Really? Have you considered another view? Have you considered that we live in a fallen world?

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Christians are a special people. They are not a protected species.

Last summer Polly and I went riding on a trail going south from Watkins Glen. It was a glorious day and it was a beautiful trail. But not too long on the trail we noticed it was always a steady incline. It went on. We would see a clearing and we would think, “Here it is. We’ll level out. We’ll start going downhill and get a rest. It never happened. Almost five miles. We turned around. You ask James, “Does the Christian path wind up hill all the way?” James would answer, “Yes, to the very end. It is still beautiful. Still lovely. But yes, uphill, all the way to the end.”

James says trials “of various kinds.” What is meant by the word, “trials”? The word for trials – peirasmos – is the same word used in verse 12 for “trials” BUT it is also the same word used in verse 13 for temptation. Obviously, we are dealing with two different meanings attached to the same word.  

One meaning is an outward trial or process of testing. The other meaning is an inner enticement to sin.

In 1 Timothy 6.9, Paul warns those who desire to be rich fall into a temptation – a peirasmos – a snare, an inner enticement to sin; what Paul calls many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. In 1 Corinthians 10.13, Paul warns that no temptation – no peirasmos – has overtaken you that is not common to man, God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted – again, will not let you be ‘peirasmo-thied’ – beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape. I give you these examples for a purpose. It is the context that allows us to make a distinction between a “trial” and a “temptation.” For example, in Luke 4, Jesus is led by the Spirit to be tempted – to undergo a peirasmos – by the devil. The 40 days of solitude, of fasting, of aloneness; certainly these forty days in extremity were a trial. But they were also, and just as much, a temptation. And God did provide a way of escape for Jesus. But the way of escape was reliance upon Scripture. It was enduring the trial. It was standing fast and trusting God and not yielding. That was the way of escape for Jesus.

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James wants the church to live out her faith in the crucible of real life. The crucible of real life holds trials of hardships: accidents and tragic deaths and poverty and sicknesses and crises and persecutions. But the crucible of real life also holds the trials of prosperity: wealth, knowledge, skill and status. How many times have we seen it? A person who claims Christ is overwhelmed with a real and devastating hardship: “My wife became debilitated with early onset Alzheimer’s; my husband suffered a stroke; my business was bought out and new management threw me under the bus; my precious little one grew up and sank into paranoid schizophrenia and I don’t even know him anymore and it breaks my heart.” This is the crucible of real life and do not for one moment imagine that such hardships are not, also, and at the same time, also an enticement to sin and forsake God. But on the other hand, how many times have we seen it? We watch how that Godly young family without three nickels to rub together; in their relative poverty they held fast to a firm faith. And then prosperity came their way and their life took a turn – materially – for the better. And before too long the children had lost their sweet disposition, and the husband and wife were carping at one another, and they traded up the social scale from one set of friends to another set of better friends and their sense of morality morphed from a set of values based in holiness and loyalty to set of values based in expediency and pragmatism. This, too, is the crucible of real life and do not for one moment imagine that the trials of prosperity are not every bit as much an enticement to sin and to forsake God. That is what is meant, in our text, by the phrase, “when you meet trials of various kinds.” Literally, “trials of many colors, many shapes, many contours.” Listen, this is a word from God that must be applied personally, intimately. What is an enormous trial for me might be only a passing moment of slight discomfort for you. It might test you enormously to be left out a conversation and because you were left out of the conversation you’ll ruminate on what you took as a personal slight for days and weeks. I might not even know a conversation took place and I might not even care that it did. A business trip might be an occasion for you to do well, make important connections and see new sights. For another person that same trip may well be minefield of a hundred different temptations. “Trials of many colors, many shapes, many contours.” And that leads us, in our introduction to James this morning, to our application. There are two imperatives, two commands, in these four verses.  

The first command is, “Count it all joy” The second command is, “Let steadfastness have its full effect.”

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Both of these imperatives are counter-intuitive. Both of these commands are learned responses. They are not innate reflexes. Our reflexive response to trial is not to respond with “joy.” Our reflexive response to pain is to make the pain stop. Following Christ does not mean just learning how to tough it out. We Christians are to see the world in a certain way. The goal of our life is not self-actualization. It is not to find maximum pleasure. The goal of the Christian life is not a pain-free, stress-free life. The goal of the Christian life is Christ-like maturity, Christ-like endurance. And, loved ones, by God’s own purpose and design, this does not happen without trial. Paul stood on trial for his life but he told King Agrippa in Acts 26, “I consider myself fortunate that I going to make defense before you.” Paul “considers” himself fortunate for his opportunity. Same word our word in James, “count it all joy” In the famous passage in Philippians 3 where Paul was tallying up his phenomenal heritage as a Jew, but then he says, “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for Christ. “Indeed,” Paul says, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.” That Paul’s world view so shifted that all of his life was calibrated by Christ: this did not happen overnight and it did not happen without passing through many trials and snares.

