Sermon for 4th Sunday after Easter, 2021
Easter IV
Our Epistle reading for today is James chapter 1, verses 17 through 21. You may want to turn there in your booklet. We will first walk through each of these 5 verses. Well, make that 6 verses. The preceding verse, verse 16, states “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” James is urging us not to miss the importance of what he is about to say.
Verse 17 begins, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” James is restating what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Out of the abundance of His mercy, God has blessed us with many gifts. All His gifts are good and perfect, because He is good and perfect. What do you have that you value most? He has given that to you. Immense gratitude is the natural response. This is the reason this passage on God’s good and perfect gifts is also read on Thanksgiving Day. When we are given a gift, our appreciation for it is sometimes too easily swayed by how much it costs. The real value of a gift is not its dollar value, but who the giver is. Whatever you receive from God will always be what is best for you. He has no other way of giving.
Verse 17 continues. These good and perfect gifts “Cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” The “Father of lights” refers to God as the Creator of the stars. Ps. 136:7 states that it was God who “Made the great lights” – the sun, the moon, and the stars. But unlike the sun and the moon, which vary from day to night, and whose turning create shadows, God does not change. As massive and dominant as the heavenly bodies are, they are inferior to their Creator, whose light and gifts change not.
Verse 18 has 3 parts – a what, a how, and a why. The “what” is our new birth - “Of his own will begat he us.” James is using the metaphor of birth to describe God’s regenerative act in the human soul. Of course our minds go to John chapter 3, where Jesus tells Nicodemus “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The “how” of this new birth follows - “With the word of truth.” This “word of truth” is the Gospel. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul refers to those who are perishing “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” Verse 18 ends with the “why”. Why has God granted us a new birth by His word of truth? “That we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” “Firstfruits” is an agricultural term. In Exodus 23, we learn that the best of the first harvest each year was to be offered to God as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. James says that God has brought us forth in a new birth to be such firstfruits. We are to offer ourselves to Him, therefore, in thanksgiving and service.
Verse 19 begins with “wherefore.” James signals that he is about to draw one practical application for those who recognize their firstfruits status. “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” The anger that can result from how we speak is a special concern of James, and he will devote 12 full verses in chapter 3 to this subject in the famous “taming the tongue” passage.
In verse 20, James gives us the reason we must control our speech and our anger: “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” The phrase “the righteousness of God” is context-dependent. It can mean the righteousness that comes from God. In this sense, it is closely related to justification. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Here, though, James is using “the righteousness of God” in the sense of the rightness of God, that is, His character and will. We can understand this better if we reverse the behaviors of verse 19. Being slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger do not conform to God’s rightness. They do not show loving obedience to God. They do not demonstrate a willingness to be conformed to the image of His Son.
We now come to the last verse – something to avoid, and something to embrace. “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.” We are to avoid all immoral conduct and overflowing malice. The “lay apart” language evokes the image of stripping off dirty clothes and throwing them aside. Once we have put these away from us, we are to receive something - “Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” This is the second time James has referred to the “word.” In verse 18, we saw that God has granted us new life by “the word of truth” – the Gospel. Here, we learn that this “word” is implanted in us when received with meekness. The truths of the Gospel must be allowed to take root in our lives, and we must actively promote their growth. This is the continual walking in the way of salvation.
These 5 verses could be summarized as follows. God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, whose nature is unchanging, has brought us forth into a new life. We are to shed everything that does not conform to His character and will, and receive with meekness the Gospel truths by which we are saved.
Having looked at these verses, we now naturally ask: How do I know if I am living this way? Today’s Epistle has a built-in test, and so we return to verse 19: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
You could find these same three ideas in many self-help books. Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People emphasizes the value of empathic listening. Habit number five is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Isn’t this just “Be quick to hear, slow to speak” in modern language? The authors of Crucial Conversations tell us we need to master our own emotions, especially anger, to have effective dialogue with others. Isn’t this just, “[be] slow to wrath”? “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” may sound like self-help, until we remind ourselves that James begins the passage with God as the source of every good and perfect gift, and he ends with God as the one who implants His word of truth in us which is able to save us. This isn’t self-help. It’s help from another. And this other is God.
Today’s Collect begins, “O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.” Is there any shortage of evidence today of the unruly wills and affections of sinful men? The social media rage machine and the professionally furious clamor for our constant attention. Their visibility and business model depend on us being as angry and aggrieved as they are. It’s working. A June 2020 Gallup Poll found that 27% of respondents reported feeling angry a lot of the day.
Later this month, we celebrate Ascension Day then Pentecost, which are hinted at in today’s Gospel. “…It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” When Christ ascends, He will send the Holy Ghost, who will come in new power into the lives of the disciples. This transformed everything about them, not just their speech and their moods. This will fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “…After those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
The giver of every good and perfect gift, the Creator of all light, did not bring us forth in a new birth just so that we would be merely less angry and more temperate in speech. He wants to put His law within our hearts; He wants to engraft the Gospel in our lives. We are to be firstfruits – the best of the human harvest. “They shall be my people.” You will recall Fr. Tony’s description last week of Resurrection joy. This is a unique Christian experience. After all, we’re the only ones with a Savior willing to die and be resurrected for us. Wanting to live in Resurrection joy is the reason we prayed earlier today that we would “love the thing which thou dost command, and desire that which thou dost promise.” What if we were a people who didn’t merely obey God’s command to control our speech and anger better, but loved doing so? What if we didn’t merely know about God’s promises, but truly desired them? If we did so, we would find, as the Collect says, our hearts would be fixed where true joys are found.