Search and Rescue (James 5.19-20)

Introduction

Well now, we’re coming to the end of our exposition of the letter of James this morning. We’ve spent 12 weeks together reading and engaging with what God has to say to us through it.

Have you learned anything? Has God’s word challenged you over the last three months? If it has challenged you, has it changed you? The Lord has given us the letter of James in order that our faith would be down to earth and shown to be genuine by what we do.

From what we can make out reading James, the original recipients of the letter were evidently believers who knew their theology well enough, but who struggled to put faith into practice. There are two clues that this is the case.

Firstly, think about what James doesn’t write about. There isn’t anything doctrinal in the letter at all. There are no heresies warned against and no vigorous defence the gospel. There’s nothing here about who God is, or why Christ died, or how we receive the Spirit. There’s nothing about the second coming, or the Trinity, or predestination and free will, and nothing about creation or redemption…

Why did James miss out so much teaching? The answer is that he didn’t need to include it. His readers must have known it all already - which is great. The problem is they knew their stuff, but it made little or no difference to the way they lived in the world.

Secondly, think about what James does write about. He challenges them over and over again about what they’re doing – or not doing, in particular;

· Sins of the tongue; gossiping, quarrels, boasting, bragging, cursing, criticism, grumbling, slandering.
· Sins of the heart; fights, bitter envy, selfish ambition.
· Sins of the wallet; meanness, hoarding, covetousness, greed, frittering.

He wrote about these things, not because he thought they might be interested in that sort of subject. He did it so they would start living right.

And the whole point of James’ letter is that genuine faith has to be practical and it must not become merely theoretical.

If you’re the kind of Christian who needs to put your faith into action, James is a great letter to read, pray through and act on. Following Christ is radical stuff. But, as the last two verses of this letter point out, it’s more than that; it’s also a matter of life and death.

I heard a story this week about a man who applied for a job as an usher at the cinema. As a part of the interview process, the manager asked him, “What steps would you take In the event of a fire?”

The young man thought about for a moment and replied “Well… big ones I suppose.” That was the wrong answer!

But the boss gave him the benefit of the doubt. “No, no” he said, “what would you do if a fire broke out?”

The young man answered, “Oh! Don’t worry about me. I would know where the emergency exits are and I’d get out fine!”

He didn’t get the job. But that little story leads us very tidily to James’ final thought.

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring them back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the way of error will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

And that’s the end of the letter. Let’s break down these two verses into three easy to chew morsels.

1) If one of you should wander from the truth

First of all, “if one of you should wander from the truth.” The word translated “One of you” here is also used in v13-14. “Is anyone among you in trouble? Is anyone happy? Is anyone sick?” It’s the same Greek word, “tis” and it just means anyone. This is the word Jesus used in John 7.37. “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink…” Here James is saying “If anyone among you should wander from the truth…

Here’s the shocking thing; drifting away from God or backsliding in faith can happen to anyone.

Notice I didn’t use the expression “losing your faith.” There’s a reason for that. Losing your faith is an expression you find nowhere in God’s word.

The Bible talks about backsliding, falling away, rejecting your faith and a good conscience, wandering from the truth, drifting away and suffering shipwreck with regard to the faith – but losing your faith is not a biblical idea.

You don’t lose your faith in the same way that you leave an umbrella on the bus or misplace your car keys. Let me assure you of that. No, when someone who was walking with Christ stops doing so they’re never an unknowing victim of a misfortune.

But listen, anyone can wander away from the truth.

Most of us have seen it happen. The first signs of it are when the good habit of frequent fellowship begins to wane. Gathering together with other Christians on Sunday just gets crowded out by everything else.

Why is church so important? In 1 Timothy 3.15 Paul says that the church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth. That’s why when people drift from fellowship they usually wander from truth at the same time.

