Holding the Tension

Based on Job 38:1-7

You have heard this story before. A famous person, a superstar athlete, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, gets pulled over by the police for some moving violation. As the officer explains what the driver did wrong and starts writing up a ticket the driver says, “Hey, don’t you know who I am?” They say that with the implication that the law doesn’t really apply to them, or they deserve a break. It’s a power move to avoid being held accountable for their actions. I doubt if such a move works that often. But it doesn’t hurt to try I suppose.

I thought about these situations when a person with power tries to avoid answering for their actions when reading God’s response to Job’s long and anguished demand to be heard. Job wants God to answer for Godself, to be held accountable for the unjust suffering that Job has endured. As I read God’s response, I could almost hear God basically saying to Job, “Don’t you know who I am!?” God doesn’t try to justify what happened to Job. Instead, God goes on about how powerful and full of understanding God is in comparison to Job. God doesn’t deserve to be held accountable by anyone, especially Job. Who does Job think he is? Doesn’t he know who God is? At least, that’s an impression I got when reading through the passage we have before us today.

Then, look at how God’s response starts, when God says, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” In other words, God tells Job, “You don’t know what you are talking about.” It reminds me of what Job said to his wife after she said the only two sentences she gets in the whole book. She said, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job responds by saying, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak.” In other words, “You don’t know what you are talking about.” This time it’s Job who is being called a fool. Turnabout is fair play I suppose.

But let’s look closer at God’s response. As we pay attention to the questions God asks, how God frames God’s response, we may see that God’s intent was not to humiliate Job or make some power move to avoid being held accountable. As I see it, what God is attempting to do is to help Job get a bigger picture of who God is. God is stressing the truth that God relates intimately to all creation. You may remember last week, Job was feeling abandoned by everyone. His three friends were no help. They didn’t understand or sympathize, but accused Job of hiding something. Surely he was being punished for something. His friends were not consolers, but accusers. He was calling out to God but there was no response. He was alone in his suffering and misery. He was wondering, “God, where are you?” Well, God finally responds. And in these questions that God peppers Job with, God asks, “Job, where were you? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

I’m not going to re-read the questions God asks. We only heard a few verses of chapter 38. If you go back and look at the whole chapter, and on through chapter 39, you will see how God’s response to Job delves into great detail about parts of creation, and how creation works, implying that God is behind it all and caring for it all, from preventing the ocean from overwhelming the dry land to feeding the birds. It was God who laid the foundation of the earth. It was God who determined how big the foundation would be. It was God who sunk the bases of the foundation into whatever is underneath the earth. Remember, we are going off the belief held in those days that the earth was a flat table. It is God that tells the clouds to rain. It is God that causes lightning bolts to fly. It is God who puts wisdom into the mind. It is God that provides food for lions and ravens.

Through all these rhetorical questions, God is making the point over and over that God intimately knows every aspect of creation. God had a hand in its making. God is present and active in every part of creation. When Job was asking his question, “Where are you, God?” God’s response is, “Everywhere!” But God isn’t just everywhere, observing everything. God is intimately engaged in everything that happens in creation, even when we don’t sense God’s presence or see God’s activity. Just because we don’t sense God’s presence doesn’t mean God isn’t there. And God is influencing every situation. God is not a passive observer but an active participant in the ongoing processes of creation throughout the entire world, indeed, the whole cosmos. This is not a power trip, of God saying, “Don’t you know who I am!?” Instead, this is a detailed account from God of how intimately engaged God is with every aspect of the creation, even to the detail of measuring the foundation, opening the clouds so rain comes down, and making sure baby ravens are fed. 

But there is something unsatisfying about God’s response to Job. Job was wondering where God was because he wanted God to answer the question of “why.” Job wanted to know from God, “Why am I suffering like this? What did I do to deserve this? Why are you doing this to me, God?” In God’s response, God does not answer Job’s “why” questions. In fact, God does what Jesus often did when people asked him a question. He responded by asking them a question. So annoying! What’s with the questions, just give me the answer! Here, God doesn’t answer Job’s questions. God does not justify God’s actions that contributed to Job’s intense suffering. God doesn’t say, “The reason why you are suffering so much is because I wanted to show Satan how pious and holy you are. At least I didn’t allow Satan to kill you.” God does not share with Job the conversation God and Satan had. The reason for Job’s suffering remains a mystery for Job, an unanswered question.

But God does make it clear that God is not only intimately present to all of creation, but also provides for creation, actively engaged in all the processes of creation, from the making of worlds to the feeding of birds. Nothing is too big or too small for God’s intimate attention. And that includes Job. God knows intimately what Job has experienced. God has sustained Job all this time that Job was railing against God and crying out in lament. God made space and gave Job the capacity to express his anger and despair. God heard every word. And God kept giving Job the breath and the voice and the brainpower he needed to keep speaking those words of anger and despair toward God. God enabled Job to cry out to God. God never made Job shut up. God never took away Job’s voice. And that is grace.

Job’s lament is justifiable. The indescribable loss and suffering he had to endure is beyond our experience, and for that we can be grateful. Gratitude is what God is trying to remind Job of as God offers the long-awaited response. When considering the vastness of God’s creative work, and how God is present and active in all of it, even in our own lives, is something to be grateful for. Sometimes, life is simply brutal. Although not at the same level as Job, we experience times of devastating loss. We are confronted with a terrible illness that sends us to the hospital, and perhaps even prompts us to consider the real possibility of our own death. There are times in our personal life, our family, and in our community and nation, where lament is called for. Our whole nation entered into a time of lament after the attacks on 9/11. But in our collective grief over all that was lost that September day, not only the loss of life but the loss of our sense of security, there was also much that prompted gratitude. People lined up to give blood. Outpourings of support for the emergency workers in New York City gave them a bit of relief. We saw so much of the best of our common humanity in the days and months after. God was in the midst of all of that, prompting, influencing, making possible, all the individual acts of kindness, support, and healing. What we experienced then, Job was being encouraged to do by God, which was to hold together the tension of lament and gratitude; naming the hurt, crying out with sorrow, even rage, but also being grateful: for community, for life, for the rising of the sun and the calming grace of a full moon, the brilliant show of a lightening filled sky, the sparrows flitting around the bird feeder, the bees getting heavy with pollen from the sunflowers, all made possible by God’s hand. The holding together of lament and gratitude: there is wisdom in that.

