Sermon 22nd November 2015

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, concludes our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 5 verses 13-20. 

I wonder whether you’ve heard the one about the man who walked in to see his GP with a banana stuck in one ear, a cucumber in the other ear and a carrot up his nose? Even if not, you won’t be too surprised to hear that he told the Doctor that he was feeling absolutely terrible. When he asked whatever could be the matter with him, his GP replied: “Well, first of all, you’re obviously not eating properly.”

Hopefully today, as we reach the end of this series from the letter of James, the same can’t be said metaphorically for anyone who has paid attention to his teaching. Our bananas, cucumbers and carrots really should be not just in the right places but also perfectly prepared for eating; and sharing! After all, this has been (as I said at the outset that it would be) a very practical series. It has taught – and challenged – us how to: live faith; prove that we mean what we say; are who we claim to be; to 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 what a journey all that has been!

Over the past 3 months we’ve heard the 50+ direct commands that James issued about doing all of that: in very practical, applicable daily detail. And hopefully we’ve also never lost sight of James’ challenge to his readers daily to live out their faith amidst literally life-threatening circumstances. At the start, and along the way too, we heard how James originally wrote to people who’d fled for their life from the persecution that he still faced himself in Jerusalem. And he was well aware of just what that could look like. He had seen Jesus, his own half-brother, nailed to a cross for what he’d taught and done; and then James had seen the glorious victory that God had won over death itself – which is what so changed his own life.

As we’ve just heard, James remained intensely practical to the very end of his letter – maybe even a little too much so in places today. “Confess your sins to each other” might be seen as rather overly practical by some – though that doesn’t mean that we can pretend it’s not there, of course! We will get to that (along with the rest of it), then, in at least summary form. And that goes back to something else which I said at the start: that, by definition, any halfway-decent biblical teaching will always leave people with plenty to think about, and act on, long after they hear it. That’s indeed been most especially true of this very practical letter. So of course the preaching team are hoping that our action in the new church year, which starts next week with Advent Sunday, will go on being shaped by all that we’ve learned since September. To put it in practical terms, how will we live faith; prove that we mean what we say; are who we claim to be; and 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?

James is the only New Testament example of what the Bible calls Wisdom literature, remember. And throughout this letter we have been consistently presented with the one key life-choice that we all have to make: over and over and over again daily. Will we live by God’s wisdom, as it’s so practically laid out throughout James? Do we, will we, take the path that leads deeper into the ‘soaring and swooping life of God’s grace’? Or will we rather ignore the inevitable reality of what I named as James-theory and go with worldly wisdom. Will we put self at our centre; and accept the negative spiritual consequences that do inevitably follow from doing so? That same set of choices is here for making in today’s passage too, in these latest practical ways that James persisted with right to the very end of his letter.

If you have perhaps missed some, or even all, of this amazing journey, then do visit our website. The sermons are all on there to learn from as much and as often as would be Godly- helpful. Each is only a starting point into passages that offer such depth and wisdom about the practicalities of living for God in any and all circumstances. They might not be set out in any obvious overarching pattern, because that’s not how James wrote. This ending is itself another sign of that fact, because James doesn’t finish as most other letters do. There is no neat conclusion, no rounding off, no personal greetings to specific readers. Instead there is an urgent command about what needs to be done practically in certain circumstances!

Again it’s Tom Wright who points out in his commentary that, while this might not be what we’d perhaps expect by way of an ending, that also fits with what has gone before. That’s more than about ‘just’ James’ content going in an unexpected direction – as it certainly seems to do here. It’s also to do with there being two significant brackets marking the starting and the ending of his letter. Of course they are both practical teachings: what else would we expect from James by now? Adrian picked the first part of it up last week, noting how James returned to the need for perseverance. That’s one very practical outworking of our trust in God; that we keep on going; in and through any and all circumstances; until God’s solution and/or help become clearly visible. James began his letter with a demand for endurance, in a setting of persecution; and it’s where ends too: encouraging his readers to show the perseverance that Job did in his troubles.

