Friday, November 21, 2014

Friday, November 21, 2014    

James 5: 7 - 12

What an amazing little book James is!!  As I prepared to write the reflection for today, I read the verses preceding the assigned passage, then I felt I needed to start earlier, and earlier.  Finally I read the whole book - it is only 5 chapters.  I found the language and expression in The Message translation fresh and to the point - encouraging and challenging.  James looks at the society in which he lives, what motivates people in general, what should motivate followers of Jesus, and compares how different motivations, passions, result in different behaviours.  The most familiar sections for me were the one about the relationship between faith and works and the one about the need to control the tongue.  But there are so many gems here!

Today’s passage encourages us to “wait patiently for the Master’s arrival….The Master could arrive at any time” (7-8) This reminds me of the parable of the “wise virgins” who had enough oil in their lamps to wait through the unexpectedly long time till the bridegroom arrived and were ready to go in to the party when he finally came.  Their entire job was to wait and be ready. (Matthew 25: 1 - 13)  James focuses on what “being ready” means.

Right at the beginning of the book (1: 2 - 4), James begins the theme of patience that bookends todays passage which is near the end of his letter. “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”  Then in 5:7, he compares our patience to that of farmers who wait patiently for their crops to grow and ripen, letting rain and sun and time do their slow but sure work. “Be patient like that” he says, “steady and strong.”  

Earlier, James compares God to our gardener: “In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation garden of your life.” (1:21)  God is a gardener, I am to be like a farmer.  My life is the crop.  So the patience I am called to have, to enact (the work part of faith/works) is as much with my own life as with anyone else's.  In fact, probably more so! I must not give up on myself, my life growing to resemble Jesus more and more, even though it so often seems a hopeless standard to meet.  God is the gardner, he sends the rain, he sends the sun, he gives the growth.  My job, like the wise and ready virgins, is to be ready, to keep my eyes on the prize, one day at a time.

James has specific ways he calls us to be ready: not complaining about each other, not being critical (5:9), honouring God (10), being careful with language (12).  The opposites - being critical, giving up on God, “using oaths to hurry up God” are all examples of impatience.  The faith/works model is at the root of patience: James obviously sees patience as more than an attitude of mind; it is also an action.  Practising/having both - the attitude and the action - leads to life. “What a gift life is tho those who stay the course.” (10) Separating them has the opposite effect - “Separate faith and works and you get…a corpse.” (2:26)

Challenging, but encouraging.

Blessings

Ann Kelland