’Twas Grace that Taught…”

A Sermon Based Upon James 1: 1-7; 4: 3-10

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

October 23rd, 2016  (Series: 4/7, Amazing Grace)

When you sing about God’s amazing, forgiving, redeeming and healing grace, it’s hard to think we must also sing about ‘fear’.   But this is exactly where John Newton’s lyrics takes us.   And we still sing, but perhaps don’t stop to think about it: “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear….”  So, we quickly rush to the next part of the phrase without thinking,  “…and grace, my fears relieved”.   But it is still an important matter to answer first, “What does the Bible mean to instruct us still, ‘that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’?  (Proverbs 1.7).   What does it mean to have grace teach us to fear, then to have that very same experience of grace to relieve that fear?  What kind of spiritual, theological, or even perhaps, a very schizophrenic sounding reality is this?   Does grace really ‘teach’ us anything?   If it does, what in the world does ‘fear’ have to do with it?  This is what we are going consider today from John Newton’s great hymn in this 4^th of 7 messages.

To help us reflect upon what we can grace that teach us, we are going to turn our attention, not to the Hebrew Old Testament, but to the practical and instructive book of the New Testament, the Letter of the apostle James.   There is already some ‘apprehension’ in my heart as we turn to this passage that speaks to ‘the twelve tribes’ of refugees, who are part of the Christian ‘dispersion’.   In other words, these are the Jewish Christians, who have had to leave Jerusalem as a result of the Jewish War of rebellion which was waged and lost against the conquering Romans.  Most of the Christians survived that time of “war” and “destruction” because they did exactly what Jesus said.  When the ‘armies surrounded’ the city of Jerusalem (Lk 21:20), if they followed Jesus’ recommendation, they ran for the hills (Lk 21:21), did not resist (Lk. 21:21; Mt. 5:39), and now they are have become living communities of Judeo-Christian faith, still rooted in the twelve tribes of Israel, ‘dispersed’ around their world.

CONSIDER IT ALL  JOY

It is all natural and expected, that to people who have had to struggle, suffer, and to deal with the hardships of being a ‘displaced’, pilgrim people, which in fact we all are, that James must begin his letter speaking directly about the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’.   If his words have any credibility at all, he must at the very first address the very real hardships and ‘trials’ they are facing, just as the Bible, must somehow address the ‘trials’ all people, even Christians, and we too, will at some time or other, ‘face’ in our lives.  

James addresses these trials by giving them a very ‘strange’ challenge, not only to learn to accept these hardships, but to accept them positively, even by ‘consider it nothing but joy’ (NRSV) or as other Bible version, even more radically expresses it, ‘to consider it ALL joy’ (KJV).   How can you, me, or anyone, learn to face the difficulties we have, in our faith, or in our lives, as ‘valuable’, ‘rewardable’, or dare I even agree, with ‘joy’?  To put it in John Newton’s song, do we have enough of God’s amazing grace in us that we are astounded and amazed at how we too have learned to deal with the trails and the hurts we also endure?

The whole idea that life can be hurtful, even after or because we follow Jesus, is not popular among ‘success’ or ‘wealth’ oriented preachers.   We’ve all heard those preachers who only preach ‘positive’, ‘heartwarming’, inspirational messages, as we might call them, but seldom find it appealing or profitable to preach the ‘whole counsel of God’, which must also include includes the message of the cross we are also called to bear with Jesus.   When Jesus was instructing his disciples about the coming attack and destruction of Jerusalem (Matt 14, Mark 13, Luke 21), he told them that they too would be persecuted, and some of them would be hauled in before judges, and asked to defend themselves, namely, as to whether they were a Jew who opposed Rome, or a Jew who supported Rome.   Rome, was not always known for being ‘kind’ or ‘fair’ in its interrogation procedures.   Jesus wanted to reassure his disciples, if they were captured and interrogated, not to be afraid, but that the “Holy Spirit” would give them the words to say and give them ‘defense’ they needed. 

