Our Old Testament reading today spoke of Abraham desire to eat with three visitors who arrived at his tent.  Our New Testament reading spoke of Paul’s desire to break bread with members of the church of Troas.  We can all relate to stories involving food because all of us eat. A study concluded that an American who lives to age 70 will have spent 6 of those 70 years doing nothing but eating. Think about that for a moment; we will spend more than 6 years of our life just chewing and swallowing food.

            But eating is not simply about giving our body the calories it needs to survive.  Eating is most often done in the company of another person because eating is a social activity that feeds our need to relate to other people.  Everyone here needs food for the body and fellowship with other people.  We were not designed to live completely alone.  In fact, the very first thing God said was “not good” was loneliness.  God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).  So, in addition to pangs of hunger emanating from our stomachs demanding that we eat, we have pangs of loneliness that demand that we fellowship with other people. Eating and sharing a meal are good for us because it meets many needs.

            Now God makes use of our need to eat and be in fellowship with others to address a broader truth about us.  That truth is that each of us is made up of a body, a mind, and a spirit or soul.  Our bodies are made of flesh, blood, and bone that we can examine with our own senses like sight, hearing, smell, and touch.  No one disputes we have a physical body.  We also have a mind that is the accumulation of our experiences. Our mind gives us the capacity to remember and to imagine.  No one disputes we have a mind.  We need to be careful about what we fed our minds.  But we are more than mind and body.  We are also made up of a spirit.  Although we cannot sense our spirit by sight, hearing, smell, or touch, no one really disputes we have a spirit whether they believe in Christ or they believe only in the power of crystals.  We have a spirit and just like our bodies and minds our spirit needs to be fed.  Not sure you believe that?  I have met people before who have plenty to eat and have people in their life.  There minds are active and engaged but they will tell you that they feel defeated and hopeless.  They feel that way because their spirit has been wounded by the trials of life. Their spirit has been injured by the behavior of another person or by mistakes and missteps they have made in life. Their body, mind, and social life may be well fed, but they are defeated in the spirit.

            And while we are made of body, mind, and spirit, it is our spirit and spiritual life that determines our destiny and overall pattern of our life.  If someone is defeated in spirit, it does not matter how physically strong their body and mind are, they are a defeated person.  Conversely, if someone is strong in their spirit, it does not matter how physically strong their body and mind is, they are a strong person.

            So when we turn to the Bible and we read about food, meals, feasts, and banquets, we discover that these things of the physical world are used by God to represent or symbolize larger spiritual truths.  Meals, feasts, and banquets in the Bible are intended to be a vehicle, a means, by which we are fed spiritually in our relationship with God.  Afterall, our relationship with God determines the destiny of our life now and forever.

            We had two stories today in our Scripture readings that involved meals.  One was from the Old Testament involving a man named Abraham.  The other story came from the New Testament involving a man named Paul and a group of his friends.  While both stories share a moment of physical eating, as we will see, the meals involved a significant spiritual purpose.  When we conclude our worship service today, we too will have the opportunity to share a meal together that feeds our spirit in an awesome way.

            Our first story began with these words, “The Lord appeared to Abraham.”  God, accompanied by two others, was on the move and enter the story at the heat of the day near the great trees of Mamre where Abraham was dwelling. Upon seeing these three visitors, Abraham responded to God’s presence by bowing down low, a sign of humility and said, “Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed.”  Abraham more than anything else wanted to fellowship with God.  He had a deep-seated need to do so.  Abraham teaches us here that the closer our personal relationship with God, the more we want to be in His presence.  Think about it for a moment.  There are people we have met in our life that make us happy just seeing them.  Because they do so, we want to see them more often.  That is the type of relationship God desires with each of us.  When I was growing up, God was portrayed as a sort of super police officer keeping track of me for the sole purpose of finding things I did wrong so he could punish me.  Tell me the truth.  If you had someone like that in your life, would you really want to spend time with them? I did not.  This is one reason the Apostle Paul said in the Book of Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  We need to change our mindset about God so that we can understand what it means to worship him and know his will.  God wants fellowship with us because he loves us.

            In our Old Testament story, God came to Abraham for fellowship and Abraham’s mind was properly focused and desired to sit and eat with God.  Can you imagine eating with God?  Again, back to my childhood, I can remember we would say grace before a meal – three times a year.  We would say before dinner on Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. It was always the same, “Bless us, Oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.” As a kid, it made me think that God came down from heaven on those days and He was at the dinner table with us. Now I know, that is not true.  God is always at that dinner table.  So now, every time we eat, we have a prayer, a conversation, directed toward God who is seated with us, thanking him for being with us, for giving us the time and food to eat.  We raise up prayers for those we have talked with that day or who are experiencing a difficulty of life.  We do not say a repetitive rote prayer.  We have fellowship with God.  In that fellowship at the table, our bodies are fed, our minds are engaged, and our spirits are nourished.  That is what Abraham was teaching us in just a few verses here.

            Our second story from the Bible today, also deals with a meal.  The story comes from the Book of Acts, that is the Acts of the Apostles of Jesus, Chapter 20, beginning at verse 7.  The writer of the book, a man named Luke, wrote, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.”  There are a couple points we want to know about this simple verse.  When Luke wrote, “On the first day of the week,” he is referring to what we now call Sunday.  The first day of the week was considered the day of the week in which Jesus rose from the dead.  It was and remains the day that Christian celebrate God’s decision to initiate fellowship with all of humanity.  Jesus, God in a human body, came from heaven to earth to restore all forms of fellowship; between humanity and Himself and between humanity.  Jesus came to address sin, once and for all time and for all people. Jesus came to be seen, heard, and experienced as a means of leading all of us from sin and as a means of restoring fellowship.  God proved all that Jesus said and did by resurrecting him from the dead.  If the resurrection never happened, as Jesus said it would, then the restoration of fellowship with God never happened.  But the good news is Jesus did rise from the dead and, therefore, we can have fellowship with God through Him. Christians then chose that day, the first day of the week to gather and celebrate fellowship with God and one another.

            Second, Luke said “we came together.”  The “we” here is the early Christian believes.  Third, Luke said, “we came together to break bread.”  To break bread is to eat a meal together and feed their bodies.  But more than that this meal, the breaking of this bread, was a way to reenact the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples to feed their spirits.  You see just before Jesus was arrested and killed, Jesus shared a meal and used bread and wine as a symbol of what he had done for all of humanity. Jesus asked his disciples to repeat this meal as a way of engaging their minds to remember what Jesus taught them and did for them.  Jesus knew we needed ways of expressing and remembering the restoration accomplished by God.  Breaking bread was a means to remind Jesus’ followers that they have fellowship with the Almighty, and we can restore fellowship with one another.  Briefly, let’s see this gathering played out.

Verse 7 continues, “Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.  [No doubt those lamps were generating some added heat.]   9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus [probably trying to get some air], who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. [You can almost see this young man, perhaps a teenager, tired from working that day, warm from the lamps, trying to listen to Paul, and all the while drifting off.]  When he [Eutychus] was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘He’s alive!’”

