Sunday 20th September 2015

Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 1 verses 19-27.


The story is told about 2 elderly Pentecostal ladies, sitting in the front pew of church listening to a fiery preacher. When the preacher condemned the sin of stealing, these 2 ladies voiced their approval loudly, in best Pentecostal fashion: “Amen, brother!” When he condemned the sin of lust, they called out, “Preach it, Reverend!” And when the preacher condemned the sin of lying, they were up on their feet shouting, “You tell it like it is: Amen!” But when that preacher condemned the sin of gossip, the 2 went quiet. One turned to the other and said: “He’s quit preaching; now he’s meddling”.

I did think long and hard before telling that story; but concluded that it’s safe to do it – because of course nobody here would ever dream of gossiping, to or about anyone! So we can have a good laugh together at the outset; before this, non-fiery, preacher starts doing what you probably would, and likely will, consider meddling! But if that’s coming out of the blue for you, then I can only think that you weren’t paying attention during the reading: “EVERYONE should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”, James wrote to his 1^st-century readers. And if you think that you’ve got all 3 of those qualities taped already, then feel free to leave now …

We can be sure that James didn’t think his readers had any of this sorted, because he spent the last part of Chapter 1 detailing what he meant when he said, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”. Being the very practical person, and spiritual leader, that he was, James was quick to apply these principles in uncomfortably concrete ways. And there are plenty of commentator who hold that James spent the rest of his letter expanding on how to live faith in these 3 key areas: being quick to listen; slow to speak; and slow to become angry. Given the reality that human nature is essentially no different today to back then, there’s plenty that we can, and must, all learn from James’ advice, then.

I’ll leave it for my fellow preachers to pick up in future weeks if or how what James wrote after this relates to each piece of his Godly wisdom here. One thing that we do need to pick up today, and throughout the rest of this series, is the phrase that Gill used so well last week. (By the way, if you missed that, and/or the launch of this James series the week before, they are now posted on our website). Last week it was, “Don’t be deceived”; here verse 22 has a variation of that phrase, look: “Don’t deceive yourselves”. These words may not appear again in the rest of the letter, but James has given us a very useful, and wise, rule which all of us could do with remembering to run over ourselves; and regularly: don’t be deceived! Because we so often are; and, to be honest, most often it is us deceiving ourselves.

Last week we were warned not to be deceived about: security, wealth and status; or about temptation and sin; and not to be deceived about God either. This week we are specifically warned not to deceive ourselves about our need to put God’s Word into practical action. It may be more general than last week; but that ‘only’ makes it advice that’s more generally applicable, I’d say. And we might as well start by applying it to anger – because that is what James did, in verse 20. “Human anger, you see, doesn’t produce God’s justice!” is how Tom Wright translates it in his commentary. And how easy, not to mention convenient, is it to deceive ourselves about this uncomfortable truth?

I have heard, and seen, it done: “The Bible says ‘Be slow to become angry’; so I can get angry; and I should do, about this. Did you see/hear what s/he did: to me?! How dare they? They deserve everything that I’m going to say/do; so that they will never do it again”; etc! And the sheepish grins on some of your faces tell me that you’ve heard it before too. And you know as full-well as I do that this has got nothing to do with God’s justice; and everything to do with bruised egos. But the key question is, though, if that sheepish grin applies to what you have done when you’ve become angry yourself. There is no doubt that being slow to become angry is very wise and Godly advice; as too is being quick to listen; and slow to speak: do you live it, though?

I know: it is a very meddling question to ask; but there is good reason for this passage – and sermon – to be subtitled ‘Hearing and doing’! And the answer that we’d each give for ourselves is what matters. Either we live faith; or we don’t. As the wise James points out, it’s all too easy to have a quick glance in a mirror, and then walk away and forget what we’ve seen in there. Of course, very few of his readers would have had mirrors, 2 000 years ago. But whenever a reflection shows us something that needs attention, we each have a choice to make. To stick with the mirror analogy: are we going to go and wash our dirty face (i.e. address our anger problem); or will we deceive ourselves and pretend that we’ve not seen whatever it was?