Besides, this exactly how the Holy Spirit was later officially named, after the war and the consequent ‘dispersion’ (70 AD) of the church and the Jewish people.  By the time the gospel of John was written (95 AD), this Holy Spirit was formerly named a “Counselor” (RSV), “Comforter” (KJV) or an “Advocate” (NRSV) who would literally, not just figuratively, come beside them and be with them (see John 14-16).   While we can’t ever know whether Jesus actually meant to name God’s coming ‘counselor’ exactly this way, we can know that what made this resonate with early Christians was their own very real experience of God’s continuing, comforting, counseling Spirit, when they did suffer and were persecuted.  This “Holy Spirit” was alive in them, and enabled and empowered them to keep positive, remain hopeful and to be of good courage, even when they were in pain or under great pressure.

One thing the reality of life, and my own very real, vivid, lived and actual experience of trails and testings of faith have taught me, is that, I, and probably you too, cannot do this on our own.    We also need a helper, a comforter, a counselor, and an advocate to go along beside of us in life.    This is literally what the term ‘advocate’ means in German and in Greek: “The one who stands by and is beside of us along the way”.    You and I still need God’s Spirit alive within our own hearts in our lives, at both the best and worst of times, in order to be our ‘helper’ that enables us to deal with what we too have to deal with.   Life just doesn’t work, without the Spirit that gives us the power to hold on to faith, hope and love, especially when the worst happens to us. 

      

SO THAT YOU MAY BE MATURE

What we still have to ‘fear’ however, is that even though God, through the Spirit, will come along side of us, and is with us, this God who freely loves and loves freedom, still ‘allows’ life, and even perhaps some random, unexpected, unwanted, difficult, or even bad things to happen to us.   When bad things do happen,  they may not be directly ‘caused’ by God, but they are definitely either ‘allowed’ by God, or they are the channels for how God will continue to give his life and love to us, which must include, in this real world, the very real potential, possibility, and the probability of suffering, hardships, and pain.  

We need not ‘pin’ everything that happens on the perfect will and desire of God, but we must come to understand that God can and does work his perfect will for our lives through the things God permits to happen.   Why God has a perfect and a permissive will is somewhat mysterious to us (God told Job he couldn’t understand, even if God told him), what we can understand is that God permits life to be free so that love and life will continue to freely flow into the reality of whatever happens, which must include the good and beautiful along with the bad and the ugly that bring the potential hurts, pains, problems, and the difficulties we experience.  You just can’t have ‘reality’ as we know it, the great potential for good, without also having the potential for bad.  You can’t have pure joy, without possible pain.  You can’t have love, without allowing hate, and you can have physical life, at least as we now know it with all its glory and majesty, without it having to end in death.

Where I’m going with this, is to declare to you, exactly what James says and what I believe he means, that goes along with what I’ve learned in life, and ‘in the Spirit’ too.  What ‘grace has taught me’ is that now that God’s love and grace has come to me,  free, undeserved, unmerited, and unearned,  I know that the whole idea of ‘cause and effect’ and ‘judgment and condemnation no longer applies.   God is love, and because God is love, he is full of mercy and grace toward sinners who will acknowledge and live into that grace.  I also know that God is also on the ‘hunt’ for the sinner, not to destroy, but to save, even it is ‘by’ or ‘through fire’ (1 Cor. 3: 15).  It is the ‘saving us through the fire ‘ part that sobers me and should sober you to the God who loves, but also allows us to ‘freedom’ to learn encounter his love through the ‘testings’, ‘trials’ and pains of life.

James even outlines how he sees this ‘testing’ fire of life, having the potential to have a ‘positive’ effect in us: …”you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:3).  The word James uses the word ‘hupomone’ for the positive outworking of ‘trials’ or ‘testings’, which is used to express several ideas in the Greek language, being translated several ways in English, such as ‘patience’ (KJV), ‘endurance’ (NRSV), ‘perseverance’ (NIV). Or ‘steadfastness’ (RSV).   All these ideas are related, but the New International translation captures the Greek best and the Basic English Translation (BEE) simply interprets James plaining saying, “the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope”.   In other words, when we prove our faith by living it no matter what, and when our faith is proven in us, no matter what,  it is this ‘strength training’ experience, much like an athlete endures, that gives believers the affirmation, the confidence, and the resolve to keep moving ahead in our life of faith against the trails and testings of life.

