Reflection September 30, 2012; Mark 9:40,41; James 4, James 5:16

Today we say goodbye to James, until the next time at least, and with it to the month of September. We will have found ourselves in each of the five chapters, but only because I did some digging in chapter four which the lectionary skips.  I’ll be honest, as I was studying the lectionary readings, I could not find much of a theme or even contrasting themes. In Mark chapter 9 we find Jesus mentioning a number of very important things.  You can almost imagine him saying: “Oh and by the way, one more thing.” One of those things he mentions in passing has to do with the glass of water and how there is a reward for that glass of water. James 5 is about prayers for the sick and a few other things.  So I went back to chapter 4 and found some things that drew me in.  As I was doing all that I had this “find a word” experience.  You know how there are these puzzles where you see all these letters on a row and they all seem random.  Instead there are words in there and you just have to find them.  It’s kind of like I looked at Mark and at James 4 and at James 5 and at first I didn’t see any words, just verses that seemed to have very little connection, but then I saw a kind of guide for life when I connected them.

Friends, sometimes it is hard for us to find much of a guide for life in the Bible.  It was written so long ago. It’s like we find fragments and snippets of faith and we don’t quite know where and how to place them.  But the guide is in there or rather a series of guides is in there.  You’ll find them if you keep looking.  It’s not “find a word,” but “find a guide.”

Self-help books are extremely popular in this country. On a plane to Dallas a number of years ago I was sitting next to a man from New Orleans who worked in the rock and roll business and who was completely engrossed in a self-help book by pastor Joel Osteen.  I took a look at it and had that sense I always have with self-help books:  you can scan it in twenty minutes and know the main ideas and you think “hey I could write that.”  There always seem to be certain themes you can find everywhere.  So here’s a little self-help guide I found last Wednesday.   Let’s call it “Finding your better you” by Mark (Saint) James since I got it from Mark and James.  Principle One: Treat every opportunity to be helpful as a gift.  You never know whether it is the most important thing you do.  This is based on the glass of water verse. Roughly “whoever gives followers of Christ a glass of water will find his or her reward” says Jesus. A glass of water is both crucial and simple, especially in hot and dry land.  Principle two we find in James chapter 4, verse 6. Principle two is as follows:”Play down your own importance and let God appreciate You instead.”  James writes: ”God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  For principle three and four we stay In James 4.  Principle three is: “Don’t be overconfident or obsess about future plans.” In verse 14 we hear: ”you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

This ties in to Principle number 4 which is: “Make full use of the present moment.”  For in verse 14 we also read :you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”  That is not a nice thing to hear, but by now we are used to James’ blunt style.  We now move from James 4 to the final chapter 5.  There we find a principle that speaks to our relationship with people and God with God. Principle 5 is: Apologize to each other and pray for each other.  Verse 16 tells us to confess our “sins” to each other and it reminds us that ”the effective prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much.” So here you have it, friends, the guide for living I found between the lines of the text before me. It is a guide that teaches humility, mindfulness and the power of prayer.  I bet there are other guides in there too, just as there are many throughout the Bible.

There is a lesson in my struggle to find a message for today.  You can find traces of wisdom where and when you least expect it.  This is not just true of the Bible, it is also of life.  Sometimes the truth is right in front of us.  Here’s a simple saying:” You don’t have to be listed in Who’s Who to know what’s what.” A simple insight that reminds us what our text has just told us. It is often the wise simple folks who tell us the most important things about life and how to live it.  It can be children who tell us what’s most important.  It is fitting to end our journey through James in this way.  He who has given us the most practical of texts for Christian living coughs up a few more simple gems for us to discover. May God’s Holy Spirit help us find more wisdom wherever we least expect it. Thanks be to God.