Word of Salvation – September 2014

 

A Great Reversal

Text: James 1:9-12

Scripture Readings: 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Luke 18:18-30

Song in Response: Book of Worship 246 “My spirit glorifies the Lord” (cf. rich/poor reversal in Mary’s song)

 

We have a paradox before us today. A statement that’s seems to be contradictory or opposed to common sense, and yet is true. The writer G.K. Chesterton once said “a paradox is truth standing on its head shouting for attention”. Imagine, as one person has, truths lined up like ridiculous people on their heads, feet waving in the air. “Hey, look at me! Up is down! Down is up! Think about it!” Paradoxes are powerful vehicles for truth, because they make us think.

We have a paradox before us today. Those in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. Those who are rich should take pride in their low position.

I call that a paradox, because it’s a great reversal that’s so contrary to common sense. Anyone in our world would tell you it’s upside down, back to front thinking. We’re told we should get a good education, work hard, and grab hold of the opportunities before you with both hands. Reap the rewards… a good and growing salary, a high standard of living, a comfortable retirement. Well done. Sit back and relax in your golden years. You’ve earned it. You deserve it.

But James – just like his half-brother, Jesus before him – turns the world on its head. The first shall be last, the last shall be first. Reality is turned upside down and back to front. James gives us a great reversal, and it’s this great reversal that’s going to focus our attention today.

We begin where James does, with:

1. The Rich Poor

v.9 – “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position”

James singles out here the sort of person that was very common in the churches he’s writing to. Someone of low social standing. Looked down on. Often, but not always, poverty-stricken. Again, often on account of being a Christian. A lowly person. Snubbed. Ignored. Someone of little significance to those around them.

What would such a person look like in our society? What do you mean? Do we have people like that today? Although we’re probably much wealthier in general compared to James’ day, such people are still with us. They’re people like the nameless person who clears away trays and wipes tables at the food court. Do you ever strike up a conversation with them? Do you notice they’re there? Do you thank them for the ceaseless work they’re doing? Or do they just fade into background?

Or the single mum, trying to juggle work with looking after the children. She doesn’t have a group of friends. When her workmates are going out, she’s at home with the kids. Calling in sick, because someone has snotty nose. Called a bludger by those who’ve never had to face being abandoned by someone who said they loved you. Living in clothes from Lifeline, surviving on food parcels when yet another appliance breaks down.

Many, if not most, Christians faced lives like this. Some were slaves, or former slaves. Most came from the lower rung of society. People who live pay day to pay day, just covering the bills. Worker drones, doing their job, but not very appreciated or thanked. Sometimes doing jobs nobody else wanted to do. Certainly not ‘movers and shakers’ in society. The people who get trampled on, rather than those doing the trampling.

Humble circumstances. Lowly circumstances. That’s what life is like for many people still today in our world. That’s what life has been like for most people who have chosen to follow Jesus (we’re the anomaly, the unusual situation, for the most part).

And what does James say to the humble? What does James say to you, if the shoe fits? He says to you, “You ought to take pride in your high position!”

James, are you mad?!! High position?!! Please walk a mile in my shoes before you say such things! Maybe James had. There’s no indication Jesus and James grew up in anything other than humble circumstances. You can imagine social rejection. After all, Jesus was born to a teenager mother out of wedlock. A humble carpenter by trade. And at some point, it seems Joseph died and Mary experienced life as a widow. As a solo Mum. James isn’t preaching to us from an ivory tower, congregation. He knows what life in the real world is like. What humble life feels like.

So what allows someone in humble circumstances to “take pride in their high position”? In a word… the gospel. It’s the gospel which brings about the great reversal.

The poor brother or sister, looked down on in the eyes of many, is exalted in Christ through the gospel. In the gospel they he finds a treasure that cannot be purchased with money. Since the treasure of the gospel doesn’t have a price tag, all of a sudden she is on an equal footing. We learn that God delights to exalt the humble. Our God uses the weak to shame the strong. The poor become rich.

What is this high position, then? It is coming to see that in Christ Jesus, you become part of God’s family. You are an heir. Though you lose everything in this world, there are riches in heaven. You are in fellowship with God – you know the creator of the universe, and its saviour. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God”.

My friends, you have been raised out of the ashes, to the presence of God! You have found the pearl of great price – of infinite worth, in this life and the next. You are a child of the King – a prince, a princess – you have royal blood in your veins! And you are going to live on, and on, and on… through all eternity. In a magnificent, renewed world. Your God will dwell there, with you. Every tear will be wiped from your eye, all pain will be gone.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Perhaps there are times when you’re tempted to look down on the circumstances of your life. Perhaps you had much, but things have changed, and it’s come to little. You don’t need to be ashamed today. The world values what you have now only very little, but not God. You are among the rich poor. God is with you, not distant, through your struggles in life.

