Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to comm.church for more information.

That's it. We are also today about to finish our series on the book of James, and that will set us up well, I think, to head into Advent next Sunday. However, there is still some really great stuff here in this last chapter to explore together. First though, a bit of a recap, and let's go right back to the very start of this series to gather it all up before we close. Four weeks ago, we talked about who James was.

Was he really the brother of Jesus? And one of the things that you learn pretty quickly when you study these things is that it's quite hard to say anything about what happened two thousand years ago with a lot of certainty. A lot of biblical studies is about what is plausible, particularly when in this case, James doesn't make any familial commitments or claims himself. Now, the idea that James is the brother of Jesus is simply part of church tradition. Now we do know that Jesus had a brother named James.

We do know that there was a James who was an important leader in the early Jesus community. What we can't say for sure is whether this James was that James. I, however, think it's quite plausible. And in fact, it's a lot of the criticism that the book of James has received over the years that makes me think this James quite possibly was the brother of Jesus. See, James as a book doesn't contain a lot of theology.

It's actually quite practical, focusing less on Jesus and more on what Jesus inspires us to in our lives. Now some have suggested that this lack of direct reference to Jesus makes the letter suspect. I think that focus, this emphasis on faith or belief or trust if you prefer, being primarily about how we move through the world, I think that comes directly from Jesus. Remember, Jesus is the one who tells a story about sheep and goats. And in this parable, all of the barnyard animals are gathered up at the end of the age, and Jesus says to the goats, look, I was hungry and I was thirsty and I was lonely and someone had thrown me in prison and you never helped me at all.

The goats say, I mean, when did any of these things happen to you, Jesus? I mean, we would have noticed that and we absolutely would have been there to help you. And of course, Jesus says, look, anytime you passed by anyone in need, passed by me. But the sheep over here on my right, when I was hungry and I was thirsty and lonely and imprisoned, they came, they looked after me. And my favorite part of this story is that the sheep actually say the same thing as the goats.

They say, look, Jesus, we appreciate the love. No doubt we like the shout out. No doubt we would love to take credit for this, but honestly, we didn't do it. We never saw you in need. We never helped you out.

I mean, we wish we had, but it was someone else. You should thank them, not us. And Jesus says, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these, you have done for me. The point being that for Jesus at least, thinking about helping and wanting to help and having a lot of great intentions and beliefs and values about helping. None of that holds a candle to actually living out what we trust most about the world.

And so when James says, faith without works is dead, that might frustrate theologians, but I think it's actually a reflection of spending time watching Jesus up close at home. But more than that, I think James' focus in this letter specifically on widows and orphans, the marginalized, I think that's inspired by his family of origin. Now we only get glimpses of Jesus' family life. Next week, we begin Advent and we will remind ourselves about Mary and Joseph and their commitment to their son, but there's quite a hole in the gospels. Right?

Jesus' father, Joseph, is present at his birth and then later in his childhood, but he's absent later in his life. And so for James, possibly coming along as the younger brother in a family, seeing even less of his father struggling to get by in a widowed home to see him pick up on Jesus' preferential option for the poor, that feels like more than just good theology to me. In fact, when I read and I pick up on Jesus or James' passion and I his frustration even over how marginalized people are being treated in the community, it actually starts to feel like a lived experience for him. We're gonna see James get quite heated again today when he talks about wealth in a way that I think seems to reflect more than just an intellectual position, but perhaps a personal experience of the injustice that wealth can accommodate for those who don't have it. Now in that first week of the series, I used this phrase, all theology is biography.

And someone asked me after the sermon, they said, what does that mean? Well, here's what I'm talking about. Our theology and the way that we talk about God is never just a pure intellectual pursuit, it's always shaped by the life that we've lived. And James' theology is a reflection of his family story. All of us need that as a as a white man or a queer person or a woman or an indigenous elder or someone who grew up in poverty.

Every one of us are going to have different experiences of the divine along the way. But rather than any of us being limited by those limitations, we are offered a Christian community where all of those perspectives can intermingle and inform, and we can help each other see God more clearly. And this is why it's really important to make sure that we listen to voices like James that come at Jesus from a different angle than someone like Paul. Because James is going to see things that we're going to miss. So James will say, look, you look at yourself in the mirror, but then you walk away and you forget yourself because your life doesn't match up with your devotion, and we need to hear that.

