God Gives Grace To the Humble

 A sermon based on James 4: 1-10

By Charles J. Tomlin, DMin;

October 17th, 2021, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Book of James, 8/12

 

 

NRS James 4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?

 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.

 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

 5 Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, "God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?

 6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

 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.

 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.

 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt (Jas. 4:1-10 NRS)

 

Believe it or not, a war once started over a pig.  It happened back in 1859, on San Juan Island, a chunk of land located between the mainland United States and Vancouver Island in Canada.  There was an argument over a slaughtered hog and it lead to a full-scale conflict between the United States and Great Britain.

At the time, the island was home to American settlers and British employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and both parties had laid claim to its fertile soil.  The first and only shots, of what later came to be called the Pig War, came on June 15, when an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar gunned down a British-owned black boar after he discovered the animal rooting through his potato patch. The ensuing argument over the dead hog increased tensions between the two groups of settlers, and Cutlar was eventually threatened with arrest.

After the Americans reported the incident to the military, the U.S. Army dispatched Captain George Pickett—later a Confederate general during the Civil War—to San Juan with a small complement of troops. Pickett upped the ante by declaring the whole island U.S. property.  The British responded by sending a fleet of heavily armed naval vessels to the coastline. An absurd standoff ensued, and the situation remained on a knife-edge for several agonizing weeks.

The two nations would finally negotiate a deal allowing for joint military occupation of San Juan Island in October 1859, ending the Pig War as a bloodless stalemate—except for the loss of one very unfortunate pig.

 

CONFLICTS AND DISPUTES AMONG YOU

Why do we fight against others?  Why do we humans have conflicts with each other?  Why do we go to war and kill one another in such destructive ways?  Why do humans sometimes even kill for the thrill of it —-when even wild animals don’t?

Back in 1992, in Los Angeles, Cailf., Rodney King (the George Floyd who wasn’t killed) was stopped by police and ordered to get out of the car. The LA  Police Department officers then kicked him repeatedly and beat him with batons for a reported 15 minutes.  A bystander recorded the whole thing.  More than than a dozen cops stood by, watching and commenting on the beating. King's injuries resulted in skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and permanent brain damage too.

After the police officers were acquitted of their crimes , in less than 3 hours after the verdict, riots broke out.  Rioters set fires, looted and destroyed stores, retail shops and fast food restaurants. Light-skinned motorists — both white and Latino — were targeted and some were pulled out of their cars and beaten as revenge.

In response to the unrest, Rodney King himself was asked to appear on Television and he made an unforgettable, emotional plea to the rioters.  He said, ‘People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? … It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice … Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.’

In our text today, James answers ‘why’ we humans often don’t get along.   He says the reason is that there is already a conflict going on inside of ourselves.  This inner conflict comes from our inner desires and the struggle in our own souls..  In saying this, Jame’s point is clear, and even modern behavioral science would agree.  Those conflicts we often have with others many times has much more to do with us than it has to do with what’s going on with them.

Now, let’s think deeper about this for a moment.  Think of some of the many conflicts going on in our world today.  How about political division and conflict?  How about Religious conflict—-not just other religions but within our own no Christian fellowships.  Also  think about social, racial, and economic conflicts too.  These conflicts happen in our world, James says, because of what’s wrong in us.  What can James be talking about?

Through the years, as a pastor,, I’ve had a few people get angry and attempt to fight against me,  I didn’t even see it coming, either.  I’ve seen other pastors having the same kinds of experiences with people.  It can come with the job.  For example, in my first church,  the pastor before me had someone leave a note on the pulpit saying that he was a pig.  In another church, the previous pastor warned me not to go to that church as pastor, because, he said, ‘the devil was in the church’.  From what I’ve seen, the devil has been at work in all the churches where I’ve been pastor.  Where else would the devil be working than trying to disrupt the very people who could be, and often are, doing the most good.

