For Your Own Good

Introduction to Series on James
We turn this morning to a series on the Book of James. In five chapters, James teaches the early church, and us, how to live as Christians in the world. Even though almost 2,000 years have passed since James wrote these words, not much has changed. Dr. Frances Taylor Gench sums up the book this way, “James urges believers to apply Christian faith to every aspect of life…..In five short chapters, the letter of James discerns (among other things) the relevance of Christian faith to our speech, to our economic pursuits and business practices, to our experiences of trial and temptation, to our responses to discrimination and to people in need, and to our life together in the Christian community….The letter challenges us to be persons of integrity, that is, people who are consistent in all we see, say, believe, and do.”
Oddly, James was not quickly accepted as Scripture. While Paul’s writing includes both theology, belief about who God is and how God works in the world, and practical instruction, James is focused on practical instruction only. He is writing to people who already have faith about what that faith means – you believe, so what? And James is frank in his approach and uses exaggerated language to motivate those who hear his message to action.

So, this morning, we turn to the first chapter of James, verses 1-18.

“For Your Own Good”

Another pastor tells about an experience a member of his congregation shared with him. This member was going through a time of deep hurt and personal loss. And one evening, she received a phone call from a wise and trusted friend. They were talking about all that was going on in her life, and her friend said, “I’m jealous of the person that God is going to make you through this. I wouldn’t want to travel the road you are traveling. But I do want to end up where you are going to end up.”

It was not a well-timed statement. In fact, the woman said it was all she could do not to hang up the phone on her friend. (Rev. Joel Schreurs)

“Count it all joy,” says James. The diagnosis, the separation, losing your job,…those times when you think you just can’t get through the day…those times you wonder how you’ll even get out of bed…count it JOY??? That’s like your mom telling you that “It’s for your own good” when she punishes you.

Trials bring steadfastness in your faith, and that steadfastness matures and completes you – it shapes you more into who God dreamed you would be when God made you.

In 1940, Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely in Clarksville, Tennessee, weighing 4.5 pounds. Her mom was a maid, her dad was a railway porter, and she had 20 siblings. She struggled with pneumonia, suffered from scarlet fever, and then when she was 4 polio weakened her left leg and foot. She was left wearing a leg brace and orthopedic shoe. Then, for 2 years, she and her mother boarded a bus for Nashville every week to go to treatment. Four times every day, her family massaged her leg. When she was 12, she no longer needed the brace or the orthopedic shoe. In 1960, at 20 years old, she became the first American woman to win 3 golds in one Olympics – and she did it running track.

The joy of facing trials in life is in the consequence, not the process. James doesn’t tell us why bad things happen to good people, or where bad things come from…what James tells us is where they can lead. “Blessed is the person who endures,” says James, “for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.” The word for crown in Greek here is the wreath of laurel leaves that were worn by the winner in the Olympics in ancient Greece. Trials are to be endured…and those who endure and persevere in faith are blessed. They receive the crown of life – the gold medal – that God has promised to those who love him.
Not because God ever wishes trials on us. But because our trials make our faith and our love of God stronger.

Every good and perfect gift is from God. God, who created the sun, moon, and stars and set them on their courses through phases and eclipses, with lengthening and shortening days and shadows. God is not like them, though. God has no variation. God does not change.

God has created the world with change and with shadows. Trials will come. We will be tempted. But, those trials and temptations are not placed in our lives by God. They are a part of life – just like the phases of the moon – and these are the times when we grow in faith. We are stretched and it hurts. Yet, when we find ourselves in the deepest shadows, we realize our own powerlessness and our need for God.

And it is there that we experience the depths of God’s love and faithfulness. It is there that we learn to sing with our souls “Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.”

I have on today a pin – it is a pink ribbon with arrows in a cross. My chemo nurse gave it to me on my last day of chemo, May 20, 2013. 14 months after diagnosis. She told me it was a survivor pin. I took it. I put it in a drawer. I didn’t care if I never saw it again. I was just glad to be through, and I didn’t want to see any reminder of the last year. Pink, once my favorite color, had become sickening to me. All things pink ribbon were maddening. But, now, I cannot imagine who I would be if I hadn’t had cancer. It shaped me and changed me, for the better. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I never want to go through it again. But, I wouldn’t trade it, either.

The woman who told her pastor about her friend telling her ““I’m jealous of the person that God is going to make you through this. I wouldn’t want to travel the road you are traveling. But I do want to end up where you are going to end up.” Now, nearly fifteen years later, this woman can look back and see how that difficult time shaped her and those who know her well would say that her friend was exactly right. (Rev. Joel Schreurs)

Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Amen.