WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.140 words of introduction because face value these are not easy words to hear. An analogy I want to draw 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:18.199 is a power tool. Imagine you've got a drill, a chainsaw or something like that and there's two 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:24.859 different ways in which you could sort of explain the relationship between the person about to 00:00:24.859 --> 00:00:33.359 operate it and the thing itself. On the one hand you could sort of say actually if this power tool 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:41.620 is used well, use it well, use it properly then you'll achieve fantastic DIY results. It'll be quick, 00:00:41.620 --> 00:00:46.640 it'll be easy, you'll stay safe, you won't be harmed, you'll be well at the end of it 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:54.219 and you might even enjoy using it. On the other hand you could describe it along the following 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:59.820 terms. You could describe it in terms of what it would be like if you were to misuse that piece 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:04.879 of equipment. In fact you could go even more than that and you could be quite graphic as to what the 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:12.099 consequences might be of misusing that thing quite radically. You could describe the kind of injuries 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:17.900 that might be incurred. You could go into depth and detail about how that could actually be a fatal 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:25.480 set of injuries. You could talk about blood and guts in all directions. Both of them would be equally true 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:31.960 but our starting point might not want to be the second type of scenario that I've just described. 00:01:32.860 --> 00:01:42.140 The Bible is not a human book about God. It is God's book about human beings and in it 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:51.760 we read of God's vision for us. Vision that Jesus himself described as life in all fullness. 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:59.620 I think actually for most of the time that vision is described, it's depicted in terms of 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:05.099 what that life in all fullness looks like, the good things that God wants us to have, not just 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:12.699 for eternity but right now. But there are moments in scripture and they're the bits where we tend to 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:19.500 as preachers perhaps veer away from because they're a little bit graphic. Where perhaps the narrative 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:26.019 takes the style of the kind of blood and guts scenario that I just described a moment ago. 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:35.219 And this morning's reading is a great example of that. And generally speaking we come across that 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:41.939 style of narrative in the Bible because it was a known fact that the readers, the listeners, 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:49.300 basically weren't getting it. So with that warning in mind, let's hear from the book of James. 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:58.660 So I was going to say that today's reading comes with a health warning, but actually I think it'd be 00:02:58.660 --> 00:03:08.880 more accurate to say that today's reading is a health warning. We don't know the details of the rich 00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:16.800 people that James was writing towards, was writing to. Clearly they were issues, but they were issues, 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:25.260 the problem being not because they were rich. The problem was with their attitudes. As James goes 00:03:25.260 --> 00:03:31.640 on to say, there were problems there over greed, over a sense of hoarding, over overindulgence while 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:37.540 not caring about others. There were issues over being oppressive, over cheating people, not paying 00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:46.240 people their wages, over being abusive with their power. So as we hear this wake-up call, 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:53.640 this health warning, let's just ask ourselves the question then, what is the positive vision that 00:03:53.640 --> 00:04:00.760 God is setting before us in his word that these particular words of scripture are perhaps the flip 00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:10.920 side of? I think a clue comes in the words of what has traditionally come to be known as the Lord's 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:18.419 prayer. Specifically where Jesus, when he teaches his disciples to pray, says, was to pray, 00:04:19.219 --> 00:04:27.740 give us this day our daily bread. So we're thinking this morning about the sort of contrast between 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:35.680 an attitude of freely giving, a contrast between that and the sense of hoarding and clinging to 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:43.439 things. And when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and that includes us, give us this day our 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:51.259 daily bread, it is Jesus's way of leading us into a relationship of trust. Notice that the prayer, 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:57.939 Jesus's prayer, was not give us tomorrow our daily bread, but give us this day our daily bread. 