Endurance
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
June 22, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Deuteronomy 11:
1-9
James 1: 1-8
Let
us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
I decided
this week that I wanted to preach about hard times. I wanted to look at what it
means to go through hard times, what they are all about, and so I was perusing
through the epistles and came across the letter of James. I read the beginning,
and then kept reading the entire letter. There is alot of good in it. . .
despite the fact that Martin Luther wanted to take it from the Bible, saying
that it was an epistle of straw, mostly because it challenged his salvation
through faith alone ideas. . . there is much in James that is about the reality
of living a life as a follower of God, and that life is shaped by the idea that
faith without works is dead. Though these words are the most famous from the
letter, they are found in context. He opens with words about struggle because
his audience is no stranger to struggle. It is these opening lines about
struggle and endurance that will give shape to my message this morning.
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
2 My
brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it
nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith
produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so
that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of
you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and
ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never
doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed
by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable
in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. [1]
Even the
opening of the letter puts things into context. Look at who the letter is
addressed to, "The 12 Tribes in dispersion." Yes, the letter is
addressed to the Jews, who since the hard times of the Babylonian exile have
been scattered to the wind. A series of empires followed the Babylonians. . .
Persia, Macedonia, The Ptolemy's, and finally the Roman, which brings us to these
first generation Christians who at this time were all Jews. For almost 1000
years the Jews have not had a country of their own. They have been ruled,
subjugated, and often oppressed by this series of powerful empires. Without the
autonomy of one homeland, they have become spread throughout the world, with no
land to unite them, only a culture, a history, and The Law to give them any
identity, I would say that is the definition of struggle, at least group
struggle. And surrounding the time of Jesus' life and death, or actually
following them the time of persecution for Jews in the Empire was heightened.
It would be easy to lose hope, to lose faith, and to worry that God has finally
removed His favor. If we think about the famous line from James about
"faith without works" being dead, it makes a lot of sense within the
context of the audience of this letter, those 12 tribes. . . they, as a people, have been given that similar advice before.
Then works was called law. . . and the book was Deuteronomy.
Paula read
for us this morning one of the passages from that book that gives this message.
There are many. . . it is a constant refrain. . . follow these directives so
that you "may live long in the land." One could easily take a simple
message from this. . . here are some rules to live by, live by them and things
will go well, don't and they won't. . . and then you could also extrapolate
further some of the historical realities of it all and say that since the 12
tribes of Israel have been dispersed across the world, then they must not have
lived according to these commandments.
You may begin to make those deductions, and many people have time and
again, but often reality is much more complicated than any easy truism like
that. It is always easier to blame than to go forward. And so it is, it would
seem that struggle is not always used for punishment. Struggle is not always
the result of bad behavior or sin. . . think about it, if it was then would
Jesus have been tried? Would Jesus have been flogged? Would Jesus have been
Crucified, for he was flawless? There must be more to it. . . there always is. The
truth is the answer to why things happen, why struggle happens isn't so easy to
answer, but this passage is not suggesting a reason for it happening or a thing
or person to blame, but instead is talking about what is needed to get through
it. . . and that is endurance.
Endurance
is an interesting word. If you look it up in the dictionary you'll get that it
means "The ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite
fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions." That's it right, the
ability to last. The origin of the word is pretty cool and interesting too, it
literally means to exist in time, like en-for in, and dur- like duration, time.
Time, this world, the tangible world, just living in it is to endure. . .
Shakespeare put it in much more artistic words when he wrote, To be or not to
be, that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the minds to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and
by opposing end them. . . to die to sleep." Yes to live is to endure. Life
is difficult and hard. . . though there is good in it, it is slow, the clock
ticks slowly, and things take time. Life takes time. And so enduring becomes a
real essential to life.
And so
James writes, that when we face trials we should consider it joy. Yes and that
is line one of the letter, after the introductions. It's like dear 12 tribes. .