Rather than brush Job off as a foolish man, God not only responds to Job but responds in a way that helps Job gain understanding and wisdom about God and how God relates intimately with all of creation, tending and caring for every bit of it, even in times of great loss. God is not absent. God is intimately present. That’s what God is telling Job, without answering Job’s question of “why.” When it came to answering Job’s question, “Why did I have to suffer for no good reason?” God does not answer the question. The mystery of why bad things happen to good people, of why God allows evil and suffering to happen, remains an unsolved mystery. The ancient mystery of theodicy, if God is all powerful and all loving, then why is there evil, is an unsolved mystery in the book of Job. God shifts the focus away from “why” questions and instead focuses on God’s intimate knowledge, loving care, and constant presence in all of creation. God shifts the focus away from the question of “why” and instead moves us to wonder, awe, gratitude, and praise.

How does Job respond to God’s response? That’s for next week’s sermon. What is your response? What do you lament today? What are you grateful for? Let’s take a moment and have a conversation with God. We know that God is with us. So, in the quiet of your heart, speak to God what you lament today. And then speak to God what you are grateful for today…

When God is Silent

Based on Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Do you all remember the repeated scenario in Peanuts where Charlie Brown and Lucy are outside with a football? Lucy always promises Charlie Brown, “I won’t pull the ball away.” And Charlie Brown trusts her. He runs up to kick the ball and, at the last second, Lucy pulls the ball away anyhow, and Charlie Brown spins through the air and lands on his back side. Every time. And we all know what will happen. We almost want to yell at the newspaper or the TV screen for Lucy to cut it out. Don’t you wish that just once someone would see what was going on and tell Lucy to stop doing that? But there’s never anyone else around. It’s just Charlie Brown and Lucy. There is no one to intervene. Lucy goes off laughing and Charlie Brown says, “Rats!” Poor Charlie Brown is alone in his experience of injustice. It’s not fair, what Lucy does to Charlie Brown. And there’s no one around to make sure that Charlie Brown gets his fair shot at kicking that ball. Charlie Brown is alone.

Those who suffer with intimate partner violence often feel alone. How many people suffer in an abusive relationship and are afraid to speak out or do not who to reach out to? They are afraid to speak out because of what their abusive partner might do to them. Or there is fear about what others might think. The one being abused may not know who to talk to. If they tell someone who knows them, what if it gets back to their partner? The thought of airing one’s personal life to a stranger also doesn’t feel right. There is fear about living on one’s own. Where will they go? What about their kids? The manipulation that abusers can use to keep their partner in the relationship can be strong. The abused feel trapped and alone. They don’t know who to tell or what to do.

By the way, there is help. If you are experiencing intimate partner abuse or suspect that someone may be, I encourage you to visit www.familysafetyandhealing.org if you can access a computer that your abuser cannot get to. Or call 614-224-4663. No one who is abused has to suffer alone.

But many do anyway. They feel trapped and don’t know where to turn. They may even cry out to God for help. They may cry out for justice, or deliverance. But the cries go unheard. There is no discernable response from God. The abuse continues. To be alone in your suffering and not able to turn to anyone who can make things right, or not knowing who you can turn to, that’s a recipe for despair. For too many people in our community, this is their reality.

Job was alone in his suffering. At least, that’s how he perceived it. Sure, he had his three friends. But they were no consolation. They kept arguing with him that he must have done something very sinful to get the suffering he has. They question Job’s honesty. They are not supportive and understanding. But God is with Job. God is everywhere, right? But if God was there, there didn’t seem to be any evidence. Job says he looks in every direction but can’t find God. He can’t sense God’s presence. His friends are no support. God is silent and appears to be absent. Job feels alone.

There’s no doubt that Job believes in God. Job was incredibly righteous and pious. He knew that God was a just judge. He made every effort to assure that neither he nor anyone in his family would receive God’s wrath. If we go back and look at the beginning of Job’s story, we read of how when Job’s kids had their drinking parties, Job would offer burnt offerings for each of his kids the day after on the oft chance that in their partying they many have done something that would have prompted God to punish them. Because God punishes the wicked. This is central to Job’s belief about God, that God is a righteous judge who punishes the unrighteous. God is just. God punishes those who sin. Job is convinced that if he could just state his case before God that God would immediately acquit him from whatever was causing his great suffering. This has to be a big mistake. Job just wants his day in court. But he can’t have his day in court because the judge is absent. The One who can easily fix this situation, clear up the misunderstanding, make things right, give Job justice, is missing, hiding, unreachable. And there is nothing Job can do about it. The One who can give him justice is nowhere to be seen. There is no one that Job can turn to.

What do you do when you experience injustice but the one who can give you justice is absent? Such a tough position to be in. You just feel impotent. It hurts. You want to cry out, “It’s not fair!” Whether on the school playground, in a street protest, or an argument between a parent and child, we hear the cry, “That ain’t right! It’s not fair! No justice, no peace!” How many of have told a child who said, “It’s not fair,” and you said back, “Life’s not fair.” That’s a true statement. Life isn’t always fair. Justice is not always served. We have a justice system that strives to be impartial and fair. But the system is made up of people. And we all have blind spots, unperceived prejudices, that skew judgment. All the necessary information to make the right judgment is not always received. It is a tough situation to try to make a right judgment when not all the facts are known or can be known. When there is no corroborating evidence, if it is a “he said, she said” situation, judgments have to be made and they may not always be the right or just decision. Sometimes our justice system produces a miscarriage of justice. What do you do when the justice system has failed you? Where do you turn?

You can say to yourself that God knows what happened and someday you will get your justice. You can have faith that God will make things right. But when will God make things right? Will it be in this life? Or will you have to wait until Judgement Day? Nobody knows. You can become bitter when you don’t get justice. You can despair about ever getting justice. You may wish to tear the justice system down. You may lose your faith in God. Or you can choose to remain hopeful. You can choose to be resilient, to say to yourself that yes, you have suffered an injustice, and it hurts. But your value is so much greater than any injustice or indignity you must endure. You are still a beloved child of God, no matter what. No one can take that away from you. You are loved. You are worthy of life. By God’s grace you can endure even if you suffer a great injustice, and the justice system fails you.

As for Job, all he wants to do is disappear into the darkness. He just wants to fade away. At one point in his back and forth with his friends, he says he wished he had never been born. But, since he isn’t fading away, he chooses to keep arguing. He argues with his friends, and he argues with God. He is not going to just accept it. He will not let God off the hook. Job is convinced that he is innocent. He knows there is no way he deserves this amount of suffering. He believes that God is just. There has to be some big mistake. He will not allow God to just blow him off. Job will persist, demand, that God give him a hearing. Job even determines to put God on trial for what he sees as a travesty of justice.

