Author: Bryan Richardson

Re:Verse passage – James 5:7-11 (day three)

“You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” 

Few attributes seem as devoid of life as the characteristic of patience. Perhaps thinking of past attempts at patience brings to mind memories of stifled emotion, forced calm, mind-numbing hours, anger-inducing delays, or the like. It seems exhausting, oppressive, infuriating, useless, wasteful of everybody’s time. Shall we just smash all the clocks and burn all the calendars? Such so-called patience is actually impatience. True patience, on the other hand, will only become possible as one contemplates reality instead of pretense. When you fancy that a new job will make possible all your treasured ambitions, that’s mostly fantasy. When you become increasingly familiar with the qualities of the kingdom of God, you will treasure patience as that space that will allow you to grow into the joy of it.

Re:Verse passage – James 4:1-12 (day three)

“You do not have because you do not ask.”

The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock, not strike it. That is, Moses was to request, not coerce, and water would flow. Jesus said to knock – not force your way in – and the door would be opened. The way of the Lord in heaven and earth is the ask. To ask is to humble yourself before the one to whom you are making a request – or in Moses’s case, even before the thing to which you are making a request. James points out that the kind of exchange that often passes for “asking” is actually a type of manipulative sleight of hand which seeks only to benefit your own desires without thought for the welfare of another. When you ask, you make possible a fellowship of joy born of giving and receiving.

Re:Verse passage – James 3:13-18 (day three)

“This wisdom is not that which comes down from above…”

As always, James remains practical. Theology is present, of course, but what is out front here is actual speaking, responding, planning, noticing, allowing, supporting, and allying. These actions are what we talk about when we talk about everyday life. The ideas in your head are not everyday life. You might desire that your Christian ideas give shape to the way you live, but that’s not always the case. It’s possible to ally yourself with those who do evil even as you verbalize your own intent to do good, for instance. In that case, the “wisdom from above” does not inform your alliances. James will not let you get away with choosing right ideas at the expense of right living. Such an arrangement is at the heart of what James calls “earthly wisdom.”

Re:Verse passage – James 3:1-12 (day three)

“No one can tame the tongue.”

Do you really think you would straighten out your most vexing problem if only you could make your case a little better? There’s a good chance you do in fact believe that. And maybe you could. Who’s to say? But speech is often the first act, and when it is, words get deployed without benefit of reflection or listening or stillness. Their power is then unfocused and imprecise, because they have to cover so many categories and answer so many perceived threats. But when, like our Lord before Pilate, you remain silent, that quiet hour will turn your attention to the real need at hand. Our previously taciturn Savior’s eventual words shed mercy abroad as he asked God to forgive the very people who crucified him. Out of silence came words of grace.

Re:Verse passage – James 2:1-13 (day three)

“Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?”

James’s statement about “the rich” tends to elicit defensive responses claiming that there are some good rich people, too, just as there are some bad poor people. Okay. But that’s not James’s point. Rather, James declares that it’s not the poor who are calling the shots in this world. Behind every war, piece of legislation, rezoning plan, tax policy, banking rule, or economic strategy, there are wealthy decision makers who hold power and who shape the world we find ourselves in – much like wealthy leaders of prosperous nations carving up the Middle East in the 1920’s after the Great War. James doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, per se. The question he puts to the church is, “What system of living with people are you propping up?”

Re:Verse passage – James 1:19-27 (day three)

“…he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.”

Peering into a mirror will motivate one to straighten a collar or address a grooming concern. It will perhaps prompt feelings of worry over one’s physical characteristics. But a mirror will only reflect the ways of thinking already present in your own head. You will regard the image you see in a mirror according to the way you’ve been taught you should appear. Peering into the scriptures, on the other hand, will place you in an encounter with God rather than with your own notions of the world. The mirror’s image is a feedback loop that reinforces what you believe. James says the word of God will reveal new things that will lead you to a new kind of living – the kind of living that Jesus said is eternal.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:13-18 (day three)

“…we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.”

There is a world coming, and in that world, people will work for each other’s good, they will bear with one another, they will listen to one another, they will in humility regard others as better than themselves, they will tell the truth to one another, they will let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. And the only way that world comes is by beginning right now and growing until the appearance of Jesus Christ. That’s what the “first fruits” language is all about. James declares that when you live the way of life he preaches, that way of life will give lost people a window into a world they’d want to live in. You are the preview, and they’ll want to join you.

Re:Verse passage – James 1:1-12 (day three)

“Consider it all joy…”

Somewhere, there’s a list of irritating, irrelevant, and insulting platitudes entitled “Things to Say When You Just Don’t Want to Hear People’s Problems.” James’s statement would certainly make the list. So would Jesus’s “Do not worry about tomorrow.” And how about Paul’s “All things work together for good…?” What makes them irritating, irrelevant, and insulting is not the reality they reveal, but the way they’re often used: as a happy-talk escape hatch to avoid entering into people’s suffering. The Bible’s not trying to get anybody to look on the bright side, though. Instead, it’s declaring that hope and purpose fill the universe instead of determinism and indifference. At the center of the cosmos is a person, not an algorithm. And it’s that person – the Lord – who turns attentively to your cries of pain.