This morning Scotland are playing Argentina in the Rugby World Cup. The match is crucial for both sides if they hope to progress to the Quarter Finals of the competition (which, incidentally, New Zealand will win). But there’s a Scottish prop-forward called Euan Murray who isn’t playing today. When Murray became a Christian he announced that he would not be available for selection on Sundays. He said: “It's all or nothing, following Jesus.” So he is setting aside today for the Lord - to be at church, to meet with other Christians, to hear the word of God preached, to build himself up in faith and give glory to Christ.

This church thing is serious business. In the New Testament, the church - filled with the power of the Holy Spirit - turned the world upside down. They risked their lives to gather together in Christ’s name. Because it was often illegal to gather publically to worship Christ and break bread, believers had to meet secretly at 4:00am in underground catacombs – and then head off to do a day’s work afterwards. Sunday didn’t become a day of rest until the 4th Century. It was the first day of the working week.

How is it that the Body of Christ in the West has come to take church so lightly? How in the world did we get to a point where many Christians look at church as something that exists just to meet their needs?

How did church ever become just a place to go to, when we get around to it, like Cine World or Tesco’s or Ropner Park?

This is where we meet together to exalt Christ and magnify his greatness with one voice. Above all else it’s for him. This is where we minister to one another with spiritual gifts. It’s an expression of love to our brothers and sisters that we turn up and minister to them. And This is where we declare the word of God with authority so that we get built up in the truth and become resistant to the devil’s deceits. This is where we get right with God and feast on Christ at Holy Communion.

When we come to Communion, as we will later, it’s a unique and special and holy moment. It’s about opening our lives completely to God.

Communion is about saying to Jesus, “Lord, I hide nothing from you now. I lay my soul open before you. Test me and see that there is no falsehood in me. Be Lord and Master of every corner of my being. I choose to live in peace with all my brothers and sisters for your sake. I let go of all bitterness for any offence committed against me. I forgive as Christ forgave me. I receive your cleansing in my life. And as I come to you to eat and drink, you pour rivers of living water into my thirsty soul.”

We come back to the cross where Christ delivers us from the gates of hell and the prospect of eternal separation from God. It’s where he pours out grace upon grace in our lives. This is a serious business and it has eternal consequences.

If anyone should wander from the truth...

What do you think it means to wander from the truth? Does it mean you just forget bits of the Bible? Does it mean you are less good at understanding doctrinal propositions and creedal statements than you were? No, that’s not what it means.

Titus 1.1 talks about knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness. Knowledge of the truth accords with godliness. We need to understand that truth and godliness belong together. They are inseparable. As Alec Motyer says, “Truth is a living thing; when it grips our minds it changes our lives.”

We live in a nation that for decades has been rejecting truth. And as it has done so, we have experienced an erosion of godliness in our society.

Attendance of Sunday school has plummeted across the nation since the Second World War. It is no coincidence that juvenile delinquency, binge drinking and drug use have increased over the same period.

As people have turned their backs on God, represented in declining church membership, dishonesty and greed have increased. It has been exposed in recent times. Reckless trading by investment bankers. Phone hacking by the press. Cover ups at the Police. Expenses fraud in Parliament. These are symptoms – but, as any doctor will tell you, you’ll never stop a serious disease by treating the symptoms – you’ve got to deal with the underlying cause. And all this goes back to truth. When a once Christian country rejects biblical truth, morals and standards in the nation decline accordingly.

That’s at a national level. At the local level, James here urges us to watch for anyone who is losing a grip on truth and wandering in the way of error - because for individuals the consequences are just as catastrophic as they are for the country. Drifting from truth always steers us away from godliness.

2) Someone should bring them back

Just as the Bible says that anyone can drift away from truth and godliness, it says that anyone can be used by the Holy Spirit to bring them back into a right relationship with God again.

That word “someone” in v19, if someone should bring them back is yet again the same word as the one used already in v13-14; “Is anyone in trouble? Is anyone happy? Is anyone sick?” And in v19, “If anyone among you should wander from the truth…” And then here; “If anyone should bring them back.”

So it’s not just accredited pastoral assistants or the ordained ministers or members of the pastoral team or specially trained evangelists that James is addressing. James mentions elders in v14, but not here. This is a ministry that the whole body of Christ should be involved in, not just the specialists. God wants everybody here this morning to be attentive to the urgent importance of this work.