Do you remember the story that Jesus told of the persistent widow? Jesus tells the story of an old woman who demanded justice from the judge. But he would not listen to her plea. He didn’t want to be bothered with her. But she didn’t give up. She kept coming to the judge again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until the judge says to himself, “I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to give this widow justice before she wears me out with her constantly coming to me.” It took a lot of persistence for her to receive her justice. Sometimes persistence is necessary to get justice. Job has the same mindset. He will persist, demanding justice from God, even if it seemed like he was shouting into the wind. Job refused to give up on God, even though God seemed absent, missing, perhaps even hiding. Job may feel alone, but he was not going to give up proclaiming his innocence, even if no one was listening, not even God.

How little Job knew that it was God who allowed this suffering to happen to Job. Job wasn’t suffering because he had sinned. He was suffering because God wanted to prove Satan wrong. Again, I mentioned this last week. God said the suffering inflicted on Job was without reason. It was unnecessary. God said so. And yet, God gave permission for Satan to inflict Job with that unnecessary suffering. God, the righteous and just God, is complicit in Job’s unjust and unnecessary suffering. Job did nothing to deserve this suffering. In fact, it was Job’s piety that got God bragging about him to Satan that started the argument. God could have handled Satan’s accusations about Job’s faith without allowing Job to suffer like he did.

What are we to do with this? Does it not seem that God is complicit in Job’s unjust suffering? That is a hard and unsettling question. It is a question that I don’t want to think about. I don’t know about you, but it is hard for me to contemplate the possibility that God would be complicit in unjust suffering as God appears to be in Job’s situation, just to prove Satan wrong.

What kind of god is this? How can a righteous god who is just be complicit in unjust suffering? Job may be trying to put God on trial and isn’t getting a hearing. But those of us who are reading and reflecting on what is happening to Job, what has been inflicted on Job, puts us in that position where we may want to put God on trial as well. I wonder what Job would have done if he ever found out that his suffering was inflicted on him just so God could win an argument with Satan. From what we know of Job, I doubt if he would have just shrugged his shoulders. He would have been demanding an answer. He would have been calling on God to defend himself. He would want to know why God thought that it was ok to take away all his wealth, kill his servants, and all his children, and then inflict him with a painful skin disease, just to prove a point. Job would ask, “Is that fair?” But the One who Job wants to pose that question…is silent.

No Matter What

Based on Job 1:1; 2:1-10

Over the next few weeks, we will be dipping in and out of the book of Job. This book is one of the better known and appreciated books in the Bible. Considered one of the wisdom books, Job has been a source for reflection on the big questions of life, especially the question of suffering. Specifically, why do innocent people suffer? The book raises questions about justice and about whether a big family, wealth and health are proofs of being blessed by God. The book even raises questions about God’s character. How God is portrayed in Job in some ways leaves us feeling a bit uneasy. When it comes to the book of Job, a lot of questions can be asked but definitive answers are hard to come by. This book has a way of prompting us to a deeper reflection on the mystery of God, of evil, of suffering, of justice, of the human experience.

The book of Job has a straightforward layout. The beginning and the end of the book is a story about a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz, which is in the territory of the Edomites, located southwest of Israel. Job is not an Israelite. That in itself sets the stage for this book to be dealing with the broader human experience, not limited to Israel’s relationship with God. The main part of Job are poetic dialogues that go back and forth between Job and his three friends. Then, near the end, a fourth person shows up out of nowhere to put in his two cents. Finally, God speaks. Scholars suggest that the poetic dialogues were inserted into the middle of the story of Job and written by other people so that the book of Job has two or even more authors. How ever it came to be, it is before us. Let’s dig in.

As I said, Job deals with several aspects related to the human experience. Two of the main issues has to do with suffering and the motivation to be devoted to God. In other words, why should we worship God when we suffer profound tragedy and loss? These two issues are combined in this opening story. As the book of Job begins, we read of two episodes in which God and Satan talk to each other, then Satan harms Job in a shocking and devastating way, having received permission from God to do so, and Job responds to the suffering. We only had read for us the second episode. Let’s get a quick review of the first one.

In the first episode, we have God mingling with other beings in the heavenly court. Satan comes along and he and God have a conversation, in which God brags about how no one on earth is more pious and loyal than Job. But Satan doesn’t buy it. Now this is a good time to notice who Satan is in this story. Whether we want to label this being as the devil or not, let’s be clear what role this being plays in this story. The word “satan” means accuser or adversary. We shouldn’t necessarily understand Satan here as the lord of evil or God’s enemy. Perhaps you have been in a meeting where there is a discussion about how to respond to some issue. An idea is presented and people are getting behind it. But you or someone else has some questions or want to test this idea. So, you say, “Playing the devil’s advocate, I wonder…” The devil’s advocate isn’t your enemy. They just want to test the assumptions, go a bit deeper, raise doubts. That’s how we should understand the role that Satan is playing in this story of Job. He hears God bragging about how pious Job is and Satan is not convinced. He doesn’t believe Job’s piety is as sincere as God thinks it is. He is suspicious and wants to have the opportunity to prove to God that Job isn’t all that. God takes the bait. Rather than blowing Satan off, God gives Satan permission to take away all that Job has, to remove his prosperity and kill his servants and children just to prove that Job’s piety is not dependent on all of his blessings. Now, this in itself raises questions about God. Why would God allow all those people, including Job’s children, to be killed just to prove a point with Satan? I’m going to flat out ask it: is this a god that anyone would want to be devoted and loyal to, who would allow such loss of life to win an argument? You could say that if God had not given permission to Satan to go cause all that suffering then we wouldn’t have a story. But this is what the book of Job does. When you stop and think about what is happening, some deep and somewhat disturbing questions rise to the surface.

At any rate, the second episode is a continuation of the first. God and Satan have another conversation. God brags about Job again and, in fact, says that his allowing Satan to cause all that suffering was for no reason. God admits that it was unnecessary suffering. But Satan, the accuser, still is not convinced. He believes that if Job lost his good health and was struck with a miserable disease that his piety toward God would evaporate. God gives Satan permission to harm Job however he wants to, just not to take his life. Which makes sense. Job needs to remain alive so that God and Satan can observe how he responds to this unnecessary suffering. And Satan does a number on Job. He inflicts on Job a skin disease. That is the worst of all. To be inflicted with a skin disease not only is physically painful but everyone can see your disease and most people will not want to be near you. To have a skin disease, like leprosy or what Job has, pushes you to the margins. No one wants to be near you. A skin disease makes you socially isolated. In those days, it’s the worst disease you can have. If there was any disease that would test someone’s faith in God, this would be it.

