Proper 20
After Pentecost • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Sermon:
Sermon:
I don’t know anyone who likes to be called dumb. And if you call someone dumb, it’s because you think they are. Sometimes, in order to avoid being called dumb, people will go to great lengths to demonstrate how smart they are. And of course, one of the ways they do this is to brag about what they know. I am reminded of a quote from Mark Twain, “Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
James has been writing to Christians. Christians who were under pressure to adopt the ideals and philosophies of the world in which they lived. Just like we who are here today face pressure to accept the values of this world. And one of the pressures we all face is ego. In the same way no one likes to be called dumb, neither does anyone like to be second. Everyone wants to be first.
And this desire to be first leads to the temptation to brag about accomplishments. One person says, “look what I have done.” And another says, “That’s nothing. Look what I did.” And this conversation can go back and forth. Each person making themselves sound better and better.
But James says to the church, “The one who is wise will show it.” In other words, the one who is wise won’t stand around and brag about their accomplishments. Instead, they will be involved in the work itself. One of my personal heroes was Mother Theresa. Now, I never met her, never talked to her, was never anywhere close to her, but in her life she demonstrated the heart of God as she ministered among the poor of India. After she passed away, a book about her life was published and I read as she expressed to the leaders of the church how she felt Christ calling her to leave the safety of the monastery to go work with the poor. With each of the letters she wrote, she asked the recipient one thing. Destroy it.
She wasn’t looking for fame or fortune. She wasn’t looking to be better than anybody else. She simply sought to do the work Christ had for her. But James is dealing with the struggle many of us have to want to be first, to be noticed, to be praised and acknowledged. And he tells Christ followers that this desire to be in charge, to be praised creates problems in the life of the church. He says, “where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”
Now compare this to the wisdom, James says, “that comes from heaven” it “is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” The wisdom that comes from heaven doesn’t seek to be first. It doesn’t seek to put others down. It doesn’t seek to offend or hurt someone by making them feel less than.
And James asks the readers, what is it that causes your fights and quarrels? And he answers his own question, “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” You see the problem is a heart problem. The difficulty is the struggle each of us has within us to be first. To be in charge. To be in control. But now that he identifies the problem, James gives the solution.
The answer is found in these last two verses. James says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