Over the course of my 30 odd years as a Christian, I’ve seen that people have two responses to this notion of watching out for others.

Some people are thrilled with the idea. A little too thrilled actually. The thought of meddling in the affairs of others makes their pulse race with excitement. They can’t wait to identify a problem in somebody’s life so they can tell them what to do about it. To people who love pointing out others’ faults Jesus said, “Make sure you deal with the plank in your own eye before you go round picking the speck of sawdust out of your neighbour’s.” That’s one extreme.

But I think the other extreme is more common. Most of us tend more towards the “live and let live” way of thinking. This philosophy says that the way other people live their life is up to them. Who are we to interfere? We need to keep friendships open and avoid alienating people by being too pushy.

But remember my story earlier about the cinema usher; it isn’t enough just to get out of the burning building ourselves. We are responsible for making sure others get out too. God will ask us to give an account to him for those we have known and who have drifted away from the truth.

When you think about people you haven’t seen around in church for a while - what if that’s the Holy Spirit bringing them to mind, prompting you to pray for them and then seek to bring them back?

I went to see a backslidden Christian this week. We had a drink together and I spent a bit of time finding out what was going on in his life. And then I mentioned these two verses from James and I told him that this was why I had come to see him. He’s been away from church for several years now and, in that time, though he bumps into Christians fairly often, he told me that only two have ever really asked him about his soul and where he is with God.

I asked him whether he would have found it intrusive if more people had done so and he said no, he would totally expect it.

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and, someone should bring them back remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

I want to challenge you today. This is God’s word. God is the Father of the prodigal son and the Shepherd of the lost sheep. Ask him to give you his Father heart, his shepherd heart. Pray about one person you have seen drift away from the truth and then go and challenge them to return to the Lord.

3) Save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins

And now, briefly, the last point.

Verse 20 says Whoever turns a sinner from the way of error will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Here’s the thing; James never imagines that wandering away from the truth is just taking a path leading to sadness or loneliness. No, it’s a highway to spiritual ruin and James says that bringing people back from the kind of drift we’ve been thinking about is a matter of life and death. “Save them from death” he says.

And James never imagines that this is just about a lapsed member coming back to the club house. He calls a spade a spade and says that it is a sin to wander away from the truth and turning someone back from their error covers a multitude of sins.

It’s a strange expression, that. We tend to think of covering sin as if it were papering over cracks in the wall or sweeping things under the rug. That’s not what it means though.

Think about how we use the word “cover” for financial transactions. Our daughter Anna announced her engagement last week to our great delight. This week we arranged a transfer of money that we had set aside long ago to pay for the wedding and I said to Anna “that ought to cover it.” (Between me and you, it better do!)

Covering it means that when the bill comes in the wedding will be paid in full and the expense forgotten. To cover means a totally sufficient payment. The bill is taken care of. The debt is settled. James is thinking about what Jesus did to completely deal with our sin, every last sin paid on the nail in full, (including VAT).

Ending

That is the beautiful thing that God does when we enlist in his search and rescue team. Anyone can wander off and lose their way. Anyone can sign up to go and look for them and bring them back safe.

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th September 2011

9/11 - Ten Years On (Genesis 11.1-9 and Luke 13.1-5)

Introduction

We’re taking a little break from the letter of James this morning and we’ll pick up again next week.

As I’m sure you’ll have noticed in the media this week, exactly ten years have elapsed since the terrorist attacks in the United States; an event that both shocked and changed the world. Shortly after the attacks I heard an excellent Christian response from the Baptist minister David Pawson and so much of what he said then is still relevant today, so I'm using his talk as the inspration for much of this one with some new insights that could only have come with the passage of time.

In one decade, much has changed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the alleged principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, is in custody awaiting trial. Osama Bin Laden, the figurehead of Al Qaida at the time of the attacks is dead. There have been controversial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the Arab Spring this year has shown that across the Muslim world people are choosing democratic rule and not global jihad as the means of advancing their interests.