The second bracket could even be seen as one specific practical application of perseverance. In today’s final verses James crucially returns to encouraging his readers to pray. At the start he told them to ask God very specifically for wisdom if they lacked it; and to do so believing rather than doubting. Here, at the end, he told them to pray for each other in faith; and, as he’d done in other key places in his letter, he used an Old Testament example (Elijah) to encourage them. James’ advice here is very practical and specific, note: if you’re in trouble, pray; if someone’s sick, the elders are to pray; if you’ve sinned, pray for forgiveness; and spiritual healing will be as forthcoming as physical healing – in response to the faith of those who are doing the praying James wrote!

As ever, it’s not as straightforward or simplistic as that, of course. There are other passages in the Bible that offer different perspectives on this topic; and even then we can’t ever see God’s biggest, widest picture. But perseverance in, and prayer itself are without doubt two key James-themes; and, as he draws to end we are urged to live them out in any and all circumstances; in best practical James-like fashion. For those who perhaps want to think more about prayer, I’ll particularly point you to Tom Wright here. In his excellent For Everyone commentary he describes prayer something like this. It’s an act of standing with one foot in the present, and one foot in God’s future. Prayer is God’s way of inviting us to share in His work, of bringing His hope and healing and new life into the broken mess of where and how we are now. This isn’t a description that I’ve ever heard before; but I find it a very encouraging, and practical, one.

There is one feature of this letter that I don’t think any of the preachers has picked up. James is only 108 verses long, but no less than 14 times during them James addresses his “Brothers and sisters” (who are sometimes “Dear …”). Any statistician will say that using a phrase more than once every 8 verses probably makes it a significant feature! For James, faith was something that was clearly lived out communally, then. Yes absolutely it is about us as individuals taking responsibility for our own lives and choices: one day we will each stand alone before the throne of almighty God and have to account for those. But before then we are also responsible for, and accountable to, one another, James implies. In more than a few places in his letter, such as here, it’s far stronger than implied; and for very good practical reason. So we can’t miss James’ practical order on this topic in the last two verses of his letter: those who are responsible for bringing back people who wander from the truth are their brothers and sisters – i.e. us!

Now I know that many of us would shy well away from any thought of confessing our sin to one another; but it’s definitely one that we need to ponder hard. Of course it needs to be carefully and wisely done; but potentially it’s the best thing that we can do. Firstly, just admitting it to someone else can take away some of the power of whatever it is that we’re struggling with. Second, doing so also opens us up to receiving practical help from others where we need it. Third, and most important, someone else can then place one prayerful foot into God’s promised future, and bring some of that hope and new life into our own messy present – just as we can, in turn, then also do for them. So, as we come to the end of James, might this be one practical Godly action that you want to bring away with you from it? And yes, that is a serious question.

There is, of course, a near-endless list of possibilities for what we might bring away from James. Many of his 108 verses each have more than one such possibility in them. In my more optimistic moments I’m even hoping that lots of us have already taken at least some of James’ advice to heart, and are trying to turn it into practical daily action. And anyone who’d called themselves a Christian should be wanting to do that ever more and deeper; because that is what it means, and what it takes, for us to become more like Jesus. Again the hope for this series was, and is, that this would be the practical outcome of it; that, individually and together, we’d be asking what it looks like for us to live for God in the particular circumstances that we’re facing. And maybe recent events in Paris give a new sense of urgency about our doing so: those tragic events certainly have impacted the challenge of responding to the refugee crisis which was the bracket at the start of this series.

There are almost too many ways in which this series could be ended; but surely it has to be in the words of James himself. It could, and maybe should, be: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you”.

Or perhaps: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you”.

Then again, what about: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord”.

I could go on; and on – as I hope you can too: 108 verses’ worth! But for me there is one quote that stands out above all in terms of summing up what we have learned. James wrote: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” – in any, and all, circumstances: in the name of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: “Do what it says”. Amen.

Sermon 15th November 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 5 verses 1-12. 

