“Count it all joy that you meet various trials…” So James begins the body of his letter. His is one of the Pastoral Letters, to be distinguished from the Pauline Letters. The first difference is that it is not by Paul, which the Pauline Letters are. The second is that it is not as specific as the letters of Paul. Paul’s letters are to places and people, the churches in Rome, Corinth, and so on or to Timothy or Titus. James addresses his letter “To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion…”
What that means is the twelve tribes of the Jews who are scattered across the Roman Empire and beyond. We can get a sense of the Dispersion from the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. If we take the list of places the Jews are said to have from to the city of Jerusalem and plot them on a map, we will see the dispersal both in and outside of the Roman empire.
Our focus in July is on the ‘homespun’ theology of James. ‘Homespun’ has two meanings. The first, more literal, meaning is “course, handwoven cloth”, like something "pioneer" women would create to clothe their families. But it also means “simple and unsophisticated”. This can be used negatively, essentially calling someone a simpleton for what they say. But “simple and unsophisticated” can also be a counter to complex and excessive. Put it together with “theology”, whose working definition in this blog is “thinking about God” and what we have in James is “simple and unsophisticated thinking about God.”
So why is it a good thing, something to be counted for joy, when I have met various trials?
First, we need to recognize that, in the New Testament, there are trials and there are trials. On the one hand, there are the trials that Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 11 that lead him to boast in the faith:
“Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
That is not what James is speaking of, not the “Christ-preaching” trials of potential death that was the lot of the apostles. Rather, James says “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproaching, and it will be given.” These are not the trials of people persecuted for the faith, these are trials of people trying to live the faith in a world of sin.
The reality James is speaking of is our world of faith where we are constantly barraged by the trials and temptations of sin. There is what love calls for and there is what feels good here and now. Why is there joy in these trials? Because in these trials, the power of God has the opportunity to act in our lives. We have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Where do we experience the reality of this new faith? In the power of our Savior to overcome the trials of the world. In the practical realities of overcoming sin with good. Of celebrating that there is an enemy, a trial of heart and attitude, that has been overcome by our Lord Jesus.
The joy is not the trial, the joy is the trial overcome. The joy is the power of Christ coming out in our lives. The joy is in the victory of God’s love. The joy is that new life has come, and we are actually seeing it lived out now. Amen and hallelujah.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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