And yet September 11th has become perhaps the most haunted date on the calendar. The mere mention of this date immediately brings to mind newsreels of a visibly horrified crowd watching a vast fire rage in the north tower of the World Trade Center, only to see another airliner slam into the south tower.

I expect everyone here this morning can remember where they were when they heard the news and watched TV reports about it. It was a pivotal event in world history and it still commands access to primetime viewing ten years on.

In the days and weeks following the tragedy, the media, politicians, philosophers and artists tried to find meaning in all this. Christians too. Many opened their Bibles and asked, “What was God doing that day?” And “If God is all powerful and perfectly loving, how can he have allowed something so dreadful to happen?”

These questions are not new, of course, but in the aftermath of September 11th 2001 they were raised again with a new intensity. Some Christians raised another question. “Does God have something to say to us through this disaster?”

And I think, even ten years on, three themes stand out; things that were written down in Scripture long ago but still speak with resonance and authority now at times like this. And I’m going to take them in turn.

1) The Tower of Babel – Pride and Prestige

I think, first of all, that God speaks into the issue of human pride. What vanity is this competition to construct iconic skyscrapers that rise ever higher! The World Trade Center measured 527m high (including the antenna of the north tower). The Sears Building in Chicago surpassed it soon after, but the twin towers were the tallest building in the world at the time of their inauguration. This construction was one expression of an ancient ambition to build the tallest structure on earth. The current record belongs to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 828m tall.

Where does this drive to build ever higher come from? Is it just that humankind likes an engineering challenge? That may be a factor but I think a big part of this aspiration is to do with the pride of the human heart - and its origins go back to the cradle of civilization. The first trace of it is found in the Bible, in Genesis 11.4 where men say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.”

Genesis 11 tells us that the project of building a tower that reached the heavens was essentially an expression of human arrogance. That is to say the tower of Babel was not a building designed and built to the glory of God, as cathedrals in the Middle Ages were. The Tower of Babel was rather an icon of human prestige. It was a monument to the glory and greatness of man.

At the end of the 19th century the New York skyline was dominated by church steeples, which honoured God, pointing to the heavens.

But the 20th century saw a renaissance of the Babel aspiration - and the World Trade Center was part of that drive. Today it is almost impossible to see one church steeple on the Manhattan horizon, overwhelmed as they all are by these buildings erected to the glory of man.

Of all these skyscrapers, the twin towers were perhaps especially symbolic and representative of the confidence that people place in money, in wealth, in the projection of their own importance.

Listen to the words of its architect Minoru Yamasaki (who, believe it or not, had a fear of heights). “The World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness."

That the World Trade Center was such a spectacular monument to human pride is perhaps one reason why God allowed this attack.

I do not mean to say that God was the author of the tragedy of 9/11, and please don’t hear that. Let me be quite clear that God is never the instigator of evil and the Bible says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, let alone the innocent.

But God’s word says repeatedly that “He gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.” Pride is the worst sin of all according to God, for it lies at the root of all sin.

Sometimes pride and human arrogance peak so alarmingly that God permits a sobering corrective before even more damage is done. That is the message of Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel. Think how human confidence in the greatness of man was shaken when the Titanic, a ship that God himself could not sink, plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage. The collapse of the twin towers constructed to the glory of man had a similar effect. “God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.”

In the late 20th Century there was a dizzy euphoria amongst bankers, financiers and entrepreneurs, who imagined that they could create prosperity at will.

But listen to what God says in Deuteronomy 8.17; “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…”

It’s very moving to read the testimonies of those who survived the attacks on the World Trade Center, as we have had opportunity to do this week again.

9/11 happened when I was ministering in an international church in Paris. One member of that church, JFR, lost his first wife on Pan Am flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988. He married again and in September 2001 his second wife was working in New York – in the World Trade Center. She was driving to work that morning and was just about to descend into the underground car park at 8:46am when she heard a noise, looked up and watched the first plane hit the north tower. She backed up and thought “I’m not going to work today.” These events had a profound effect on JFR and many others directly affected by the attacks. They changed his value system because they forced him to re-evaluate what is important in life and what is not.

