James 5:7-11
“What is Threatening to Choke You?”
BY: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
www.eastridgeumc.com
Take a moment and think about what lays heavy on your heart.
For many of us, this won’t even take a moment.
For many of us, it’s all we can think about.
Perhaps a loved one is dealing with a serious illness.
Or maybe you-yourself are carrying around a sickness in your body.
And it is sapping the joy from your days.
Perhaps there are family troubles which are entangling you and threatening to choke you.
Maybe you are going through an extremely difficult time of financial struggle.
Maybe things at work at eating at you.
What crisis is weighing heavily on your heart?
What is causing you to suffer?
What is making you anxious?
It could just be the thought of doing all that needs to be done for the Christmas Season.
Whatever it is that you may be struggling with, it is always a comfort to know that others have gone through what you are going through.
We really are “all in the same boat” are we not?
In our Scripture passage for this morning, James is talking about patience in the midst or in the face of suffering.
And that is a hard thing to deal with!
When we are going through a tough situation, it can be awfully hard to see the “light at the end of the tunnel” or to really believe that anything good can come out of the circumstance.
James reminds us that the prophets and the other saints of God who have gone before us could never have done their work and left us with such a great witness and legacy if they had not patiently endured the trials of life.
He writes, “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance…”
How many of you have heard someone exclaim: “I wish I had the patience of Job!” or “That person has the patience of Job.” ?
There really was something about Job that was anything but patient.
If we look back on the tremendous drama of his life we see him passionately resenting what had come upon him.
He questioned the conventional arguments of his so-called friends, and he agonized horribly over the terrible thought that God might have forsaken him.
Few people have spoken with the kind of passion that he did; but the great fact about Job is that in his heart, he never lost his faith in God.
He wasn’t some passive robot; he struggled and questioned, but the flame of his faith never died!
James uses Job as an “example of patience in the face of suffering…,” but then he switches it up a bit and talks about “Job’s perseverance.”
And perseverance infers the kind of spirit and fortitude that can be slammed by the tides of doubt, sorrow and disaster and then come out with a faith which is even stronger on the other side.
William Barclay is quoted as saying, “There may be a faith which never complained or questioned; but still greater is the faith that was tortured by questions and still believed.”
Job 42:12 says, “the Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first.”
One of the things about the Christian faith is that, when we persevere, our spiritual lives mature and we become stronger.
And we come closer to God, and better able to help others in their times of need.
We also gain a wisdom…
…a wisdom that says, “Put all your troubles, all your cares and all your difficulties at the foot of the Cross of Christ…
…trust in Him and Him alone, and He will bring you through.”
And that gives us something to look forward to, and a reason to keep going…
…even when the going gets rough!!!
And it makes sense.
Just look at Jesus, the Author and Perfector our faith!!!
When the religious rulers did not take kindly to Jesus’ ministry with the poor and the outcast, Jesus kept going with the same vitality, mission and purpose.
When the crowds finally turned against Him, Jesus did not cave.
When the insults were hurled at Him He did not give up.
And in the Garden, before His arrest and Crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Then, “An angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him.
And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
And after His Crucifixion, Jesus rose triumphantly, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.
But, what if He had “caved in”?
There would be no hope for our salvation nor situation.
The end would have most surely already have come for all of us!!!
Jesus is not only our Lord, Jesus is not only our Savior—Jesus is our Great Example…
…Jesus is our Trail Blazer and the One Whom we are to follow and believe.
Remember and trust His promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“Be patient then, brothers [and sisters], until the Lord’s coming.”
God knows what is in store for us; God has a great plan for our lives.
How can God use the difficulties you are now going through—for good?
I have read that the cocoon of something called an Emperor Moth is shaped like a flashlight.
And in order for this kind of moth to develop the way it needs to develop, it must force its way through the neck of the cocoon…
…and this takes hours of intense struggle.
And it is because of this pressure and difficulty the moth must go through that brings life-giving substance to its wings.
Wanting to lessen the seemingly needless trials and struggles of the moth, a scientist used small scissors in order to snip the threads of the cocoon to make the moth’s emergence into this world painless and effortless.
The result was devastating.
The moth never developed wings.
And for a few minutes before its death it simply crawled around instead of flying into the day on brilliant rainbow colored wings.
God is able to use our sorrow, suffering, trials and tribulations in order to help us grow more and more into persons who reflect Christ.
Through grace, if we trust in God, we will emerge from difficulties—triumphant!!!
During extremely difficult times, Job, who said, “I have kept his way without turning aside,” and “I have treasured the words of [God’s] mouth much more than my daily bread,” boldly proclaimed: “I will come forth as gold.”
What will the Lord finally bring about for your life, your faith, your ministry if only you persevere?
It is always a comfort to know that others have gone through what we have to go through.
What insight will you be able to give the struggling Sunday school teacher who is ready to give up, if you, having been in the same situation can witness to the blessedness of perseverance?
What would you have to say to the teenager who is thinking about ending it all, if you-yourself had not “stuck with it” under similar difficulties?
What hope can we offer the world, if we do not “stay the course” and "stick with it”?
Life is hard.
Darkness is all around us.
How can we lead others to the light, unless we ourselves have never been lost?
In Hebrews Chapter 2, there is a miraculous and most amazing bit of information.
We are told that Jesus, “for whom and through whom everything exists” became the Perfect Author of our salvation through suffering!
And that since we have “flesh and blood, he too shared in [our] humanity…”
And, “Because [Jesus] suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
And therefore, we are called to “fix [our] thoughts on Jesus.”
When we are suffering in this life, we are to think about Jesus.
And in thinking about Jesus, we see that we have a God Who loves us so intensely, that He became One of us and One with us!!!
He went through everything we have to go through, and more…
…in order that we might have the hope, the faith and the insight that nothing on the earth, under the earth, neither angels nor demons nor anything else in all creation can separate us from His love!!!
Quite a number of years ago there was a movie called A River Runs through It.
It was a story of two brothers growing up in the beautiful Montana countryside.
The older brother was quiet, studious, hard-working; he got a good job and became a respected man in the community.
His rebellious younger brother was always getting into trouble, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable.
He ended up associating with people who led him deeper and deeper into the darkness and he was eventually killed in a fight.
His older brother couldn’t help him.
They had grown too far apart.
It’s a moving and tragic movie, and the most tragic thing about it was: the older son saw what was happening to his beloved younger brother, and there was nothing he could do about it!
He couldn’t reach him.
He couldn’t come to where he was and rescue him.
We can think of Jesus as the older brother of the Human Race.
And Jesus could and did come to where His siblings were, wallowing in the land of sin and death.
He identified with them, shared their fate, and rescued them!!!
In Romans 8:29 we are told that Jesus is the “firstborn among many brothers.”
There is nothing any of us face, today or tomorrow or the next day in which Jesus cannot sympathize, help and rescue us, and through which He cannot bring us out on the other side into God’s new world!!!
Whatever it is you are going through, my friends, you are not alone!
Whatever your struggle, it is not a lost cause.
And if you stick with it…
…if you forge ahead, no matter the difficulties…
…you will come out the other side, shining and bright…
…and able to fly with wings the color of rainbows!!!
Amen.