James will talk about leadership. And where we are gonna think about driven and domineering personalities, James is gonna talk about gentle submissiveness, and we need to hear that. James will talk about humility, but he'll focus on the God who gives us grace to be with each other and grace to be in each other's lives. Grace not as a theological commodity, but as a necessary part of human communities, and we certainly need to hear that. But all of this, I think, stems from the lived experience of listening less to Jesus' sermons and perhaps more of watching Jesus between the pages in his home.

And that perspective is crucial. Alright. Let's pray. And then today, it's chapter five. God of all goodness, who offers us such grace, not simply so that we can know ourselves as forgiven, but so that this forgiveness, this welcome, this identity as beloved children can transform the way we move through your world.

Might we have open eyes to see the world in new ways through each other, by listening to each other, caring for each other? And might that forgiven face that we see in the mirror cause us to become more graceful in our words and our interactions with those near us. Slowly in our resources and our generosity and eventually in our compassion and welcome for the stranger. We learn to bring the entire lived experience of what it means to be us, unique individuals shaped and guided by you to your table, ready to sit beside whoever it is that shows up next to us. And then for those of us who have been excluded or pushed away or welcomed in word, but then marginalized in our experience of community, might we know today that your welcome is transforming communities and opening hearts and enlarging tables all around us slowly but steadily as your kingdom comes.

Might we find our seat today besides someone who embraces everything that we have to offer wholeheartedly in the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen. Alright. Today, we're gonna finish the book of James. And next week, we're going to begin Advent together.

But first, we have some hard words, prophetic language, economic imagination, and some hopeful perseverance on the agenda to talk about. However, the last time I was up here in this series, I had to open with this line from James. Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Let's be honest, that was an awkward way to start a sermon. No one wants to invite more judgment, particularly when they're about to open their mouth on the stage, but such is James.

I do the cooking in my home. It's just how it falls. But this week at dinner, I made a new meal, and I asked my son what he thought of my work. He paused, he thought, and he said, dad, I don't want to be mean, but the best I could give this is possibly a 6.5 out of 10. And that's not great, but it's not bad, and you did ask, which I did.

So I accepted his mediocre judgment. I stuffed down my disappointment, and now he gets nothing but craft dinner until he's 10. Although, who am I kidding? He's eight years old. That's all he wants anyway.

Regardless, these judgments have nothing on the start of chapter five, which reads, now listen you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.

You have hoarded wealth in the last days. The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you. May a blessing rest upon all who hear the word of the Lord. Amen. Am I right? Now, this is some pretty aggressive stuff here.

And James has been quite blunt all the way along through all of this letter, but this does seem to tiptoe past anything he has written thus far. There's a couple interesting things here. The NIV has translated this opening address, now listen, you rich people. That's fine. It gets across this sort of come to Jesus moment that James has in mind here.

You know, something like pay attention or listen up folks, and that's the general idea. But more literally, what the letter begins with is, come now you rich. And that's important because this is a signal. It's an idiom really that lets us know that James is shifting into almost what we might wanna call a performance mode here. Now the opening of chapter five is not addressed to people sitting in the room reading the letter.

Although, there's lots that we can learn here, and so we need to pay attention, and we will. But in the context of the original letter and audience, this opening was a signal to them that James was shifting into a prophetic critique of the larger society that surrounded the community. Now, were there wealthy people listening here? Absolutely, yes. James has already said, look, if you saw someone in need and you told them to stay warm and be well fed, but you didn't help them and you had the resources too, that's a problem.

So he's addressing real people in this letter. And there were people in the room that had resources to dramatically change the circumstance of those around them, and James confronts them with that. However, what he's talking about here is slightly different. It's not specific people. He's talking about the ways that our economic systems are often predicated on someone losing out.

In my spare time right now, I'm working on another book project, a non violent reading of Revelation. And that was my thesis work. I'm trying to make that a little more interesting for the rest of us. We'll see how successful that is. But in the latter section of Revelation, there's this critique of the Roman economic system.