Let me make three quick points.  Through Paul, the young man experienced and the congregation witnessed the power of God like few others.  God, using Paul as an instrument, resuscitated, and brought Eutychus back to mortal life.  That is just an awesome moment from the history of the church.  Second, we need to be mindful of our youth that worship services keep them engaged and we keep them away from open windows.  Third, a warning from this account offered by the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon still applies, “Remember, if you go to sleep during the sermon and die, there are no apostles here to restore you!"

            Finally, Luke brought us to the conclusion of this account that after the miracle, “11 Then he [Paul] went upstairs again and broke bread and ate.”  Think about this scene.  Paul was giving his farewell sermon.  A young man fell out of a third-floor window to his death.  Paul interrupted the service rushed down to the street, threw himself on the young man and restored his life.   The group was exhilarated and overjoyed but never forgot the reason they came together. They came together to break bread. Neither death nor life would keep them from fellowship with God through the remembrance of Jesus. 

The proclamation of the good news of restored fellowship with God remembered through the breaking of bread, was more significant to Paul and the early church than the miracle of restoring a young man’s mortal life.  Take that in for a moment.  What we will do here in a few moments when we share what we now call the Lord’s Supper is spiritually more profound and more significant than anything else we could do or witness today.  It means Christ died for us and our separation from God is over.  It means the divisions between us need to melt away. It means Christ will come again. It means Christ came back to life and now sits with God speaking on our behalf.  If you have never publicly acknowledged Jesus who made this possible, listen to this invitation in Jesus’ own words, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  Jesus is inviting you into fellowship with Him, with the person seated next to you, and with me.  That is the power of the Word of God and the spiritual significance of what we are about to do.  Come to the table, let us break bread, and be blessed.  Amen.

        There is a story from the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato called the Allegory of the Cave.  Plato wrote the story about 400 BC.  In the story, Plato asked his readers’ to contemplate their understanding of reality.  He asked his readers to consider a cave that held several prisoners.  The prisoners had never been outside the cave and, in fact, had been chained such that they could only look straight ahead at a blank wall of the cave.  Behind the prisoners was a walkway for other people and animals to pass.  Behind the walkway was a fire.  The fire, of course, shed light on the people and animals on the walkway which cast shadows of this activity upon the wall that the prisoners could see.  The prisoners could only see the shadows moving across the wall of the cave. As those shadows passed, the prisoners would try to guess what the shadow represented and what shadow was going to next pass in front of them.  The shadows became the prisoners’ reality.  Then one day, a prisoner broke free of his chains and left the darkness of the cave and into the light.  He saw great and wonderful things in the brilliance of the light. He quickly came to learn how distorted his view, his reality in the cave, had been of the world only seeing it through the reflection of shadows.  This freed prison returned to his friends in the cave to share the joy of his discoveries.  The freed prisoner wanted to help his friends move from the darkness into the light and share in his joy.  The prisoners chained in the cave did not believe what their friend had to say.  Instead, they mocked him and desired to kill him.

        Plato’s story reveals the truth of human nature.  Humans are very capable of creating their own sense of reality and are even comfortable in a reality shaped by shadows and darkness. We have a sense of security living in the “reality” we created for ourselves.  Although Plato wrote his story nearly 400 years before the birth of Christ, the parallels between Plato’s story and Jesus’ public ministry are unmistakable.

            Listen to the story of Jesus first revealing who he was to others.  “16 He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He [Jesus] stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:  18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’  20 Then he [Jesus] rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He [Jesus] began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (Luke 4:16-22).  Jesus came with good news, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, to give sight, and set the oppressed free.  Jesus came with a new message of hope.  At first people were attentive but then Jesus challenged the people’s reality and the comfort of the people.  What was the result?  Luke wrote, “28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way” (Luke 4:28-30).  The people of Jesus own hometown rejected the message of Jesus that challenged the reality of God they had created for themselves.

            Later, while in Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism, Jesus “spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’  13 The Pharisees challenged him, ‘Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid’” (John 8:12-13).  Jesus was bringing a message of light into the darkness. In the light, in him, others could see God clearly.  But the Pharisees, said Jesus testimony was not valid, it could not be believed.

            Jesus persisted to help those in the dark to know the joy of the light found with God. “Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’  33 They answered him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?’ 34 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word’” (John 8:31-37).  Jesus could see that his message was hard for people to accept.  People were invested in their own sense of reality of the God they created for themselves.  They had seen God do great things and listened to God’s word but only as a prisoner looking upon the shadows on the wall of a cave.  The truth about God was distorted.  When Jesus came with the truth, they could not accept his word, and desired to kill him.

            The Apostle John put it this way, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:19-21). Jesus came into the world as the light to dispel the darkness and removed the shadows but people preferred the darkness.  What was the result?  The people killed Jesus rather than step into the light.  Plato’s fantasy story of the Allegory of the Cave had come into reality.

            The task Jesus left for those who did come to believe in him as the light of the world was to walk in continuous fellowship with him.  The Apostle John speaking to the church expressed the individual response to Jesus this way, “5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7).  Our individual mission and purpose then is to walk with Jesus in the light of his word.  This means we must move from the shadows.  We must move from the shadows of our former lives.  We must move from the shadow of other religious and secular beliefs in which we want to take comfort.  We must be willing to accept that our lives in following Jesus, in moving into the light, will be changed.  Sadly, many people do not want to change and desire to see God as just a better version of who they believe they are.

            The Apostle Paul was one person who changed, not easily, but he changed.  After he changed and allowed Jesus who free him from his traditions and his former life, Paul wrote, “15 The Son [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15).  Paul no longer looked at the shadows to imagine what God might be like.  Instead, Paul looked upon Jesus, his life, his ministry, his word, his death, and his resurrection and saw God, clearly. Paul’s words reveal a reality.  To come to know God and do God’s will requires that we come to a crisis of belief.  When we reach a medical crisis or health crisis, it is that moment when the illness or insult to our body has reached such a point that we will either move toward certain death or toward restored life.  The same is true of a crisis of belief.  It is that moment when our spiritual life, beset by the illness and insult of sin and the trials of life reaches such a point that we either move toward Jesus or away from Jesus.  We either move toward the certainty of life or the certainty of death. Paul reached that crisis of belief and concluded, “15 The Son [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:15-18). Paul in accepting Jesus as the light of the world and the visible image of the invisible God entered reality. 

            Paul knew his life in reality must change, not a little tweak here or there, but it must change in substantial and enduring ways. Paul knew he would now see things in the light that he could not see in the darkness and the shadows.  In seeing in the light, Paul knew he must imitate Jesus who, as Paul said, had supremacy over all things.  The supremacy of Jesus must be lived out each day and the way we show the supremacy of Jesus is by imitating Jesus with compassion toward others, with gentleness, with kindness, and with love.  We demonstrate the supremacy of Jesus within us when we offer joy and peace that lives within us in abundance with others.  The reality is to accept Jesus as the light of the world, as the visible image of the invisible God, we too must accept the reality that our lives must be radical different from our past.