In both conversations between God and Satan, Satan questions Job’s motives for being so devoted to God. He basically says to God, “Of course Job is pious and devoted to you. Look at all his blessings. He is prosperous, healthy and has a large family. Take all that away and see how much devotion Job gives you then.” Satan thinks that Job’s relationship with God is transactional. Satan thinks that Job’s relationship with God is like this: if I demonstrate to God my piety and devotion, then God will assure my blessing of a large family and a life of prosperity. Everyone knows that God blesses the righteous and punishes the unrighteous. So, if I want a blessed life, then I need to be devoted to God. That is a transactional relationship. You demonstrate devotion to God and in return God pours down blessings on you. That’s the kind of relationship with God that Satan believed Job had. Take away the blessings and see what happens.

I wonder how common it is for people to understand their relationship with God as transactional? Maybe we look to the purveyors of the prosperity gospel, that idea that you don’t have material blessings because you have not asked God in faith. We see those prosperity gospel preachers with their fine suits and private jet planes promising that you can be blessed like this as well if you just had enough faith. Millions of people literally buy in to that thinking.

But digging a little deeper, I think there are a lot of people who have this idea that being devoted to God somehow protects you from needless suffering and loss, and then experience profound disappointment or even lose their faith in God when that protection isn’t there. I still remember one of my boys, when he was young, saying to me one morning that he didn’t believe in God anymore because he had prayed for God to do something and it didn’t happen. That’s an understandable faith for someone who is eight years old. But I know a lot of people who were taught that God is all powerful and all loving. So why did God take my daughter? Why does God allow widespread famine? The number of people who abandoned belief in God all together in Europe as a consequence of the Holocaust was massive. That question of why there is evil if God is all powerful and all loving is a question that has plagued humanity for thousands of years, a problem that the book of Job addresses in different ways. But the point I am making here is that for many people they understand their relationship with God to be a transactional one. I will be devoted to you and in return you will bless me.

There is this monastery in Conyers, Georgia, not far from Atlanta that I went to every fall when I was in seminary. The monastery was founded by Catholics who came home from World War II. As the story goes, all these monks were fighting in the war and made a bargain with God. They said, “God, if you get me out of this war alive, I promise to become a monk.” Now, I don’t know if that’s true. But that does sound transactional, doesn’t it? You do this for me, and I’ll do this for you. You know, I wonder if for all of us from time to time our motivation to be devoted to God could be characterized as transactional. I think there is something about the relationship between God and humanity in which this motivation pops up. In fact, it may be the most common motivation for being devoted to God. Satan, in his testing of God’s belief in Job, had this in mind.

Job’s responses to his tragic suffering demonstrates that his motivation for being devoted to God is not transactional. At the end of the first episode, as he grieves the loss of his herds of animals, the deaths of all his servants and all his children, he is mourning in deep sorrow as we can imagine. And he says, “Naked did I come into this world and naked I will depart. God gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And later, when he is sitting on the ash heap, scraping his sores with the shard of a broken pot, his wife suggests to him that he should just curse God and die. And Job calls her a foolish woman. Not his best self. And he says, “Should we accept good things from God and not the bad things God sends us?” Good or bad, receiving blessings or sufferings, Job remains devoted to God. No matter what. He proves Satan wrong that his devotion to God is not based on a transaction. God does not have to bless him and can even allow him great and, as God said, unreasonable catastrophe, and it will not change his unswerving loyalty and devotion to the God who allows such suffering and death just to prove a point with Satan. Amazing. Some might say even a bit pitiful. Honestly, does a god that allows a bunch of people to be killed, including all your children, and then be struck with a painful skin disease, just to prove Satan wrong…is such a god worthy of unwavering devotion? Some may wonder if Job’s dedication to this god is a bit misplaced.

As the story has developed so far, we are satisfied that Job’s motivation for being devoted to God has nothing to do with what he gets out of the relationship. Good or bad, he is with God. But what is Job’s motivation? We don’t know. We know what it isn’t, but we don’t know what it is. Job isn’t even an Israelite. This isn’t the god of his ancestors. So, what is it? Is it out of fear of what might happen to him if he cursed God? How worse could it be? That’s basically the point his wife was making. So, fear can’t be a motivation. Tradition I don’t think would be the reason since he isn’t even an Israelite. Why this unwavering devotion? The answer is not obvious.

As we ponder what might be Job’s motivation for remaining devoted to God no matter what happens, we are invited to ponder for ourselves what our motivation might be. Let’s say we want to affirm Job’s position and conclude that devotion to God should not be based on a transaction. Our motivation to be devoted to God is not based on the promise of blessings in this life or protection from unjust and unreasonable suffering, meaningless suffering. We have determined to be faithful to God no matter what. So, what is our motivation? Why have we decided to follow Jesus? If we say it is because we don’t want to go to hell and instead want to go to heaven, that sounds a little transactional to me. Would we follow Jesus even if our salvation wasn’t guaranteed? I wonder.

Maybe your motivation is because this is how you were raised. It is the faith of your family. Or it is the faith of your community. What I mean is, this church is like a family to you. This is your community. It is here that you find support in the hard times and people who celebrate with you in the good times. Maybe your motivation is because of the community that comes from being a devoted disciple of Jesus and a lover of God. There is a sense of greater purpose, of belonging to something bigger than yourself, connection with a community that has existed for 2,000 years and that includes the whole world.

It is this global community of faith that we acknowledge and celebrate today. World Communion Sunday, which occurs every year on the first Sunday of October, is an annual opportunity for churches around the world to participate in Holy Communion. Especially today, as we receive communion together. Let us be mindful that Christians all around the world are receiving communion with us. And as we receive this morning as one global community of people who are devoted to God, let this be our motivation, to claim this global community of Jesus followers as our own, no matter what.

Tug of War

Based on James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Life is full of tension. We are always being pulled in more than one direction. Different demands, different responsibilities, always calling for our attention. I have some errands to run, but I want to finish this book. The budget is going to be tight this month, but they never get into the playoffs. I’ve got to go see them play now There is so much I’ve got to get done today, but I am so tired. People are counting on me, but I just can’t do it. Yes, we are pulled in many directions. Life has tension, and sometimes we get close to the breaking point.

