Choose Life

Good morning. Well, as Ian has mentioned, today we begin with the Epistle of James, that most favorite of letters. It's a favorite to so many—apparently not for Martin Luther—but I'm sure that won't... famously Martin Luther called it, as Ian mentioned, a "right strawy epistle". I don't actually know what he means by that, but there you go. But many, many people love it.

Why do they love it? Well, I often think it's because it's so straightforward and practical. Well, maybe because it's quite challenging in places as well. Sometimes it's not all that easy to work out what James is talking about; you've got to work fairly hard at it. It is also a letter where it's hard to work out James's narrative thread, and so for that reason, I would suggest to you it's a little bit like a photo album of pictures. You know what it's like to open a photo album and you see this picture and you see this picture, and sometimes it's obvious why the pictures are arranged in a certain way, and other times it's hard to see how they're linked together. And that's a little bit like the letter of James as well. Or perhaps you might call it a bit like a scrapbook, and there are things that are stuck into it, but it's a little bit difficult sometimes to see what holds them together—a little bit like a New Testament version of Proverbs, perhaps.

I personally think James' letter is a little bit like the car trip to Saturday sport. You know what that's like if you've ever experienced that, perhaps as a parent. What happens is for Saturday sport, usually what you do, because you have to travel large distances with your children, is you carpool with other parents. So what you inevitably find is you've got a carload of very stray and disparate groups of children. The only connecting thing is the fact that they're in the same sporting team and the parent who is driving. And the parent who is driving is often dispensing advice as they go, like this: "George, you should let Tim borrow your hoop jersey for his game because you're the same size," and, "Annie bought the green jersey," "Aaron, just because you didn't get invited to Amy's party doesn't mean you shouldn't disinvite her to yours," "Steph, when you get home you need to start on your geography assignment," and, "All of you, please don't wait until the game is about to start when you decide you need to go to the toilet," and, "Will, can you please this week not disagree with the referee? No referee has ever changed their decision because a 13-year-old disagreed with them".

So, if I could put it reverently, it can be a bit like being buckled in the backseat of a Toyota Land Cruiser and you're just getting arrows of wisdom. That is a little bit like James. There are 108 verses in the letter to James and over half of them are imperatives: "do this, don't do this"—over half. And James seems to jump around from topic to topic handing out these arrows of wisdom.

So, a few things just to begin, just very briefly: Who was James? I'm going to go with the half-brother of Jesus. There's a couple of different views on who it could have been; that is who I think it is. I find the arguments that it's the half-brother of Jesus compelling. Second, when was it written? I'm going to go with the mid-40s AD, which means it is possibly the earliest New Testament document we have. It predates Paul's writings; it certainly predates the Gospels. Thirdly, there seems to be quite a bit of crossover with Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and the letter of James. A lot of the material in James you can find very clearly in Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount—not the same words, but the same ideas. And so therefore, over these weeks as we study the book of James, I have selected the second reading from the Sermon on the Mount to try and show you how these ideas match up together. And today we begin with chapter 1, verses 1 to 18. This is God's word that was read to you, and it's God's word that we're going to study for these next few minutes.

So let me begin by asking you: Can you think of something you began but you never finished? I started learning piano several times in my life; I never quite finished. In fact, I'm proudly from a family of non-finishers. To put it positively, we multitask; we start a number of things and we chip away at all of them, but we don't necessarily get finished. One of my sons proudly told his Year 11 English teacher he'd never actually finished a novel. Our house was the only one in the street that was half-painted. Our lawns were half-mown. We started to build an aviary in the backyard; it stood half-finished for 12 years and then we sold the house, so it never really got finished. Does it matter if you don't finish things? Well, probably not. But if you've begun with Jesus, you need to finish. That's James' point. Not everyone begins with Christ. There are people, of course, who never actually ever begin, whether it's excuses or just they're distracted, or whether it's pride, or whether they just wish you would just stay away from them. If you've never begun with Christ, God would be saying to you: "Begin." Take Him as your Lord and Savior. Begin the friendship, walk with Him, get started—that would be what God would be saying to you.

