Sermon Tone Analysis

What was it like to be a brother of Jesus?

Would you respect your older brother who never got into trouble?

Never was disrespectful of Mary and Joseph?

Would you see him as some goody two-shoes who was too virtuous to be true?

And then there was the time he was lost for three days only to be found in the temple in Jerusalem deep in discussion with the religious leaders?

How did he get that kind of knowledge?

We could speculate all day long what it was like to be his brother but let's skip ahead to a historical event in the life of James, one of Jesus' four brothers.

You wonder if the sight was familiar to him.

Maybe James once watched his brother up there on that pinnacle-hesitating, talking to someone.

Now he was there himself.

This was the end of life for the apostle James.

He was led here by an angry mob-to the same pinnacle of the temple where Jesus was led by Satan years before.

James was forced to the temple spire and told to tell the people to stop believing in Jesus.

He, of course, used this as opportunity to preach the gospel loudly to the crowd.

The mob pushed him from the tower, and he crashed to the ground.

He didn't die.

They started to stone him.

He still didn't die.

He rose to his knees, praying for Jesus to forgive his attackers.

Someone hit him with a club, and then he died and was buried right there at the steps of the temple.

This is the tradition of the martyrdom of James, the brother of Jesus.

Traditions aren't nearly as reliable as scripture, so we don't know the exact details, but we know most of the apostles faced similar deaths, and the idea of James, the brother of Jesus, enduring to the end and praying for the forgiveness of his attackers fits what we know of James and the other apostles.

James was in charge of the Jerusalem church, which was one of the epicenters of the early church but also the most embattled and troubled.

Despite their initial reluctance to welcome Gentile believers, the Jerusalem church was eventually supported financially by Gentile communities (see Romans 15 and other letters of Paul).

They had some acute needs and were often in tension with their Jewish neighbors.

As the details of this martyrdom story show, James was tough, focused and Christ centered.

If Paul was your philosophy professor, and Peter was your hothead friend always getting in trouble, James was your football coach.

The wisdom of connecting true faith and actions is his theme, and he rings it throughout his short letter.

He starts with two topics we can all relate to: the danger of showing favoritism and the taming of the tongue.

It's interesting that he starts with universal and "acceptable" sins.

He doesn't jump straight to murder or sexual sin.

James' target audience is everyday people struggling with everyday sins.

In a word: us.

In chapters 3 and 4, he digs into this wisdom theme, seeing godly wisdom as the place that right action grows from.

He compares heavenly wisdom with its cheap, earthly copy.

For James, wisdom means living life the way God made it-living according to the grain of reality.

Let's start with a quick read of our text for today.

James 3:13-18 (ESV)

13 Who is wise and understanding among you?

By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 4:3 (ESV)

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

James 4:7-8 (ESV)

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

S.P.S. Let's look at three things James teaches us about wisdom.

Wisdom from above:

* Comes from peace

* Arrives with gentleness

* Brings wholeness

1. Comes from peace

James 3:18 (ESV)

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

It's no secret that we live in noisy times-from the alarm that wakes us up to the manufactured white noise we need to sleep.

More than any other era in history, our center of peace is crowded with sound.

An observation from an article on the noise of our modern age says the following:

Scientists define "noise" as unwanted sound, and the level of background din from human activities has been doubling roughly every three decades, beating population growth.

Road traffic in the United States has tripled over the last 30 years.1

It's often hard to find a center of peace, yet James encourages us to be the center of peace for others.

James' point speaks to us, telling us that righteous action and the results of it come from that center of peace.

That may run against instinct for a lot of us.

When we think about faith and faith instruction, we might automatically think of busyness and work-changing our habits, watching our interactions, serving difficult people.

We may also think of the hard work it takes to go against the flow of culture and stand up for righteousness.

James doesn't disagree with that-he is clear that the evidence of faith is action.

But he says the beginning of it is peace.

That peace is behind it all, and that's where the power of living the Christian life comes from.

In our noisy, over-busy world, this kind of inner peace is the exception, even in the church.

The word James uses for peace means that things are the way God made them and working together the way God made them.

It corresponds to the Hebrew word "shalom."

Jewish and Muslim people greet each other with this word "shalom" ("salaam" in Arabic), wishing integration and rest to the person they meet.

Do we act out of this center of shalom?

Shalom is the state of people who know who they are in Christ and have hope and trust that God will take care of them.

Shalom is this state of clear-headed quiet within this noisy world-the place where the true strength comes from.

You might be familiar with the third step in the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

The operative word hiding in here is "care."

The antidote to addiction is believing that God will take care of you-that you don't have to self-care through addiction anymore.

We can learn from this as Christ followers-this kind of centered peace comes from believing that Christ will take care of us.

We don't have to protect ourselves with scorching cynicism; we don't have to live in constant distraction by devices and entertainment-God will take care of us.

We don't have to steal the spotlight and live in the constant hunger for attention-God loves us, we are his royal children.

It is out of this peace that we sow the seed whose harvest is righteousness (verse 18).

Think of the firebrand pastor who delights in scolding his congregation and decrying the evil of "the world."

He doesn't come from peace, and he rarely sees a harvest of righteousness.

Think of how we might abstain from certain behaviors or conversations because of our commitment to Christ.

Do we do so with an air of judgment?

Or with the fanfare of showing off our righteousness?

Or do we do so out of shalom?

Let's consider just one contemporary example-vaccinations. Sometimes I wonder if separation ever occurs in our country, it won't be between English Canadians and French Canadians.

Rather it will be between the vaccinated folks and those die-hard individuals who assert that Covid-19 is one big hoax and vaccines are tantamount to injecting yourself with poison.

So how do you handle the disputes and disagreements about vaccinations?

Do we restrain our tongues when speaking to someone who has strong and contrary views to ours on vaccinations?

Do we follow James' admonition to seek the higher ground of peace rather than asserting our strongly held views on the subject?

May the Holy Spirit lead us when we face the temptation to abandon peace for pugnacity.

The brother of Jesus shows us that the wisdom from heaven begins and ends in peace.