One of the big tensions we have to deal with is the tension between two kinds of wisdom. That’s what James is talking about in this passage we heard this morning. He speaks of wisdom that comes from above and wisdom that comes from below. These two wisdoms are like two anchors in a game of tug of war. You know what I mean? Each side will have their biggest player at the end of the rope. The rope is wrapped around that person. They are the ones who do the most pulling and everyone on each side is helping that anchor pull with all their might to move that flag over the line. These two wisdoms are like that anchor. We are that flag being pulled one way or another. Which direction will we go? Will we move toward the wisdom that comes from above, live out of that kind of wisdom? Or will we live by the wisdom of the world? That is the tension that we find ourselves in all the time.

The wisdom of the world is about the way of the world. “There’s a sucker born every minute.” “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.” “Never let them see you cry.” “You need to look after your own interests because no one is going to do that for you.” “If you aren’t successful, then you are a failure.” “Second place is first loser.” “New and improved is always better.” “You must adapt or die.” “Survival of the fittest.” It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”

Wisdom from above, divine wisdom, is this: “Put the interests of other above your own.” “True love is this, to give up your life for another.” “If someone strikes you on one check, offer the other as well.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” “There is freedom in service.” It is wisdom that doesn’t make sense. It is opposite of worldly wisdom or even common sense. But, after all, God’s ways are not our own ways. It is a way of living that often goes against the grain, in opposition to “how the world works.”

I was at a service once where Bishop Palmer gave the sermon. In his talk, he referenced a book on leadership written by an Anglican priest. It is a book that contrasts what the world teaches us about leadership and what God teaches. For example, the conventional wisdom for someone who enters into a new leadership position is to hit the ground running. Prepare yourself before you go in, clear about what needs to be done to move the mission forward, work with that positive feeling of the honeymoon period, move quickly. But another way is to hit the ground on our knees. Instead of coming in with your own agenda of what needs to be done, cleaning house, pushing forward, instead, enter in to the new assignment with a spirit of openness and humility, seeking direction from God, inviting your leaders to join you in a season of prayer to discover together where God might be leading.

Here’s another: conventional wisdom is that leaders should have thick skins. When you are in a position of authority, people who are hurt by a system will direct their hurt at you. People in positions of leadership are not always going to be liked and will always have their detractors and critics. So, you have to have a thick skin, to take the verbal blows so you can move forward. But maybe there is another way. Maybe leaders should have thin skins. If your skin is too thick, you throw up a wall. You are unable to be responsive to people. A thick skin is not a transparent skin. A thin skin allows for the experience of pain, makes you vulnerable, makes you human.

This is the tension: hit the ground running or hit the ground on your knees. Have thick skin or have thin skin. Which way will you go?

One time, I was at a coffee shop seated close to a couple of young women chatting about life. One of them made a statement that stuck with me. She said, “Is life about being successful, having a great career and making lots of money, or is it about how well you have loved and keeping the faith?” So well put. It crystallizes that tension we are all in. Is life ultimately about being successful or being faithful? Is it about having lots of money or is it about loving deeply? Of course, you can be rich and also deeply loving. You can have a successful career and remain a deeply faithful Christian. But in the end, what matters more? That’s the tension.

As Christians, our task, our struggle, is to submit ourselves to divine wisdom and not worldly wisdom. As we live out our lives and confront our challenges, we have to always be asking ourselves, “Which direction will I go? Whose advice will I follow?” As Christians, our desire should always be to follow God’s advice, to follow the direction we receive from Scripture, and from those who have a deep relationship with Jesus Christ, who can direct us in ways that honor God.

But it is still a struggle. The wisdom of the world is all around us. The world works a certain way and we live in it, constantly being influenced by it. To strike out and follow God’s wisdom while we are in the world is sometimes like swimming upstream when everyone else is going downstream. It is so easy to get pulled in this tug of war towards living our lives as the wisdom of the world dictates. To go in the other direction takes effort. It takes discernment, of being careful about the advice you receive, and the influences that you allow to take hold in your mind and in your heart. It takes acknowledgement that what seems like the right thing to do may not be so, that what God may be calling you to do makes no worldly sense. You have to risk ridicule and misunderstanding by others. To submit to God’s way and not to the way of the world is always a struggle.

But it is the right struggle. It is the good fight. That fight is to have pure heart, a heart in which we will just one thing. That’s what an undivided heart means, to will one thing. And that one thing that we are to desire is to submit to God. We want our will to be God’s will. Our only desire is to know and do God’s will. We remember the story when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he cried out to God in prayer, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.” As Christians, we want to give our hearts, completely and without reservation, to God. This is the goal, the struggle, the good fight, in which we are all engaged as Christians.

And so, as we draw near to God, as we submit to God, to following God’s way and not the way of the world, we find that we must resist the devil to do so. We must resist the influence that the devil would have on us. By submitting to God, we must resist envy and selfish ambition, the two ways in which the devil often tries to influence us. Envy and selfish ambition, by the way, is the foundation for much of what passes for the wisdom of the world. I want what they have. I’m going to knock them down so I can get my way. I have my goals and, if it means using other people to get what I want, so be it. If it means climbing over people on my way to the top, well, it’s just business, nothing personal.

We discover that as we draw nearer to God, there is less incentive to be envious of others. As we draw closer to God, we find that our own selfish ambition loses its pull. The more we fall in love with Jesus, desire only to worship, be devoted to, and follow our Master, it does something to our hearts. It does something to our felt needs and desires. We look at our situations in life, perhaps look back to all that we fought and stewed about when we are younger, before we had drawn closer to God, and we ask ourselves, “Why was I fighting? Why did I let that person get to me? Why did I think that fight was worth fighting?”

See, the closer we draw to God, the less envious we become, the less attractive or meaningful becomes our own selfish ambitions. We discover the secret of peace, of joy, of contentment. Paul speaks of how he has had much and he has had little, but in every situation he has discovered how to be content. Paul knew that the things of this world, and the standing a person has in the world, are all temporary and can be taken quickly. But God is eternal and unchanging. God’s love and acceptance is unbending. The only security that can be truly had is the grace that God offers us. God’s love endures forever. To be with God, to keep the faith and love deeply, that is enough. To get to that place in life is a peaceful place to be.