But the big point of James' letter in particular is: if you've begun, make sure you finish. James knows that the Christian life is tough, but it's also possible. And the toughness makes it possible. See what he says there in verse two: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything". So you see what he's saying here? He's saying you're going to face tough times—he calls them trials and testing—but those trials and testing, that will lead to perseverance, and perseverance will make you mature and complete.

So it's kind of like this is God's strength and conditioning program—trials and testing. I have studied exercise physiology, and so I can tell you on good authority that physical training hurts. It challenges your body. As it challenges your body, your body adapts. As your body adapts, it becomes stronger. One of my friends who was a trainer is often happy to say, "It's meant to be difficult; it's meant to be challenging". Thank you! It's good to know—I'm glad to know it's meant to be challenging because it actually is challenging. I'm glad to know it needs to be difficult because it is difficult. And the interesting thing is, the part where you really see the change is where it's difficult. See, if you're doing it and it's easy, it's probably not making any difference. It's the part where it is really difficult that brings the change. It's that last repetition that you can only just do where you get the maximum change; it's where it's challenging. And it's the same with your life. You see, as you seek to follow Jesus, you'll face trials and challenges, and if you face them, you'll get stronger. And God wants you to be stronger. God does not want you to be puny and weak in faith; He wants you to have muscle on the inside—Schwarzeneggers of the soul, perhaps.

A few years ago, we had a house, and the veranda on the house needed to be rebuilt. You couldn't walk on it without risk of it falling through. And the joists that held the veranda up had rotted. And so for a new joist, the carpenters who did the job took a piece of seasoned hardwood. Now, why a piece of seasoned hardwood? If it's seasoned, it means it's been properly weathered, and because it's faced the weather, you know it won't warp or bend or crack. It's been done; the weather has proved it, so it's stable and it's solid. And that is what James is saying here. That is God's goal for you: to be stable, to be strong, to be solid, to be mature. And one of the words that gets used a lot today is that the person would be resilient—to be spiritually resilient. To keep going as a believer when things are against you, just for the love of Christ, is simply excellent.

And how's God going to do that? He's going to do it by trials and testing; that's what these verses are saying. Now, the problem here is that when this happens, maybe you won't see the point. So it's not just undergoing the trials, but it's making a proper assessment of them. We often talk today about reflecting on our experiences. Sometimes, as practitioners, it's having a reflective practice on what's going on. James uses the words in verse two: "Consider." "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds," because it's possible you might go through the trials but not consider it to be that way. So he's asking them to reflect on it, to consider it. And the problem is that you might just not see it. So therefore, you might need a bit of wisdom to see this. It might not be obvious. But, says James, ask God and He'll give you the wisdom to understand it.

See, that's what he's saying there in verse five: "If any of you lacks wisdom, they should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to them". But when they ask, they must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. So, in other words, ask God for the wisdom to understand what you are going through, and God, who gives generously, will do that. He delights to do it; He delights to give wisdom. Don't doubt His generosity in this regard.

You see, when you read these verses, do you get the impression that God is sort of stingy? You know, He's sort of up there saying, "The guy is always asking things of me, always asking". No, no, God is not like that. He pours out wisdom generously. My sister can remember the time, she tells the story, of when our mother, who at the time was a widow, heard a knock at the door and told my sister to be quiet because the man at the door was there to collect the rent and she didn't have the rent. And people often think God's a little bit like that—that He wants something from us, He's there to take something from us. But maybe He wants to give you something. Perhaps He wants to give you the wisdom to understand the trials you're going through. And the trials can be many, can't they? Some people face really terrible trials. It might be the grief of losing something, something of yourself, or losing someone. Sometimes they can seem very, very deep trials. Other times they can seem like "man flu"—you know, just so trivial that we complain about. And sometimes it can seem just too much. How would you read these verses if you were in palliative care? How would you read these verses if you're in Sudan? But we need the trials to get stronger, and we need the wisdom to make sense of them.

Jump down to verse 12: "Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him". Here he's talking about your value system. He changes the metaphor slightly; he says the goal is not just to persevere and be strong, but the goal is the crown of life which comes ahead. He's talking here about the value system. God's more interested in your holiness than your happiness. He's more interested in your faithfulness than in your financial success. And he says there's a crown up ahead. Who receives the crown? It's the one who perseveres.

