Meditation for September 6, 2007

From The Rev. Peter A. Munson

James 3:13-18

 

"Who is wise and understanding among you?  Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.  But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.  Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.  For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace."

 

Wisdom From Above

 

James says the wisdom from above "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partialitiy or hypocrisy." (verse 17)  These words bring to mind two of the promises we are asked to keep as Christians, which we are reminded of whenever we renew our Baptismal Covenant.

 

"Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?"

 

"Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

 

The answer we give, as you will recall, is:  "I will, with God's help."

 

We need God's help to be pure, gentle, and peaceable.  We need God's help if we are ever going to risk yielding to someone else.  We need God's help if we are going to be full of mercy, love our neighbor, seek and serve Christ in everyone we meet, strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of each person.

 

We need God's help, according to James, because we need a different kind of wisdom.  We need God's wisdom.  As James sees it, the wisdom of this world is mostly about getting ahead of other people, of "one-ups-manship", of "selfish ambition."  I am doing well if I can look down on you and most of the world.  That is the wisdom of this world.

 

James challenges us to not buy into the world's ways, and not to seek the world's "wisdom", but instead, to seek the wisdom that comes from God.  The beginning of his letter begins this way:  "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord." (James 1:5-8)

 

If we desire God's wisdom, then, it brings us quite quickly to the prerequisites of faith and prayer.  God is generous and quite ready to give us wisdom, James says.  Are we ready to have faith in God?  Are we ready to pray?

 

According to the Old Testament, Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived.  People came from all over seeking his wisdom.  Even the Queen of Sheba was blown away by his wisdom.  (See 1 Kings 10: 1-10)  It all started when Solomon asked for wisdom one day, when the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, "Ask what I should give you."  Solomon responded, "... And now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of the people whom You have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.  Give Your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern Your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this Your great people?" (1 Kings 3:5-9)

 

We are told that the Lord was pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom and understanding, and not for long life or riches or for the life of his enemies.  The Lord was so pleased, in fact, that the Lord granted Solomon the wisdom that he asked for, and even more - more than he had asked for. (1Kings 3:10-14)

 

I don't begin to have the responsibilities that Solomon had, and neither do you.  But there are many times when I can relate to Solomon's remark that he did not know how to go out or to come in.  I don't need the world's wisdom.  For that matter, the world doesn't even need the world's wisdom, because, as James says, it leads to "disorder and wickedness of every kind." I need the wisdom that comes from above.  As Isaiah reminds us, God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and God's ways are not our ways - and that is all the more reason for us to be praying to God for wisdom!  (Isaiah 55:8-9)  Paul says to the Corinthians, "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles... For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

 

Let's see, we have the example of Solomon seeking God's wisdom.  We have the words of Isaiah, James, Paul - not to mention Jesus - encouraging us to seek the wisdom from above, a different kind of wisdom, a wisdom that is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy."  The same message seems to be coming to us from all sorts of different people in the Bible.  What these people had in common was that they sought the wisdom of God.

 

I need this kind of wisdom - the wisdom from above.  Looks like I better get to praying, and keep praying.  Looks like I need to have faith in a loving, gracious, generous God, who wants to give us this kind of wisdom - a wisdom that helps to transform us, a wisdom that helps to transform the world.