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:05.759 Now, don't misunderstand that here, planning is important. And in fact, it's also a biblical theme. 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.860 And we look back into the Old Testament, think of the story of Joseph, for example, and how 00:05:09.860 --> 00:05:16.240 when God spoke to Joseph through dreams to take to Pharaoh, the people of Egypt, actually encouraged 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:24.800 them to store up for during the years of plenty for the years that were going to follow when there was 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:31.639 going to be famine. So, you know, the problem is not with planning ahead for the future. The problem 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:38.900 becomes when we hoard onto things. Because underlying our attitude with wealth and material things 00:05:38.900 --> 00:05:50.620 is the question of trust. You see, at the heart of our Christian faith is the call into a relationship, 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:59.740 friendship, a friendship of radical trust in God. And the most wonderful thing, I think, about that 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:05.540 relationship, which is simultaneously probably the hardest and most challenging thing, I find, 00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:12.060 is that challenge to trust in such a way that we trust for today and don't worry about tomorrow, 00:06:12.060 --> 00:06:19.240 as Jesus put it. Do not worry about tomorrow, but trust God each day. 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:25.939 In Scripture, right at the beginning of the book of Genesis, we have this beautiful picture of 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:31.639 God's intentions for us as humanity. And we have this picture of the Garden of Eden, where there's 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:36.519 no suffering, there's no pain, and there's no death and no dying. And there's this wonderful 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:43.539 relationship of intimacy and vulnerability between human beings represented in Adam and Eve and the 00:06:43.539 --> 00:06:54.639 creator God. That soon becomes broken when the story talks about how, when we misuse our God-given 00:06:54.639 --> 00:07:03.060 freedom to choose not to trust in God. Sin comes into the scene and the world is broken. 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:09.680 But then right at the end of the Scriptures, in the book of Revelation, a book which is arguably 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:15.100 very, very, very difficult for us to get our minds around, nevertheless, we have this theme again, 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:21.779 this promise that at the end of time for all eternity is the promise that eventually, when we do not know 00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:28.920 the details of how and when, but we do know that, Christ will return. That heaven and earth will be 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:35.720 infused, that God's dwelling place will be with us on earth. That it doesn't end in destruction, but it 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:42.220 ends in new beginnings, where there will be no more death, no more dying, no more pain, no more suffering, 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:51.340 because we will live in that restored relationship of perfect eternal life with God, with God dwelling 00:07:51.340 --> 00:07:56.860 among us, where we will be completely dependent on him with no worries, with no death, no pain, just 00:07:56.860 --> 00:08:04.300 sustained in love and joy and peace, with perfect satisfaction all the time, and yet everything 00:08:04.300 --> 00:08:11.540 ever more perfect. A satisfaction that can never be exhausted. It's going to be awesome. 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:22.740 But it's not just about then, because our Christian worldview is one that begins now. That sense of the 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:30.240 eternity in which we will be forever completely dependent on God and receiving everything that 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:37.740 we need each day from him, we're called into the dynamics of that relationship of trust now. 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:46.340 In other words, this life is not just a rehearsal for the future eternity that awaits us, it actually 00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:52.720 breaks, that future eternity that awaits us actually breaks into the here and now. And so, 00:08:52.740 --> 00:09:00.180 our calling as Christian disciples is to learn now to accept that sense of complete vulnerability 00:09:00.180 --> 00:09:08.840 and trust in relationship with God. And that's quite an amazing thing. I'll tell you a story. There's a boy 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:17.019 who, about 120 years ago or so, he was in the American Midwest, and he'd always longed to go to a circus. 