And what if you think about that for a moment, about your value system? Is it an eternal value system or is it a temporal value system? If I asked you for a moment to just think as you go through your day, and if I asked you to put a green sticker (mentally, a green sticker) on the eternal things and a red sticker on the temporal things, I wonder what you'd come up with? So you might have jumped in the car to come here this morning, and it might be a very, very nice car, but it's a red sticker because it's temporal. And you might have traveled through the beautiful city of Sydney, but it gets a red sticker because it's temporal. And you might look at the trees in the harbor, but they get a red sticker because they are temporal as well, aren't they? But then you come across a person, and you'd have to put a green sticker on the person because they're eternal. And the word of encouragement that you give to the person—that's eternal; it's of eternal value, is it not? And James is asking us to assess things according to that particular value system. See, if everything you value is tied up with three score years and 10, or maybe four score years and 10, the idea that there's a crown up ahead will seem ridiculous to you. So what he's saying here is: resolve to think in a heavenward way. When you're struggling under trial, remember the goal—there is a goal ahead, the crown.

Lastly, verse 17: Do not forget God's goodness. So he says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows". Remember God's goodness. He gives good and perfect gifts. God does not change. There is a lovely prayer in the Anglican evening prayer service, and it goes a little bit like this; it talks about: "We who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world may rest on your eternal changelessness". You know, there is a great comfort, faced with the things that change in this world that God is eternally changeless. He talks about the Father of the heavenly light; it's hard for us not to think perhaps he's talking about the stars. The stars—they seem fixed in the sky, don't they? I mean, we navigate by the stars; they seem to be constant. But you know, we know the whole universe is moving. The stars are expanding as the universe is expanding; even though it seems to be stable, it's actually moving. But you know, God is changeless. You can count on His faithfulness. You can count on the fact that He's good. You can count on His steadfast love.

The most stable things we see in the universe shift—that's the truth—but not God. He made the stars; He alone is absolutely stable. He's not variably good; He is immovably good. He does not have bad days, and He'll be good even when life gets messy. You already know that, don't you? You all know that you may in the future be bereaved—you may have been bereaved. You may in the future lose your job—you may have lost your job. You may in the future get sick—you may have been sick. Life gets messy. I remember interviewing a woman for a job, and she said, "You know, in your 20s everything kind of works, but when you get to your 30s and maybe a bit after that, life starts to get messy". Isn't that true? And you know, life will either make you better or it will make you bitter. Either better or bitter. But even if you are feeling crushed, don't forget God's goodness. And one of the ways to do that is to go back to the cross—what Jesus has done for you in His dying for you—and go back to that again and again and again. If God's shown you His goodness in not sparing His only Son, will He not be good for you today?

What is church for? Why do you think we come here on a Sunday? It's a good question; it's not just got one answer, but one of the answers is that here at church, you'll find a community of people who are going to help your life deepen. As we come together, as we meet around God's word—you might do that here, you might do it in a home group, you may do it one-on-one—as we come together, as we sing God's praises, as we do life together, as we pray to Him, so our life deepens. And we need the troubles and we need the trials, but we also need to make sense of them, and doing that together is sometimes very helpful. And we can support each other in that, can't we?

Some years ago, I was in a Bible study group with a group of Year 9 boys. They were boarders, and they used to come around to my house on a Wednesday night for Bible study. And after Bible study, we would often pray, and the prayers would go something like this: "Lord, please help Mitch to go good in his exams on Friday," "Lord, please help Bryson to play well in rugby next Saturday". And you know, sometimes I wonder whether my prayers are all that much better than that. But if you know someone going through a trial, you could pray, and if you yourself are going through a trial, you could pray like this: "Heavenly Father, in your mercy deliver your servant from this trial, but mostly we ask that these trials will bring resilience, perseverance, maturity. Please give them the wisdom to see the value of what is happening to them." And we pray this: that they will come through this experience loving You more and more. Could you ask a kind and generous God for that sort of right attitude? Thanks.

‍