And the economy is presented as beautiful and regal and robed in purple and gold and seated atop rolling hills with a sword pointed down that symbolizes peace. But then it says, she is drunk on the blood of the martyrs. And it's this juxtaposition between the prosperity and the peace that a lot, maybe even most of the people were seeing and experiencing under Rome, that hid from view the pain and the suffering, the struggle that many of their neighbors were going through. There's this tombstone that was uncovered from the Roman Empire that captures this really well. A man named Aulus Caprilius Timotheus.

Great name, by the way. They really knew what they were doing back then. And we know nothing about Tim except that he died and he had a tombstone. What was fascinating here is that on this tombstone, there is a three layer story that's carved in relief, massive tombstone. The top is Timotheus, and he's reclining on a sofa being fed grapes.

It's like every wealthy Roman stereotype you've ever imagined, it's carved into someone's tombstone, never let it be said that wealth can buy creativity. But then there's this line, like a physical line in the tombstone and a ledge, and below that there's a second relief and image. This time, the scene is a group of men and women working in the fields, they are harvesting and gathering grapes. These are the employees, likely slaves, that make his lifestyle possible for him. Then below that, there's another line, and below that, there's another relief.

This time, it's a line of men, they're crammed together and they're chained by their feet and their necks, they're being led to the market to be sold. Because Tim is a slave trader. It's kind of remarkable to actually see this all on one tombstone. I I don't know whether Timotheus decided he wanted this remembered after he died or whether this was an artist who didn't like him who decided to put that on his tombstone and depict the scene. But what we see here is the luxury and decadence of Timotheus' life that is dependent on the work of employees who labor for him, that is dependent on the sale of human persons as commodities below them.

And at every layer of the image, there's this hard line that separates the stories. Timotheus doesn't wanna look hard at what it looks like to work for him. Those that work for him don't want to look below to see where the wealth comes that pays them. James says, your silver and gold are corroded and that corrosion will testify against you and eventually eat you up. He says, look, the wages that you failed to pay your workers cry out against you.

The cries of your employees have reached to the ears of the Almighty. This isn't about wealth in terms of a dollar figure where you're richer than this and now you're bad. Although, let me be clear, I think there is a dollar figure past which wealth is inherently immoral. And once you have enough money to do literally anything you can imagine, then every cent you hold onto past that is nothing but money for the sake of money, and that is what the Bible calls an idol. But this is not James pointing his finger at people in the room and saying, you have too much, and you are a bad person.

What he's talking about is the same thing we see in the tombstone of Timotheus. He's talking about the ways in which all of us are implicated in a system that exploits people. Workers that are not paid fair wages, but it means we got a good deal on socks. Or investments that earn a good return, but they come from exploiting creation in destructive ways. There was this fascinating discussion about The US economy on the New York Times daily podcast this week.

By all economic indicators, The US is on a tear right now. They have replaced 80% of the jobs lost to the pandemic. Unemployment is just above 4%. Wages, particularly in the lowest segment, are growing rapidly, and GDP is rising. And yet, public sentiment about the economy is dropping like a rock.

More people across all political lines have a negative view of The US economy in more than thirty years. And part of that is inflation. Absolutely. Things are getting more expensive. You've probably seen this here in Alberta too.

Right? I went to get gas a few weeks ago. I was floored by what it cost. Look, I drive a 2006 Hyundai Accent that I fill up about once every three months, and it cost me literally $50 to fill up that thimble sized gas tank. And, yes, I understand.

Anybody here with a truck is about to storm the stage for complaining about $50 in gas, but the point is life is expensive. And that kind of inflation tends to put a damper on your excitement about the raise that you got because you know that everything else is going to cost more too. I get it. However, the analysis on this podcast anyway was that inflation is not the primary factor driving dissatisfaction, at least not right now. What they talked about was the feel or the weight of the economy.

They talked about how if you work in the service industry with a retail or a food sales, there's a very good chance that you are making more money than you did two years ago, almost guaranteed. But you're also likely working in an understaffed environment, and you're probably being forced to enforce vaccine restrictions and asking people to reposition their masks every fifteen minutes, and you might even be dealing with protests and complaints that have nothing to do with you and decisions you have control of. If you're a parent, you might be working from home or on a hybrid schedule these days, and maybe you got a raise too. But if your kids are in school, then that means every sneeze and sniffle means pulling them out and getting them tested and staying home with them for a few days. Maybe that means you have to take time off work, but even if not, it means your productivity and your satisfaction and your rhythms are just constantly being erupted, and to be fair, that's parenting, so get used to it.