            Paul also knew that to pass through the crisis of faith and choose to walk in the light with Jesus meant accepting the reality that God had been, is, and always will be at work around us.  Paul may have sensed God at work when Paul lived in the shadows but now that Paul lived in the light of Jesus, Paul could see God at work. The reality is God invited Paul to join him in his work and to know God better, more deeply, and more personally. Paul discovered the more he engaged in God’s work, the more he experienced God.  This is our reality as well.  In coming through a crisis of belief and accepting Jesus we want to imitate Jesus.  In imitating Jesus, we see the work God is doing and we join him in doing it.  As we do so, we know God better, more personally, and then we understand just how much God loves us.

            It is in the reality of God’s love that we experience Jesus anew.  Paul wrote, “19 For God was pleased to have all his [God’s] fullness dwell in him [Jesus], 20 and through him [Jesus] to reconcile to himself [God] all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his [Jesus’] blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).  In Jesus, we are reconciled to God and to each other.  That is true of all things on earth and in heaven.  That is what Jesus did when he entered the cave of darkness and shadows and invited us to walk with him in the light.  The reality is we have been reconciled at have peace.  The reality is wherever chaos, strife, rioting, division, arguments, and harshness exist, it exists because we chose to climb back into the cave and the shadows.  The reality is anger is a choice we make to break the peace brought by Jesus.  The reality is anger reflects that Jesus we have rejected the supremacy of Jesus.  The reality is that anger reflects we have passed through the crisis of belief and chose death over life.

What are we then to do?  We have been offered freedom from the bounds of our past and we have been offered the hope of the future.  We must accept Jesus and reject the idea of keeping ourselves chained in the cave. We need to walk out into the light with Jesus and in listen to his teachings and do the things that he is doing. We must have love for one another and help others share in the joy of being free and reconciled to God.  This is the reality of life.  It is not easy because it requires that we be willing to examine our life and beliefs to see if we are walking with God in the light or at the world of make believe in shadows and darkness.  Paul said, ”16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  [Do not feel judged that you walked away from your past traditions, practices, and beliefs.] 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16, 17).  Christ is the reality.  Let’s join him there.  Amen and Amen.

        The more time I spend studying Scripture, the more dynamic, exciting, majestic, and breathtaking is my view of God and the more overwhelming is His love through Jesus Christ.  The more I spend time I spend serving others, the more delicate, exposed, and the more dignity deserving is my view of humanity.  The more time I spend hearing stories of evil perpetrated by words and deeds against people, the more acute, more horrid, and more malicious is my view of sin.  The more time I spend in ministry, the more momentous, more profound, and more innovative is my view of God’s creation of His church energized by the Holy Spirit to bring the good news of His hope to people otherwise surrounded by sin and the indifference of the world.  Think for a moment about the picture those views create.  God the Father, together with His Son, and the Holy Spirit are engaged in the radical transformation of one human life at a time moving them from death to life, from sin to holiness, and from despair to hope; and God chose that you and I would be the messengers of that hope to that one life.  Let that thought pour over you for a moment.  Both you and I are messengers of the greatest hope and joy another human being can experience, to know that no matter what, God loves them.  That, my friends, is how radical God intended church to be.  The message and the transformation of life is not one that contemplates wearing a cross and bringing our old life and old ways with us or putting a Band-Aid on the wounds of life and returning to the same old activities to be wounded again.  Following Christ is radical, it is exciting, and it is always relevant to those we meet because while Christ has conquered sin for those who believe in Him; evil, hurts, pains, and hopelessness still dominate the world’s stage.

        So are you ready to connect more with God and people?  I am. Are you ready to share God with someone who feels unloved?  I am. Are you ready to discover more about God and his plan for your life?  I am.  Are you ready to be part of a church that has a momentous, profound, and innovative role in God’s plan?  I am.  Are you ready for something new?  I am. If you are ready, let us turn to God’s Word and see where He is leading us today.

        We will begin this morning with a brief look in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 6.  This is the account of the life of Noah and his family.  Noah was a simple man, likely a farmer, who had found favor with God.  At verse 11, it says, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark.”  How radical is this story?  God made the earth and all that is in it and said it was “good.”  He now surveys the earth and all that is in it and said, “It is filled with violence and is corrupt because of man.”  The world was violent, cruel, unjust, and wrong.  The world was corrupt, perverted, and full of ethical rot and decay.  It was no longer “good.”  Yet, there was a small remnant; Noah and his family who were acceptable to God. Because God loved Noah and his family, God was determined to save them.  How would God save them?  God essentially said to Noah, “Are you ready for something new?”  It was then that God transformed Noah, the farmer, into Noah, the shipbuilder; a task Noah was unqualified to perform except through grace and strength provided by God.  Noah would be the agent on earth to bring forward God’s message of hope and love for humanity and creation.  The flood was not about destruction; it was about saving life, which God said was “good.” God called Noah to do something new.

        About ten years ago, I served as Chairperson of the Board of Deacons of another Baptist church and I experienced on a small-scale God working through the question, “Are you ready for something new?”  One Saturday afternoon, I was making calls to set up visits for the next day to some of the shut-ins of the church.  I called Dr. Elizabeth Peck, who was around 95 at the time.  She answered the phone.  I introduced myself and asked her, “How are you Dr. Peck?”  She paused and then replied with her own question, “Why do you want to know?”  I quickly explained I was calling to set up a visit for Sunday and thought I would start by asking how she was.  Dr. Peck then replied, “Well, to tell you the truth, I need a man!”  This time, I paused.  Are you ready for something new?  Feeling certain, the Deacon’s Procedure Manual did not address this situation, I asked with some trepidation, why she needed a man.  She explained that she needed some minor repairs done at the house.  In the past, corrupt repair people had swindled her and she needed someone she could trust.  That short conversation led to the creation of a church ministry, called the Carpenter’s Apprentice, for the men to come together and address such needs within the church and the community.  It was something new; it was an innovation of the church to let the vulnerable and isolated know God love them.  God asked only once for the building an ark to show His love but He repeatedly calls on us to new ways to build relationships with others to show His love. It is always new and always exciting.

            If we move from Genesis to our New Testament reading in Mark, Chapter 2, we find today’s Scripture reading and instruction from Jesus.  This is a passage about something new.  We will start at verse 18.  “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s [John the Baptist’s] disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”  Mark sets the scene.  The Pharisees, in particular, engaged in fasting; on the second and fifth days of the week – Monday and Thursday.  Fasting was not a private matter.  Fasting occurred in a public manner and some believed fasting put pressure on God to acquiesce to some demand by the person fasting.  In many cases, those fasting missed the moral or spiritual development point of fasting and instead were merely doing justice to the letter of the law.  Here some people observed the disciples of John and the Pharisees engaged in fasting; however, Jesus’ disciples were not fasting.  They wanted to know why Jesus was not enforcing the expected model of righteous behavior on your disciples.