Money and Trust

“Be patient then, my friends, until the Lord comes.[GNB] /  Be patient then , brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming [NIV]”  James 5:7

1.     ‘Yes, all his horses and all his men,’ Humpty Dumpty went on. ‘They’d pick me up again in a minute, they would! However, this conversation is going on a little too fast: let’s go back to the last remark but one.’ ‘I’m afraid I can’t quite remember it,’ Alice said very politely. ‘In that case we may start afresh,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘and it’s my turn to choose a subject –’ …  ‘So here’s a question for you. How old did you say you were?’ Alice made a short calculation, and said, ‘Seven y   ears and six months.’

‘Wrong!’ Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. ‘You never said a word like it.’ ‘I thought you meant “How old are you?”’ Alice explained. ‘If I’d meant that, I’d have said it,’ said Humpty Dumpty. Alice didn’t want to begin another argument, so she said nothing. ‘Seven years and six months!’ Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. ‘An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you’d asked my advice, I’d have said, “Leave off at seven” – but it’s too late now.’ ‘I never ask advice about growing,’ Alice said indignantly. ‘Too proud?’ the other inquired.

2.     Until Friday evening I was really struggling to find my way into today’s passage.  Whether I have done so yet, is for you to judge!  But why the problem?  I think in part it was the fact that the passage is really 3 passages - almost 3 separate sermons-worth.  An early idea was that I preach from within a sandwich-board that carried the themes of the two main section:  “The wages of sin …!” one side would have declared, reflecting the first sections declamations against risks of wealth;  while the other board would have taken up the theme of the second section and announced in bold letters:  “The Lord’s coming in near!”.  The plan faltered on two bases:  how to deal with the third sermon – the teaching against oaths?  And the absence of any large white-goods purchase, providing sufficient cardboard.

More worrying was the thought of preaching 3 sermons.  How to understand and then communicate these three chunks of life-teaching in a coherent manner - and then doesn’t this problem anyway reflect the whole problem with James’ letter:  isn’t it a series of unconnected lessons, theme-less (save perhaps by a loose mirroring of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount)?  Actually and while we are at it, it didn’t help that I did not want to study James anyway;  and that you lot have all reported that you have found the practical teaching really helpful!

3.     Then on Friday I realised the way in:  today is my birthday.  Another year.  It came to me watching an episode of Simon Shama’s “Face of Britain”.  Among the portraits he looked at were photographs taken by Charles Dodgson (who we know better as “Lewis Carroll”) of first the little girl, Alice, and then Alice as an 18 year-old .  Quoting the passage from Through the Looking-Glass quoted earlier, Shama suggested that the photographs were part of Dodgson’s attempts to capture forever the innocence and simplicity of childhood:  to prevent in Humpty Dumpty’s world, 7 becoming 7½:  or perhaps in Peter Pan’s, ever growing up.

4.     I have a lot of time for Peter Pan and Charles Dodgson.  Do you feel “grown up”?  I don’t.  Oddly this week contained two pre-birthday shocks that drove that very point home:  one child asking me to review their pension documents and another to look at photos of their allotment!  Surely not?

Growing-up;  maturing:  that’s the way in.  Not just to today’s passage but perhaps to James’ letter as a whole.

5.     If you flick back to chapter 1 (Gill’s sermon in the late-summer), in the scene-setter vv2-5 you will see (J B Phillips trans.):

 When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become [people] of mature character with the right sort of independence.

“People of mature character”:  maturing as believers was a concern for other NT writers - for Paul and for the writer of the letter to the Hebrew churches.  Paul speaks sternly to the Corinthian church (1 Cor 3:1ff), lamenting that the jealousy and squabbling among them (echoes of James?) meant he could feed them only “milk” as they not yet ready for the “meat” of his teaching.  And the same analogy is repeated in Hebrews (5) – when the writer also describes those who should be teachers, as still needing to be taught the ABC of their faith.  They cannot discriminate between good and bad for themselves and so are not ready for any understanding beyond repentance, forgiveness , the life to come and judgment.