We can’t afford to deceive ourselves about this; because our choices have real consequences. We can either choose life, James says; by actually doing what God’s Word says. Or we can choose the path that leads to death; by hurling out angry, hurtful, revengeful, vindictive words. And who here hasn’t been cut to the core by what someone else has chosen to say in an angry outburst; whether or not they really meant it? Once spoken, words can never be unsaid; and the one who has heard them will always deep down be wondering if … really. No, human anger does not produce God’s justice; all too often it does instead produce hurt, and those little deaths that wreck lives. How much better to be slow to anger – and speech – then?

At the risk of meddling even further I also need to say that of course we are at least as often the ones who are dishing out the words that lead to death. We - individually - need to take ownership of that for ourselves where it is so; to ask for God’s forgiveness; and for His help to make the changes that are necessary. I’m absolutely convinced that James would advise us to do it today; while the mirror is in front of us; but the only person who can make such a choice, and take the Godly-right action, is you. What we can each be sure of – thank God – is that Christians believe in a God who meets us 99.9% of the way there. ‘All’ it takes is making the decision; a choice to turn from, and turn to; and forgiveness and new life begins right there and then.

“My dear friends, do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice”, wrote James. And if you’re wondering (as I so hope you are) what that looks like, you could do far worse than taking time to pore over these verses in great detail, with a mirror to hand. And do be very practical about it, I’d suggest. But, moving on now, as we need to, to the part about being slow to speak, that applies much more widely than ‘just’ about what we do when we’re angry. It’s meant to be our general approach to life and people (even if some of us do have to preach at times!) Perhaps this is a bit crude, but it is very practical – and some might find it helpful. Someone once pointed out that God has given us 1 mouth, and 2 ears; and that we should use those in the right proportion. In my experience that’s a growth point for many of us!

Now you’ll probably be relieved to hear that I don’t plan to say too much specific about James’ advice on keeping a tight rein on the tongue. Before you get too excited, that’s not least because pretty much all of Chapter 3 covers that topic in full detail! For today, I ‘just’ want to pick up again on the wider principle. Again, it’s all about whether we are putting God’s word into practice; or if we’re not. In a sense checking the state of our tongue is another handy measure of that. A mouth that is foul in any way is not speaking God’s truth James wrote here. He used the word ‘religious’ which isn’t perhaps so helpful because of its connotations; but again our primary focus should be on whether we are deceiving ourselves; because it’s so easy to do that.

At the end of this chapter practical James once again has (very relevant) tests for Christians to apply to themselves; to see if we measure up to what we are claiming to be. And, again, here there are clear, practical, choices to be made: about what we do, and don’t do. There have been several of those so far already; and those don’t ever stop needing to be applied. So whilst “being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”, and keeping a tight rein on the tongue, Christians are also both to “keep ourselves from being polluted by the world; and to look after widows and orphans” (i.e. the most helpless in our society)! And let’s never forget that all this – and more – is what James demanded his readers live out amidst terrible persecution!

Even in the best of circumstances that many of us enjoy, we have clearly got lots of work to do: spiritually and practically; because they are one and the same. This sermon was never going to do it all for us; and it never could. It’s up to each person who claims faith to work that out for ourselves; in practical daily detail. There’s one great such opportunity at Harvest next week: a very practical chance to show God’s care for the nearby most helpless people, at Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers (http://www.sdcas.org.uk/). I hope that many people will take this up generously – and pay careful attention to what items they do, and don’t, need. I hope too that we will continue to respond prayerfully and practically to opportunities that arise through national and diocesan schemes, as well as charities helping with the ever-deepening European refugee and migrant crisis. That’s all part of us putting God’s Word into practice in the practical ways that we need to; and there are so, so many of those! We’re not to be deceived; or to deceive ourselves; but rather to do it; day in and day out; to God’s glory. So hear again the scale of the challenge, and the opportunity, as it’s presented by James here; and then resolve to meet it yourself: choice by choice; starting today. Tom Wright’s own translation of these verses read:

“So my dear brothers and sisters get this straight. Every person should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Human anger, you see, doesn’t produce God’s justice! So put away everything that is sordid, all that overflowing malice and humbly receive the word which has been planted within you and which has the power to rescue your lives.

