September 15, 2024
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from James 3:1-12.
I was recently witness to an incident in which one person didn’t say what was really on their mind. A second person in that incident after downing some “courage water” blurted out in a hurtful way what they thought the first person wanted to say. What was an event that should have been a time of leaning on one another and supporting one another turned into a time of mistrust, of wondering what went wrong. Each on the receiving end wondered: was it something I did that caused this? What should have been a time of togetherness was now a time of anger, hurt feelings, confusion, separation and doubt.
Our text for this week speaks words that are meant for us to hear. I watched the presidential debate last night. It was quite entertaining to say the least. But what struck me were the hurtful demeaning things that were said between the two candidates. It doesn’t appear that we are working together to solve our problems, rather we’re working harder to divide and distance ourselves from each other.
James reminds us in our text this week that the tongue is our own worst enemy. We say things without apparent concern for how those words might be received and what damage they might do to our relationships with each other. We come to worship on Sunday morning and sing praises to our Lord and then we leave and we throw barbs at those who disagree with us. James reminds us that we cannot both praise God while berating our brothers and sisters in Christ and still call ourselves Christians. We may never be able to completely control our tongues but if we can at least rein them in and be aware of the hurt we might be causing it is a start. But we also have help in that department and that help is in the form of the Holy Spirit. But first we need to acknowledge that we have a problem controlling our tongues and when we do and ask for forgiveness and for guidance the Holy Spirit steps in to help us and to remind us of God’s love for all people.
This is something that we have posted on our refrigerator at home.
Before you speak THINK:
1. Is it True?
2. Is it Helpful?
3. Is it Inspiring?
4. Is it Necessary?
5. Is it Kind?
May the peace of God be with all of you!
Michael Isaacson
September 8, 2024
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from James 2:1-17.
As I read this passage I was reminded of my years in school. As I entered my teenage years I became more aware of the other kids in my class and school. There were kids whose clothes weren’t so nice; sometimes dirty or they smelled different. And then there were the kids who dressed in the latest fashionable clothes. These kids were popular. Many of us wanted to be like them. Obviously, at least in our minds they came from more wealthy homes. Some of us didn’t want to associate with the kids who didn’t dress well but yet we didn’t fit in with the rich kids and oftentimes weren’t accepted by them anyhow.
I remember one incident when I was in high school. Two of us were chosen to be the leaders in the bus evacuation drills preparing us in the event of a fire or accident. Our job was to help the other kids off the bus. We were to go out the back door of the bus, stand on the ground, and help the others off. One by one the kids came to the door and we helped them down; that is until one little girl came to the door. She was a girl we considered to be poor. She didn’t have nice clothes and she smelled a little different. Until that point it had been almost automatic. I would help one kid while my partner would help the next. But then this little girl came to the door. As I recall, it was my partner’s turn but he hesitated when he saw this little girl and so I stepped in to help her. I’m not saying I was the hero in this case; far from it. I likely had the same thoughts and feelings as my partner. The difference was I saw that it was our responsibility to help and when my partner hesitated I did what we were supposed to do.
In God’s eyes we are all his children and he treats each of us equally. But the world we live in teaches us differently. The world seems to teach us that the poor and needy are to be kept in their place. We should avoid them; they aren’t worth our time. They don’t want to help themselves anyhow. At least that seems to be our mind set. We gravitate to the well dressed, well spoken apparently seeing them as successful and we want to be like them. But our passage this week seems to be warning us that the people in that group have gotten their status by using and trodding on us. James goes on to say that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. I don’t think we’re doing so well at that as a whole. But perhaps the problem is that we don’t love ourselves therefore we find it hard to love our neighbors.
James reminds us that we ought to treat all people as we ourselves would want to be treated. It’s a simple concept and yet so often ignored and forgotten or if we do consider the action, we’re already thinking ahead about what can I gain from this. Our actions speak volumes and James reminds us in this passage that faith without works is dead. If we say we trust Jesus then we must act accordingly. In recalling some of Jesus’ ministry look at who he gravitated toward during his ministry; it was the poor, the lame, the blind, the sick, and the dying; it wasn’t the wealthy and powerful. Not that he ignored the wealthy and powerful but he especially had compassion for the poor and needy. He didn’t seem to consider what was in it for him. Jesus obeyed the commands of his Father to love his neighbor as himself. When we trust God, when we give ourselves to him, our actions towards others reflect that same love that Jesus shows us.
May the peace of God be with all of you!
Michael Isaacson