00:09:17.680 --> 00:09:21.799 He'd heard about them, he'd read about them, but he'd never seen one. So you can imagine his excitement when 00:09:21.799 --> 00:09:28.539 he found out that one day, the circus was coming to the village where he lived. He begged his parents 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:32.199 to go. It cost a dollar. In those days, it was a lot of money. But he was told that if he worked 00:09:32.199 --> 00:09:35.819 really hard, did lots of chores around the farm, then they would give him the dollar so that he could 00:09:35.819 --> 00:09:40.679 go to the circus. Well, he did, Julie did. And eventually, you can imagine his excitement, the day when the 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:46.240 circus came to the village. He was given the crisp dollar bill that morning, and he ran across the fields 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:54.139 to the edge of the village. And as he approached, he could hear the sounds of the circus. He drew up to 00:09:54.139 --> 00:10:01.159 the, he ran up to the pathway, the lane, and he could see a huge tent in the distance, and he could see 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:11.299 acrobats and jugglers and elephants and clowns and music. And he stood there for several minutes as he just 00:10:11.299 --> 00:10:16.240 soaked it all up. And in the end, he was so excited, he took his dollar bill and he passed, and he gave it 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:24.159 to a passing clown, making his way back home, feeling completely satisfied. He thought he'd seen, 00:10:24.319 --> 00:10:28.939 he'd actually been to the circus. He hadn't. He'd just seen the circus parade. 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.439 Every now and then, in the life of faith, we get these little glimpses into eternity. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:40.620 Experiences, it might be experiences when we're here gathered in church, it might be during the week when 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:45.560 we're on our own, it might be in prayer, it might be something that happens in our lives, a sense of 00:10:45.560 --> 00:10:51.659 experience that God is moving in us, whatever, but glimpses of eternity. And it's so exciting. 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:59.019 But anything, even the most amazing, mind-blowing spiritual experience in this lifetime is just that 00:10:59.019 --> 00:11:05.620 tiny, tiny little fragment in relation to what it will be like for all eternity. But it is right now 00:11:05.620 --> 00:11:10.919 that we face that daily challenge of getting into that rhythm, of living in that daily dependency 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:16.200 on God completely and absolutely. So every time we're called, and it's a tough call, I'll grant you, 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:20.779 but every time we're called not to worry, but to trust in God for his daily provision, 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:25.299 it's this sense of pre-empting what it will be like for all eternity. 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:29.759 But for now, we have the reality of suffering and pain, 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:34.840 the things that bring us stress and worry and trauma and anxiety, the fact that eventually we die. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:39.879 All of that is part of our experience now. It won't be then. But in the midst of all that we 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:45.840 experience now, we are called to learn that rhythm of trusting what for all eternity will be the 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:51.759 reality, i.e. there will be nothing standing between us and God. We will be completely and utterly dependent 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:58.259 on him. Now that's exciting. But right now, as we learn that sense of rhythm of dependency, 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:07.179 that dynamic, it's very, very challenging. And we see in the scriptures that God actually calling his people 00:12:07.179 --> 00:12:13.240 to get into that pattern, into that rhythm of trust and dependency. That is what the Old Testament 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:22.740 sacrificial rules were about, about the laws. Because God would say to his people in the days of the Old Testament 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:28.899 with the law, that when they had to bring their first share, the best of their crops and their livestock 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:39.919 and to offer it in a sacrifice, that was God's way of teaching his people to learn that everything 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:47.019 was given to them by God. And in taking the very first and the best of their produce and sacrificing it 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:52.919 to him at the altar was their way of expressing, okay, Lord, everything is from you. So the very first 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:57.379 thing before everything else comes, we're going to give back to you. Because we know and we trust 00:12:57.379 --> 00:13:02.759 that just as you have provided, you're going to continue to. That is where the principle 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:08.100 of tithing your first 10% comes from. 