            In verse 19, “Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day, they will fast.’”  Jesus radically changed the point of view and the scene of fasting through self-denial of food to the complete opposite of feasting at a wedding banquet.  Almost in a humorous manner, Jesus asks, “Who fasts at a wedding banquet?” How many of us would go to a wedding and expect to fast?  We would not; doing so is ludicrous.  Jesus often compared the kingdom of God to a wedding banquet because there was so much joy and promise found in the weddings in the first century and that euphoric feeling extends into the present day weddings.  Jesus’ answer then in the form of a question is, “Why would His disciples fast to seek God’s favor when God incarnate was sitting next and fellowshipping with them?”  Mark does not record any response from those who asked the question.  I can imagine them looking at Jesus, perhaps a little confused, trying to understand how His point of view connects with their original question.  Jesus was hitting them with the question of today, “Are you ready for something new? The kingdom of heaven is at hand and it is exciting.”  Sometimes I wonder if we miss the point of how wonderful it is for us to be alive at this moment in history.  We are able to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus meaning all his words are true giving us the power to share his love with others and ask them, “Are you ready for something new?”  Too often Christians seem satisfied to sit motionless and emotionless as though they were at the wedding unaffected by the joy.

            After an appropriate pause, Jesus responded again to the original question about fasting in particular, or more generally, about ritual or traditional religious practices.  He did so with two parables.  In verse 21, Mark recorded Jesus’ words, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth [new cloth] on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”  This is a plainly spoken parable in which the hearer would be in acknowledgement that putting a new piece of cloth over the tear of an old garment in the hopes of extending the life of the old garment would not work.  For a time the tear in the garment is covered, but once washed that new cloth would shrink tearing itself away from the garment causing even greater damage to the garment.  The message is, taking a small piece of what is new and stitching it to old ways is not why Jesus came; it does not reflect the radical nature of God’s love any more than a passing shower reflects the radical nature of God’s love through the flood.

On the street I grew up on was a family of unwed sisters, who when I was ten, were all in their fifties.  They devoutly practiced their Catholic faith by attended Mass together almost every day of the week; not just on Sunday mornings but every day.  However, the only time they were not bickering or badmouthing one another, or someone else on the street, was the one hour a day they were in church.  In some ways, church was the unshuken piece of cloth covering the tear in their garment; it did not change anything and the daily presence in the church only drew attention to how ugly the tear was in the fabric of their family life.  This is Band-Aid Christianity.  Jesus would later say to the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  You blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” We have an immortal and imperishable soul that reflects who we really are.  We cannot repair the fabric of our soul with a patch on the outside or by simply washing the dirt of our lives off.  It requires something completely new. 

            Jesus moved his audience to the “something completely new idea” with his next parable in verse 22.  He said, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”  Jesus begins with a point of common knowledge to his listeners; “no one pours new wine into old wineskins.”  New wine is wine that has not fully fermented.  A byproduct of fermentation is the release of gas, which requires the wineskin to expand.  Old wineskins are wineskins that are hard, rigid, and unyielding.  Jesus said, if you do put new wine in old wineskins, the wineskin will burst and the wine lost.  The vessel for new wine must be proper.  Many people do not understand this simple principle.  They do not recognize following Jesus requires us to be new and accept new ways of thinking, behaving, and speaking.  Too many just want to hold onto to their old ways. The result is sad.  Consider our Old Testament reading today, the Gibeonites gathered all of their old possessions, shoes, clothing, and wineskins to suggest they had come a long way to give honor to Joshua and Israel because of the power of God.  However, they were deceptive.  They did not travel a long distance, they were neighbors of the Israelites seeking to avoid Israel’s wrath.  Later, Joshua uncovered their deception and the Gibeonites a price paid.  They did not come to honor God.  Deceptiveness is all throughout the society in which we live and in some churches.  We know that what comes out of the mouth is not necessarily what’s in the heart.  Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Some claim Christ, but they live their old lifestyle believing an old wineskin can hold the new wine of the Gospel.  Jesus said, you must put new wine in a new wineskin.  The apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  If you are in Christ, you are in essence a new wineskin, with the Holy Spirit filling your life.

            Are you, personally, ready for something new? Then connect with God through Christ. Discover what it means to be a new creation; no longer bound by your own traditions.  It is an exciting and rich life today and a blessed life for all time. Jesus is waiting for you at the wedding feast.  If you accept his invitation to join him, it is the beginning of greatest joy for you than you can now realize.  Are we, this church, ready for something new?  If we are people new in Christ gather, then we have a constantly refreshing, renewing, and innovating church congregation looking at the dynamic, exciting, majestic, and breathtaking view of God and overwhelming love found in Jesus Christ and sharing it with people that He loves who are delicate, exposed, and deserving dignity.  We cannot do what God wants in our personal life or as a church with a patch of cloth or by following the ways of our old lives.  We must be ready for something new.  If we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and with authenticity and love reach out to those around us, we can become the powerful messengers of hope God intended.  Are you ready for something new? I am.  Amen.

            There is a quotation often cited in the business world that shares some meaningful truth for Christians.  It goes like this.  “Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.”  Our character, the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, matters greatly.  As Christians, we must exhibit the character of the one we claim to follow, Jesus Christ.  It begins with our thoughts, then our words, followed by our actions, which become our habits, which then define our character.  Today, I want us to see Christian character through the life of a blind man named in Scripture as Bartimaeus.

            Let’s begin by looking at our New Testament reading in the Gospel of Mark; Chapter 10, beginning at verse 46.  Please open your Bibles to that passage.  If you are using a pew Bibles that passage starts on page 47 of the New Testament section. We are reading from Gospel according to Mark, which scholars’ credit to a young man named John Mark, a protégé of the Apostle Peter.  Mark’s approach was to move his readers quickly through the story of Jesus’ life and ministry.  The first half of the Gospel, chapters 1 through 8, answers the question, “Who is Jesus?”  The answer is brief.   He is the Son of God; the one the prophets foretold would come to heal and make right humanity’s relationship with God.  The second half of the Gospel, chapter 9 through 16, answer the question, “How will Jesus, Son of God, accomplish God’s mission?”  The answer is disturbing; 31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (8:31).”

            Our text today comes from the second half of the Gospel and occurs as Jesus briefly passes through the city of Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. To fully appreciate the character lesson of Bartimaeus, we need to briefly look at the scenes before the text and then after the text. 

Immediately prior to this scene, Jesus and his disciples came through some difficult and tense moments.  The apostles James and John, giants in our understanding of the Christian character, had approach Jesus in secret. They had been thinking about something, undoubtedly talked to each other about it, and now it was time to take action. James and John asked Jesus, ““Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”  James and John believed that Jesus would soon assume a position of great power in the land and they wanted to be Jesus’ principal deputies.  If Jesus was to be number 1 in the land, then James and John wanted to be number 2 and number 3.  They wanted power to decide who would (or would not) do what, when, where, and how. Thoughts led to words and words led to actions.  James and John displayed a character that sought power and dominion over others. They did not seek authority from Jesus for the ministry in his name; they sought authority for personal standing and control of others. 

John Mark, our gospel writer, recorded these words and reaction by the other apostles when James’ and John’s secret plan became known, “41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.”  The ten were angry because someone else was trying to get one over on them and prevent them from becoming number 2 or number 3 in Jesus’ power structure.  “42 So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” 

Christian character is not about power for oneself, it is about empowering others. It is about following the example of giving others hope by serving them.  Jesus said, “45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  Jesus was correcting the thinking of the disciples, so that they words would not be self-centered but gracious.  With gracious words comes a servant’s heart with deeds of care for others.  Done often enough those acts become habitual; meaning it is done almost without conscious decision, or even compulsory.  When our behavior is such, then it defines our character as that of Christ for we came to serve not be served.  That is the character model Christ wants but is not exhibited by James and John through their secret quest for power.