One international banker who survived, but whose close colleagues perished, gave up his career in high finance saying “I’ll never again live for the pursuit of material things.”

God’s word speaks to us with clarity and insight about what matters in life and what doesn’t. The Bible shows how ephemeral, how vapour-like, wealth is. Mammon promises more than it delivers and the pursuit of money (symbolised if you like by the World Trade Centre) is vain.

2) The Fall of Babylon – Reminder of Ultimate Reality

In the weeks that followed September 11th 2001, several Christian websites and magazines asked the question: “Is this the beginning of the end of the world?”

Why did they ask that? Was it because the sight of New York City engulfed in smoke looked like a scene from an apocalyptic disaster film? Possibly.

But most of the fuel for those questions came from the fact that the description the fall of Babylon at the end of time in the book of Revelation bears a startling resemblance to what happened in New York.

David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade, and the then pastor of Times Square Church, one of the churches closest to the disaster, told about a reporter who said on TV “In just one hour these symbols of great wealth have been totally brought to ruin.” And Wilkerson remarked at once that the journalist quoted the Bible almost word-for-word without knowing it.

In Revelation 17-18 there is a description of a great city built by the sea. This city, is codenamed as Babylon. We know it’s a symbolic name because in reality Babylon is nowhere near the sea. The city is personified as a prostitute because the two great vices there are money and gaudy pleasure. Prostitution of course brings those two things together. This Babylon is also a global exporter of godless culture and values​ and it’s a center of world trade. The prophecy of Revelation 18.19 states that it will be destroyed in just 60 minutes.

“Woe! Woe to you, great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!”

I remember thinking about that passage at the time of the attacks and wondering if this was indeed the beginning of Armageddon. It sent a shiver down my spine.

It is clear now with 10 years’ hindsight that September 11th 2001 was not the end of the world. But I believe it was an anticipation or prefiguring of it for those who have ears to hear.

In the last days a global figure the Bible calls the Antichrist will pursue and persecute all who are faithful to Christ. It will be heavy and persistent - but brief. Today, says the first letter of John, there are many ‘antichrists’ who attack believers on a local level so where we see persecution of believers it’s a prefiguring, if you like, of what’s to come. Many antichrists now. The Antichrist at the end.

In other words, what will happen at the end of the world, we already experience now in miniature. September 11th 2001 saw the demise in one hour of a World Trade Center in a city of money and pleasure. But the demise in one hour of the global centre of trade, of money and of gaudy pleasure will surely come at the end. We’ve already seen it in miniature. And it is frightening.

The warnings about the end of the world in the Bible are not given to arouse our curiosity or to fascinate our imagination but to concentrate our minds on getting our lives right with God. And so to my third point.

3) The Tower of Siloam - Call to Repentance

The last point I want to make comes from our second reading.

September 11th 2001 serves as a sober and stark reminder that our life here is the only opportunity we get to seek God and to accept the salvation he offers freely in Jesus Christ.

Life can be brief. But, however long we have to live, we will all face our Judge at the end of it. How prepared would we be if, like the 2,979 poor souls who perished on 9/11, our days were suddenly cut short and we faced Almighty God tonight?

The week following the attacks of September 11th 2001, people asked, “Why did God allow so much suffering to those innocent victims?” “It’s so random. Why did some survive and others perish?”

It’s a matter people asked Jesus to comment on in Luke 13. And I think it’s worth reading it again.

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.’”

Jesus refers here to two separate disasters: the first was an act of violence and the second was the collapse of a tower that led to people dying.

The first atrocity was committed by Pontius Pilate and it seems to have been an act of state terrorism if you like. He murdered in cold blood a group of ‘innocent’ Galileans who had committed no other offence than gather together for Sabbath worship. It was a brutal act that was totally unjustified. Not only did it senselessly end the lives of these men, it insulted and defiled their religion.