But be people who do the word, not merely people who hear it and deceive themselves. Someone who hears the word but doesn’t do it, you see, is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. He notices himself, but then he goes away and quickly forgets what he looks like. But the person who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and goes on with it, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer who does the deed, such a person is blessed in their doing.

If anyone supposes that they are devout, and does not control their tongue, but rather deceives their heart – such a person’s devotion is futile. As far as God the father is concerned, pure unsullied devotion works like this: you should visit orphans and widows in their sorrow, and prevent the world leaving its dirty smudge on you.”

So now go and do it: Amen!

Sermon 13th September 2015

Today, one of our Assistant Ministers, Gill Tayleur, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 1: verses 9-18.

DON’T BE DECEIVED

“Don’t be deceived!” says James in that Bible passage I’ve just read. Don’t be deceived! Yet how easily we are deceived.

On April 1^st 1965, the BBC reported a trial of a new technology allowing the transmission of odour, of smell, over the airwaves, to all viewers through their televisions. Hundreds of people reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success!

On April 1^st 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that a unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47am that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation". Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked, among them a woman who reported that she and her 11 friends were "wafted from their chairs and orbited gently around the room”.

On April 1^st 1989, Radio 1 reported a plan for converting to "metric time." Under the new system there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days. Furthermore, seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays. 3000 people phoned Radio 1 saying they supported the idea, and 7000 phoned to oppose it.

And only a few weeks ago, the Daily Mirror reported this:

For 24 years Steve Feltham has assiduously watched the waters of Loch Ness convinced that it holds a family of prehistoric monsters. But now Steve, who is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records for the longest continuous monster hunting vigil of the loch, believes Nessie is no plesiosaur but a giant catfish first introduced by the Victorians.

Mr Feltham's "Nessie no more" verdict could be devastating to the Loch Ness Monster tourism industry, which is said to be worth around £25m a year to the area.

Don’t be deceived.

Yet we are deceived, not only on April Fool’s Day or about monsters, but often. We’re deceived by adverts that promise their product will make us happy, or healthy, or beautiful. We’re deceived by the lure of unrepayable loans, by clever scams, by the exaggerations and lies put on Facebook about how great someone’s life is. We’re deceived about the small things in life, and about the big.

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers!” says James in verse 16 of that passage I just read.

As Cameron said last week, James was probably the half-brother of Jesus and he was certainly one of the leaders of the early church in Jerusalem. He had stayed there when many believers fled the terrible persecution they faced as Christians. James’ letter was to those Christians scattered far and wide, and is full of very practical teaching about how to put faith in Jesus into action.

In this morning’s instalment, I’d like us to look at what James says in this part of his letter, and how it’s relevant to our lives today, in terms of that quote in the middle: “Don’t be deceived!”

Don’t be deceived – about 3 things James writes about in these verses.

First is don’t be deceived about security, wealth and status. Earning a lot of money, living in a big house, having expensive possessions, are the things our society values. They’re the things we’re encouraged to work for, to aim for, to live for. And people who do so are seen as successful, and important. The rich and famous, celebrities, that’s what we’re to aspire to isn’t it?

But in verses 9 to 11, James reminds his readers of a truth that Jesus taught too: God sees things differently from that. He sees riches and poverty differently. He sees pride and humility differently. Because God loves and values ALL people equally. He’s not impressed with riches and status. James – and Jesus - said the rich and proud will be humbled.

God loves humility and service, not power and pride. Riches can come and go, and a comfortable lifestyle can’t protect anyone from death; that’s coming to us all! …

So we’re not to put our security in our wealth or our job or status, but trust in God.