6.     For James maturity follows from the way we treat life-experience and his letter could almost be read as a 1^st-century magazine quiz of “How mature is your faith?”.  And the questions he poses fall into the various sections we have studied over the last two months:

·       When you hear the Word of God, do you:           

A         just listen; or

B          look in the mirror of yourself but then forget what you saw; or

C          put it into practice? 

            [You know the right answer because Cameron told you.]

·       When you gather for worship, do you:

A         make a special fuss of those who fit your personal and cultural norm;  or

B          let those who are used that sort of job, do the menial stuff;  or

C          do you welcome all equally?  

            [You know the right answer because Ben told you.]

            And we could on week by week and then see what are respective As and Bs and Cs were and so how we rate on James’ “mature faith” scale:  the next scenarios would how our faith generates our actions;  then how it influences our self-control; and then lastly, the section that Adjoa started last week and really carries through into this week, which poses the question as whether our faith influences how we cope with living with the worldliness around us;  do we own the world’s values, do we criticise others, do we boast?  And then (at last!) to our passage today which opens with some observations on wealth and then teaches about the place of faithful patience (or “perseverance”).  It closes with advice on the giving of oaths (on which I will say nothing save to invite you to read Jesus similar words in the Sermon on the Mount – Matt 5:53).

7.     The section on wealth is not really aimed at the church – but contains comments aimed generally at the wealthy.  James has already spoken to the rich people in the church (see 1:10 – be glad to see your spiritual poverty and know that your ways will fall into decay;  and 2: 7 – isn’t it the rich who are bossy ones?).  That said, those of us who are rich and in the church may still hear what James has to say. 

I could don my imaginary sandwich board at this point and bang the lectern emphasising the wickedness of wealth.  Or the word s could as easily be read quietly and sadly – as statements of truth:  wealth is transitory;  wealth exploits;  it takes from those who have least;  wealth and injustice will have their own reward.

These words might almost set up a contrast with the next section:  here, my sandwich board declaring that “the Lord is coming soon” would just provide a backdrop:  James’ point is that mature faith produces patience waiting for the precious/valuable crop.  The faithful are long-term farmers, not short term looters.  And more than that, the faithful show “perseverance”, or “patient endurance”. 

8.     Possibly further revealing my immaturity, I confess that I have never really thought about perseverance or its place in our faith.  As the alternative translation (“patient endurance”) suggests it involves more than just sitting by the field waiting for the crop:  it engages also persistent, determined and repeated commitment, notwithstanding the tests and trails that come our way:  the farmer who goes out time after time to find the lost sheep.   If you are familiar with the story of Job you will know that his was an odd form of “patience”.  He struggled to understand why he was suffering  - he wanted to face God and learn the answer.  He never doubted God – his faith persevered – but within that compass he explored every crevice of his situation wanting to learn why he had come to the straits he was in.  And then he met God who asks:  “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation.  Tell me that.”  And Job’s questions are addressed;  his perseverance is rewarded.

Cameron reminded us of the trials that faced those who read James’ letter.  Not only he, but Paul (Rom 5), Peter (2 Peter 1) and the writer to the Hebrews (12) commend the virtue of perseverance as being an essential element of the character of a mature faith in Jesus.  Stickability;  the ability to ride out the challenges.

9.     In truth perseverance is an amazing virtue of humanity as a whole.  The people of Paris – and their multicultural, cosmopolitan lifestyle will survive the events of Friday night – just as has New York and London.  For most, the terror and the trauma will recede and what is important will resonate again in their lives.  And so it is all for most of us:  whatever faces us, we more than cope.  What is peculiar about Christian perseverance then is that what is hung onto – even when the testing comes just because of our faith -  is the faith in the one whom James describes as “the Lord, full of mercy and compassion”.

10.  Birthdays are a good time to be thankful.  Today I am thankful that I have had and continue to have the joy of having a family of mature Christians who show scores against James’ self-administered test would encourage him also.  Year after year, week by week, I learn of more tests of faith that you experience – and in which you persevere.  Thank you for providing me with so enviable a family within which to learn my faith.