The second disaster was the collapse of a tower in Siloam. The fall of this building crushed and killed a random group of people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the architecture was flawed or the construction was poor. We don’t really know the reason why it fell. But it did fall and people died.

Two different events but Jesus asks the same question about both. Was it because the Galileans were worse sinners than everybody else that Pilate singled them out? Were the victims of the collapse of the tower guiltier than those who survived?”

In both cases, Jesus says, “No, they were no worse than anyone else. But unless you repent,” he says, “you too will all perish.”

Dying without accepting the salvation God graciously offers us will be worse than the foretaste of the hell we all had on 9/11.

Jesus says something very unpalatable here to modern ears. He is pointing out that everyone shares, not a collective innocence, but a common guilt.

Yes, of course it’s true that the victims of the attacks were innocent compared with the hijackers. They were ordinary people like you and me - and it’s heartbreaking that so many of them had to suffer such a harrowing end.

But I’ve got to be honest with what I read here; The Lord Jesus did not direct his words to Pilate or to the architect of the tower in Siloam. He clearly said that if we do not repent, we will likewise perish.

The reason why that sounds so shocking to us is because the secular humanism of the Enlightenment preached the false gospel that everyone is basically good.

But the Bible says the truth about human nature: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And “the [human] heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

In other words, we are sinners by nature, and capable of good only by the grace and mercy of God.

I remember first reading this in the Bible and thinking “No, it can’t mean that!” And then I had children. I discovered that even young children tell lies and torment their siblings and defy authority and refuse to share. I discovered that in order for my children to tell the truth, live in peace with others, respect authority and share nicely Kathie and I had to break my back training them to adopt a different course than the one they instinctively chose. Then I discovered that my parents had the same issues with me – only I was worse. Then it hit me; this goes all the way back to the first man and woman. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The tragedy of September 11th - even ten years on - sounds a wake-up call to repentance, not just for the citizens of New York City or the American people, but for the whole world, because none of us here today are more innocent than the victims of those atrocities were.

C.S. Lewis once said “God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pain.” And God does cry out to the world at times of crisis like this. Is anybody listening?

Ending

Despite the heavy tone of my talk today, I want to finish by saying that the gospel is good news not bad news.

The good news is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

• If you’re not right with God this morning
• if you do not have the peace with him that he freely gives
• if you relate to the pride of the builders of the tower of Babel
• if you have bought into the values ​​of Babylon (the city without God)
• if you’re tired of living outside God’s will for your life

Come humbly before him now, return to the Lord your God, and seek the forgiveness, the cleansing and the salvation that he so wants to give our broken world.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th September 2011

The Patience of a Saint (James 5.7-12)

Introduction

When Saint Teresa of Avilla went through a difficult period in her life, she complained to God about her mistreatment from so many different people. God said to her “This is how I always treat my friends.” Teresa never minced her words. She simply replied, “Well, that must be why you have so few!”

But Teresa of Avilla did eventually go on to acquire the patience of, well, a saint.

Have you ever noticed that whatever checkout queue you choose, it turns out to be the one that progresses slowest of all? Even if I take my time to study the different queues to identify the fastest moving one, once I join it, it grinds to a halt. Customers in front of me will have a problem with their debit card or their purchases will have barcodes that the scanner fails to recognise, requiring a long discussion with the checkout manager - who will happen to be at tea break, or the cashier will have to change the till roll - for the first time ever and will need assistance. Lord, teach me patience! Am I alone in this?

Here is the Oxford definition of patience. “Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.”

But the Bible says that irritating inconveniences and drawn out delays do not occur by accident. God’s word teaches us that they are permitted by God for a very specific purpose, (to grow character and fortitude and stature in us).

So next time you are held up by dithering drivers, incompetent cashiers or tea-drinking tradesmen you can say “Praise the Lord, that he is so meticulously concerned about my sanctification!”

How patient are you? (get interrupted by mobile phone and talk for several minutes, turning back on congregation)…

Now where was I? Uhm... Do you know I can't find my place. Sorry about that. Uhm... Let me start again. When Saint Teresa of Avilla went through a difficult period in her life...