I’ve know many situations, where major, life-changing conflicts happened without any necessary reason at all.  They just happened and simple differences became major disagreements that ended in major conflicts which ended up hurting good  people and damaging good churches and hurting their witness to. God’s love in the the world.,

Years ago, I took a seminar in conflict management, as it especially related to churches.  One of the major ‘take always’ from that seminar is being expressed right here in what James is saying.  According to the best research, conflict normally has more to do with what’s is has happened to people in their past than what is actually happening in the present moment.  Things, like anger and hurt can sit around in us for years, until something opens the door and lets it out.

James also says that much of the conflicts going on inside of us have to do with inner cravings, inner desires, but then he moves on to say this has to do with misplaced trust.  This trust has been misplaced  in our own ability to control and command our own outcomes.  As James puts it,  we stop asking God for what we need, and start insisting on what we want.  Since what we want may be prevented by others, we demand and will fight to have it.’

Now, there is a lot of drama going on in this text just like goes on in our own world.   James even lists some as human struggles which result in murder, coveting, and disputes..   Then, he surprisingly links this conflict as a result of not praying—-failing to pray about the matter and not asking God for what we want or what we need,

Is this really the source of human conflicts—-a refusal or neglect in talking to God?   James could be on to something here, don’t you think?  I doubt that many people have prayed and sincerely asked God to help them and then proceeded to fight with another person.  While prayer doesn’t give us what we want or change our situation, sincere prayer changes us and who we are.  It changes us because when pray, our relationship with God determines who we are, not what we do or don’t have.

 

FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD

Prayer changes us because when we pray, our friendship with God develops and this becomes a friendship that defines everything in our lives. 

In his discussion, James has already named Abraham as a friend of God (2:23).   Abraham was called God’s friend because he believed and trusted God in a way that the relationship defined every aspect of Abraham’s life.   And because of this trust, Scripture says that God credited and considered Abraham as righteous before him.  In other words, by trusting God, Abraham became the kind of person who was trustworthy and true.

The opposite of developing friendship with God,  James says, is when we have a friendship .with the world.  Worldliness lies at the root of human conflict, James’ says you can’t be friends with the world and also be friends with God at the same time.  In fact, in the strongest language possible, James says that when live as friends of the world we become enemies of God.  That’s very powerful language, but what does it mean?

The point James is making here is that when we are not right with God -- when our friendship with Him is blurred because of our friendship with the world—we start wanting the wrong things, or we don't ask God for what we really need, or we ask Him for good things but we are asking with a wrong purpose and motive in mind.   In other words, we pray for things, even good things, but we pray with the intention of using them for our own gain and selfish pleasure.

Maxie Dunnam, who used to be president of Asbury Seminary, once told of a man who was boasting to an evangelist about the fact that God had given him a new Cadillac, "I prayed to the Lord, And I gave Him 10% of my income, and he blessed me with a new Cadillac"

"Is that right", the evangelist asked.

"Oh yes sir" the man responded. "I gave the Lord 10% of everything I

 made and prayed for a new Cadillac and the Lord came through. Ain't that wonderful?"

The evangelist was very pointed in his response: "That's interesting", he said. "You prayed to God, and He gave you a Cadillac. But when His own son prayed to Him, God gave Him an ugly Cross on which to die.

When you hear this, you realize there’s something contradictory about asking God to give you a Cadillac when we are to ask for the things only God can give---hope, humility, and a loving heart.  It's one thing to be in need of transportation and pray that your needs will be met, but it’s  something else entirely to ask for what you don’t need and neglect what you do.   

The "lusts" that war within us reduce our prayers to selfishness and cause us to try to use God, rather than giving ourselves to be used by Him.   In other words, when we become friends with the world we begin to care less and less about being friends with this God who calls us to think about others too, and not only ourselves.

One phrase that should especially capture our attention here is beautiful statement in verse 5 which says; "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us".   In this, James is remembering the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) and he is also recalling the phrase in the second Commandment which says, "For I the Lord your God am a jealous God." (Exodus 20:5).   By telling us how jealous God means that to the contrary of wanting to be our enemy, we make ourselves an enemy of God by friendship with the world. 