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:15.279 And during the time of the people of God and their wanderings in the wilderness for some 40 years, 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:24.019 before they entered the promised land, God had this way of teaching them to become dependent on 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:29.980 them. Every day, this stuff called manna from heaven, a kind of bread-type stuff, would be rained down 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:35.399 upon them in the middle of the desert. And they were instructed that they would must only ever gather 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:44.139 enough that they needed for that day. And that's what they did. Except unless it was a Sabbath day, 00:13:44.199 --> 00:13:51.100 in which case they could take more for that day as well. But otherwise, it was an experience by which 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:58.720 they had to learn to be daily dependent upon God. For 40 years, they learned this. Eventually, when they 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:07.399 entered into the promised land, a land which was full of great things, then it was at that point that 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:14.320 that stopped. But they had to remember, God instructed his people, they had to remember how God had faithfully 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:21.040 provided their needs every day in that relationship of dependency over those four decades. 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:27.959 Now, the danger for us is that we haven't been through that experience of being dependent in that 00:14:27.959 --> 00:14:34.019 daily way. We get so used to planning, preparing for the future, thinking of decades down the line. 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:39.379 So when it comes to actually trusting God just for one day, we struggle. It throws us into blind panic. 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:50.019 But we are called to trust in God, to remember that it is that God who brought us to birth, 00:14:50.299 --> 00:14:54.460 the God who sustains us each day, and the God who will sustain us for all eternity. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:06.039 Let me draw you a picture. I think probably our relationship with resources, with money and security 00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:12.399 and material things, with everything, we would probably quite like to have in terms of, if you 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:16.839 can imagine, a reservoir, like a massive great reservoir. Wouldn't it be great if each of us had 00:15:16.839 --> 00:15:22.120 our own personal reservoir of resources that we knew that's going to see us right through? You know, 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:27.019 it's absolutely massive, massive reservoir of stuff that we knew would keep us well and our children 00:15:27.019 --> 00:15:35.779 well for the rest of our lives. But that's not the kind of picture that we're given in Scripture. 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:45.120 The Scripture talks not of reservoirs, but of rivers. And a river is something that is continually moving. 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:50.299 It's not a stockpile of resources for us, but rather it's something that comes from a source 00:15:50.299 --> 00:15:56.699 in which we're called to trust, to continue to run and supply our every needs each day. 00:15:56.759 --> 00:16:01.059 And that, I think, is why in Revelation chapter 22, right at the end of the Scriptures, we have 00:16:01.059 --> 00:16:05.799 this picture of what eternity will be like, where we have this image of the river of life. 00:16:06.039 --> 00:16:13.199 From which life flows. And for all eternity, we will be trusting in God, because God will just 00:16:13.199 --> 00:16:18.719 provide as we need it. And we do not need to worry about the future. Let me try another analogy, 00:16:18.839 --> 00:16:22.740 which perhaps might connect a little bit more with our contemporary experience. 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:30.159 And it has to do with music. Broadly speaking, in the most broadest of terms, there are two different 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:37.039 ways in which we can supply our music to ourselves these days. We've got the traditional method of 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:43.219 stored media. Now, that might mean digital files that we've got stored somewhere on an MP3 player 00:16:43.219 --> 00:16:50.259 or something. It might mean CDs. Has anyone got any cassette tapes still? Vinyl? That's made the comeback. 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:55.000 But in other words, stored music, physical stuff, you keep wherever you want to keep it, and it's there. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.659 You can see it, you can touch it. You pick it up, you put it on, you listen to it. You know it's theirs, 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:05.240 it's yours. Of course, the far more contemporary way, that's like the Reservoir, by the way. 