Those who are outwardly poor have often learned the lesson of trusting God, because they have to.

So we’re to value and serve ALL people. We’re to see things and people as God sees them, each one uniquely and deeply loved and valued by God. Humility, not pride, is what counts before God.

So what’s our attitude to our own, and others’ wealth and status? Including here in the church? Is it this upside down, topsy turvy attitude Jesus taught that’s so different from how society operates? Do we really value and appreciate those who do the less important-looking work? At our work, and here in the church? And in the church, do we want to do what might be seen as the dogsbody jobs ourselves, or are they beneath our pride or comfort?

St Saviour’s: Getting out the chairs for church on a Saturday evening, serving and washing up the coffee, arriving early to welcome others, putting the Bibles away, sweeping the floor after the chairs are cleared, keeping the church garden tidy? (And more!)

St Paul’s: Serving and washing up the coffee, hoovering the church or cleaning the brass? Helping with the lunch club? Decorating for Harvest Festival, or being a helper at Children’s Church or Youth Group? (And more!)

Are we willing to do those humble acts of service? Or are we too important, too busy doing more important things, things for ourselves?

Do we have a Godly attitude on security, wealth and status? Don’t be deceived!

Let’s think about that for a few moments …

Do we have a Godly attitude on security, wealth and status? Don’t be deceived!

There’s another way in which this applies to us today, very especially today. Today is Racial Justice Sunday, a day on which everyone is invited to think and pray and take action on issues of racial justice – and this year’s theme is “Hospitality and Sanctuary for All”. The theme was set as a very important issue even before the current refugee crisis escalated so gravely, and now of course it’s momentous.

Whatever our view on the best political response to the crisis, we can and must respond to the dreadful pictures and stories of men, women and children risking (and many losing) their lives to escape conflict, violence and persecution.

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury said a few days ago:

“As Christians we believe we are called to break down barriers, to welcome the stranger and love them as ourselves (Leviticus 19:34), and to seek the peace and justice of our God, in our world, today.

… With winter fast approaching and with the tragic civil war in Syria spiralling further out of control, we must all be aware that the situation could yet worsen significantly. I am encouraged by the positive role that churches, charities and international agencies are already playing, across Europe and in Syria and the surrounding areas, to meet basic humanitarian needs. These efforts may feel trivial in the face of the challenge, but if we all play our part this is a crisis that we can resolve.”

He went on to say. “I reaffirm our commitment to the principle of sanctuary for people who need our help and love. ….We cannot turn our backs on this crisis. We must respond with compassion.”

There’s a news release about the refugee crisis from the Bishop of Southwark at the back of church as well, do take one. The Church Times website this week has an article on how to respond and help in practical ways. It includes ideas on how to donate, protest, offer accommodation, to foster a refugee orphan, and of course to PRAY. We’ll be doing that a bit later in this service.

Let’s think about how we might each respond, for a few moments …

So, don’t be deceived about security wealth and status.

Then there’s

Don’t be deceived about temptation, sin and death, verses 12 to 15.

James describes the way it happens. First there’s temptation, an opportunity, a pull. Temptation resonates with something inside the individual, something already there, a desire. While many of our desires are good and Godly, there are many that are not, such as pride, greed, self pity, lust, vanity, anger, deceit, to name a few. The temptation hits the desire, and off we go! The person gives in, and there follows the thought word or action. And often it ends in damage or destruction of one sort or another, sometimes even death, physical or emotional or spiritual.

Temptation, desire, sin, death. Don’t be deceived about how this happens, says James. Temptation, desire, sin, death. Don’t be deceived about who’s to blame.

Oh but we love to be deceived about this, we even deceive ourselves!

Have you ever heard yourself apologising, saying I’m sorry, BUT…?!

