A Difficult Path to Walk

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

September 23, 2012

A Difficult Path to Walk

James 4:1-3

James clearly was not happy with his

brothers and sisters in Christ.

He speaks to them like an exasperated parent:

“Don’t you see?...

Don’t you get it? …

Why do I have to explain this to you?

Isn’t it obvious?”

Listen to the passage again,

this time from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”:

“Where do you think all these

appalling wars and quarrels come from?

Do you think they just happen?

Think again.

They come about because you want your own way,

and fight for it deep inside yourselves.

You lust for what you don’t have

and are willing to kill to get it.

You want what isn’t yours

and will risk violence to get your hands on it.

You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you?

And why not?

Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to.

You’re spoiled children,

each wanting your own way.”

These are harsh, powerful, biting words,

made even more powerful by the one who was speaking them.

James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem

in those formative, foundational years

shortly after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord.

James was also the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ;

yes, the real brother.

The gospels make a number of clear references

to Joseph and Mary’s other children,

Jesus’ real brothers and sisters.

(e.g., Mark 6:3)

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection

James chose not to follow

the peripatetic pattern of Peter and Paul,

traveling as they did throughout the region

spreading the gospel.

Rather, he stayed put in Jerusalem.

His letter to other Christians

is a powerful exhortation

to the new life Jesus calls us to,

the life we’ve been calling the “Beatitude Life”.

His letter is filled with wisdom,

which is no surprise

since it is a letter that calls us to a life of wisdom,

wisdom grounded in faith.

                 

“Be doers of the word,

and not merely hearers,” James says to us.

“Curb your tongue for it can stain the whole body.”

“Do not speak evil against one another.”

These sound like the teachings of a wise man,

a faithful man,

one who listened carefully when his brother spoke.

But in the verses we heard from our lesson

he seems to lose his temper, barking at his listeners:

“You are spoiled children,

each wanting your own way.”

“You covet something and cannot obtain it;

so you engage in disputes and conflicts.”

What is at the root of most disagreements,

whether they are in the church,

in our homes,

or in the halls of government?

One person or group wants things one way,

while another person or group wants things another way.

Neither side will budge;

both sides dig in their heels.

Each side is convinced they are right,

the other side wrong.

Quarrels, arguments,

fighting are the inevitable result.

But doesn’t Jesus teach us to work for peace,

for reconciliation?

Doesn’t Jesus teach us to put the needs of others first,

to serve and not be served?

But oh, how difficult that is!

That’s almost like giving in.

As one writer puts it,

“In a society that is centered on self-gratification,

often at the expense of others,

words like ‘compromise,’

‘reconciliation,’

and ‘shared interests’

sound alien and counter-cultural.”

Don’t we try to teach our children

not to want their own way all the time?

It is certainly something we try to teach

in our Early Learning Center programs.

We want children to learn to share,

to learn to work cooperatively with others,

that they cannot expect to get their own way all the time.

Every teacher teaches every child,

“No, you cannot swing on the swing for all of playtime

if others also want the swing –

it doesn’t matter whether you don’t like slides,

the teeter-totter,

or the other playstations.

You have to learn to share.

You have to learn to think of others.”                                             

What is the term we use for the child

who refuses to cooperate,

refuses to share,

who has a tantrum when he doesn’t get his own way?

It is the same word James used two thousand years ago

to refer to his quarrelsome brothers and sisters:

“spoiled”.

                                   

We teach these lessons to our children,

but then as we get older

we seem to unlearn them.

New lessons replace the old:

look out for number one,

beat others,

get your own way,

be first,

win at all costs.

But the Christian life you and I are called to,

the life James’ brother Jesus calls us to:

isn’t it built on sharing, on community

on looking out for others,

on looking after others?

James teaches us:

“Show by your good life

that your works are done with

gentleness born of wisdom.

The wisdom from above is pure, peaceable,

gentle,

willing to yield,

full of mercy and good fruits,

without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”

(James 3:13)

This is the life we are called to,

a life grounded in divine wisdom

that teaches us not to cause quarrels,

but to work for reconciliation.

But as we build our lives on material success,

on affluence, on acquisition,

on looking out for number one,

it is easy to lose sight of the Beatitude life.

Envy and cravings for things we want

take over and control us.  

The Reverend William Sloane Coffin

puts things in perspective

 with his wonderfully simple question:

 “Why should we want all things to enjoy life,

when we have been given life to enjoy all things?”

There is no question

that our Lord calls us to a difficult path to walk,

a path that often seems counter-cultural.

It requires at times “upside down thinking,”

to use Barbara Brown Taylor’s term,

for it is a life that requires humility on our part,

a character trait we don’t embrace easily.

The wisdom of James guides us, though:

“Submit yourself, therefore to God…

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

…Humble yourself before the Lord.”

(James 4:7ff)

“These conflicts and disputes among you,

where do they come from”

James asks the people of Jerusalem.

James ask the same question of us, too,

for the words of scripture are directed at us.

The answer we want to provide is always the same:

“The conflicts and disputes

are caused by those other people,

the ones who refuse to get along with us.

They are the ones who are causing all the trouble.”

But if we are honest with James,

honest with ourselves,

and honest with God

then we’ll admit:

we are the cause of the conflicts and disputes,

for in our stubbornness we have forgotten our call

to be peacemakers,

to humility,

to work for reconciliation as we build God’s Kingdom.

A few years back I made this suggestion:

The next time you have an argument with someone,

get in the car and drive to the nearest store.

Go inside and buy a package of popsicles

and then sit down with your adversary

and eat your popsicles together.

After about ten minutes, compare your tongues

and see whose is more raspberry red,

or orangy orange,

or purpley purple.

Laugh at each other,

laugh at yourselves.

Do that and watch your differences melt away.

Do that, and you’ll be back on the path

our Lord calls us to,

the path of peace that leads us to the Kingdom.

The path that leads to that day,

that place, as improbable as it sounds, where,

“The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.”

AMEN