And of course, don’t forget the ultimate ‘payoff’ of enduring, persevering, or having patience in the midst of trouble and trials:  ‘…so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.’  Here, James is not speaking of what most people want, but he is speaking of what all people need and the world needs most, today and every day: character, morals, virtue, values, and ethic.   You don’t get this kind of moral maturity without enduring some kind of adversity or passing through some kind of ‘test’ or ‘trial’.   But even when the ‘trail’ and ‘test’ comes, this character, maturity, or completeness is never automatic.  We do not choose the ‘test’ or the ‘trial’, but we always must ‘choose’ how we respond, whether we endure, or the way we face that trial.

There is most always, in our lives, in our situation, and in our lives; a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ to face and endure the trial.  Here, I recognize the ‘grayness’ of many decisions we have to make, but I’m aiming ‘how’ we decide, as much as ‘what’ we decide.   James gives us a great example of ‘how’ some were deciding to face ‘trials’ and ‘tests’ in their lives.  Moving to James, chapter 4, we find how some folks in the early church were ‘facing’ their various trials the ‘wrong way’; with ‘conflicts’ and ‘disputes’ (James 4:1) caused by ‘cravings’ or desires which sometimes led to hate and ‘murder’ (4:2).  Can you believe that some people in the church gave into ‘hate’ and ‘murder’ to face their ‘desperate’ situations?   If you can’t see how that could happen, you’ve probably never been in a truly desperate, life and death, situation.  

Of course, hate or murder is the wrong way to ‘endure’.  The ‘right way’ to face ‘tests’ or ‘trials’ was to take the problems ‘to God in prayer’, as the gospel song says.  “You do not have, because you do not ask…You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly…” (4:2).    James says they asked ‘wrongly’ by only asking for luxuries, not necessities, demanding to have what they wanted for their ‘pleasures’, not for what they all needed to assure that God’s ‘grace’ and ‘mercy’ would be known all (4:6).   In this way they made themselves ‘enemies’ of God’s instead of ‘friends’. 

The right way to get through these ‘trials’ was to lose their proud (4:6) spirit (4:5) God had given them, so that they would, in any situtation, humble themselves, submit to God, and resist the devil so that he would flee  (4:7).   That’s James’ formula for ‘enduring’, even the worst tests and trials of your life.   What you also realize, as you take it in its context, is that you adopt this formula for faith, without realizing it is a ‘formula’ that aims to allow God to show ‘more grace’ to ‘all’ (4:6) in the community, a ‘grace’ that is being given by God, but also enabled by the humility, the endurance, the submission and the maturity of everyone in the community of faith together, beginning with those who were  ‘at war within’ (4:1),  struggling with ‘cravings’ (4:1) only satisfy their own ‘pleasures’ (4:3)

ASK IN FAITH,  NEVER DOUBTING

Finally, what I think James reminds us,  just as John Newton taught us to sing in his song “Amazing Grace”,  is that it is only by learning of the ‘hard lessons’ by God’s grace, by both having ‘fear’ and then ‘having our fears relieved’ through God’s grace, of course, that we become empowered  and enabled to live our lives on a level of emotional, spiritual, and moral maturity.  In other words, only when we are given the grace to ‘endure’ will we receive the grace we need to ‘mature’ and ‘complete’ in our spiritual lives.  

Of course, this is not easy, is it?  And James does not say that it is.  Going back to James’ opening words:  To face trials is not easy.   To have your faith tested is not easy.  To ‘let endurance have its full effect’---‘endurance’ is not easy, and to become ‘mature’ and ‘complete’  so that you are ‘lacking in nothing’ is not easy.   It is not easy because sometimes  you can only become ‘lack nothing’, not because you ‘have everything’, but because you have ‘learned how to be content’ (Phil. 4:11) by not having, and not having to have, everything.  