It’s so easy to blame others and make excuses. We say things like:

It’s the other person’s fault. Or, I couldn’t help it. Or, everyone does it. Or it was just a mistake. Or nobody’s perfect. Or I was pressured into it, I had to, or I didn’t know it would end like this; I didn’t know it was wrong. Sometimes we might even lay the blame at God’s feet: God made me like this, I can’t help my temper! God led me into this situation, so it’s his fault. Or if he had only given me [something I want] then this would never have happened.

We want to avoid responsibility for our sin and failings, or to try and justify them, so that we can carry on without a twinge of conscience.

But James says you’re being deceived. God doesn’t tempt us, it’s the Devil who tempts us, and who deceives us into thinking it’s God; or that we’re not really responsible, or that our sin is acceptable.

CS Lewis’ book the Screwtape Letters, is correspondence between a senior devil and a junior one, with the senior’s advice on how to lead a new Christian astray. I quote the senior devil: “My only fear is, in attempting to hurry the patient, [that’s the new Christian], you awaken him to a sense of his REAL position. For you and I, who SEE that position as it REALLY is, must NEVER forget how totally different it ought to appear to him. He must not be allowed to even suspect that he is now, however slowly, heading away from Peace and the Truth.”

So don’t be deceived about temptation and our responsibility for sin. And don’t be deceived about the destructiveness of it either. Sin is NOT relatively harmless. It has consequences, deadly serious ones. Often sin has immediate and direct consequences, as we hurt others or let them down by our anger, our selfishness, greed or lies.

But even when we feel we have got away with something – we do, don’t we?! – it’s still destructive. Even when the damage is “only” to ourselves, it kills off a part of us inside that is good and relates to God, and it leads us further away from him. It’s a downward spiral.

And it also has eternal consequences, as there will be a judgement when we die or when Jesus returns, and God will call us to account… Make no mistake, sin is destructive.

So, James sets out how temptation, desire, sin and death really work, and he tells us not to be deceived, and to recognise our responsibility for ourselves.

So, let us think, now, how might I be being deceived about temptation and sin? What is my desire, that I give in when tempted? What is there in my life that I am fooled into thinking it’s not actually wrong? Or not serious? Or really not my fault? And what am I going to do about it? Let’s think about that for a few moments…

It’s so easy to deceive ourselves! Sometimes we need someone else to help us to see what’s happening, where we’re going wrong. Might we be open to talking through the temptations and desires in our life, with a trusted friend, to help remove our self deception and reveal the truth about what’s going on?  

Don’t be deceived! Don’t be deceived about security wealth and status. Don’t be deceived about temptation and sin.

And finally, don’t be deceived about God – verses 17 & 18.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.”

God, James says, is the great Father Giver of all good things. Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food, every note of lovely music we hear, every beautiful flower, every smile on the face of a friend, a child, or one who loves us. All these and so much more

are good gifts from God’s abundant generosity and love.

God’s goodness and love are permanent, unchanging, as he is. James says God is the

“Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”

The words James uses for changing and shifting are astronomical terms. They’re about the variation in the length of day and night, the apparent variation in the course of the sun, the phases of waxing and waning, the different brilliance at different times of the stars and planets. Variability is a characteristic of created things, but God the creator is unchanging. The Jewish morning prayer says, “Blessed be the Lord who hath formed the lights.” The lights change, but the God who created them never changes.

And neither does his word.  “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth” verse 18. God’s word isn’t just the true things we read in the Bible. It’s more than that. When God speaks, things happen, things change, WE change. God’s word is like medicine that goes deep inside us, healing our hurts and changing our desires and motivations, changing us. So that we are not deceived. So that we can live by the truth.

This morning then, will we hear James’ challenge to not be deceived, but instead to know and live by the truth. Let us turn to God, the great giver and Father of all. Let us see ourselves and the world as God does, and respond accordingly, and let us stand firm against temptation.

And now let’s pray, as we sit…

Sermon 6th September 2015

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches. The reading is from James 1: 1-8.