Life will always have tension. We can resist the devil, as James tells us. But the devil, like the anchor on the other end of the tug of war rope, is persistent. To draw close to God and away from the devil is an ongoing and never-ending struggle. Sometimes we are going the direction we want to go. Other times, we get tired or distracted, and before we know it, we are moving in the wrong direction. We keep going back and forth. The good fight is ongoing. But our home remains in God. For we know that the fight is already won. It was won on the cross. Our choice is whether we will pull with God, and see this fight through to the end.

Speech is Powerful

Based on James 3:1-12

Speech is powerful. To have the permission to speak should not be taken lightly. There’s a reason why the first amendment in our bill of rights refers to the right of free speech. To speak is to have influence on the people who hear your voice. When you speak, you are impacting the people that hear you. They may not understand what you are saying. They may not agree with what you are saying. But the words you say still gets in their brains. They are not the same once they have heard what you said. Maybe you have heard this phrase, “You can’t unsay something.” Once it is out there, you can’t take it back. Speech can change views or reinforce views. Speech can stir up emotions or calm people down. Lives can be changed through speech. To speak is to use power.

Speech has the power to inspire. Some speeches have become legendary because of their power to inspire: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Reagan’s “Morning in America” speech, Kennedy’s Inaugural speech where he said that classic line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” These and many other speeches we have heard have lifted our hearts, stirred us with pride, opened up our minds to new possibilities, given us confidence and hope for the future. Speech can inspire us.

Speech also has the power to destroy. Speech can stir up hatred, divisiveness, and chaos. It can feed grievances. It can play on our fears. It can cast blame, undermine trust, promote conspiracy theories and propaganda. Speech can rally a mob into a frenzy. We saw what speech can do in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Speech radicalized the terrorists that hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001 that led to destruction and incomprehensible loss at so many levels. Speech can inspire us. Speech can bring out the worst in us. Speech is powerful.

Speech also has the power to create. When God created the heavens and the earth, God spoke these things into existence. The language of mathematics can create algo rhythms that are revolutionizing the technology that fills our lives. The language of philosophy creates explanations for how the world works and what is the meaning of life, of why there is something instead of nothing. The language of history creates explanations of what happened in the past and what that might mean, what lessons we can learn from history that we can apply today, or maybe understand what is happening now. As the saying goes, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.” Stories, myths, legends, these are forms of speech that help us name what is true, who we are, who we should be. The speech of poetry stimulates our imagination which can inspire us or simply entertain us. Here’s a fun one from Shel Silverstein:

Peg plugged in her ‘lectric toothbrush,

Mitch plugged in his steel guitar,

Rick plugged in his CD player,

Liz plugged in her VCR.

Mom plugged in her ‘lectric blanket,

Pop plugged in the TV fights,

I plugged in my blower-dryer—

Hey! Who turned out all the lights?

Above all else, speech comes from the heart. What we say reveals something about our hearts.  Speaking from the heart is unavoidable. Even if we are reading out loud the words of someone else, how we say it and why we chose to read those words out loud reveals something about our heart. When we say things that are not true, that try to deceive how we really feel or what is really going on, that reveals our hearts anyway. When we say things that are warm and loving, or when we say something that is hurtful, this all reveals our hearts. As James points out, blessings and curses come out of our mouths, which reveals how our hearts are divided. Our hearts are a combination of love and cruelty, of warmth and coldness. The truth about our divided hearts is revealed by the words that come out of our mouths.

All of us have hearts that have been hurt. Our hearts are wounded and scarred. That’s what life does to us. None of us get through life unscathed. Part of what salvation is about is the healing of the heart. When we confess our trust in Jesus and invite Jesus into our lives, Jesus moves into our hearts. Jesus is the great physician. Jesus works to heal our broken and beaten hearts. It’s not quick. Inviting Jesus into our hearts does not eliminate the hurts that come our way. The healing of our hearts is a life-long process. It takes time to be healed from the damage that has been inflicted on us. Besides the fact that our hearts get hurt all through our lives. We are all in continual need of healing in our hearts.

Because our hearts have been bruised, because the cancer of sin has plagued our hearts, is it any wonder that we sometimes say things we wish we hadn’t said? Is it any wonder that we fail to speak up when we should? If the source of our speech is our heart, and our hearts are beaten and scarred and distorted by sin, it’s no wonder that we sometimes say things that are not pure but are bitter? As James says, fresh water doesn’t come from a bitter source. Especially for those of us, like me, who have a tendency to speak before thinking, the impurity of our hearts can be on full display.

One of the lessons that James gives us throughout this letter is the need for us to focus on the work of healing our hearts. This is what salvation is about. It’s not just fire insurance. It’s not just knowing that you are forgiven or that you will go to heaven when you die. No, salvation is about healing, the healing of the heart. Salvation is about purifying our hearts as the Holy Spirit inhabits and fills our hearts. It is about cleansing our hearts from the impurities that have stained it. There is this classic praise song that goes, “Change my heart, O God; make it ever new. Change my heart, O God; make me be like you.” This is the essence of salvation. And this work of salvation is life-long. It takes a lot of repentance, of humbling yourself, admitting your mistakes and receiving that word that in the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven. Words of love and forgiveness have the power to heal our hearts.

While we are working on healing our hearts, it is probably best for us to guard our speech. If anything, so we minimize harm. I think we all know the saying we were taught as kids, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is a bunch of baloney. Words can hurt. Words can cause a lot of trauma that can leave deep wounds. James shares the consensus of teachers from many cultures and throughout the centuries: that it is always better to listen than to speak. Maybe you have heard this truism: God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Perhaps you remember those E.F. Hutton commercials: Two men are in a posh restaurant talking about the stock market. One of them says to the other, “Who is your broker?” And his friend says, “My broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says…” And everything goes silent. The waiters, the others in the restaurant, they freeze, close their mouths, and wait to hear because when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.

Then there are the wise souls. Maybe you have known a few. They rarely speak. And when they do talk, they don’t say much. But what they do say are words that need to be heard. They are words that are thoughtful and just what needs to be said in the moment. To be a person of few words is not a bad thing. So, I think I will stop right here.

To Love is to Respond

Based on James 2:1-10, 14-17

It is pretty tough to be overlooked, to be passed over. It hurts to be ignored, to be pushed aside. George had been with the company fifteen years. He rarely missed a day of work. He worked hard. He contributed to the success of the company. He was dependable and solid. Yet, he finds himself being supervised by some kid who has only been with the company a few years. George got passed over for the supervisor job because upper management saw someone with potential, so they put him on the fast track, moving him through the ranks while George, who had put in the time and knew the ins and outs of the company, was passed over. George kept doing his job. But he had some resentment. Was George passed over because he was too old? Was it because he was Black? George is one of many examples of competent, dedicated, and hard-working people who get passed over.