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:12.920 But it's limited. We could have a massive record collection, but it's still limited to the 00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:19.140 boundaries of what we've collected. The more contemporary way of listening to music is what 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:25.980 we call streaming, whether it's on Spotify or whatever. Now, the thing is, is there, it's pretty 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:37.240 well unlimited, I think. But it only really works as long as there's that connection, the internet 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:45.880 connection. And I think that's perhaps a sort of an analogy we might draw with the analogy with the 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:57.200 river, that we're called to stream. To not hoard this connection which we can see in front of us of 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:06.460 all the resources, but to trust in God, the God whose limitlessness we cannot see, but to trust that 00:18:06.460 --> 00:18:15.440 he is always there. He always will be. We may not be able to see everything in all its infinite grandeur, 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:23.480 but he's there, and it never runs out. And that's how it will be for eternity. But we're invited now 00:18:23.480 --> 00:18:29.380 to step into the river, to stream, and to have that confidence and that trust and that commitment too, 00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:35.260 that the God who always has provided, who does provide now, will always do so. It's not an easy 00:18:35.260 --> 00:18:39.520 thing to do, because it involves trusting in that which we cannot see and touch. 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:49.180 But it calls for that relationship of trust. It calls for that sense of connection and ongoing trust 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:50.480 that he will continue to provide. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:19:01.440 So when we come back to these words of James, in which it can sound very condemning what he says, 00:19:02.299 --> 00:19:07.539 actually he was shouting very loudly to his people because they just weren't getting the message. 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:12.819 And when we begin to think of it in terms that we've been thinking of the last few minutes, 00:19:12.819 --> 00:19:18.939 we begin to see that actually it's not a message of condemnation over riches and money, 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:23.879 it's more words of warning saying, look, God wants you to live in this relationship. 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:29.799 He wants you for all eternity to have this relationship of beautiful trust and intimacy 00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:36.539 and dependency, and he wants you to have that now. All the time that we hoard stuff, 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:44.539 we deny ourselves that relationship. And so James has to shout pretty loudly in order for us to get 00:19:44.539 --> 00:19:55.859 that message. One last image. I'm told that in some parts of the world they have a method of 00:19:55.859 --> 00:20:05.099 catching monkeys. They take a coconut and they cut it in half, they empty it out of all of its contents. 00:20:05.099 --> 00:20:13.719 They fix the two halves of the coconut shell back together again, but with a hole cut in the side of it. 00:20:13.919 --> 00:20:17.759 Now before they fix it together again, they put an orange inside it. So if you can imagine, 00:20:18.179 --> 00:20:23.879 it's a coconut that's been emptied out and it's got a big hole inside it. Inside there is an orange. 00:20:25.299 --> 00:20:31.799 And then they put this in a clearing somewhere and they wait. Monkey comes along, sees the coconut, 00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:40.299 smells the orange inside, looks inside. Now the hole is just about big enough for the monkey to fit its 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:48.619 hand into and to grab hold of the orange. But as long as it's got hold of the orange, it can't pull its hand out. 00:20:48.619 --> 00:20:53.959 So the monkey goes in and it grabs hold of the orange. It desperately wants that orange. 00:20:54.159 --> 00:20:56.579 It tugs and it pulls and it tugs and it pulls and it pulls and it tugs. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:00.379 And it's so obsessed with that orange, it will not let go. 00:21:02.719 --> 00:21:07.659 So much so that the hunters come along from behind and throw the net over the monkey at that point. 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:18.180 That, I think, is a pretty good picture of the difference between planning and hoarding. 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:23.560 If we want to know what the difference is in our own lives, then the question to ask ourselves, 00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:27.880 I guess, is when it comes to our relationship with the things that we have, 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:32.980 do we have that kind of relationship that we actually can't let go and let God? 00:21:32.980 --> 00:21:39.660 You see, the monkey can set itself free at any time, but it just has to relinquish its grip. 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.839 What is it that we might have our grip upon? 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:51.620 You see, the message that we have in James is not actually a message of condemnation, 00:21:51.700 --> 00:21:57.220 although it might sound like it. Rather, it's a word of warning to say, 00:21:57.360 --> 00:22:00.720 okay, we can try and cling to those things that we think make us feel more secure. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.240 We may seek the reservoir. We may seek that which is tangible. 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:11.940 But God has in mind for us something so much better, so much fuller, so much richer, 00:22:12.120 --> 00:22:15.960 something that is infinite and limitless, something for all eternity. 00:22:17.460 --> 00:22:23.100 But we can only experience that in a relationship of trust and vulnerability in which we let go. 00:22:24.600 --> 00:22:25.620 Will we do so? 00:22:25.620 --> 00:22:25.640 Will we do so?