With the stage set, we turn to verse 46.  “46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.”  In the ancient language, the prefix, “bar,” means “son of.”  This man, Bartimaeus, sat, blind, an outcast from society.  His life was reduced to begging for money or food; making him dependent upon others for his very survival.  This was how people saw Bartimaeus; the character of Bartimaeus was thought to be that of a blind beggar, a drain on society and unable to contribute.  How often are our thoughts about the character traits of a person formed by their external appearance or circumstances?  If we think that way, our words, deeds, habits will inform our character will act accordingly.  Christ wants us to look at the heart of the person and serve the external needs of others.

  In verse 47, as the crowd moved passed Bartimaeus, ”He [Bartimaeus] heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he [Bartimaeus] began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”  Think about the scene for a moment.  Jesus, Son of God to some, to many just a miracle worker, was passing by the very road in which Bartimaeus sat as an outcast.  He realized Jesus caused the commotion but he could not see in front of him.  Two things happened.  First, everyone who knew the power of Christ and knew Bartimaeus or could observe his condition chose not to ask Jesus to serve Bartimaeus.  No one seemed to think Bartimaeus worth to be introduced to Jesus. Apparently, Jesus’ lessons on being a servant to others sink in slowly or not at all.  Are we like those of that crowd?  We know Jesus, we follow him, we study the Bible, we do acts of charity but we are unwilling to set any of those things aside to spend the time to introduce the outcast to Christ?  Ponder that question this week. 

The second thing that happened was Bartimaeus spoke loudly calling to Jesus as his sole source of grace.   “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus, the outcast, the blind beggar saw something almost no one else saw; the promise of God’s love right before him.  He praised Jesus as the rightful heir of King David’s throne and the giver of grace through healing.  These were Bartimaeus’ thoughts.  His thoughts led to him speaking.

Verse 48 provides the reaction, “48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet.” “Stop being such a bother and be quiet. No one wants to hear from you and certainly do not be speaking about Jesus as some Messiah!”  However, “Bartimaeus cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Bartimaeus’ thoughts could not be silenced so he acted again repeating his call to Jesus as the savior from God and the only source of grace.  If you speak out as a believer in Jesus as the Christ, many will sternly tell you to be quiet.  If we have a genuine Christian character, then it will be impossible to silence us. Do not be silenced in your love for Christ.

There once was a man named Polycarp who became a disciple of the Apostle John.  Polycarp served in the Christian Church and rose to some prominence.  In 155 A.D., Roman soldiers arrived at Polycarp’s home to arrest him because he refused to burn incense in honor of the emperor.  Polycarp provided the soldiers supper then he prayed with such devotion that several of them were converted.  Despite his hospitality, the soldiers brought Polycarp to an arena filled with local people looking for a good show.  The Roman authority said he would set Polycarp free if and only if Polycarp would denounce Jesus.  Polycarp responded this way, “How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.” Polycarp could only show hospitality toward those sent to arrest him and could only speak about Christ and his message.  This was his character.  In that arena, he met the character of the crowd.  They bound Polycarp and burned at the stake because he would not remain silent.

 Bartimaeus understood that remaining silent with Jesus present in your life was impossible. Bartimaeus called out, ““Son of David, have mercy on me!” “49 Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ 52 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately Bartimaeus regained his sight.”

James and John had approached Jesus in secret and Jesus asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?”  They asked for power over others.   They left unfulfilled.  Bartimaeus approached Jesus in public and Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  Bartimaeus said, “Heal me.”  Bartimaeus received sight and was satisfied.  Mark presented such a contrast in the stories between those seeking Christ.  Jesus healed Bartimaeus in response to Bartimaeus’ faith and as a means of showing others, including us, the power of God. Have you thought about the question, “What do you want from Jesus?”  Have you thought about as though you were James and John or as one like Bartimaeus?

Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Go; your faith has made you well.”  Bartimaeus did not go.  He left behind is beggar’s cloak and followed Jesus on the way.  Bartimaeus was not interested in returning to his old life or even his old garment.  He was interested in only one thing; following Jesus on the way.  Is that how we think, speak, and act?  Do we genuinely move from our old life and old ways and follow a new way with Christ?

We might ask, Bartimaeus was on the way but where was Jesus going?  Mark said Jesus next stop was Jerusalem for a triumphal entry. As far as we know, Bartimaeus was there no singing and crying out, ““Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  Jesus was going to the cross and Bartimaeus was following him.  That was Bartimaeus’ new character.

            What is your character? What is the inner nature of your thinking and how does it surface to others?  Do you act as James and John working in secret, seeking advantages in life and ignoring the outcasts that surround you as you profess your devotion to Christ?  Think about what you do or do not do on a daily basis.  Those things are your habits which define your character. Alternatively, are you like Bartimaeus who understood that your life could not reach its potential without a healing by Jesus and by following him?  What occupies your thoughts?  God knows because He hears what you say.  Others know because they receive your words and see your actions.  We might like to think others are blind but they are not.  What are you doing habitually and does it represent Christ in you? The character of Bartimaeus was a simple one.  He looked for grace in Jesus and would not be silenced once he found it.  What is your character? 

James 5:13-20

We have come to the end of ten weeks of exploration of a letter from the brother of Jesus, a man named James.  The teachings of James at times contained harsh, rigid, and blunt warnings to the first followers of Jesus.  At other times, James’ teaching offered encouragement to those who were trying to live faithfully.  Overall, James was addressing real problems being experienced by real people as they came together in the collective of the institution, we call church.  We need James’ teachings today because James was calling on the Christians to recognize that a key element of life was to live with a new sense of community founded in God’s victory over sin and death evidenced by the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.  In living out that life, James made clear Christianity is not a “go it alone” life.  Christianity is a community lifestyle.  Honoring God is not done in secret.  Honoring God occurs in living our lives in a new family setting of brothers and sisters in Christ.  And one of things we come to realize, and James focused very much on this point, is that siblings, brothers and sisters, do not always naturally get along. Afterall, we see that the very first sibling relationship of Cain and Abel ended in Abel’s murder.  The idea of a Christian community does not come naturally to us.  It comes to us supernaturally through Jesus.

So as James concluded his letter, it appears James wanted his readers to take on the best sense of community as possible, the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that Jesus came to establish, gave his life for, and arose from the dead to give hope to.  Now, James was not trying to paint a picture that following Jesus meant everything would be easy and joyful all the time.  That is not real.  James was saying that life even for the follower of Jesus will have its difficulties. There will be times of suffering and times of joy.  And the boundary that separates joy and suffering can be terrifyingly thin.  Last week, Becky and I sat with some parents who have lost children to death.  One mother shared that she had been with her adult son on a Thursday.   It was a good day.  At the end of the day, she and her son went to their respective homes.  They had made plans for Friday and Saturday. Sadly, Friday did not come for her son. He died peacefully seated on the couch watching television.  This is reality of life.  It is a mixture of suffering and joy often with a very thin boundary between them.

