Reflection on James 3:13--4:3, 7-8a

 

“Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.” 

You have no idea how much I have needed to hear this promise from scripture.  In a world where pushing people away is preferable to bring us together, where talking and opinionating is preferable to listening and growing together, where bantering back and forth angrily is preferable to seeking the truth together, and where we feel so alone because somehow we are losing grasp of the ability to connect with one another, these words that promise a reunion with the living God are better than pure gold. 

They echo the promise of Jesus Christ who says, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (NRSV, Matt. 7:7). “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”

It is almost as if Jesus is a friend from long ago, who can still be seen in the halls of the school, but somehow we just forgot to hang out with him, to include him at the lunch table, and to ask him out to the party.  It is not that we do not want him at the party, we just sort of forgot. 

But, now we have remembered, and we long for the days that we were near him.  We remember his gentleness, born of a deep wisdom that says; who is right or wrong is not as important as being together.  A man once asked Jesus to settle a dispute of inheritance between he and his brother.  In this story from Luke 12, Jesus refuses to take sides in the dispute, his gentle wisdom guiding us to understand that money is not as important as being together.  And again, we hear in Matthew 5:23-25 that if someone has something against us, before we come to the altar of the Lord, we should go and settle the dispute.  Wisdom says that being together is more important than even a gift given at the altar to God.  That is how important it is to God!

We hear the same message, again and again from Jesus.  We hear this message that it is the highest good to be together; to be drawn to one another.  And, I am feeling like I need it right now, and I know that you are too. 

I have heard from you, again and again, stories about the separation from those you love, all because of the conflicts of this time.  I wonder if our feeling of distance from the Lord has anything to do with the distance we create amongst ourselves within Christ’s body?  Hands are cutting off fingers, and the neck is refusing to acknowledge the head.  Do not even get me started on the foot callous, who knows why he is there.  But, in pushing away the differing parts of Christ’s body, we are getting a really distorted view of who Christ is…if we can see him at all.

James understands.  He has seen the friends of God be enticed by the world to instead be friends of the world.  He has seen how “envy and selfish ambition,” causes there to “be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” 

We have seen it too.  We have seen how a dispute over who inherits grandpa’s violin causes a compete rupture in relationships.  We have seen how companies’ lust for profits causes it to overuse and overextend and plain steal the hours and lives of those who work for them.  We have seen it again and again in big ways and small ways how envy and ambition destroy.  It always ends the same, in complete destruction of relationships, dropping us all into utter despair.  We need a doctor.

Luckily for us, James serves as our holy doctor, He diagnoses us asking: “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?  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.”

And, it all lead to the same place; a desolate existence of destruction and loneliness. 

There has got to be a better way!  There has got to be a way of living this thing that God has given us which is called “life” that is a whole lot more…well…full of life. 

There is, according to James.  And, it goes back to that promise that we already talked about.  “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”

Maybe, if we could somehow lay aside the desire to be friends of the world we would remember that we were given the absolute, unearned gift of being friends with God.  And, as we remember that we are friends of God, we draw near to God, and God to us, like magnets that absolutely belong together, whose ends stick right together, we were just turned the wrong way.

Have you ever considered that being friends with Jesus might mean not caring if you get the last word?  Have you ever considered that being friends with Jesus might mean giving of yourself rather than taking from others?  You do not care about being right or amassing more and more when you are a friend with Jesus.  Instead, you care mostly about being gentle and wise. 

As James instructs, “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”

His instruction to us makes me think about a time when the disciples of Jesus were walking along, and they got in an argument regarding who was the greatest of all of them.  In other words, if Jesus were killed today, who would get to be in charge?  After they arguing over this for a bit Jesus responds, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” 

“Do you want to know who gets to be in charge after I go?” Jesus asks in essence.  The one who is “peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy,” in other words, the one who loves and serves the least and lowest of all of us. 

This is what wisdom of all about.  This is what being a friend of God all is about.  This is what it looks like when you have drawn near to God and God has drawn near to you.

And over the years, we have heard this same truth ring out again and again from wise people, so I recount some of them today:

Let there be peace on earth. And let it begin with me.

- Jill Jackson Miller

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

- St. Francis of Assisi

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

- Mother Teresa

And, James adds his own wisdom to the list.  Do you want to live in a world of peace?  Here is at least a place to start.  “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”  After-all, God is the author of everlasting peace.