Which is worse, being passed over or being ignored all together? Marcia had burned her bridges with her family. She had a man who promised to love her and take care of her. But he cheated on her and when she caught him, he kicked her out of his place. She had nowhere to live, no money, nowhere to go. And so, there she sits in front of the bank with a little scrap of cardboard scribbled on it, “Homeless, need help, God bless you.” She sits there all morning. Hundreds of people walk past her. And not one person even looks at her. It is as if she is invisible to the world.

What is especially bad is when people are overlooked or ignored in the church. I wonder if you have ever had this experience. You are visiting a church. You go into the sanctuary, worship, and then leave the sanctuary. Your presence is barely acknowledged. You walk out into the narthex and see groups of people huddled together chatting and laughing. They seem like a friendly bunch of people. You walk slowly around the groups of folks and head out the door. Nobody even noticed you apparently. I’m sure the people in that church would say they are friendly. But they were so friendly with each other they barely noticed you. It’s not a good feeling to be the one who gets the message that you don’t belong, in church of all places.

Let’s sit with this for a minute. Every now and then we do have people who come visit us on Sunday morning. When we see that visitor, all of us give them the once-over. It’s human nature. We see the person and immediately start sizing them up and making judgments. Is this someone I can relate to? Are they here to worship or do they just want to see the pastor? We do this. We make snap judgments about someone and try to pigeon-hole them, so we think we know who we are dealing with. This starts in school when kids form cliques based on all kinds of criteria. You are a jock, or a band geek, or a nerd. It is natural for us to cluster into groups based on similar interests, perspectives, and the like. How is it possible for you to be friends with a Michigan fan? I know personally that this is possible. If, every time you look at this person, you are turned off because of their style, their attitude, their bad breath, it’s hard to connect. If you have no common interests, your personalities clash, there’s just a bad vibe between the two of you. It’s hard to be in a relationship with a person who is always rubbing you the wrong way. We tend to want to spend time with people we like, that we agree with, that make us feel comfortable. We avoid being around people that put us on edge, that we think are weird or annoying. To show partiality is as normal as breathing. It’s just something we do without thinking about it.

But James makes it plain. “If you show partiality, then you are not loving your neighbor.” Your neighbor doesn’t always look like you or think like you. Your neighbor isn’t always easy to be around. Your neighbor may not fit in and might make you feel very uncomfortable. But they are still your neighbor. Anyone who enters your space, that six-foot circumference around your body, is your neighbor. And God’s commandment is clear: You shall love your neighbor. To show partiality, to overlook or ignore the person in your space, is not loving. It is hurtful.

Remember, love is not mere words. You walk into the bank and see Marcia sitting there with her little sign. You actually see her, which is a start. You look at her and say, “God bless you, be fed, stay warm, be safe.” And then you go on your way. Well, at least Marcia knows she isn’t invisible. But her situation hasn’t changed. Your nice words don’t help her. Love is not a matter of words only. Now, I know. Whether or not to give money to someone who is homeless is complicated. Maybe you can give them something to eat or some water. Maybe if you have time, you can have a quick bite with them at a near-by restaurant. Or maybe you really have nothing to give them. Acknowledging their presence is all you have to give and that should not be minimized. Still, at least for me, every time I see someone who is homeless, I am at least motivated to ask the question, “Is there something I can do right now to help this person?” Maybe there isn’t anything more than saying “hello.” The point is to be responsive and not look away. That’s what love asks of us.

Remember that love is not only a warm and fuzzy feeling. Every parent can testify to this truth. There are times when you were raising your kids, especially when they hit their teen age years, when the feelings were not always warm and fuzzy. You drove each other crazy! But you still loved your kids. Or maybe you were raising “fur babies.” Pets can be irritating sometimes. But you still love them. Even when your dog chewed up your wallet or your child stomped down the hall to their bedroom screaming, “I hate you!”, you still had love. It’s just that love is not all rainbows, butterflies, and pink unicorns.

Love is an ethic. Love is being responsive to the person in front of you, a responsiveness that meets the need of that person, so that they are better off for having run in to you. To love Marcia means to help her get what she needs if you can, whether that be some food or some shelter. What could you do besides smile and say, “God bless you?” Do you have the time to take her to a diner and share a meal with her and hear her story? Maybe you could tell her about the homeless shelter for women that can get her a safe place to stay and the resources she needs to get her life together.

How can you love that person that annoys the heck out of you? You don’t have to like them. That may be asking too much. But you can at least smile and say “hi.” That’s a place to start. What else could you do to support them, to respond to a need they might have, to communicate in a real way that you care about them?

God shows no partiality. God loves everyone the same. That’s what makes God, God. God does not overlook you. God includes you in God’s care. When Jesus died on the cross so that death would be defeated, it was for your sake that Jesus died. Jesus suffered death on behalf of everyone, not just for some. God is always there for you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. God’s love is that big.

That is our challenge as God’s children, as those who have determined to live our lives following God’s example. The example God has set for us is hard. To love as God loves isn’t really possible. It’s that goal of perfection, of perfect love, that we strive for until we draw our last breath in this world. To love as God loves is something we strive for if our faith is to have any integrity. How can you say you love God, but you don’t love that annoying misfit whom God made? How can you say you love God and hate anyone? Well, hate may be a strong word. But maybe sometimes it’s not. Our integrity demands that we love. But sometimes love for the other is almost impossible. Thank God that God doesn’t love us based on our capacity to love others. God loves us no matter what. Still, this is our challenge. Whenever anyone enters your space, that six-foot circle around you, that’s your neighbor. God expects you to love your neighbor. How will you respond?