But still, figures like unemployment and gross domestic product and all the ways that we measure economic output, even raises, actually have far less to do with our perception of the economy than our lived experience of what it means to get up and go to work every day. And what that means is that you can have a booming economy and yet still consistently crush the souls of those who work in the economy. That's the Greek word from which we derive economy. But okrainomia wasn't just about money, it was about the management of the home. So it was finances, but it was also rest, and food, and children, and time, and chores, and the allocation of all the emotional energy it takes to manage life.

This is why it's really important that we not hear James talking about you rich and wealthy who defraud the poor, and then say to ourselves, oh, it's okay. He's not talking about us. We can safely move on. Because He's not talking about anyone here, He's talking to all of us here. This is a prophetic address with language that has been borrowed directly from the Hebrew prophets designed to critique a system that all of us, everyone reading this letter participates in.

Paul would call that the principalities and powers. So all this awkward language we read, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you, or the wages you failed to pay cry out against you, or the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Almighty, or you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. All of this language is taken from the imagination of the Hebrew prophets and it's employed here to do two things. First, to encourage us to think about how we participate passively in the economy that subjugates others. Keep in mind, we're heading into Advent.

This ironic season where we celebrate the lowly arrival of Jesus by buying as much stuff as we can. I'm not telling you not to shop this Christmas. I am suggesting that James is asking you to think about where you shop and who you shop from. The gifts are a beautiful expression of generosity and care, and for many people, tangible gifts are a deeply held expression of love. I celebrate that.

But like Timotheus, it's easy sometimes to eat the grapes and open the presents without ever looking at who pays the price a layer or two down below us. So first, James' hyperbolic language is meant to wake us up to what we don't want to see around us. But second, this rant is also meant, believe it or not, to encourage us. This is what he says next. Be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming.

See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you too will be judged. The judge is standing at the door. Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You've heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. So above all my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple yes or no.

Otherwise, you will be condemned. See, here's the thing. You you if you imagine the first section of this chapter speaking to specific people, critiquing rich persons in the room, it feels kind of disjointed now, a little awkward even when he switches to talking about patience and perseverance to everyone else. But once you see the prophetic cues, the language that he's lifted, the idioms he's taken from the Hebrew prophets, the whole chapter starts to work together as a unit. It's a critique of the systems that surround us, and then an encouragement to slowly, steadily, patiently, and consistently work to change those systems.

Don't grumble and complain about each other. Don't grumble and complain to each other. Don't make grand pronouncements about your intentions, virtue signaling without any action behind it. Instead, be clear minded about your money and the economy you participate in. Then work honestly, buy ethically, persevere faithfully, trusting that small choices, multiplied by communities, pointed at God's justice can transform the world.

And the thing is, that is precisely what James has been telling us all along for five chapters now. Perhaps ever since he heard his brother pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it already is in heaven. Because this talk about economy and how we spend and how we shop and how we interact with each other, this is not the antithesis of faith. James is not the counterpoint to our belief. James is and always has been describing what faith looks like when it comes alive inside us and we start to believe that Jesus actually meant what he said about the world.

That things are broken, but they can be repaired. That there is injustice, but it can be made right, that we can choose to use our wealth for good and not be taken over by our greed. Now all of us can play a role in God's renewal of all things. And that story starts with Advent next week as we anticipate together next Sunday. Let's pray.

God of all grace, who has placed us here in your story, not simply to watch passively, but to understand our place in the story, To believe that the ways we trust you can tangibly change the choices that we make in our our household, with our finance and our relationships and our encounters with each other, the ways that we raise our kids, the ways that we rest and spend and do our chores and manage our household, that all of that can be pointed at the goodness of your kingdom. And that when we actually allow our faith to shape and guide our choices in the world, we get to participate in the creation of your kingdom. Believing that small choices, building on each other then multiplied by communities guided by your spirit in kind of us can actually tangibly change our slice of the world. And slowly, if enough slices are transformed, the world can be healed, that your kingdom can be renewed, and that we can find ourselves face to face with your imagination for your creation. God, might we trust that in our lifetime, we might see slightly more of that story come to earth even as it is already in heaven.

In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen.