Sunday, September 22, 2024
The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
James and Jesus call for humility and respect
The Rev. Mark Wilkinson, Rector
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Katy TX 77450
I haven’t spent much time with the James passages in my sermons the past couple of weeks other than to look at the idea of being doers of the word, not just hearers. This letter is more in the genre of wisdom literature, like Proverbs that we also have been hearing. Suggestions of how to live and get along with others. We are unsure of when it was written or who James truly is. Commentaries place it early in the time of the New Testament, others say it may be almost a 3rd century work. The early camp thinks it was in fact James identified as the brother of Jesus. Whether that is correct or not that really isn’t important. The advice on how to be a church is what is important. This evidence of strife is a theme not only in James but in most of Paul’s letters. Here this is again a question of who has power and how to use it. Sadly, James could be writing to our churches, our leaders, our country today, not much has changed.
I would like to go back to last week’s passage to look at it in combination with today’s passage. I shared the Message translation of both weeks with the Tuesday Bible Study and we had quite a lively discussion. Listen to part of last week’s passage. Message translation of v.6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. 6 A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. 7 This is scary:
And yes this is scary. The analogy of a spark and a forest fire is very timely. One of the largest fires in the west got started by workers trying to prevent fires, but a spark from some equipment started a blaze that quickly spread out of control. This spark from a tongue is happening over and over again especially on the internet and in our political discourse. One statement can get picked up and go viral even if it isn’t true. Harmony is turned into chaos. Reputations are destroyed, cities put in peril and this not anything new.
Listen to the Message translation of verses 16-18, 16 Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats. 17 Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. 18 You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor
Now my original thought was to look at the subject of humility that we get in the gospel, but we also hear that message in our Epistle. After Jesus makes his second prediction of his arrest and execution and resurrection he confronts the disciples who are arguing about who is the greatest. Jesus then gives us a lesson in humility.
We must all understand that we need to be humble enough to grasp that none of us has the full truth only our piece. We all need the humility to say, I might be wrong.” And then be willing to listen to facts that may change and adjust our thinking to them.
I was reminded this week of one of the things that Bill Moyers said in an interview many years ago when he had written a book with Joseph Campbell entitled the Power of Myth. He was asked about truth and what is truth. I remember him looking at the interviewer and saying, “I have truth and you have truth and everyone watching us has truth. None of us however has the truth. It is only by combining our truths that we can then grasp the “Truth.”
A problem we have right now is one of cognitive dissonance and rewriting the “truth.” In listening to a psychologist talk about this I was fascinated. Cognitive dissonance is when what we think or believe is at odds with what we see. Unfortunately, what many are doing today is going out and finding facts or bending facts to reinforce their position rather than letting those new facts refine and correct our position. Humility teaches us to admit that we might be wrong.
More than anything else and I think that is what James is getting at is that humility allows us to not have to be first, the best, have the choice seat at the table. It takes courage to be humble. It takes self-knowledge to be humble. I am not suggesting that being humble means you let people walk all over you. That is not a piece of humility. In fact it takes real courage to be humble. It takes courage to say, “I might be wrong.” It takes courage to stand up for what we believe as Christians as spelled out in our Baptismal Covenant! Especially when it seems so many have forgotten the basic tenants of our faith. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Remember in the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus tells us who our neighbor is.
I want to reread one verse as I come to a close this morning. 18 You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.” Remember in our baptismal covenant we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. What we have seen time again is one spark true or not can inflame people to the point of great destruction.
I’m thinking of an incident where white supremacists passed on the rumor that a member of the black community had assaulted a white woman. They fanned the flames of hate until an entire neighborhood was burned to the ground. This would be the Black Wall Street riots of Tulsa Oklahoma 1921 that left 35 blocks burned to the ground and many killed and injured. This was a prosperous neighborhood of people who contributed to the welfare of the entire city, yet they were feared because they were other to the white supremacists. Supremacists who claimed to be good faithful Christians protecting their faith and their race. This was before the internet and we know how fast and destructively this information can be passed today. We see the same thing happening today. The only difference is the speed at which disinformation can be spread.
We are better than this. We have to start getting along with each other if we are to make a difference in this world. And you can make a difference even if it is by building community one relationship as a time. That’s part of the final blessing which asks that we believe that we can make a difference and we can make the world a better place. So have hope, but take action to uphold the promises of our Baptismal Covenant to work for justice and peace for all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.
I want to close with a prayer The Bishop of Southeast Florida the Rt. Rev Peter Eton wrote in light of the current state of affairs.
Loving God,
we give you thanks for the beauty of this world,
the splendor of nature,
the wonder of life,
the diversity of the human family,
and the mystery of love.
Give us grace as those who live in this circle of life
to be for one another
strength in need, counsellors in perplexity,
comfort in sorrow, and companions in joy.
Inspire our public leaders and ourselves
to strive for justice and peace among all people,
live sustainably,
and respect the dignity of every human being.
Open us all to receive the spirit of humility,
wise intentionality, and a sense of our sacred purpose
in the mission of the Gospel to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Through Jesus Christ our Savior,
who is the model of our life and witness. Amen.