Think of what you have in Christ. Of your high position. Not to pretend that life isn’t hard, but to remind yourself of what is ultimate. Some will gain the world and lose their soul. Not you. You may lose the world, but gain everything! The great reversal is underway.

We go on to see that James also has a message for a second group of people today:

2. The Poor Rich

v.10 – “But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position”

Sometimes people have asked whether the rich are, in fact, Christians. That’s a good question to ask, and different conclusions have been reached. My own view is that the view that’s held sway throughout church history – that these are Christians – makes best sense. There is an implied contrast that follows through from the previous verse, and the words ‘taking pride’ flow through from that verse as well. And if the rich were non-Christians, then this verse would drip with irony of a sort we don’t see anywhere elsewhere in James.

So I believe James here now addresses a second group of Christians… those who are rich. That means, those who have ample. Those who have sufficient to meet their needs. Believers who have an abundance of earthly possessions, perhaps going beyond normal experience.

Does that include us? For the most part, I think it does. If you were to take an “average” Christian from the past, show them what we have in our society and ask them if they thought we were wealthy or rich… it’s very unlikely they would say we weren’t rich. We live in a rich society. We have an abundance of things. The poverty line in our country in 2014 for a single adult works out to about $26,000 per year, whereas worldwide, absolute poverty is considered earning less than about $2 per day.

Most of us are rich, whether we feel rich or not. The welfare safety net is there to catch us when we fall. So, to most of us, living in the materially prosperous western world, James writes: “But you should take pride in your low position”.

You face temptations on every side to take pride and boast in what you’ve accumulated. In the things you have. In the experiences you have bought. In the future security you’ve stored up for yourself.

And it’s not that having things in your house is wrong. The constant craving for more is where we start to go wrong. Rather than being content with the much we have, it must be bigger, it must go faster, it must be newer, it must be better than his or hers. And what happens? We get distracted from the point of life – living to glory of God. We start making this world our home. All of a sudden we don’t need God as much anymore. True, as the ad goes, there are some things money can’t buy… for everything else, there’s Mastercard! And then we drop the word ‘else’ from everything else, and everything worth having can be bought. And God drifts out of the picture. I have all I need. I can insure against anything bad.

as Paul wrote in his letter to Timothy that we read before:

“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”

Somewhere along the way, we forget that our lives are mortal and this world is passing away. That the person who dies with the most toys, still dies. They pass away like the wild flower illustration James uses, hearkening back to Isaiah 40. The flower comes, it goes. Our lives bloom, peak, fall and fade away. And after death is something that Mastercard can’t buy.

What is James’ advice for us? It’s to take pride in our low position. To make our boast not what we have, but a gospel focussed boast. If we are rich, then sure we are looked up to and envied by many. But the gospel humbles both poor and rich. It humbles us. In the gospel, all of us alike find a treasure that cannot be purchased with money. We learn that the path to gaining the riches of Christ, which last forever, begins in poverty. In acknowledging our own spiritual poverty. The gospel is the great reversal. Through the gospel, God takes spiritual bankrupts like me, and gives us everything.

James would, instead, have us thinking more about God’s kingdom. More about God’s kingdom than about how much we have and our brilliant plans for the future. He’d have us not devoting our lives to storing up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy. Where thieves break in and steal. He’d have my life remain focussed on Christ… whether in riches or in poverty.

James would have me try to lessen the grip that money and materialism has on my life. He’d have me intentionally cultivating rich generosity to the needs of others and the church. He’d have me reconsider my objections to tithing – giving God at least a tenth of all he gives me. Not because God’s kingdom is struggling with a decade of deficits, but because through disciplining myself to give, I break the chains that wealth creates on my life.

James would have me not only acknowledging with words that my family is more important than earning another dollar. But he’d perhaps have me saying ‘no’ to some overtime, not because it’s wrong. But because I’ll come to realise there are more important things. He knows I’ll not get to the end of my life and wish I’d earned a few dollars more along the way. I’ll not take any of it with me. It’ll all fade away. But God’s kingdom will last forever.

Blessed is the Christian who perseveres under trial. The trial of poverty. The greater (and more subtle) trial of riches. Because when we have stood the test – if we stand the test – God will keep his promise. He’ll give us the crown of life.

By the grace of God, live in such a way as to win the prize. Stand firm in the gospel… which humbles us, so that we might share in greatest inheritance ever given. The Great Reversal. In Christ, and Christ Alone. Amen.