Sermon 8th November 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh-Cunnell, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 4 verses 11-17.

Judging and Boasting

A preacher, a man of God, is blessed with healing hands. He heals people. His church is well known for it, but he is always struggling for money. Eventually a wealthy mother calls on him to come heal her ailing son and somewhere along the way having healed the son he starts to abuse his gift for money and loses his faith. He gains the wealth but in his anguish he lists the many horrors of this world causing him - in one moment to renounce his faith, and in the next to desperately  call on God to show his face - well that's the play I'm in at the moment - it's a comedy - no honestly - 

God is showing his face all the time in the preachers healing hands and yet it is the preacher who turns away for material gain.

Towards the end of last Sundays passage at verse 8 of chapter 4 James urges 

GN

8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

NIVJames 4:8

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

OR as the good old king James has it  Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you

I want to Begin with this assurance from verse 8

GN Come near to God and he will come near to you

That's what the preacher lost sight of

And Isn't that what we long for. Isn't that what we're aching for as we sit together on this Remembrance Sunday, as we hear again the soaring  call of the Last Post, as we reflect on loved ones who have died, as we hold in our hearts the losses sacrifices and sufferings caused by wars past and present and the legion of other struggles faced by humanity across Gods creation, aren't we all longing  for God to draw nigh and be alongside us Through it all?

Don't want we want to lay our burdens down, to clear the clouds that block the sunshine of his love?

Come near, come near he is waiting, James counsels

James is intensely concerned with the need for hearers and readers of his letter to remove all obstacles that block the faithful from drawing near to their Heavenly Father. 

As the end of verse 8 concludes  

GN Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites!

NIV 8  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

GET CLEAN  before God, move all obstacles clouding your progress in Christ towards the light of God

Paul visited James in Jerusalem soon after his conversion and again on his last stay in Jerusalem and perhaps he took a leaf out of James' book when he wrote to the Philippians

 Philippians 3:1Good News Translation (GNT)

3 In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so, 

NIV***

James  frequently repeats through  this letter, what one commentator (for the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) describes as

 the ever-besetting sin of his time and people, against which he had warned his readers

 - the ever besetting sin of what comes out of our mouths

 throughout Ch. 3 James really wants to focus our hearts and minds on this so that as Paul says we will be safer if he does so and also in

ch1 he writes at verse 26

26 Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself. 

There is the ever besetting obstacle

27 What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

There is the way to God's light

So whose hearts is James directing?

Friends, brothers and sisters James addresses his audience at James 4:11 

The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family

Cameron told us last week that

Somebody has very helpfully defined ‘the world’ as “Society as it organises itself apart from God”.

So it is the hearts of the family of believers in Christ crucified, resurrected and ascended, that James is concerned about.

Believers living in a world, organising itself apart from God. There lies the challenge and the tension for believers then and now 

Joke

So a young man goes into the barbers tells the Barber

 I'd like you to cut my hair like Justin Bieber

With that he sits down and promptly falls asleep in the chair. When he wakes up he looks in the mirror and shrieks with horror - he is completely bald.

What have you done?! he demands of the barber, I expected a cut like Justin Bieber.

The barber replies , "my shop my rules and if Justin Bieber comes in here he'll be bald too

The Barbers shop, the barbers rules

Gods world Gods rules

And if we want to be part of his world we'd do well to listen for his expectations not ours, that's what James wants us to focus on too, Gods expectations.

Last Sunday Cameron also spoke of James' theory, which states that: 

“For every action there is a spiritual consequence: positively; or negatively”. 

And previously Trevor spoke about there being 

“ two kinds of wisdom and two ways of going through life. There is a life that is based on the wisdom that comes from heaven – God’s wisdom. And there is wisdom that is ‘earthly’ – that has nothing to do with God’s wisdom. 

So as Adelphi, as believers there is a positive or a negative spiritual consequence to our actions

We can follow a life lived with Gods wisdom or  without Gods wisdom.

We can choose a life free to draw near to God, or a life blocked from drawing near.

