Bryan Richardson

Reticent

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.

Life

Re:Verse passage – James 2:14-26 (day three)

“Faith without works is dead.”

Certain domains attempt to acknowledge the way the universe presents itself so that a person might live according to reality. Mathematics readies one to act in accord with patterns that appear in nature so that building and banking and baking are possible, for instance. If such behaviors were not the aim, mathematics would have no reason to exist. Likewise — and even more essentially — faith attempts to acknowledge the spiritual realm so that a person might live according to reality. Faith readies one to understand that life is sustainable only by living — doing “works” — in a particular way. Without one person’s forgiving another, for instance, life would cease. If such actions were not the aim, faith would have no reason to exist. In this sense, not only is faith without works dead, so are human beings without works.

Revolution

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?”

Reveal

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.

Advent

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.

Attentive

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.

Child

Re:Verse passage – Judges 2–8; 1 Samuel 3:1-11 (day three)

“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Crucial to this circumstance was Samuel’s own curiosity. It was Samuel’s yearning to know coupled with his prayer inviting God to speak that resulted in a moment of growth and transformation for Samuel as a prophet who would one day carry the word of God to an entire people. Later, Jesus would evoke the spirit of this story when he set a child in the midst of his hearers, telling them that unless they became like children, they would not enter into life with the Lord. The world needs a child-like Samuel kind of wonder to emanate from the church. That’s what will represent God’s kingdom on this earth so that people will turn to Christ.

Go

Re:Verse passage – Judges 8:18-34 (day three)

“And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon.”

Gideon’s campaign gave Israel two generations of peace. What they did with that peace unfolds in disturbing fashion in the succeeding narrative. For now, however, they had the peace for which they had longed, dreamed, and cried. There are incalculable differences between the ancient Israelite culture and current Western civilization. The one similarity, though, is that Gideon’s peace and the peace which currently characterizes the West both mean freedom from existential threat. In other words, nobody is about to eradicate your world. Do you take that for granted? Everybody does. But now is the time to build a good future. That’s been God’s command from the beginning: “Be fruitful.” That means more than population. Israel did not build a good future in the days of Gideon. With Christ, you can.

Defer

Re:Verse passage – Judges 7:23-24, 8:1-9 (day three)

“What was I able to do in comparison with you?”

With this remark, Gideon displays the humble character that enabled him to remain attentive to his own motives: “Am I just making things up?” “Can I really lead these soldiers?” “Do I have what it takes to do what’s needed?” He regarded his own abilities with curiosity and his own conclusions with self-doubt. That kind of posture might seem like weakness to some, but it made room in Gideon’s life for others to join him in the mission. He saw his limitations, and so he had the ability to let others do what they were good at doing. He didn’t feel the compulsion to be the hero. You can find the same characteristic in Jesus’s cousin John: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

View

Re:Verse passage – Judges 7:12-22 (day three)

“This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash.”

Within the span of just a few moments, it all became spectacularly clear to Gideon: he was living rent-free in the heads of Midian’s fighting forces. They had already lost. For an army this spooked, it would only require a small push to tip them over into complete chaos. Gideon’s 300 was that small push. With this last-minute reconnaissance mission, God afforded Gideon a heaven’s-eye view of reality. From that point on, Gideon possessed the confidence to meet the task at hand. A very Gideon-inspired prayer is one which asks God, “What is the larger perspective in this situation?” That perspective won’t show you what’s easy, but it will show you what’s possible.