Read Text: James 1:1-4, 12
Patriotic pride is at an all time high lately, and as we come to the 226th celebration of our nation’s birthday, you are going to be seeing the symbols of the US everywhere. Stars and stripes, fireworks and eagles are going to be all over the place in the weeks to come. Let me tell you a little about the bald eagle so that when you see it you will be reminded of something. The bald eagle is a bird used by our nation to represent power and beauty, grace and courage. Particularly fascinating to learn about is its early life as an eaglet. The birds are absolutely helpless right after they hatch. The mother eagle builds a nest, usually high on a rocky cliff, then lines it with soft down so that her babies are warm and comfortable. Then she cares for their every need, returning to the nest to bring back food that will nourish the 2 or 3 gaping eaglet beaks awaiting dinner.
When the little eagles are about 6 weeks old, the mother eagle stands on the edge of the nest and puts her large, stately bald eagle head down in the nest. She pushes it up against the secure, warm eaglet snuggled into its down bed. At first that eaglet must get warm all over thinking that momma is snuggling. But the mother nudges the baby eagle over a little, first gently, then a little more firmly. “Hey, what are you doing mom?” Before long she has pushed that little eagle to the edge of the nest. As the eaglet stares over the edge at the drop of several hundred feet to the jagged rocks below, there is one last nudge, and there goes the little eagle, careening down the face of the cliff.
This morning we begin a study in our morning worship services of the letter that James wrote to Christians all over, and that includes us. The theme of James’ letter could be summed up in the phrase “Everyday worship.” Throughout this letter, James is not interested in talking about the kind of worship that goes on Sunday morning. He is more concerned about the way we worship God when we aren’t in the church building. For him, worship isn’t a weekly activity it is a lifestyle. And James doesn’t waste any time before he cuts right to the chase. What we read was the beginning of his letter. In the letter writing style of his day, he writes a return address, a salutation, and then he jumps right into the deep end with a statement that drops our jaw. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds…”
Now that statement has to shock you if you really listen to it. Hear what James is saying. “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” The language he uses is jolting. The phrase “pure joy” could be “whole joy.” (KJV “All joy.”) He says don’t mix in any grief, but consider it pure joy when you go through trials. It’s almost like James wants us to be thrilled with the prospect of suffering through the trials of life. Now that might sound good in the abstract, but in reality it’s no thrill to think about facing the trials and hardships of life.
You remember our little eaglet don’t you? I’m sure he would have loved to watch a video about flying, learned the details about swoop fishing and gathered the information about lift and trajectory all from the safety of the nest. But real life doesn’t work that way. When the hard times hit you, it feels a lot like that helpless eaglet dropping hundreds of feet to certain death. So when James says to consider trials your joy, that’s a pretty hard pill to swallow. But since James is the brother of Jesus, and since we believe that God inspired him to write these words, let’s look at them a little more closely.
When you look at verse 2 you will notice something about the way he words it. Pay close attention as I read it again. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Maybe you noticed that he didn’t say “if.” It’s “whenever you face trials.” You see, it’s a fact of life that you and I are going to go through hard times. In case you need that confirmed, Jesus told us that in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Paul testified to it in Acts 14:22 when he said, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” They aren’t telling us anything we don’t know, or are they.
I wonder if in our society we have fostered the notion that it is possible to live a life of comfort, relatively free of pain and hardship. Some people of the Christian faith have even been taught that. I think there has been this idea floating around that if we can just get the right formula for success, we can skip all this trials and suffering stuff and really have a great life. I know that’s what I used to think. If you hold to that false idea that a life of ease and comfort can be yours then when hard times come on, you could be destroyed. You will either think that you have messed up your life, or that God is punishing you. But the truth of the matter is, trials are inevitable. Think about it!
- If you choose to love people, then you invite into your life the suffering that comes from being betrayed or deserted by someone you love. But if you choose not to love people, then you are going to suffer the pain of loneliness and isolation. Either way, you will suffer pain.
- If you attempt to accomplish anything in your lifetime, you invite the trials that come with frustration and failure. But if you never attempt anything, then all your life you will fight with feeling insignificant. In the end you will look back on a life of unreached potential.
- If you breath air, you invite the prospect of a viral or bacterial infection. If you choose not to breath air, well I don’t need to tell you that. So something of what James is saying is “since you can’t avoid trials, don’t spend your life hiding. Consider them joy.”
A few years ago my family went out on Green River Lake down in Kentucky with some friends. The guy who owned the boat we were on told about taking his 70+ year old mother out one hot June afternoon. She had never been water skiing before, and she said she thought it looked fun. It wasn’t too long before the ski jacket was on and she was out the back end of the boat waiting for the end of the rope to come her way. She got up on skis that day. He was telling me that one of the last things she said before she jumped out was, “What if I break a hip out there.” He told her, “Mom, if you’re going to break a hip, wouldn’t you like to tell the nurse that you did it water skiing instead of tripping over a rug!” That evidently convinced her. There is more wisdom there than you might think at first blush.