James began to confront the reality of life in the Christian community and the thin boundaries we face.  James wrote, “13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.”  James’ understanding of following Jesus in this life was simple. His formula was: in trouble, pray; in joy, praise.  Prayer and praise were and are the appropriate response to trouble and joy.  Prayer and praise are two forms of communication with God. Prayer is our way of setting out our dependence upon God for compassion and mercy to be extended in our times of trouble.  Praise is our expression of joy in knowing our God will listen and has been and will be present in our life. 

Prayer and praise say a lot about our relationship with God.  If either prayer or praise or both are missing in our life, it would suggest our relationship with God needs repair. James said earlier in his letter, “You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” (James 4:2b-3a).  James was expressing that his readers’ relationship with God was in need of repair because genuine prayer and praise were absent.

Now there can be a temptation by some to make prayer too complicated or too formal and mechanical.  I read an article the other day stating that there are nine different types of prayer. There is prayer of intercession, supplication, faith, corporate, in the spirit, thanksgiving, confession, dedication, and imprecation or curing someone.  The article said each prayer had its own format.  I would find it exhausting to remember the details of each form of prayer and a source of concern as to whether I had used the “proper” format for the purpose.  Jesus said pray.  James said pray.  The Gospel message is simple; just talk to God and if you ask for anything, do so with right motives regardless of the specific reason you are praying.  Do not make it complicated.  Just pray.  In case you were wondering, I read another article on the seven forms of praise.  Each again reason for praise carried with it a specific purpose and format.  Jesus said praise.  James said praise.  The Gospel message again is simple; just praise God for his compassion, mercy, and provision.  Do not make it complicated.  Just offer praise.

Now James suggested that when we pray to God, we need not go it alone. Prayer can and should be a corporate exercise as well.  James wrote, “14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.”  James encouraged his readers, now you and me, to make use of the community of brothers and sisters and invite them into our prayers for our troubles.  James said we should bring the elders in when someone is not well.  The term “elders” here means the leaders of the church. Inviting the leadership of the church is intended to bring the full weight of the church to support those who are sick.  Involving the elders means people who have the strength to pray can do so.  Involving the elders also means the answer to the prayer may have already been provided through the community of brothers and sisters called church.

Allow me to offer an illustration.  Tony Campolo is a well-known American preacher. Some years ago, Tony was invited by a Christian group to speak at their annual conference.  On the day of the conference, the master of ceremony gave Tony a glowing introduction and then asked Tony to lead the group in a prayer that God would provide the funds for the orphanage this group financially supported. Tony made his way to the pulpit and considered how best to pray.  Tony looked around and realized the people in this group were financially stable, with a few appearing to be wealthy.  When Tony arrived at the microphone, he paused for a moment, and then said, “I will not lead this group in prayer.”  Tony continued, “I will not pray that God would make the funds available for this orphanage because God has already answered that prayer.  In this very room is enough money for the orphanage and before I begin speaking we are going to take a collection.”  A few people chuckled at this amusing thought.  Tony said, “I am not kidding.”  Taking a breadbasket from the table, Tony said, “I am taking all the money out of my wallet and donating it to the orphanage. I am now going table by table and asking each of you to do the same; empty your wallets of all cash into the basket.”  Tony went table to table and took up an offering.  When it was counted, there was more money than the orphanage needed for the year.  Tony then gave his prepared remarks to the group.  That group never invited Tony to return.

Bringing the elders into our prayers brings the weight and power of the living body of Christ to bear down upon our sickness, whatever form that may be expressed.  God can use the living body of Christ to lift the sick but only if the body is willing and engaged in moving.

James then went on to say that in community, we need to be honest with one another and seek accountability from one another. James said, “If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:15b-16).  Sin causes wounds within families, churches, and nations.  Sin is a wound that at best will leave scar tissue and at the worst will allow infection into the spiritual body.  Confession, disclosure of sin, frees us, cleans out the wound, and opens the possibility of reconciliation with others.  When we confess our sins, we open ourselves up to God and to restoration with others so that we can have a new future. Confession is to be about building the future.

Confession is hard because we must trust in the person to whom we are confessing, and we must confess with proper motives.  Often our motives for sinning get in the way of our confessing.  A learned pastor wrote, “We sinners are so backwards that we try to justify ourselves by some condition which preceded the sin. Motives console us.”[1]  What does this pastor mean by that?  Ever hear the words come out of your mouth or have someone say to you, “I am sorry that I yelled at you, but you made me angry when you said…”  We have confessed with improper motives by justifying our actions as a natural response to the actions of the person to whom we are confessing.  The confession then becomes an instrument to accuse.  That learned pastor completed his though this way, “It isn’t some preliminary cause, some motive before sin that justifies me, but rather the forgiveness of Christ which meets my repentance after the sin.”[2]  Forgiveness comes, reconciliation comes, healing comes after we repent.

James then concluded with this touching thought, “19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”  If we wander from the truth we are at risk.  The term wander means to aimlessly move from place to place or in this case, from one belief to another.  James knew something about being aimless.  James lived many years with Jesus and did not see who Jesus was. James listened to Jesus and thought he was insane.  James tried to get Jesus to do things that we either not proper in time or place. James was aimless in his pursuit of God. Then something remarkable happened. Jesus was killed on the cross and buried.  I do not doubt that James grieved his brother’s death.  Sorrow had entered James’ life.  Then just days later came the word, “Jesus had risen from the grave. Jesus was alive.”  Sorrow gave way to joy.  While the boundary between joy and sorrow is thin so too is the boundary between sorrow and joy.  The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate act of joy for all humanity and reshapes our understanding of sorrow and joy.  The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate act of creating new individuals for a new community.

You and I are part of that new community.  We need to pray for one another.  We need to bring the full weight of the church community down upon the problems we face and to be used by God to lift one another up.  This is the will of God.  Jesus said, ““Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  Let us live in a community peace as brothers and sister.  Amen and Amen.

[1] Wagerin, Walter, Reliving the Passion, (Grand Rapids, MI; Zondervan, 1992), 46.

[2] Ibid.

James 5:1-11

There have been many writers who have taken on the charge to describe the conditions of the world around them and to give their readers insight into the need for change.  Our own Declaration of Independence used most of its space to describe the tyranny of King George against the American Colonies and the consequence of those abuses; namely, the need for the American Colonies to abolish the established relationship with the King and his government.  The ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence was that governments were instituted to protect and defend God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  In a like manner, James, the author of our New Testament reading, took on the charge to describe some conditions that were of concern to him and the consequences of those abuses.  James said that his letter was written to the Twelve Tribes scatter among the nations. This has been taken to mean that James is writing to early Christians who had been raised as Jews and then came to accept Jesus as Lord.  As such, we should view James’ writing as to Christians describing conditions within the Church.  Those conditions were not all peaches and cream. 

James described tyranny and corruption within in the early Church, particularly among the people with money.  James warned those with money of the severe consequences of abusing those without money.  Then, James described the need for the faithful of the early Church to hold fast to the life and to the freedom granted by God through Christ who was uncorruptible, faithful, merciful, and compassionate.  Though James wrote his letter centuries ago, the issues of wealth inequalities and abuse continue to exist today, even within the contemporary Christian Church.

