Mud puddles and other troubles...

(James 3:13 - 4:3; 7-8a)
When my children were young, we lived on a short, dead ended street. Our friends lived just beyond the dead end on a hill sloping down to an empty field where the kids often played. One day in the spring I went looking for my son, who was just about 3 years old. As I walked down towards the dead end, I noticed that he was at the bottom of the hill. It had rained recently, and he was playing in the mud. From the looks of him, he had been sliding down the hill into this mud and then rolling around in it. You get the picture I’m sure. Sticky, slimy wet mud covered him. As I walked and watched him, he would stand and then slip, falling back down, happily enjoying himself.

Until he saw me and decided he wanted to leave the mud and come to me. You see, when he decided to leave the mud, he couldn’t. He would stand and slip, stand and slip. But rather than enjoying it, now he was crying and struggling, frustrated, angry, getting more and more afraid.

I think that is a picture of what happens to us when we get caught up in the world’s wisdom that James was speaking of in his letter we just read. Worldly wisdom is the muddy mess of our culture values, the values of the world. We play happily for a long time, getting more and more covered in the muck. But then, something happens to give us view of something better - something clean and warm and loving, the way we were designed to live, and suddenly we feel trapped by what a few moments ago was blissfully ignorant pleasure.

This passage in James is a sort of diagnostic tool for our spiritual health, the list of “warning signs,” if you will that tell us we are getting covered in mud.

I. Evidence of a problem: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” Now if this means “be nice” then we are all doing fine, because if there is anything we are, it is nice and friendly. We are warm and welcoming, cooperative and generous. We experience it every Sunday.

What we often don’t see is what goes on at other times than Sunday morning. So I am going to assume that you, like me, are not always this nice. That you, like me, have your own “hot buttons.”

Let me mention a few words: health care…immigration…corporate bailouts…. welfare…the Supreme Court….Democrat…Republican…gun control...English-only laws….gay marriage… prayer in schools...Muslims...integration.

We all know that in polite company, it is best to stay away from politics and religion. And why? Because these are the sorts of things that get our dander up, that fire up our emotions; that may lead us into impolite conversation; may reveal some area of our hearts that we would rather not reveal.

James tells us that we can diagnose our heart condition…we can look at what we are doing and what we are saying and ask: am I operating in a spirit of gentleness? A willingness to yield? A willingness to not be in control of the world around me?

Let me share an experience: I have many friends and relatives on all sides of the issues I just named. Many of them are good Christians, go to church, tithe, do works of service and practice spiritual disciplines. That is what makes me so distressed when I get e-mails from them under the guise of humor or serious consideration of one of these social issues, but it turns out to be a message that demeans and demonizes an entire group of people, portraying them as ignorant, scheming, conspiring or fools. Those demonized, of course, are the ones that don’t agree with us politically, religiously, socially or philosophically.

I want to suggest to you that when our text says: “you want something and do not have it; so you commit murder,” it is not just referring to gun-toting thugs.
Jesus said that if you have hate in your heart, you are guilty of murder. Now my e-mail friends would say, “Well, I don’t hate anyone!” Perhaps not, at least not consciously, but what is it that we have in our hearts when we demean whole groups of people with one broad brush? I want to say “When we hit that forward button on the computer, we say this is from me” and tag our name to the message.”

Alas, for all my self-righteousness, my response to these e-mails has not been particularly courageous. Generally, I do nothing, not wanting to pass the messages on certainly, but also not wanting to offend my friends. So I was just a little taken-back as I wrote this sermon and found myself tempted to do my own demonizing – aimed at my e-mail sending friends. You see, I like my fantasy world where everyone just gets along and is nice. I feel secure there – even if it isn’t real. So, part of my upset was that they burst my fragile bubble of “niceness.”

When I search my heart, I find that I too have bitterness; I just don’t verbalize it… This “nice” exterior that I try to show is what James is referring to when he says in essence, “don’t be boastful and be false to the truth.” (v.14) Don’t put on a false front, pretending to be what we aren’t. Ouch! You see, that spirit of worldly wisdom is a mire that we all fall into!

II. James tells us the cause of our getting in this spiritual mud hole of worldly wisdom, bitterness and envy: He says, We have not because we don’t ask God.(4:2) We try to get the things we want in our own ways, ways that leave God out: Through government, politics, institutions…none of which are inherently bad. But when we start trusting in our human systems to be the source of our well-being, our security, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. No earthly power or system can ever do that for us!

James says further, when we do ask, we ask with selfish motives, so we can have more for ourselves. (4:3) If we look at the rhetoric about these complex social issues, it often comes down to our concern about money. We tend to see ourselves as victims in one way or another: Either we see ourselves as disenfranchised, unable to get meaningful work that pays a decent wage, unable to afford health insurance, unable to have a lifestyle like the one we see portrayed everyday on television; or we see ourselves as being robbed, having worked hard for our money, having been responsible and diligent, and now being expected to fund the fix for problems that we don’t think we had anything to do with.

When my son struggled to get out of the muddy mess he only got more stuck; And more afraid! Likewise, friends, I want to suggest that fear might be the factor that causes us to polarize and attack, or deny the significance of the problems we face. We may be, in fact, just plain scared…of the rapid change in the world. Deep in our hearts, we feel powerless in the face of so many overwhelming issues. It seems the world we knew (or thought we knew) is being replaced by something that seems harsh and uncaring, foreign to us; seemingly sure to rob us of our safety, health and hard-earned money. We want to get out of the mud, back to dry ground! But on our own, all we can seem to do is blame and attack or succumb to apathetic fatalism, neither of which honors God.

III. Gratefully, James tells us there is a remedy for our situation: Godly wisdom provides us with the means to engage the issues in ways that honor God – that come from a position of spiritual strength, where gentleness, receptivity and concern for God’s ultimate purposes prevail. “Submit to God…",James says…, resist the devil and the devil will flee…. Resist reacting from fear and bitterness - draw near to God and God will draw near to you.”…

If you are engaged in understanding and helping to solve these complex problems that face us today, may God bless you. We, the people of God need to be offering solutions, looking at possibilities, praying for God to intervene, to give us wisdom from above; to be open to what God is doing… even if that doesn’t fit our expectations.

But for those of us who are fearful, blaming others or putting our head in the sand in apathy, we have to honestly confess our fear that our country, our world and sometimes our own lives seem out of control, that we are stuck in the mud and cannot extract ourselves. When my son was stuck in the mud, it wasn’t until I finally got his attention long enough to get him to just stand still, that I could extract him from the mud, and he was rescued.

Fear not, we hear God say. Be still and know that I am God. Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Ask God to show you, as God did with me this week, where there may a bitter root or fear in our hearts. Let us confess and repent; commit to the way of the wisdom from above, the wisdom that we are promised. Draw near to God.............

I find it intimidating to just look at this white space and consider putting down my thoughts - for you see, my thoughts are a little like the Stream in the title of my blog - they go along a path, not a nice neat road... they wander, and cut into the side of the unformed borders of the path, and make new rivlets that take me new places. Now that is enjoyable often, however when I want to make some cogent statement, it is most annoying that the beginning and end of the sentence(s) might come from different places - and even I can't seem to figure out how they go together.

Now, courage is also not one of my gifts, but I am inspired by two of my sisters that blog regularly, one in a personal blog, and the other a public blog that is widely read...(you can find Show and Tell at http://showandtellblog.typepad.com/show-and-tell/It is great, enjoy.

But now, months after I started this, I am going to publish.... take a deep breath, hold my nose, and just jump into the depths! Here Goes!!!!