. take suffering as joy. . . so much for dazzling with truth gradually, beating
around the bush, easing into it. . . no when you suffer be happy about it. . . and
the reason that you should reckon suffering as joy is because it produces
endurance. It produces then the ability to make it through those hard times, or
to be even more basic, it makes it so you can live. . . you know live in time, where life takes
place. Suffering makes it possible for you to live. Suffering adds life. He says,
when endurance has its full effect. . . you will be "mature and complete,
lacking in nothing." Amazing words. Strong words. Words that give hope. .
. for life is full of suffering, both on a personal and on a group type level.
There is
no doubt that there is much suffering in the world. There is no doubt that it
seems that we as Americans are struggling, but how many of us see that
struggling as a joy, as something strengthening us, as something preparing us
for the next piece of life to come along. No instead we are often trying to
figure out why we are suffering, to blame, to avoid being blamed, rather than
allowing the hard times to prepare us for the future. This passage seems to say
that these hard times are about looking ahead to a time, not an easier time
necessarily, but to a time where we are much stronger, much readier, much more
mature and complete and lacking in nothing than we are today, so that we can
endure. That which doesn't break you makes you stronger. . . that's true. . .
and we know what stronger looks like, but breaking is more frightening. . . it
looks like splintering, division, and weakness. . . things falling apart. . .
funny how that cliche so fits the truth of what breaking looks like. How much
division do we see? That's not the struggle, that's the breaking, the quitting.
. . struggling is a joy, for it brings endurance, quitting brings nothing.
What about
here? Here in this church. It may just be summer time, but we've been
consistently less in number week to week. We've had some good folks, some good
friends move away, some friends move on, and some friends in the hospital,
unable to be here. When there is less of us, our resources are also lessened.
We have less money as a church to do the things that we want to do. We worry
about the future. . . and when you worry about the future, people tend to hold
on tighter, to try to avoid the hard times, the real struggle. . to hold on to
the status quo, the past, the comfort of the way it has been, because the way
it may be is much too frightening. . . That is the natural response, the human
response, but James is pointing out the Christian response, the faithful
response, and it looks to the present struggle as joy, the future struggle as
more joy, and the possibilities of it all as something to be endured and
through that enduring real maturity and wholeness will take place. James is
giving us those words of comfort. . .and we'll take them, even though our
struggles are so much less in scale compared to the dispersed, persecuted,
first Christians who were all Jews living in the latest Empire to hold them in
its hands.
Ok, so we
are supposed to endure it, great, but what are we supposed to do to do that,
how do we get through it, what do we do to make it? Look at where James goes
next: "If you are lacking in wisdom (if you don't know what to do) ask
God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to
you." The way forward will be given by God. . . for it is important for us
to remember, that the way to here has also been given by God. The big key
message of Deuteronomy, isn't just following the law, that's a big part of it,
but the bigger part of it, the most important part of it, was remembering who
you are, who God is, and what God has done. This is the God who has brought you
out of Egypt, this is the God who has been with you all along, this is the God
who died on the cross, this is the God who defeated death, and this is the God
who has always given generously and ungrudgingly, and he will again, believe.
James
says, "ask in faith, never doubting." Ask in faith. . . we have to
believe that our asking will make a difference. We have to believe that God's
will being done is what we want. . . for God's will is perfect. He says that
doubt is like being tossed by the waves, being tossed in the wind. It certainly
echoes Psalm 1, which we read as our Call to Worship this morning, doesn't it.
The path of the wicked, for them it is not so, they are just blown by the wind,
rather than being planted, rooted by the waters. Doubt and faith, Sin and hope.
. . these are completely connected. They are what matters. Without faith and
hope none of it matters, none of it. It is simply a return to the pagan notions
of conflict, that the world is in conflict, with the powerful fighting against
the powerful, and the weak used as pawns in the game. That is what the world
thinks, but we will learn endurance, because we will know that God made this
world and is in control of it, from that we will believe that God's will is
going to happen, we will from that take hope because God loves us, and is
deeply concerned about our well being. . . and will do for us what is best. Let
us not look backward, but forward in hope, in faith, in love, and so through
our endurance taking its full effect, will bring us to maturity and
completeness. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jas 1:1-8). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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