See, how many of you found yourself getting a little bit annoyed just then?

Does it matter how longsuffering you are? It really does. God’s word says here that patient endurance is one of the keys to blessing.

Jeremiah and Job

What does that look like in real life? James says, “Well take a look at the prophets and Job. These people are really good examples of patient endurance. Let’s read v10-11 again:

“Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.”

Take, for example, the prophet Jeremiah. When Kathie is trying to say something to me and I fail to listen to her, gracious and considerate as she is, she gets a little fed up with me. You can understand that – and possibly even sympathise with her from personal experience.

But Jeremiah takes that indignity to a whole other level. He was almost completely ignored and rebuffed his whole life. Try and put yourself in his shoes. How do you think that would have felt to go through life, week after week, month after month, year after year with everyone switching off and blanking you as soon as you open your mouth? No wonder he looks so thoroughly fed up in Rembrandt’s picture of him.

Word for word, Jeremiah is the longest book in the Old Testament. It contains nearly 40,000 words. (I counted this week – with the aid of a computer you’ll be relieved to know). But just hold that number in your minds for a moment; 40,000 words. The average sermon you hear at All Saints’ is 1,200 / 2,200 words.

Now let me tell you the story that you find in Jeremiah 36. It’s about a scribe who reads out Jeremiah’s urgent prophecy to wicked king Jehoiakim. Jeremiah pleads with him to heed God’s warning of imminent disaster, and lead the nation to repentance to avoid catastrophe. King Jehoiakim takes a penknife and cuts up the scroll inch by inch, as it is read to him, and tosses Jeremiah’s life work into the fire, piece by piece. (That’s how they shredded documents in the 6th Century BC). 40,000 painstakingly penned words - all shredded and burned in one evening. And when it’s all over, God says to Jeremiah, “Now then, I want you to take a new parchment and a pen and write it out all over again. Every word.” That’s an example of the sort of patience James is talking about in v10.

It puts waiting for a late bus or putting up with a delayed telephone engineer into perspective doesn’t it?

And then James says in v11, “You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.”

Job had to suffer more than Jeremiah, much more than Teresa of Avilla, and much, much more than a supermarket customer in a hurry. If you’re not all that familiar with the story of Job it goes like this:

Job is a good man, who loses in one day, his livestock (symbolic of his source of income) and all his servants, (symbolic of his wealth). It's already a bad day when you lose your job and your life savings. But there is worse. On the same day, shortly after Job prays for each of his children, his house collapses on them, leaving no survivors.

In a single day, he loses everything he has. And there is more to come. Shortly after all this, Job is afflicted from head to toe by a painful skin disease. He scratches his itchy festering skin with pieces of broken pottery and sits on a pile of ashes well outside the city, because nobody can bear to look at him. He is ugly and disfigured. People hide their faces.

It is at this moment that his wife begins to nag him. “You should curse God and die” she says. “Go on! Maybe he will put you out of your misery.”

Job probably just needs a little love and support, but in four little words (Curse God and die) his wife abandons her faith, washes her hands of her husband and wishes him dead. “Thank you darling, I feel better already.”

It's easy to criticize this woman when we read about it in black and white. But to be fair to her, she has just lost everything too. It is so painful when a loved one is really suffering and there is nothing you can do to help. It may be that Mrs. Job cannot stand seeing him suffer and just wants his ordeal to end. Yes, she is wrong to encourage her husband to turn away from God. But she is in shock, she is traumatized, she has lost everything.

But poor old Job. I guess after all this he probably just wanted to be left alone - which is when his four talkative friends turn up to offer him a bit of well-meant advice. Actually a lot of well-meant advice. And a fair bit of criticism too.

Job is so wretched, so disfigured by his afflictions, that at first they don’t recognize him at all. When they finally realize that it's him, the Bible says they “start crying loudly,” which was the custom at funerals. What an extraordinary blessing that must have been… How encouraging.