Now don’t get me wrong, Theresa/Connie, I’m not telling you to go water skiing. But what I am saying to all of us is that since trials are inevitable Don’t live your life cowering in fear of adversity! Don’t be afraid to love because people might hurt you. Don’t be afraid to try something because you might fail. Don’t be afraid to breath because you might catch something! There is something to be said for someone who will set out to do something with the idea that “I’ll do it or die trying.” Isn’t that the way the apostle’s lived, enduring incredible suffering and every one of them ultimately giving their life for the cause of Christ? Isn’t that the way Jesus lived, offering His life up on a cross so that we could go to heaven? We love that kind of courage in other people. We live it out vicariously in movie heroes, but it is hard to muster for ourselves.
What we have to realize is that our attitude toward hardship determines how it affects us. You see, if we are afraid of hard times, they will beat us up. But if we view hardship as our ally instead of as our enemy, then we can come to know what James is talking about. You think about your life and I guarantee that you will realize that the times when you have grown the most is when you have gone through the hardest times. That is because God uses those hard times to mold us into who He wants us to be. You can see the progress of thought in James’ words. “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Now the Bible is full of ways that God uses suffering to help us become who He wants us to be. Let me just highlight 4.
1. Romans 5:2b-5. “…we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Through suffering, we learn to lean on the Holy Spirit. I have told many of you before about the six weeks span of time when my grandmother and father both died, my daughter was born, I resigned from one ministry and was ushered out of another one. I can testify that before that time I had cruised through life. But that time, the roughest my 37 years, taught me that I wasn’t strong enough to face life on my own. I needed God’s help through that time, and when I start standing too tall sometimes I have to look back and see that God is the one who sustains me through His Spirit.
2. I Peter 1:6-7a. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine…” Through suffering, we learn the depth of our faith. It’s easy to believe in God when you’re cashing paychecks, your health is good and you live in the Cleaver household. But it is when you are standing in the unemployment line, or when the doctor tells you it’s terminal, or when your family disappoints you, that you learn how deeply you believe in God. Suffering is the thermometer that tests the strength of your faith.
3. I Peter 1:7b. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” Through suffering, we are provided a testimony to the power of God. There are some people who God speaks through not because they are so polished or persuasive, but because they allow Him to work through their suffering. Marsha Williams was here a little over a year ago. Her body has been disfigured by over 200 bone breaks, and yet, against everything that the doctors say is possible, she can belt out a song and tease with the children and devote herself to her husband and little girl. If she had never suffered, it would be a limitation to her. The power of God has been witnessed to me through some of you. There are many of you here who have known pain far beyond anything I have known, and I have seen you stand firm and I know that you know what James means when he talks about “the testing of your faith developing perseverance.” God reveals His power by carrying us through our suffering.
4. II Corinthians 1:3-7. (Read) Trials give us the ability to comfort others in their tough times. Some time back I watched Mr. Holland’s Opus. (Full Recommendation) I watched that movie and was really moved as I lived with Richard Dreyfuss’ portrayal of Mr. Holland. A struggling musician becomes a High School music teacher against his wishes. The movie takes you through his highs and lows like the birth of his son, the realization that the son is deaf, the struggle of the daily grind, and the triumph of seeing his students succeed. The movie dealt with temptation and love, the search for significance, the emptiness of unfulfilled dreams and the joy of true accomplishment. When it was all over I had laughed, but I had cried, alot. I am not one to cry much at that stuff. As I thought about that movie, I realized that 20 years ago that movie would have been okay. But now it is more significant because I know the joy of holding my child, and the pain of not knowing if it is okay or not. I know the power of temptation and the joy of love. And you probably do too. When we can relate to someone, we can identify and are moved by their similar circumstances.
Honestly, it is a fearful thing to be a minister sometimes. Just because I have a certificate of ordination, I have had to go in and try to comfort where I really didn’t have a clue what to do. But I have watched people with no formal training meet the needs of hurting people that I didn’t even know existed. That is God at work in the lives of people who have been comforted, so that they know how to comfort. You see, it is only through the pain of suffering that you can come to know the power of God’s comfort. It is only because that mother eagle knew the need for that little eaglet to fly that she could push him out of the nest. But you know who was there to catch him before the jagged edges of the rocks below. At the last second she catches him, returns him to the nest and lets him rest until the next push she will give him over the edge. (pause)
When you face the “trials of many kinds” that James speaks of (and you will face them), you need to realize something. You are not alone. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea…” God is there, and He won’t let you hit the rocks. Trust Him.
One thing about James is that he is no ivory tower philosopher. He sure doesn’t spend any time asking the questions like “Why do people suffer trials.” He’s too practical for that. What is on his mind is helping us to see life from a different perspective. He wants us to know that if we are going to worship God even in the midst of trials, we need to be able to see the joy in their midst. Now realize, James is not saying that the trials themselves are joyful. But the results are. You see, God wants to develop us into people of character, James uses the terminology “mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
And he even points us to a promise in v. 12. It is the ultimate promise of those of us who are longing to be everything God created us to be. “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”