How are we to wash our hands and purify our lives,

 if our tongues and our boasting and confidence in ourselves alone lead to negative spiritual consequences 

If they make us follow a path without Gods wisdom, 

which blocks us from drawing near to our God?

James says, we as believers are not to criticise of judge our fellows. We are under God's law, not its arbiter, we are creation not creator. We are not God - so zip it.

11 Do not criticise one another, my friends. If you criticise or judge another Christian, you criticise and judge the Law. If you judge the Law, then you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it. 12 God is the only lawgiver and judge. He alone can save and destroy. Who do you think you are, to judge someone else?

Who do we think we are to judge, to criticise, to slander.

The ultimate Slanderer, the Bible tells us is Satan

Revelation 12:10

NIV

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

‘Now have come the salvation and the power

    and the kingdom of our God,

    and the authority of his Messiah.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,

    who accuses them before our God day and night,

    has been hurled down.

We are not to  be in his camp

We are not to be 'the accuser of our brothers and sisters'

We are not to be blocked from drawing near to our God

I’m a millionaire,” the boastful parishioner testified, “and I attribute it all to the rich blessings of God in my life. I can still remember the turning point in my faith, like it was yesterday:

I had just earned my first dollar and I went to a church meeting that night. The speaker was a missionary who told about his work. I knew that I had only a dollar bill and had to either give it all to God’s work or nothing at all. So at that moment I decided to give all I had to God. I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today.”

The congregation applauded, and as he took his seat a little old lady rose and said, “I dare you to do it again!”

Boastfulness denies the strength in which we live, in God's strength.

It's easy to be seduced by success, to think that our gifts alone have got us where we are; like the preacher with healing hands who gains material success  but forgets who gave him his gift. In forgetting he comes to believe his own myth and loses sight of the creator God from whom all gifts flow.

The competitive world we live in - that definition from Cameron again - a

“Society which organises itself apart from God” , this competitive  world apart from God would have us believe in ourselves alone, we can get caught up in its values, in ourselves and lose sight of God.

It's easy to lose sight of God in my work, in acting and get lost in yourself, 

what's my billing? 

am I doing the press interviews? 

what dressing room am I in etc?

very competitive.

Perhaps your lives are competitive in a different way, who got promotion, whose garden looks best, has the nicest hairdo got invited to the bosses drinks, or the neighbours Christmas party, who got their child into which school, ....

We are of equal value in Gods eyes, gifted by Him and to be judged by him alone, we are not in control.

Why is it important that we don't judge don't boast?

James calls us to examine our lives, what are we doing with them?

Just as to a lesser degree we may ask the same question of each other

So a typical conversation in our house over the last few years may go something like

Parents:

You know those clothes that were washed and folded and left in your room, do you think they could make it into the wardrobe rather than than end up on the floordrobe...

To which the response would be

What is your life? 

 a phrase from the mouth of a teenager exasperated beyond outrage by the shortcomings of annoying  parents...

What is your life? 

what is your life? James asks. Literally in translation - of what nature is your life 

In this morning's passage in the NIV version

 James writes at v 14 

NIV 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes

While the Good News version has it

GN You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears.

We are like a puff of smoke,  a mist - here and gone, the future not ours to control.

It being November we may think about this season of mists and mellow fruitfulness as expressed by the poet John Keats. We may think of the way the mist seems to engulf everything and then disappears as the sun grows stronger. Or it being just past bonfire night we may think of glorious fireworks that burn brightly and then are gone in a puff of smoke.

On this Remembrance Sunday as we celebrate and mourn loved ones who have died, the thought shared by Cameron last Sunday from Eugene Peterson's book Run With the Horses,'rings powerfully true, when Peterson writes

we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait the less time we have for the soaring and swooping life of grace”. 

These little lifespans of ours, like smoke, like mist, here and gone. 

Are we drawing near to God in the soaring and swooping life of grace”. Our season is so short, our spark of life here and gone.

