To What End? Series

Almost every commentator and preacher I looked at while preparing this sermon splits this passage of James into two parts. The first part, v. 1-6, is a discussion of the danger of depending on wealth. The second part, v. 7-11, typically focus on patience.

Well, I’m going to buck the trend. Because I think that both of these passages are about the same thing. I think James is giving essentially the same message to both the arrogant rich and to the suffering poor. And that message is, “today is not all there is.”

I’m going to buck the trend in another way, too. It’s pretty unpopular in American Christendom to talk about either heaven or hell. According to a recent Harris poll, 70% of Americans believe in heaven, and 59% believe in hell, but in another poll - I’m afraid I couldn’t find it to support what I’m about to say - almost everybody is sure they’ll go to heaven.

Very few are worried about going to hell. Part of that is, of course, is that when we measure ourselves by other people, most of us - especially those who find themselves in church on Sunday mornings - are pretty sure that God grades on a curve and that they’re comfortably above the great divide. And besides, isn’t James talking about the filthy rich? I don’t see Bill Gates or Warren Buffet in here, and besides - they’ve both given huge quantities of money to help the poor, so they don’t count either. It’s just the bad, greedy rich who are in trouble here. You know, like George Soros and the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Furthermore, I really don’t think that many of us would be positively influenced by the sort of pulpit-pounding hellfire-and-damnation sermon that are the stereotypical idea many Americans have of Southern Baptists and that ilk. Which reminds me of a story... When I was in seminary, which was run by the Baptist General Conference, we hosted a 3-day preaching conference. It was very well attended, with people coming from over a dozen different states. Most of those were Baptists of one stripe or another, so it wasn’t surprising. But we also got a lot of people from the Twin Cities area, Lutherans and Methodists and even a Presbyterian or two. In fact, one of the presenters was an absolutely terrific Presbyterian preacher named Richard Davis.the same message to both the arrogant rich and to the suffering poor. And that message is, “today is not all there is.”

At any rate, when feedback time came at the end of the conference one of the local Lutherans stood up and said that he had been favorably surprised by the lack of those hell-fire and damnation sermons I mentioned before. And the host of the conference replied, “Well, that’s because most of us here think that the gospel is good news.”

And so do I, and so do we all.

But on the flip side, the idea of preaching patience to the suffering poor has long been held in disrepute because it was a message which kept the peasants quiet under the iron hand of the upper classes, from robber barons to actual kings. Marx’s identification of religion as “the opiate of the people” was an indictment of the controlling function which the alliance of the institutional church with the governing powers had on suppressing discontent.

And it also goes right along with the admonition earlier in this letter when James says, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” [Jas 2:15-16] You could rephrase it, if one of you who has plenty to eat says to your sister who has none, “You’ll get your reward in heaven,” what good is that?

Whichever way you look at it, whether it’s preaching hellfire to the rich or meek endurance to the poor, very few people really want to hear about the afterlife except at funerals. It doesn’t speak to our present day needs and struggles.

And that’s why it’s so important not to skip over this passages. We’re all so focused on our present needs and struggles that we take very little time thinking about where we’re headed. And as someone once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably not going to get there.” What does your bumper sticker say? “The one with the most toys wins?”

The rich people James is talking to in v. 1-6 may or may not be Christian. That is, we don’t know if they come to church or not, although I suspect they’re part of James’ congregation, just as they are still part of ours. What we do know is that they are not using their prosperity in the way they are supposed to. And James is clearly talking to the upper upper classes, that is the landowners.