Works of Art in Progress

Based on James 1:17-27

When God made you, God broke the mold. You are unique. Of the billions of people God has made, there has only been one of you. You are a unique, intentional creation of God. Fred Craddock tells the story of a time when he was the pastor of a small country church in Appalachia. On the first day of Vacation Bible School, he got through his lesson plan with the kids under his care in five minutes and had only fifty-five more minutes to go. So, he decided to send the kids out into God’s creation. He said, “I’m going to ring the church bell, and then I want you kids to go outside and find something that God made. And then when you hear the bell ring again, I want you to come back and share what you found and what it tells you about God.” He rang the church bell and the kids scattered. His intention was not to ring the bell again. But after a while he gave in and rang the bell. The kids came back with what they found. Fred asked one of the children, “Mary, what do you have?” She said, “Some huckleberries.” “What does that tell you about God?” “That God is good.” “That’s right. And Johnny, what do you have?” “I have a rock.” “And what does that tell you about God?” “That God is stout.” “Yes, God is stout.” Then there was Larry, the ornery kid, the child that the teachers warn each other about. He had in his hand the hand of his sister who he got from the kindergarten. So, Fred asked, “Larry, who do you have?” “My sister.” “What does she tell you about God?” Larry thought and replied, “I don’t know.” Do you know? I think you do. God made everything in all of creation and called all of it good. But when God made Larry’s little sister, just like when God made you and me, God said, “Ah, this is the best I can do; just like myself.” You and I are the best of what God has made. James refers to us as the first fruits of God’s creation, the best representation of creation itself. God can do no better than when God created you and me.

But we are a work in progress. We are the best God can do but we are all in a process of refinement. A sculptor will look at a block of stone and see in her mind’s eye a beautiful work of art. She just has to break, chip, and shape the rock until that beautiful form comes out. Each of us are masterpieces of God’s creation. But God is still working on us. We get chipped and shaped until that beautiful piece of art that is you emerges. Our whole life is a process of being formed, shaped, refined. Of course, not everything that happens to us was what God had in mind. But God can take every experience we go through and use it to bring out the best in us. That’s our hope when we face stuff in life that somehow God is behind it all, patiently working with us, leading us, shaping us, into who God desires us to become. We are works of art in process.

God works on us through experiences that we have. God also works through people. It is through people that we come to learn and understand who God is and who God wants us to become. Think of the first Sunday School teacher who taught you to sing “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” What about that youth pastor, if you were fortunate to have one, who put up with you, and through silly games, campfire devotions, service projects, and short conversations, continued to build on that foundation of faith. Think of the pastor who saw something in you and encouraged and mentored you to grow deeper in your faith, to organize and lead that mission trip. Think of all the Bible study teachers and conferences you have attended where you were given information and gained insights on how to live God’s way. God doesn’t just use pastors and Sunday school teachers to help shape us into the kind of person God desires us to become. Think of that difficult supervisor who pushed you to up your game, to be a more disciplined and effective worker; the birth of your first child, and the realization that you have a precious life completely dependent on you. Or the person that you have committed to share life with for the rest of your lives. What have they taught you in your years together? God has placed many people in our lives and spoken through them to share with us God’s truths, about how God wants us to live and to love, about who God wants us to become.

Here’s the thing, though. God can work on us through experiences and through the people that God places in our lives. But we have to be open. We have to be humble and willing to listen, really listen, to take a good hard look at what we are learning, like a long gaze in the mirror rather than a quick glance. The first step in learning something is to acknowledge that you don’t know everything, and that this person talking to you may have something to say that you need to know. For God to work on us and shape us, we have to be open, be humble, acknowledge that we are works in progress. God isn’t done with you and no matter how good you feel about yourself, which is important by the way, you are immeasurably precious to God just as you are, but you aren’t finished yet. No matter how comfortable you are in your patterns and habits, there is always more to learn and to master in the art of life.

However, being open to learn isn’t the end. Gaining new knowledge, new insights, about the things of God and about how to live God’s way, how to take care of yourself in more healthy ways, how to love well, learning about these things does you no good unless you take the next step. You have to actually do the things. You have to act, put into practice, what you are learning. Almost all of us can relate to this common scenario. You go to a conference, get a three-ring binder full of great information, ideas and strategies that you can try when you get back home. And when you get home the binder goes on a shelf to collect dust. We just keep doing what we did before. We know better but we don’t act better. Using James’ image of the mirror, we look at the mirror, see what we need to change about ourselves, and then walk away from the mirror and quickly forget what we saw and what we intended to do about it, returning to our familiar habits and patterns. It is a tragedy that is repeated over and over. I’m embarrassed to admit how common it is for me, as a person who loves learning things but struggles to put what I learn into actual practice. We all get set in our ways and it is hard to break it. To become what God wants us to be, we have to act on the insights and truths, that implanted word that James writes about. We have to allow ourselves to be chipped, shaped, refined.

It isn’t easy. To change habits and patterns, to change the way we think about things or let go of what we thought was true but maybe isn’t true, it’s hard. It can be painful. It can be scary. The first time you got on a bike, that was scary. You felt awkward. You fell down a lot. You got bruised and maybe scraped your knee. But you had someone by your side to help. Maybe it was your dad who would run alongside, holding the bike as you increase your speed, and then he says, “OK, I’m going to let go.” “No, daddy, don’t let go!” “Son, I have to.” And dad lets go, you try to keep your balance and peddle, but over you go again. Dad picks you back up, helps you get back on, and encourages you to keep trying. Over and over, the process continues. But then, when dad lets go of the bike this time, off you went. All the awkwardness and fear melt away into the freedom of being able to ride that bike on your own. You speed down the sidewalk and on to new possibilities.

There are a lot of “bikes” we need to learn to ride through our lives: how to be a good student, how to be a good worker, how to be a good friend or spouse, how to be a good parent, how to be good at our vocation, how to navigate through the different stages of life. Growing up, maturing, is a process. There are people beside you all along the way. There is also a lot of awkwardness and a bit of fear from time to time. We fall down a lot. We get hurt. And there’s all kinds of influences that try to get us off track. James talks about how desire gives birth to sin which gives birth to death. He talks about how anger can throw us off track. He talks about how “sordidness and rank growth of wickedness” gets in the way of our progress. There is the temptation to learn what to do but then not acting on what you know, looking in the mirror and then forgetting what you saw. Absolutely, it is a struggle.

But it’s not hopeless. There are moments where we have breakthroughs, and we are free of old habits and ways of thought that blocked us from becoming who God intends us to be. Another chip has been cleared away. We experience growth. What once was awkward becomes natural. All along, God was with us. The one who James says is the source of every gift continually gives what we need as we strive to put into action what we are learning. And when we get the lesson, here comes the next challenge, the next barrier to break through, the next piece of stone that needs to be broken off. God is never finished with us. That masterpiece that is you, the best that God can create, the first fruit of all creation, is a work in progress. May we yield to God’s creative hand, and through learning and doing, slowly become all God desires us to become, for God’s glory.