TO CREATE JOY AND ABSORB PAIN

James 3:13-4:8

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. --James 3:18

I have to come clean as I begin this sermon, and confess that I stole the title from somewhere else. Many of you may already know that we preachers are notorious thieves, and we are always looking for good material to steal, and I've been waiting for years to use this title, and this story. It is a story that a friend of mine, Terry, told in a sermon I heard, must have been about 12 years ago. It was a story he told about a game that his kids would play, who were then probably about 7 and 9 or so. In this game, the both of them would go up to the top of the stairs, and the one kid would wrap the other kid in a kind of donut-like contraption made of pillows and belts, and so on--wrap the other one up well in this thing so he was like a little ball, and position him at the very top of the steps...and roll him down the steps, spinning down until he hit the floor, and landed with a thud against the wall, whereupon both would squeal with laughter, and then both go up to the top of the steps, where they'd switch roles and do it all over again.

And Terry used that very vivid story as an image of the Christian life: to suggest that it is a life in which God is acting in us to do two things, sometimes simultaneously: to create joy and absorb pain. I'd like that, wouldn't you? To live that kind of life--to have joy like those kids' as they squealed with laughter; a life able to absorb pain when life hits us full-force with a thud.

Last week the sermon topic was: "what it's all about," and I spoke about generosity as a means toward approaching human fulfillment. And I guess this is another way of saying that--another way of speaking of human fulfillment--that it is some state in which God is acting in us to create joy and absorb pain. But, like last week, the key question is: how do we get there? How can we approach living that kind of life?

Well, as we reflect on that, we're going to look at the Book of James, or the Letter of James as it's also called, for some answers today. I'd invite you to follow along with me on this passage, the passage starting at James 3:13, in your pew Bibles....

So...to create joy and absorb pain. I like that image, because it's the kind of life that James also, in a somewhat different way, is speaking about here--the kind of life promised to those who seek and live the Christian life. And James offers us a "how to" in cultivating that kind of life. James is a kind of "how to" of the Christian life.

But before we get to that, let's say a little bit about the book of James as a whole, let's give some context here.

James is somewhat infamous for Protestants as the book that Martin Luther, who really began the Protestant Reformation, wanted to throw out of the Bible. Maybe that's why I like reading James: I think it's good for us to read James as a kind of antidote to excessive Calvinism.

So, why did Luther want to throw it out? Why did Calvin not like James? Because the theology of the reformers--and I'm going to boil down a whole lot of complicated reformation theology in a very few simple phrases here, so bear with me--the reformers thought that at the heart of the gospel was the idea that you can't do anything to "get God." You can't make a reservation for a good seat at the banquet table in Heaven. You can't possibly do enough or be good enough. There's nothing you can do to get there, except one thing. Trust that you've already been chosen to go. To trust that God has offered that invitation, has offered you salvation, as a freely given gift, made known in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so, our job, in response to that, is to live out of gratitude for that gift, such that it transforms us from the outside in. That's it in a nutshell.

But taken to excess, that kind of thinking can lead to a sort of passivity. "Let God create this kind of life in me." In the language of "the younger generation" (man I feel old saying that)--what if "I'm not feelin' the love?" What if I don't "feel" saved? What if you're not inspired to do anything to live the Christian life, and therefore you won't? That's essentially the problem James identifies.

And so James takes a different approach to the gospel. Basically he says in his letter: If you're not doing anything to live the Christian life...we have a problem. James emphasizes the notion that we have the power to choose life, the means to choose this Christian life. There is a choice: to choose what is good and wholesome for human life, or to choose what is not.

Years ago, I remember hearing this Native American proverb. It's about an Elder addressing his people, and he says: "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is angry and mean. The other dog is peaceful and content. The mean dog fights the good dog, all of the time." When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."

That is, I think, a very Jamesian notion: to say that there are distinct choices between what is good, and what is not; and to raise the question, "which dog are you going to feed? How are you going to feed that dog that promises to give life, and wholeness and joy?"

So then the challenge is--let's get back to the "how to" of James's letter--how do we cultivate this kind of mind/life? The kind of life in which we know a God who is creating joy and absorbing pain"?

Cultivate...let's take a moment to talk about that word; that's a good word to use in speaking about this "how to" approach to the Christian life. Cultivate is a good word to describe the first step, because it's an image that implies a partnership--no one party is doing all the work. God can't plant the seed and till the soil--that's the hard work we need to commit ourselves to--but God provides the miracle of growth; it is God who makes the plant spring forth from the ground by some miraculous and unseen process that we cannot control or make happen.

So, then, how do we cultivate this life? There are three quick practices that come from this scripture lesson this morning, to get us started, three quick practices. This is not like on TV--DO try these at home! Do them this week.

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The first way to cultivate the Christian life, the life in which God is acing to create joy and absorb pain...is to practice non-judgment. In the words of the scripture here, we are enjoined to live life "without partiality." Now, you might ask, how is it possible to live life without judgment? In a way, that seems impossible; it'd be like my telling you to go and live without blinking. We judge all the time; it's a human reflex. (Do I have enough time to turn left in front of that car? Will that person hurt me?). But, we often don't judge--do this reactive and natural perception of our world--realizing that our judgments about reality are not reality. We often lack a kind of humility that says, "my version of reality is not the only reality."