James began describing the conditions most concerning to him with broadside of verbal cannon fire much like a fighting ship of days bygone days.  James wrote, “1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.”  In literature, writers are encouraged to begin their work with what is called a “hook” sentence.  A “hook” sentence is one that grabs the reader’s attention and gives them a reason to keep on reading.  “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.” That is an A+ “hook” sentence because everyone, rich and poor alike, will want to read on.  The idea that rich people would weep and wail in misery is the opposite of the conventional wisdom for rich people.  The expectation for those who are rich is a carefree and comfortable lives, not lives marked by misery.  James’ words destroy the Jewish conception that the possession of wealth was an indication of God’s favor.  Instead of favor, the rich would face misery or God’s wrath.

James, the brother of Jesus, was sharing spiritual insights with the early believers and followers of Jesus and revealed here that the rich will face misery.  In James’ day, there was no real middle class.  For the most part, people were either rich or they were poor.  The poor worked daily for the resources to eat that day. The rich, of course, stockpiled not just the necessities of life but also the luxuries of life.  Now, we might ask ourselves, “Am I hooked to what James said because I consider myself rich or because I consider myself poor?”  The answer to that question depends on our understanding of wealth.  In the United States, our perceptions of wealth and poverty may be askew compared to the world at large.  Consider for a moment that if you woke up this morning and you had food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep.  If so, then you are richer than 75% of the people in the world.  If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. 

With those statistics in mind, we can ask ourselves, “Am I rich or am I poor?” as we read again James’ opening sentences, “1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.  2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.”  James was pointing out that the rich had material goods and clothing in abundance such that some of it was beginning to rot and be eaten by inserts.  Their goods and clothing were rotting and spoiling because it was not needed to meet their own needs and not being shared with those who were in need.  The rich had secreted money and even it had sat unneeded for so long that the coins were beginning to corrode.  James said the rot, spoiled, and corroded excess unused wealth will be the evidence to testify against the rich of their love of money and their indifference toward the poor.  That evidence would convict them of their lack of genuine love for God and for their neighbors.  James was making clear that hoarding wealth is a sin of omission; the act of not acting. We will recall that last week James spoke about the sin of omission when he wrote, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (James 4:17).  That is the sin of omission; the act of not acting, the act of knowing what ought to be done and not doing it.

Now James was not done with those who had saved up resources to the point of rot, spoilage, and rust.  James went after those who were involved in the sin of commission; that is, they acted against the poor.  The sin of commission is the act of knowing what ought not be done and doing it. James wrote, “4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”  James was citing that the corruption within the early Church was so complete that love, friendship, compassion, humility, and empathy was lacking by the rich.

James’ words are an extension of those Jesus taught his disciples about the love of money.  Jesus taught, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely” (Mark 12:38-40).  The Apostle Paul expressed Jesus’ teaching this way, “9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).  The love of money is a serious problem for the Christian life because we can only have one first love: God or money, but not both.  James was warning the rich that their love of money was evil and unchristian.  The rich were reflecting the progressive wisdom of the world which James described as earthly, then unspiritual, and finally demonic.  We, individually and as a local church, must examine our love. Is it for possessions, fine things, and money or is it for God? 

To the faithful of the early church, James said, “7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about” (James 5:7-11).  James was encouraging the faithful, particularly those who were poor, to be patient and hold fast to the Lord, Jesus Christ, who would set things right.  In and through Christ, eternal judgement would be brought upon the rich or anyone who lived by earthly, unspiritual, and demonic wisdom and the faithful would be rewarded eternally.  James may have had in mind the story Jesus told of such a judgement.  “19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.  22 The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he [the rich man] was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side” (Luke 16:19-23). Abraham speaking to the rich man said, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony” (Luke 16:25).  Jesus was revealing to us the fate of those who love their money more than God and more than their neighbors.  Coldness, indifference, and cruelty in this life will not go unpunished and misfortune, difficulties, and struggles of the faithful will not go unrewarded.

            How do we know God will act to reverse the fortunes of this world?  James concluded this section of his letter with the truth, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11).  God will make things right because he is compassionate and merciful.  But the faithful must be patient.  James cites the need for patience four times in this passage.  Patience is difficult for us, especially in our culture of instantaneous living.  We can communicate with people on the other side of the world as quickly as we can with the person next to us.  We can cook food with microwave ovens in a small fraction of the time earlier generations ever thought imaginable.  We can travel at 500 miles per hour in aircraft to destinations that 50 years ago may not even be reached in a lifetime.  If Jesus is going to set things right, then we want and even feel entitled that he does so now.  We want our vindication in the certainty of today not in the uncertainty of tomorrow.

            Jesus understood our need for assurance that God was compassionate and merciful.  That is why he gave the faithful a sign and reminder of compassion in the present and mercy in the future.  On the night when Jesus was betrayed for a mere 30 silver coins, Jesus shared a meal with his faithful followers.  At this meal, Jesus took the daily bread, the sustenance of life.  He blessed the bread, giving thanks to God for his provision of their needs.  Then Jesus broke the bread into smaller pieces and gave it to his followers. Jesus said, “Take and eat, this is my body.”  In the certainty of the present moment, Jesus reassured his followers that God saw them, heard them, loved them, and was compassionate upon them.

            Jesus then took a cup of wine.  Again, Jesus blessed the wine, giving thanks to God for the fruit of the fields.  Then Jesus gave the cup to his followers and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20).  The covenant was an unbreakable agreement established by God that His mercy would be on the followers of Jesus.  The blood of Jesus represented in the cup was a seal giving certainty to the mercy of God for eternity.  What was required of Jesus followers?  They must take and eat of the bread and drink from the cup and follower Jesus.  In following Jesus, God, not money becomes the love of life.  God given wisdom and not earthly wisdom guides and instructs lives of Jesus’ followers.  In following Jesus, compassion and mercy found in God is found in abundance in the lives of his followers and the distinction between rich and poor is to melt. The rich shall use their resources to meet the needs of the poor.  James said earlier in his letter, ”Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (James 2:5)

            Let us come to the table of the Lord as his followers, patient in the present, and assured of the future.  In taking the bread and the cup, let us be renewed in our faith and in our desire to share the riches of Christ and the riches of this world as an expression of our first love for God.  Amen and Amen.

James 4:11-17

We have been looking at the writings of James, the brother of Jesus. James was a man who it appears throughout Jesus public ministry did not believe what Jesus’ said about himself. And yet, James listened to what Jesus said.  At one point in Jesus ministry throughout Galilee, James thought Jesus was out of his mind and came to seize control over Jesus and bring Jesus home.  And yet, James paid attention to Jesus’ teachings and remembered them.  James’ separation from his brother Jesus’ ministry seemed so complete that upon Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus appointed his own disciple, John, as the caretaker of Mary, mother of Jesus and mother of James.  And yet, James would come to honor his brother Jesus as Lord and Savior and did so even to the point of his own death by the hands of a mob who stoned and clubbed James to death.  What accounts for the transformation of James from doubter and skeptic to disciplined believer?  The apostle Paul revealed to us the reason James’ transformation in the letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth.