But how do you gain a spiritual ‘wisdom’ and ‘maturity’ like this, in such a materialistic, consumer oriented,  have it all world?   It will come through ‘enduring’ hardships, but as I’ve already made clear, or tried to,  we also have to make the right ‘choices’ to deal with these ‘trials’ and hardships, in healthy, mature ways, which is,  ‘in faith’ (1:6).   How do we do this?  James plainly tells us:  “If any of is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you…but ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way,  must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (1:6-7).  

We don’t have time to ‘unpack’ all that James recommends to ‘empower’ and ‘enable’ us to make the right choices of ‘faith.’  But to simplify it, I think an ‘explanation’ or ‘clarification’ comes in how James addresses ‘how’ we should approach God in James 4, when he writes,  “But (God) gives all the more grace; therefore it says,  “God opposes the proud, but give grace to the humble.  Submit yourselves, therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee.”  Then, James adds, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (do you see the link?). …Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you… do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters…” (4:8-10).  

Can you see where James is going with this?   Can you see where and how you must go to be ‘mature’ and be ‘complete’?   It is only when we ‘want’ to mature, and only when we ‘want’ to ‘draw near to God’, namely, only when we learn to want what God wants---wanting what God desires to ‘give’ (4:6) and will give us ‘generously’ (NRSV), ‘liberally’ (KJV) and ‘ungrudgingly’; the grace that gives ‘wisdom’ (1:5) maturity (1:4), and of course,  his ‘grace’, which he freely  ‘gives to the humble’ (4:6).    Folks,  when we learn, ‘through fear’ to ‘want’ what God wants,  this is how we fully receive the ‘grace’ and ‘goodness’ God gives. 

When I was working on my Doctor of Ministry degree, each of the 9 students in the class, were required to write and preach a sermon on a given text.  The text I was given was the most ‘obscure’ less preached text of all.  It was an Advent and Christmas text from Titus, 2: 11-14.  Whoever preaches from Titus at Christmas?  But when I began to look closely at that text, I found a jewel of truth, I’d never seen before.  It could have been the very text that inspired John Newton’s line about ‘grace’ ‘teaching him’, because Titus speaks of ‘the grace of God’ appearing, ‘bringing salvation to all’, TRAINING US ….” (2:12).   Did you hear that.  Grace, comes to us, at Christmas, through Jesus Christ, to ‘train’ us, as a ‘teacher’.  It’s is, God’s grace that is a ‘teacher’ that ‘teaches’ us how to live. 

When I wrote that sermon, we had two ladies in the class, one, who was in line to become a Methodist Bishop in Virginia, and the other, who was a pastoral counselor in large Baptist church in Raleigh.  It was the ‘younger’ married lady, who told us when giving her life story, that she and her husband had just had a baby.  Guess what they named the baby?  Yep.  “Grace”.   Here was my chance to grab hold of an illustration that spoke to us all.  I said something like:  “When the Baby Jesus was born, Wise Men brought him Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  They bought him these ‘gifts’ because they hoped he would bring change into their world.  When our babies are born,  we have high hopes in them to.  We might not receive Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh at their baby shower, but when a baby comes into our lives,  that baby changes everything about our lives.  And perhaps this is how our ‘babies’ remind us of God’s Son,  who came as ‘grace’ to ‘teach us’ about what really matters, and to give us the wisdom we need to live our lives with maturity every child needs from us.    And the greatest thing any child will teach us, when we are learning to be their parent, is that what we all need most of all, is God’s grace.  Grace is the gift, and grace is the teacher that teaches us that ‘grace’ is what matters to God, and what should matter to us, most of all.

Isn’t this what John Newton learned?  It was the ‘precious belief’ that God’s grace came to him in that storm tossed ship and in his storm-tossed life, which ‘taught him to fear’ what could happen, without God's help.   It was also having his ‘fears relieved’ by God’s grace that taught him to want what only God can give, when he ‘believed’ and discovered the only ‘grace’ that could answer what was missing in his life.   What about you?  Can you find ‘grace’ in learning to want what God wants, and most of all, believing in what God wants for us all?  If you will, perhaps it will be just as ‘amazing’ for you. Amen.