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James 3:13-4:8 Do you want to be
counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: live well,
live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.
Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom.
Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the
furthest thing from wisdom - it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. 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.
Where do you think all these
appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think
again. They come about because people want their own way, and fight for it
regardless of cost to others. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing
to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your
hands on it.
You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way. You’re cheating on God. So let the Holy One work in you. Say a quiet yes to God who will be there in no time. Stop dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Get serious about how you live your life.
Mark 9:33 - 37
They came to Capernaum. When he was
safe at home, he asked them, “What were you discussing on the road?” The
silence was deafening—they had been arguing with one another over who among
them was greatest. He sat down and called them to sit with him.
“So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”
He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me – the one who sent me.”
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Several years ago, I encountered someone who had decided that the amount of vacation time the minister received was unfair. In that congregation, there was one month of vacation, plus a week following each of Christmas and Easter. The comment, made several times in public was “The minister gets too much time off and it’s just not right!! In all my 35 years of working I never got that kind of time off!!” Attempts to explain that I only took one day a week off whereas the other person would have had two days off, didn’t work. Attempts to explain that my average week was usually over 50 hours and that the educational requirements for my position were much higher didn’t work. The funny thing was, it was not actually really about me nor about the minister’s time off, but about that person. This was not a happy person, had never been a happy person, will never be a happy person – and the real issue was a comparison of our lives, with that life coming up short – in that person’s eyes. There were issues of power involved – mine set up against the congregation – in a contrived situation. I truly believe this person felt life had dealt an unfair hand. – and no attempt to have conversation which would deal with the obvious pastoral issues was ever allowed. There was a clear vulnerability which went unacknowledged, and unapproachable.
Mark tells us Jesus was walking along the road and recognised there was some dissent among the disciples. Mark tells us Jesus got to his home in Capernaum, and asked them what the argument was about. They were competing for who was the greatest, or who had the most authority among them, or who was the wisest, whatever. Mark tells us Jesus says, if you want to be first, don’t compete with each other for who holds power. Mark also tells us there were children around – and Jesus took one of the smaller ones on his lap and said “Whoever holds a child like this holds me, and by extension, holds God.”
Children, in Jewish thought, were not symbols of innocence, but rather symbols of vulnerability. Jesus literally says that both he and the one who sent him are found in the most vulnerable. So the ones who would ask to be the greatest must become as the least.
Just over two years ago, the world saw the election of a new Pope – Jorge Mario Bergoglio – known to us as Francis, a Jesuit from Argentina. Throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, his concern for the poor and his commitment to interfaith dialogue. He is known for his very humble approach to his position as Pope, less formal than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the Apostolic Palace. Due to both his Jesuit and Ignatian training, he is known for favoring very simple vestments, and keeps the same pectoral cross he had when he was cardinal. He maintains that the Church should be more open and welcoming. He has continually held up before the media and the world, a picture of the most vulnerable among us, and a need for commitment to a way of life based in love – hence his commitment to interfaith dialogue, recognising that compassion and love are common factors in all world religions.
“What kind of love do we bring to others?: he asks. “Do we treat each other like brothers and sisters? Or do we judge one another?” Speaking of the issue of gays and lesbians he commented “Who am I to judge?”
Francis has argued that the Church’s purpose is to proclaim God’s merciful love for all people rather than to condemn sinners for having fallen short of rules, especially gender and sexual orientation. He promotes an inclusive vision of the Church centered on an identification with the poor. From this vision, theological and organizational innovations flow. It is a move to leadership based in invitation and welcome, in humility and compassion, wisdom and love.
Listen again to James: “Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.”
The way you live, not how you talk, is what counts.
Rev. Gretta Vosper has been in the church media quite a bit lately. In 2008 her book was published, called “With or Without God: Why How We Live is More Important Than What We Believe”. Now – for me, married to someone who has no religion – that was pretty much a no-brainer. One doesn’t have to be religious, or be a Christian, to live with humility and wisdom. How many people call themselves Christian but don’t act like it? How many people behave in ways we would call Christian – but they are not people who claim the Christian faith? Kindness, compassion, humility, wisdom, love – are not exclusive to the Christian faith, at all.
Here is a brief bit from the chapter on ‘Reconstructing Christianity’:
“A Christianity that is worthy of continuing will be one that helps us to see beyond our own driving need for self-fulfillment, either spiritual or material. It will help us develop outside our own egocentricity to a transcendent awareness of all life and the complexities of our existence within it. This is the radically ethical living that I believe our values call us toward.”
On life-enhancing values: “…..beauty, forgiveness, delight, love, respect, wisdom, honour, creativity, tranquillity, imagination, awe, humour, truth, purity, justice, courage, fun, compassion, challenge, knowledge and trustworthiness. Remove any one of these from our communities or the world and we would radically alter our quality of life, the way we engage in relationship. The message Christianity can convey is that these and all life-enhancing values are sacred. They make life worthwhile. They make us better when we employ them, when we seek to live up to them. And it is a message that we can share with those who do not call themselves Christian but name a different religious tradition or philosophical ideology. Indeed, it is a message all perspectives can employ when challenging the fundamentalist mindsets existing within them.”
I see a thread running through all these things – the comments of James about humility and wisdom, about living well and living with humility, about human relationships; the teachings of Jesus which hold up the vulnerable, and point to human relationships. The example today of a Pope who embodies wisdom and humility? and one of our own, grappling with how to make us relevant in the 21st century, and the message we can offer. How we live, how we treat each other – aren’t those the very things Jesus taught? How to have good human relationship – and I have to point out that Jesus never ever said one had to be of his faith, to be a faithful person and live with wisdom. For me the whole message of Jesus was that how we live, how we treat each other, is so much more important than our words about what we believe.
The words of James “Real 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. 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.”
“Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.”
And the words of Jesus – if you hold one of the children of Creation, just as he did, you are holding Jesus, and holding God.
May we walk in wisdom.
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