Schedules and Bank Balances
Notes
Transcript
Planning plays a big part in what I do. The pandemic put paid to that. The ongoing building work then made planning even harder. When would we be back together? Which sermon series would we finish our time apart with? Who will be on the rotas as part of the teams serving. In a perfect world I would say it has been humbling (and it has, when I reflect), but in reality I have often found it frustrsting. Interruptions, delays and the unexpected have taken up a lot of time. This adds to my relief at coming back...
Who is in control?
Who is in control?
In this passage James address the certainty (or uncertainty of life!) and a warning to the rich.
A helpful understanding for us in both of these aspects of our sermon today might be how we understand ourselves and how we understand God. Culturally humanbeings see themselves at the centre. Everything we do revolves around us. We sit at the centre, with different cogs of life whirring around us: personal, family, work, social, faith. In reality this is unhelpful. Rather than ‘me’ being part of a machine which runs to benefit us, as Christians we put God at the centre.
A bike wheel is held together by the hub. The rim gets its strength and runs true because of the spokes supporting it, but these spokes are held in place by the hub. God is the hub, holding our lives together helping our lives to run true. When God is at the centre of our personal lives, our work lives, social lives, our family lives, (whilst life is far from perfect and sometimes needs a tune up!) the wheel runs true.
This, I hope, is a helpful illustration as we come to the passage before us today.
Addressing travelling merchants, James speaks directly to the human desire to plan and prosper on ones on terms.
Planning is part of everyday life. We plan our schedules, we plan our finances, we plan our outfits based on the weather (unpredictable = challenge!). And when we make these plans we all have an in-built assumption that the plans will not fail. I am not being critical here, just pointing out human nature! We don’t like interrupted plans - this is a frustration to us… We want things to go our way and work out just as we had intended. The pandemic is an example of this. 2020 saw so many plans initially postponed and ultimately cancelled. If you felt some frustration during this time, you have lived the point I am trying to make…
It is foolish to think we can make plans and expect them to come off without a hitch. We are not in control. God is!
James 4:14 “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
James speaks to the attitude of these travelling merchants who think they can just make their plans to go, sell their goods and and make money - after all, what else would we expect them to do. But James points towards the vain nature of their plans. Rather than being sensible they are making assumptions based on something they have no control over.
There are only a couple of certainties in life - we are all born and we will all die. Beyond that, we don’t have much detail. Sometimes we can look ahead and make some fair assumptions about things, but ultimately only God knows. God is soverign - he is powerful and in control. His are the plans to make, not ours! We are not as powerful or in as much control as we think. We are of course proud enough and ignorant enough to think that we are!
The one thing we can be certain of is that as theose who placed their faith in Christ, when we die, we will see eternal life, in the presence of God. So we know where we will be in a million years but we have no real certainty about tomorrow.
The image James uses is of mist, which can come and go in an instant.
Having addressed the wrong attitude, James offers a helpful corrective:
James 4:15 “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.””
Our plans should acknowledge that God is in control! This recognises the source of our life, the one who gives direction and the true place of power and control. It is a humble position!
Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
We hold loosely the plans we have made for our return to the builidng regarding style/format - we are trusting that this is how God is leading us into this new season and will continue to seek his will on this.
We need to think about more than just ‘what’ we plan, but ‘how’ we plan...
Each day is a gift from God and we need to live life in the way God would want us to.
This is what James means when he says James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
Our plans often get in the way of us doing the things we ought to do. We can become too busy for church, personal prayer/bible study, life groups - we know we should be doing it but we can’t quite fit it in. Back to the wheel… the spokes fall off without the hub! Are we too busy to serve our priority relationships?
Will we follow God’s way or the world’s way?
How should we view the rich?
How should we view the rich?
James addresses the rich using very strong language. We already know the rich have been exploiting the poor (James 2:6-7)
The context suggests James isn’t addressing Christians here. He addresses fellow believers as brother and sister frequently through his letter and where there are challenges of sinful attitudes/behaviours he invites repentance.It is also likely he wasn’t expecting the rich people he is alluding to to read this letter. So what purpose does it serve?
What he achieves is revealing to the poor, marginalised Christians the attitude God has towards those who are rich.
Even today we can look to the wealthy and be envious of their position. People look to wealth and see something they aspire to be/have. But the future God has for them is one which is not enviable.
It helps to clear up a little what Jesus might have meant when he said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.
Cristiano Ronaldo - return to the premier league = exciting. BUT it comes with big figures attached to it… He is earning weekly what I will earn in about twenty five years! He is driving a car I would need to work for over five years to buy. And this is just one of a number of super cars.. Not only is he rich, but he is hoarding and living extravagantly as well.
Judgment comes on the rich for three things:
Hoarding
James 5:2-3 “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.”
World: money/possessions = good. Accumulation of said things = commendable. A sign of success.
Gold is made to shine and clothes are made to wear… The waste caused by hoarding (rust/moth destroy) exposes the sinfulness of the human heart.
We can save, but we make these available to God and his will. We need to be open to God’s call to give generously to help others and glorify him.
Extravagance
James 5:5 “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”
This connects back to the idea putting self at the centre. Extravagance keeps things for ME rather than being generous towards others.
Christmas Turkeys at Up Exe… living a life of luxury in October/November, unaware of the slaughter that awaits!
By all means earn money, enjoy nice things but GIVE generously to God. Don’t hold back.
1 Tim 4:4-5 “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”
Injustice
James 5:4 “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
Acting justly is a command of God!
A foolish Prayer?
A foolish Prayer?
Proverbs 30:8-9 “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”