But it is the second imperative, the second command, that I find most fascinating. Think of how the blacksmith heats and pounds, heats and pounds, heats and pounds. Centuries of experience, now backed up by modern discoveries, will tell us: the metal, and the tool or the weapon that the metal makes are stronger and finer and will hold their edge longer, and all because of the heating and the pounding, the heating and the pounding. The idea of “letting” steadfastness have its full effect means “letting” the heating and the pounding of life’s trials have their full effect. Notice, James said, “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” Moses, under the sovereign purposes of God, spent 40 years in the desert tending sheep before God used him to lead His people out of Egypt.    

David, the man after God’s own heart, lived for years unjustly hunted by wicked Saul. Elijah was fed by ravens. Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern. Paul, after the early rush of his conversion, spent 14 years in the desert coming to terms with Jesus as Messiah and Lord before he became the missionary to the Gentiles.

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I love this quote from John R. W. Stott: The reality to which God calls us is consistent living for Christ. He answers the cry of our hearts that we might be less fluctuating in our loyalty, less erratic in our conduct. His answer is this: the trials of life are God’s testings. They may come from outside, through circumstances or people, or they may be the inner promptings of our sinful natures. But they are God’s designed way forward. It is only by meeting and passing its tests that faith grows into strong constancy. Loved ones, as regarding our souls, listen to me. We have much more the fear from our avoidance of trial and from our spiritual complacency, so easily fallen into in our country of plenty, where, comparatively we suffer little, we are blessed with much and Christianity itself is often sold as a tool and a means to happy and stress free life where the skies are not cloudy all day: for our souls we have much more to fear from failing to let life’s trials have their full effect so that, through our trials we become proven vessels of God’s glory. This is the pastoral burden of James’ sermon in a book. Reframing the expectations of God’s people. The goal is a life satisfied with God: “perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.”

So, as we close and move towards the Lord’s Supper, I turn our thoughts again to idea of pursuing this life in community. And I’ll close with a letter written by woman to her pastor. Judith had an alcoholic husband and a drug-addicted son. One Sunday, when she was about forty years old at the time, she entered the church. She had never been to church before. She knew nothing about church …. She was well read in poetry and politics and psychology, and knew a great deal of art and artists. But she had never read the Bible …. Something, though, caught her attention when she entered, and she continued to come. In a few months she became a Christian. Everything was new: Scriptures, worship, prayer, baptism, Eucharist—church! … "Where have I been all my life?” Dear Pastor: Among my artist friends I feel so defensive about my life—I mean about going to church. They have no idea of what I am doing and act bewildered. So I try to be unobtrusive about it. But as my church life takes on more and more importance—it is essential now to my survival—it is hard to shield it from my friends. I feel protective of it, not wanting it to be dismissed or minimized or trivialized. It is like I am trying to protect it from profanation or sacrilege. But it is strong. It is increasingly difficult to keep it quiet. It is not as if I am ashamed or embarrassed—I just don't want it belittled. A long-time secular friend, and a superb artist, just the other day was appalled:

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"What is this I hear about you going to church?" Another found out that I was going on a threeweek mission trip to Haiti and was incredulous: "You, Judith, you going to Haiti with a church group! What has gotten into you?" I don't feel strong enough to defend my actions. My friends would accept me far more readily if they found that I was in some bizarre cult involving exotic and strange activities like black magic or experiments with levitation. But going to church branded me with a terrible ordinariness. But that is what endears it to me… this façade of ordinariness. When you pull back the veil of ordinariness, you find the most extraordinary life behind it. “

Come to the extra-ordinary, ordinary-ness of the Table.

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Note for the one who reads this sermon: I am glad to confess reliance on numerous sources, including commentaries, language tools, blog posts & web searches, other sermons; a raft of influences beyond myself. Below is a list of some of the sources but I will not footnote each instance of their use. I am a pastor who preaches sermons and not a scholar attempting an original scholarly work. I make no claim of original scholarship. Nor am I writing a sermon to be read. I write for the ear, not for the eye.

Works used The Message of James, J. A. Motyer, The Bible Speaks Today James, Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary The Letter of James, Douglas J. Moo, The Pillars of New Testament Commentary James, John MacArthur, The Commentary New Testament James, Dan G. McArthy, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament James, Craig L. Blomberg, Mariam J. Kamell, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament A Theology of James: Wisdom for God's People, Christopher W. Morgan, Explorations in Biblical Theology Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Kittel English Standard Version of the Bible.