Without going into too much detail, Job’s four friends fill up thirty-three chapters with unfair criticism, simplistic platitudes and unhelpful advice. They end up basically saying that there is no smoke without fire. If you suffer, it’s because you must have sinned badly. Glenn Hoddle could have told him that…

Job’s friends did not see that there was a bigger picture. It was in fact an affliction visited on Job by Satan and was authorized by God himself. Suffering is usually much more complex than we imagine. If you’re going through the mill right now, it is not necessarily a spiritual attack, simply because it was for Job. But it might be. If you are going through a long tunnel of misfortune it is not necessarily a consequence of sin; in the Bible, it hardly ever is. It is, in fact, difficult to discern clearly what is going on spiritually when we, or someone we love, are struck by illness or adversity.

Joni Erickson, who as a teenager, was paralyzed in a diving accident and became a Christian some time later, has often received prayer for healing. Her condition has not changed. Some Christians have said that she lacks faith which just adds insult to injury really and Joni has had to learn to be patient with such people. She has become one of the most gracious, forgiving, joyful people you could meet. She once said, “When I go to heaven, I will fold up my wheelchair, walk up to Jesus, hand it back to him and say – ‘thank you, I needed that’.”

Take a look at the list of all Job lost. He was left bereaved, wretched, afflicted and penniless. But in the Bible here, it is not the poverty or the pain but the patience of Job, which is the important thing.

I read the book of Job back in June and I noticed then that, with all the grief he got, he was never aggressive or violent. It is true that he got very, very low and he did take his friends to task for being so simplistic and annoying. He was only human after all. But what does Job’s patience look like in the face of ignorance and provocation? It looks composed, even-tempered and gracious.

And what does Job’s patience look like in his prayer life? In Job 1.21 he says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”

In other words, he says “God knows what he’s doing. He owes me nothing anyway. I trust him. He is always worthy of praise. Nothing else is more important than that.” Job didn’t understand at all what was happening to him, but he did know that God is good. All the time.

The Lord likes to give grace to patiently endure inconvenience, injustice, even injury - and to be victorious over it. Think of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus Christ showed matchless patience under intolerable pressure from excruciating pain. No suffering will ever plumb the depths of the torment that Jesus Christ endured for me and for you. He didn’t say “Excuse me, what about my human rights?” He took the full weight and the eternal consequences for all the wrong we suffer, whether we are innocent or guilty. He was completely blameless and yet he endured hell’s fury so that we might receive grace and forgiveness and life in abundance.

God does test our patience this way because he wants us to be like him – slow to anger and abounding in love.

God does test our patience this way because he wants us to be like his Son – remember the words of Paul: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst… that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense... patience.”

And I want to say this if you feel this is all a bit academic: The lives of Jeremiah and Job are absolutely relevant if you find yourself tested at the moment in any of the following areas:

• The exasperating waste of your time
• The humiliation and indignity of being ignored
• The pain of personal grief
• Stress to do with the family
• Strains in marriage
• Pressure and tension from work
• Worries about money
• The burden of relationships that pile false guilt on you

Let’s just put that list on the screen. Take a good look. That’s a pretty heavy list isn’t it? Those are the issues Jeremiah and Job faced, endured and overcame.

I say “overcame” because, in the end, both men triumphed over adversity by patient endurance.

Jeremiah was vindicated. He went down as one of the great characters of the Old Testament. In fact, such is the greatness of his legacy that when Jesus said to his disciples “Who do people say that I am?” they replied that some thought he was Jeremiah.

Job was also vindicated. At the end of the book of Job, God said that his friends had spoken foolishly and Job became twice as prosperous as before - and doubly blessed.

“We count as blessed those who have persevered… You have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

I believe the Lord wants to minister his grace and power amongst us this morning.

Some of you here know that the Lord is speaking to you about things on that list on the screen.

• For some here this morning, today is a day of release and healing
• For others, today is a day to receive a new word of revelation from the Lord
• For others still, today is a day to receive grace to endure and be victorious
• For still others, today is a day to put down heavy burdens at the foot of the cross

Let’s stand to pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th September 2011