The ‘world’ James means here isn’t the natural world, but it’s the human tendency to be pulled downward rather than upward.  It’s also the tendency to be pulled inward toward yourself, rather than moving outward toward others.  Finally, it’s the tendency to be controlled by the lesser, lower and negative forces in life, rather than to be motivated by the greater, higher, and positive forces that can move us forward, upward and toward each other, rather than pulling and tearing us apart.   

We know all too well how that can unfortunately happen in human relationships, when people are pulled in different directions and their relationships suffers and will eventually fail.  The same thing can happen spiritual, when we give less and less attention to building our relationship with God.

Many years ago, the late British pastoral scholar spoke of the necessity of maintaining a personal ‘friendship’ with God, explaining how friendship with God is a ‘gift’ that can transform us because revealed the Father who wants to be our ‘friend’, just like Abraham was God’s friend.  Most interestingly, Weatherhead also spoke of how our friendship with God grows and increases as we befriend others in our lives.   In other words, God draws nearer to us, as we draw nearer to others.

(See, http://pmoser.sites.luc.edu/idolanon/TransformingFriend.html#10.

DRAW NEAR TO GOD…

Now, as we come to the conclusion of James’ discussion, he offers his solution to human conflict.   Interestingly, James doesn’t start by saying we we move closer to the people we’re in conflict with, but James says we first need to move closer to God.   It is our friendship with God that enables us to work through our conflicts with each other. 

 Now, of course this is a controversial idea since many see religion as the problem, not the solution.  In other words, many see religion as a fuel for human conflicts.  But while it may be true that religious differences can fuel conflict, when you look closer, you understand it is only a certain kind of religion.  

True religious faith should bring hope of reconciliation and peacefulness.  As someone has said, the great problem isn’t the differences among religions, but it’s that many people aren’t true to the understanding of faith they have.  All the major religions of the world promote peace, hope, faithfulness and human reconciliation, but all their extremes don’t.

So, here’s James point.  When you draw closer to God, especially the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ, it becomes much more difficult to be in conflict with others.  Why is this true?    It’s not difficult to understand.  But James spells it out for us anyway:  When you humble yourself before God, submitting yourself to God’s purposes, while admitting that you too are a sinner---acknowledging how you aren’t always right and certainly aren’t perfect; when you draw close to God in this way, understanding that God gives you grace---anyway, you encounter the love can reshape you, remake you and motivate you to respect and care for others who may offend you, just like your own sins have offended God. 

Now, that’s a very human way of putting it.   The main point is that when we get close to God, then God comes close to us, and we realize we are in his presence, fully, completely; with nothing hidden, and God loves us as we are, and offers us grace, YOUR perspective on everything and everyone changes.  Suddenly, you are no longer obsessed with ‘who’ that other person is---with whom you have such negative, and ill feelings---and now, your obsession is with the knowledge and presence of a loving, forgiving, and graceful God.

          So, here is the main point, once more.  Let James’ own words in verses 7 and 8 map out a path forward for anyone stuck in human conflict with another human being: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded."

Erma Bombeck, the great advice giver, once gave this very interesting advice: "Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died".  Her point reminds us that everybody who says they are a good doctor can really help keep you alive.   In the book, The Experts Speak, by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky you read example after example, some two thousand of them, of just wrong, the so-called experts can be.

For instance, Gary Cooper said, after turning down the role of Rhett Butler, which was then given to Clark Gable, "GONE WITH THE WIND" is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history.   Then he added, I’m just glad it will be Clark Gable who is falling flat on his face and me."

The manager of the Grand Old Opry who listened to Elvis Presley sing gave him this advice: "You are not going anywhere, Son. You ought to go back to driving a truck."

Here’s a different kind:  If you look up the word uranium in a 1930 dictionary, you will find this definition: "a white metallic substance with no apparent value." 

Let's don't be misled or confused by the experts out there--religious or non-religious.   Here, James gives us knowledge for life:  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."  Follow this, and you will find yourself living in peace, both in yourself and with others.    Amen.