But that spark, the twinkling light of life that connects us forever to our loving creator, that spark means for all our littleness, for all the shortness of our season, we are ultimately created by and for and as part of our God. A spark from his divine light. We wrestle constantly with being in the world but not of the world. But didn't God create the world? Didn't  God so love the world that he sent his only begotten son? So that the world could return to its creator, to be born again, reformed, returned to Gods Kingdom.

That soaring and swooping life of grace, can only be ours, when we remove the ungodly obstacles that stop us coming near to God, when our spark responds to the call of God's great light.

I don't know how many of you know the animated film the Iron Giant? A huge, buildings-high robot appears on the edge of a town and becomes the dearest friend of a troubled little boy, in the end the robot helps save the town from destruction but sacrifices itself in the process and is blown to smithereens. All is ruin, but as the film closes, a spark starts flashing and blipping amongst the desolation and slowly we see shattered fragments from far and wide, respond to the call and painstakingly slowly, gravitate towards the blipping, flashing spark. The Iron Giant will reunite with itself!  Roll credits, cue cheering children and nose blowing mother. It's hope, it's rebirth. I wonder, as James' Adelphos brothers and sisters, believers, are we that flashing, blipping spark calling others back to unity in Christ? Or have we become part of the unresponsive desolation?

When we judge and criticise others, when we boast and glory in our own success, we are losing sight of the source of all we are, going against God, and becoming part of the desolation, when we should be part of the spark of regeneration

In chapter 1 at verse 18 James writes to the believers

GN 18 By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures.

NIV 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Through the death and resurrection of Christ a new order has come into being. A new relationship calling us back to God through Jesus. We are regenerated first fruits to be a beacon for others to draw near to God.

I was listening to Giles Fraser on the radio this week. He is priest in charge of St Mary's Church, Newington, and a broadcaster and writer. Recently he travelled with Bishop Christopher and a small group of Southwark  Christians to  take native language bibles to Kurdish Christians in a refugee camp in Calais, who were persecuted and tortured for their faith in Iraq Iran and Syria. One man's mouth was sewn together, another man saw all his brothers hung for converting to Christianity.

Their stories  made Giles Fraser remember a sermon he heard while he was canon at St. Paul's Cathedral ...

 The Preacher asked,  if Christianity were illegal would there be enough evidence in our lives to convict us? 

Just like the Kurdish Christians persecuted for their faith, so the Christians who heard from James would have faced life threatening challenges to their faith, as Christians all over the world still do today. The phrase 'martyrs for their faith' originally simply meant, witnesses for their faith - 

what is your life? 

What are our lives?

Are we witnesses? Beacons?

A diner calls a waiter over

taste the soup

What's the matter with it sir

Just taste the soup

Is it too spicy to bland

just taste the soup

Oh very well. Where's the spoon Sir?

Aaaah

 We can appear to be agreeing to do the right thing

No judging or criticising - check - there's the soup

Not boasting or no thinking I live my life under my own control and in my own strength - check - there's the soup

But actually acting out our faith under Gods rule, doing the right thing, - aaah where's the spoon?

There is nothing abstract about James, he concludes

GN

17 So then, if we do not do the good we know we should do, we are guilty of sin. 

NIV

17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Everything we need to do to be those Martyrs for Christ, witnesses to our faith

Everything we need to do to remove all obstacles from blocking our path to a life in the nearness of our Father

Everything we need to do to be those first fruit sparks of regeneration

Everything - James calls us in the name of Christ to do, during the brief smoky misty moment of our existence in his eternal love.

We are to be his beacon calling Gods children home and our first port of call is to get right with him, get clean wash our hands and purify our hearts.

It's Remembrance Sunday today, a day of remembering all our lost loved ones, lost in whatever circumstances. We think on the fragility of life, on its shortness and yet the enduring timelessness of God, the enduring timelessness of his love for us.

I'm going to light a sparkler now and as I do perhaps we can all think of that light that flows between us and our heavenly father, of the lives of those who have been loved and lost, and of the fact that however briefly our lives may sparkle we are to be that beacon and then live on eternally with God who made us.