3 For what I [Paul] received I passed on to you [the believers in Corinth] as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me [Paul] also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Jesus, risen from the dead, first appeared to those who believed in him and who grieved so terribly after Jesus’ crucifixion. Paul said Jesus appeared to Peter, a man broken by his own denials of Jesus.  Then Jesus appeared to the other apostles.  Jesus then to 500 people who believed in him, men and women alike. Only after resurrecting the faith and spirit of those who had believed in Jesus, did Jesus then appear to those who had not believed in him.  Paul lists only two such appearances to non-believers: James and Paul.  Jesus first appeared to his brother James, a man who thought Jesus was insane.  We do not know when or where Jesus appeared to James.  We know when Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, Jesus spoke her name, “Mary,” and at Jesus’ calling, Mary threw herself to the ground and wrapped her arms around Jesus’ feet and cried out “Rabboni,” a term of endearment.  Did Jesus do likewise when he appeared to his brother and simply say, “James?”  And did James fall to Jesus’ feet knees calling Jesus by some pet name?  Or did Jesus just appear, standing before his brother, James and say nothing?  And in that silence did all the words James said about Jesus, about being insane or a fraud, come pouring into James’ mind, reminding James of the judgments he had made against his brother, Jesus?  And in that silence, did Jesus who was and is perfectly innocent judge his accuser James? Innocence accuses its accuser. And after those few moments of terrifying silent reflection by James of what he said to and about Jesus, did those words depart from James’ mind and replaced by forgiveness and words of Jesus? We do not know.

            But we do know two important things about James from that encounter with his brother, Jesus.  First, James believed in Jesus.  The resurrection changed and transformed the entirety of James’ life.  The resurrection of Jesus was and is the defining event for James, for you, and for me.  Today, people chant, “No justice, no peace.”  For the Christian, the statement should be “No resurrection, no peace.” The apostle Paul said, “17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).  James believed and so after becoming a witness to the resurrection, James called himself, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1).   James called his brother, the “glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1). James believed in Jesus without reservation and, instead of being a detractor of Jesus, became a servant of his brother.

            The second thing we learn about James after the resurrection appearance by his brother is that James was concerned about what came out of his mouth and the mouth of Jesus followers.  James’ letter is not long and yet he speaks numerous times about what we say to one another.  Let me give you just a few examples.

• Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19).
• Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless (James 1:26).
• Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law (James 2:12).
• The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:6)
• With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be (James 3:9-10).

James was concerned about what people said, perhaps because what James said before the resurrection of Jesus about Jesus was unkind, unworthy, and earthly leaving James open to judgment by the Son of God. James seeing his brother, Jesus, appear before him, resurrected from the dead, must have been a terrifying moment. The final words of James’ letter may give us some insight into what those brothers shared in that moment. James wrote, “Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). In that moment of the resurrection appearance of Jesus to James, it seems clear that Jesus turned James from James’ error and rather than judgment into eternal death, Jesus covered a multitude of James’ sin and brought him into eternal life.  That is the promise we too share with James.

            James, perhaps like few other people, understood the significance of brother speaking against brother and the power of forgiveness found in one brother forgiving the other.  James wanted his readers, he wanted you and me, to understand that what we say matters in this life and what we say carries eternal significance.  From today’s reading, James wrote, “11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.  Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.  When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11-12).  James’ words showed the eternal significance of our words. “Do not slander one another.”  The King James Version of this verse is more pointed, “Speak not evil one of another.”  These words are as old as one the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 5:12).  Slander is the act of making a false statement against someone else.  James made this connection.  To slander is to violate the law of God.  To violate the law of God is to set yourself as judge of the law.  To judge the law is to judge the lawgiver, God.  Slander thus hurts the person we speak against and places us in the position of judging God.  James said, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy” (James 4:12).  James’ words here reflect that he understood what Jesus said on this very matter and in many ways applied to the way James treated Jesus.

            Jesus said, “21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). “Raca,” meant the person was considered emptyheaded or a fool.  Makes you wonder if James felt he had called his brother Jesus, ”Raca,” when James believed Jesus was out of his mind.  James had judged Jesus and quite wrongly.  To judge another is not a small matter. Jesus said, “28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).  James must have remembered his brother, Jesus’ words, when James wrote, “12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy” (James 4:12).  James, standing before his resurrected brother Jesus, stood the risk of being judged for eternity but instead James was saved by Jesus whom James saw as his Lord.  James, the new person saved by his brother, the Son of God, said, “Who are you to judge?” (James 4:12).  Indeed, who am I and who are you to judge another and slander the reputation of a brother or sister?  James’ question and his words of admonishment are powerful and should call us to check our words.  Jesus said, “36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).

            James finished up this chapter by continuing to address the impact of what we say.  We pick things up again at verse 13, “13 Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’  14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  15 Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’  16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes.  All such boasting is evil.”  James’ point here was that his readers, believers in Jesus, were using the gift of language and testimony to boast that they would use their lives, also a gift, to make money – lots of money.  The boasting represented a desire to set their own plans in motion for the purpose of amassing wealth for themselves.  Wealth itself is not necessarily a problem.  The problem James was pointing out was that God was absent from the plan.  The boasts of James’ readers were strictly earthly centered and that the objective was to amass wealth such that these people would become even more self-reliant. The boast means James’ readers saw no dependence on God at all for their lives.  James brought his readers up short and said, “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).  We are a mist.  A mist appears for a while and then vanishes, and no one remembers anything about the mist. That is a sobering thought and a hard truth.  Now we could be discouraged or even depressed by the idea that we are seemingly so inconsequential.  But that was not James’ desire.  His point was that we must not see our lives through the lens of earthly living alone. We must have an eternal view. James was reflecting the teaching of Jesus who said, “19Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). Jesus point, James’ point, was that the treasure of life will not be found here in the pursuit of wealth.  The treasure will be found in doing what God desires.  James said we must approach God in humility and in dependence to him.  From that posture, James wrote, “15 You ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15).  Our posture ought to be found in seeking God and in seeking God’s will.

            James knew something about the power of words and thoughts expressed about life. James knew something about the power of words and thoughts expressed to God and about God.  James shared the same living space as God lived among us in the person of Jesus.  James had plenty of time to know Jesus, his brother, and to speak with his brother. James thought his brother was insane. James thought his brother was not genuine.  James thought his brother was wrong in his thinking.  James was not quiet about his thoughts and his words were hurtful. Then something happened.  James’ brother Jesus was killed and buried. Then came the terribly wonderful and terribly frightening news.  Jesus was alive.  He had been raised from the dead.  Jesus was who he claimed to be, the son of God.  The wonder and terror of that news came to a peak when James stood before Jesus. All of James’ idle and unkind words flooded James’ mind.  James must have thought to himself, “I am doomed.”  Then Jesus spoke to James in a reassuring tone that James’ sins were forgiven; that is why Jesus came and died.  James shared with us that we need to be thoughtful about what we say and to use our words not to judge our neighbors but to seek the will of God; God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).  That is the good we can do.  With that in mind, James concluded, “17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

            This week, let’s restore our language with our brothers, sister, parents, children, and neighbors because we know what is good and seek to just do it. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).  Amen and Amen.