Several years ago, I attended a week-long silent Zen Buddhist retreat. It was a very intense experience--up at 4:30, meditate all day. But there was a time when the leader of the retreat, a Zen master, would do some teaching. And much of it was very complex, and yet the very simple way to describe what the whole week's teaching was about could be summed up in one simple phrase. Here it is: "Don't believe what you think." Don't believe what you think. Now what does that mean, what does he mean, don't believe what you think? I think it, how can I not believe it? What the teacher meant by that was to say that we create a lot of suffering by thinking our perception of reality is the reality, instead of treating reality as a mystery beyond my perception. So for example, I encounter a person, and I might say, "you strike me as a very judgmental, small and insincere human being--but the reality of you is a mystery beyond what I can know. Perhaps you are an angel sent to me for my salvation." It's approaching life with that kind of non-judgment, or impartiality, as James writes. Not always to believe what you think, but to admit that there is a mystery to reality beyond what I think, or judge, it to be. 88888

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OK, so second practice toward cultivating the Christian life. Be yourself. Sounds simple enough. Just be yourself! In the text, the Greek word is "anypokritos." Without pretense. It's a form of the word Hypocritos, from which we derive the English word hypocrite. To be unhypocritical. It's a word that comes from the language of theater here: a hypocrite, in its original Greek sense, is someone, literally, who is a "play actor." Someone who puts on a mask; someone whose appearance doesn't match the inner reality.

Several months ago, I saw the movie Motorcycle Diaries--a movie about Che Guevara and his friend on a summer vacation, motorcycling around Latin America. And there's one scene in that movie in which Che and his friend encounter one of their professors from school. The friend is wowed by the professor, fears him. And at one point, the professor tells them that being a teacher is his profession, but being a writer was his love--and he hands them a copy of his "baby," his novel, asking for their opinion. When it came time for them to part from their professor, he asked them their opinion. Che Guevara's friend hemmed and hawed trying to find a compliment. "The characters were very interesting," he said. When Che spoke, he said, "I think it's a very poor novel; I don't think you really have any gifts as a writer." Now--what am I saying here...I'm not suggesting we should be unkind in our dealings with one another. But only that...how would it be if we truly were able, kindly, to say what we really felt inside, such that our outer behavior matched our inner impulses and true feelings?

Maybe one way to test that is to take an inventory of what is it that we say no to, what do we say yes to; and what do we say yes to when we really mean no? How often do we do things joylessly, begrudgingly? Is my yes really corresponding to my inward desire? (We all have to sometimes do things we don't want...but are we aware of the toll it takes when we appear to do things we want to do, when really we do not? Would not the world be a better place with people practicing that kind of honesty?)

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Lastly, third practice in this attempt to cultivate a joyful Christian life: Inventory your desires. Now first, as we mention that word--I want to say something about desire for a moment. I think that Christians are often confused about desire. So often we can think of desire as bad (and it does indeed get us into trouble)--that the problem with the world is too much desire. Someday, I'd love to sick Dante on you in addressing this whole business; as I know I've said before, I'm a big fan of Dante, and his poem the Divine Comedy. We can think the problem for modern age is too much desire, there's too much desire. But actually, I think Dante, if the Divine Comedy were a guide, would say no; the problem is not too much desire; it is not enough desire, not enough of the right kind of desire. We do not have enough desire for the right thing, the thing that will enable us to live truly passionate lives in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

That's essentially what James is saying here. He speaks about our "cravings at war within us." Our tendency is to ask for the wrong things--to seek things that won't satisfy us. Think of our modern impulse to want to procure happiness by surrounding ourselves with comfort, with things--that car, that house. We think this will buy us contentment--we think this will satisfy us, by satisfying those desire always seems to leave us...unsatisfied somehow, deep down. And the real irony is that we don't ask for that miraculous thing that will satisfy us, and that we can have if we simply desire it, if we simply ask for it.

What do you desire? Are you asking for that kind of life? We can be under the illusion that you can't have that--a life in which God is in us, creating joy and absorbing pain. Is that too much to ask for? No. We should be asking for that miraculous thing that God is able to provide for us: peace. A life full of joy. James is telling us here: you can have that, a life that "lives in growing orbits, a life that is a great song"¹ simply for asking for it, by choosing it. We can do that. Ask for it. Choose it.

And I know that some of you today may be full of turmoil; there are many struggling among us for whom it's hard to imagine anything like God creating joy in you. Some may be more on the "absorbing pain" side of the equation today; I know that there are some struggling among us, with grief, or with sickness. But my encouragement today is this: to ask. To trust that even in despair, God gives that. Peace to those who cultivate peace.

Do you want that? That kind of life?

What then are you going to do? What will you choose today? Which dog will you feed?

Amen.

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¹ Rainer Maria Rilke, I Live My Life in Growing Orbits.

 

September 24, 2006