What did James know that will help us?
Perhaps one of the most difficult things to be among the free is a leader. Free people have free ideas, and lots of them. A Pastor asked his prayer group what they thought was the worst problem facing America and what would they do to fix it. The responses ran from sexual immorality to apathy, about which he said he had little concern. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but for a leader it means facing the daily challenge of leading ideas and being able to comprehend the incomprehensible God for those who look to the spiritual leader to help them "Get God." Is this perhaps some portion of what was happening in the life of James? Were people asking him, "Hey you're in that way thing, what's that mean?" "Aren't you a Jesus follower?" "Are you people really carrying fake news about Nero?" (That's probably not real that last one, oops, fake pun...oops) Had James become acutely aware that it wasn't just enough to have faith, he had to be able to help others with their faith?
"5: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (James 1:5 NIV)
Now before you get all comfortable reading this, which is Southern colloquial for, don't get comfortable and lean back in that arm chair! Take note, you wouldn't open up a conversation with someone by asking them if they have a problem with being wise, would you? We couldn't because in
our present day it is an insult to be called unwise- we rank it together with stupid, and consider it akin to ignorant; none of which would count in the day that James asked the question. Because in his day the idea of wisdom entailed experience in life combined with guidance from above. We consider one wise who makes prudent decisions, in the times James penned this - wisdom was considered a virtue that lent itself to quiet and solitude. Very different images we have of the art of thinking.
There are substantial differences between the time that James wrote to, and the time you live in, if this writing gets preserved, they will no doubt wonder why we were so primitive; but if we note the differences, it begins to add to the value of what James says, rather than take away from that value, and here's why. These people had no electricity, no air conditioning, no cellular communications, no toothpaste and toothbrush, no automobiles, no tires, no laptops and networks, and you get the point- in fact, if you time traveled back to this place, and you had saved a small .mpeg movie on your phone, because there wouldn't be cellular streaming, that we know of, unless it could stream back in time something we can only speculate about at this time, but if you had that, and your battery held up, and you played it- they'd react. What would they say about you with your fancy device? Would it be good, or might you end up being in a real pickle? Because all the technology that we have does change us, and those changes aren't all good- some of them are very dangerous changes that we keep messing with, and thinking that, as Satan famously says- "It's going to be O.K." It may not be, and James says, perhaps it would be good for you to ask God - for wisdom, my goodness, do we need it.
But James doesn't present the issue as a seeking wisdom issue, he presents it in the manner of, if you lack wisdom, he suggests then that you, ask God for such, because God gives generously to all without finding fault, and He will give it to you. That's substantially the message in break down, and it begins with you being honest enough to admit you might not be as wise as you believe you are. That's not something we're comfortable with, we don't like to do assessments of what we're about- and we especially don't like dead on honesty, "Honey do these jeans make me look fat?" We've got an enormous amount of problems in our world, but if we try to sort them all out, we'll go crazy- and we'll discover, we can't solve them, we simply and profoundly cannot- who can, God.
No comments:
Post a Comment