“Practical”. If you want my 1-word summary of the letter of James from all that I’ve read this week, that is definitely it. This is a very practical letter; from start to finish. So what better way could we begin a study of James than with these wonderfully practical suggestions? 1. If you’re ever choking on an ice cube, pour a cup of boiling water down your throat: the blockage will be instantly removed. 2. You only need 2 tools in life: WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use duct tape. 3. The most effective way to avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables is to get someone else to hold the vegetables. 4. If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem (though it may then be too late to fix that). And 5. The sure-fire way to guarantee that you won’t hit the snooze button and go back to sleep is to place a mouse trap on top of your alarm clock or mobile phone.

Now I very much hope it goes without saying that none of this advice comes from James’ letter – not even indirectly! But do be assured that between now and the end of November we will be offered more practical advice than we’ll know what to do with. That is, of course, a Good thing: by definition, any halfway-decent biblical teaching will always leave us with plenty to think about, and act on, long after we hear it. And that should be very especially true of this particular letter. James is the only New Testament example of what the Bible calls Wisdom literature. This is the result of literally decades of learning that has been not just hard-bought but thoroughly tested in the burning fires of reality; and it therefore offers us so much.

That leads neatly on into the necessary historical background stuff, then (which I will keep brief). I will say again, though, that this is a very important part of what needs doing each time we start a new Bible book or series. We must always know (as best we can, of course): who wrote it; for what purpose; into what circumstances; and what others have made of it through the centuries since. It’s not that God isn’t capable of saying something new and different through it today. Our task, joy, and challenge, is to interpret God’s Word afresh for our generation. But that always happens in the context of what God has already said and shown through it; so that is what we have to be fully aware of, as we listen, and learn in the present.

So: as ever, vast tomes have been written about this letter, after deep, scholarly research; but nobody knows much for very sure! And the most obvious answers are still the ones which are most likely to be right: that this letter really was written, as it claims in Chapter 1 verse 1, by a man called James. It is a fairly common New Testament name; but chances are it’s by James, the (half-) brother of Jesus. He’s not to be confused with either of the 2 James who were among Jesus’ 12 disciples. The Bible says that this James didn’t become a follower until after Jesus’ resurrection. He was in Jerusalem, presumably with Mary, when Jesus died. Having seen his brother die, he then saw him after he’d been raised to life. Well, that convinced James; and he soon became one of the leaders of the church that began in Jerusalem.

Now some of us may have an idyllic picture of Christian life in Jerusalem. It’s true that that’s where the church grew like wildfire – literally by thousands at a time – in the early days. But it wasn’t long before being a believer in that city was to risk the same fate that Christians do in IS-held territory today. The martyrdom of Stephen triggered mass persecution (led by Saul) that soon led to a Christian diaspora. James, and a few others, didn’t join it but rather stayed on to lead those who’d been left behind; and yes, unbelievably, to risk their own lives by telling others the good news about Jesus. But of course James remained just as concerned for the spiritual welfare of those who’d literally fled for their lives. And so he wrote to those ‘scattered among the nations’ as verse 1 puts it.

It’s only now that we’re ready to hear (and I mean properly hear) verse 2, then. The NIV is much more accurate than GNB when it says: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds”; and all the more staggering for it. Consider this pure joy?! Is that what we’d say to the millions of Syrians fleeing in fear of their lives? To people as they crowd onto inflatable dinghies to cross the Mediterranean? Or walk from Hungary to Germany? Or try to jump onto moving trains or lorries; or walk through the Channel Tunnel; etc? Consider this pure joy?! Well, James wrote that to the believers of his day who faced their own life-threatening equivalent. And he wrote as someone who had likely already spent 10+ years with the imminent prospect of his own death.

As Tom Wright is quick to point out in his ever-excellent ‘For Everyone’ commentary, this isn’t about telling people to go out and look for martyrdom, or trouble. It’s ‘just’ James telling his readers what they already knew all too well: that the Christian life is hard, dangerous, and very uncertain. Well, that’s how it was for them, at least; and fact is that those of us for whom it isn’t so are very much the exception rather than the rule. That’s true both historically speaking, and also in terms of the world of our own day – if we’ll but open our eyes and ears to see and hear it. So for James and for his First-Century readers, the big question, the big issue, was ‘How are we going to live for God in and with this reality?’

It’s also Tom Wright who highlights the ‘many kinds’ aspect of the trials that James wrote about. Nobody I know lives a trouble-free life, of course; the issues that we are facing ourselves may not often be life-threatening (though they are that for some); but they can be painful and difficult beyond words: physically; emotionally; spiritually and/or financially. Yes, there are times when our greatest need is ‘just’ to get over ourselves, as the saying goes. But that too is a practical faith-response of the sort that James was encouraging his readers to make in their own extreme circumstances. Simply put, the very practical challenge, to each and every person who calls themselves a Christian, is to stand firm in and for God; in whatever our circumstance may be; however difficult they might be.

The positive Godly outcome of this process, James wrote in verse 3 is that of perseverance. That is why, and how, we really can consider it joy to face trials of many kinds – because of the end result: of increased trust and faith in God; if we stand firm. And yes, James does mean that even if the trial ends in death – as it did for many believers then; as it does for many today. Now I hope it isn’t news to you that you too are going to die one day; in whatever way you will. At the very core of the Christian faith is the belief that death is not the end of the story. What we believe is that Jesus’ death on the cross defeated the last enemy: death itself. The life that begins with God in Jesus here continues after death.

This too is a practical outcome that James wrote to tell his readers to hold onto as they faced their own likely death. They, like us, needn’t ever doubt the facts. They, we are not to be like waves that are the product of random forces. We’re not moved about by any circumstances that we face – but rather are to hold onto God in and through all of them: persevering to death; and then beyond. And through it all – on both sides of the grave – runs that process of growing to maturity and completeness in Christ, so that we lack nothing – again as James puts it here, right at the start of his letter.

There is one thing that we may well lack, though, according to James: and that’s wisdom. That can be the first casualty of troubles: knowing what do to for the Godly-best when x happens. It doesn’t need to be lasting problem he assures us, though: ‘all’ we have to do is to ask; and God will give us what we need. We ‘just’ have to ask in a non-wave-like way; being sure; showing the trust that we have developed in God’s nature and promises along the way. And God will – as He does – generously and graciously give us that wisdom which we need, to face even the most dire, and deadly, of circumstances: in and for Him.

As I say, it’s very practical, and applicable, stuff: too much so for some people. The Reformer Martin Luther was famously unimpressed by James: “A right strawy epistle” was how he once described it. James is indeed quite unlike much of the rest of the New Testament. It was written as a piece of Wisdom literature, offering wisdom to people who desperately needed that in the most difficult circumstances. It was very likely among the first New Testament letters written, as early as 49 AD, perhaps; so there was no Paul-like writing pattern to follow. So instead of those great theological reflections about Jesus, James ‘just’ urged believers to get on and live their faith: right here; right now; in their desperate circumstances.

Over the next 3 month we’ll hear all 50+ direct commands that James issued about doing just that. They’re about: living faith; proving that we mean what we say; showing that we are who we claim to be: make a difference in: facing troubles; handling money; relating to people whether they’re rich or poor; judging others; being patient; and, above all, in what we say and how we say it. And all of that really should make a life-changing difference to us; in the present and in the future; whatever our circumstances. It should, of course, make a real, practical difference to us quite specifically as we face difficult circumstances. It may be that we are facing those ourselves; or that we’re facing them with others in mind as this world-wide humanitarian crisis evolves. There are very practical ways in which we can make a real difference in that today, so listen out for that (or visit Herne Hill Forum’s website: http://www.hernehill.org.uk/news/refugee-crisis-urgent-appeal). Many more such opportunities may well follow in this series; as we look to put into practice all that God wants to teach us – individually and corporately – through James. The question, as ever, then is: are you ready not ‘just’ to hear God’s Word but to live it; in very practical ways? Let’s pray …