Sermon Tone Analysis

Arguments Around the Table

Intro -

Thank you [for worship]…and thank you Mom’s out there.

As I said earlier, for every woman who has ever endeavored to care for and nurture anyone of any age, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

There is just something different about the love of a mother, or mother figure.

There really is.

God’s creation kind of dictates that everything in it has a purpose and a reason, and I know there is not only great reason, but also great need for the love of mother’s.

You see, mother’s have the ability to lovingly guide someone to a greater understanding without belittling, intentionally or unintentionally.

They are and intricate and wholly necessary part of God’s design for this world, and I praise God for you all.

Now you might be asking yourself right now, what does James have to say about mothers?

For those of you who have been good students and read through this little book already, you are probably wondering where we can even go with this.

Well, let me tell you.

I had a hard time the past two weeks.

We all go through that.

Pastor’s, though, seem to be especially skilled at masking hurt and worry at times.

I know for me, it happens because I don’t want others burdened by it.

Well in all the little things that piled on the past two weeks - both my cars breaking down, feeling like I have fallen short maybe in some parts of my life - there was Olivia.

I know most of you probably don’t know, but she had an accident and there was some concern that she could have gone blind in one eye.

So here I am, praying about that, carrying that weight, when a member’s son dies.

And that was really the straw that broke me.

Here I am carrying this weight while there are others carry a much greater hurt.

So these two feelings kind of waged a war within me.

The guilt, the feeling of hypocrisy.

All the time this is happening here I am forgetting the very words that I have been reading!

But like in all crisis, there is someone who brings God’s truth.

I am thankful for two.

My wife, who never got stressed and who helped me carry that stress while staying calm and taking care of both kids.

And a mother figure…well, maybe a big sister figure, who reminded me of the faith that I am called to, and that I profess.

So for anyone carrying burdens here today, let me remind you as I was reminded -

picormercymeevenif

Even if you never see what you want to see, or become what you think you are supposed to be or do what you think you are supposed to do, your hope, my hope, our hope, has to be in Christ alone.

And hope implies something greater than just wishing, doesn’t it?

Today we are reminded that when a child comes into the life of a mom, there are all these hopes for that child.

All the things that the mom thinks that child can do and see.

And BECAUSE of those hopes, moms are moved to action.

You see faith is more than belief.

Faith causes us to hope, which calls us to action and to do the work that our faith leads us to even if we don’t immediately see that faith realized!

And that brings us to our text today...

tie in and setup.

Talk about moms.

Talk about your memory of moms and grandma.

Tie in the song “Even If” that Lisa sent you..faith is more than belief…there is work to do whether our faith is realized or not

James 2:14-2

-------

Pray

pictureoffamilyattable

I think we all have moments that stick out in our minds.

Memories that we hold on to from our youth that either define us, or just fill us and make us feel loved and warm.

For me, it was time around the table with all of our family.

You see, I grew up, at least for the first part of my childhood right next door to my grandparents.

That is my Mom’s parents.

And we would get together to eat just about every month or so.

It was usually on a Sunday, I think, and we would go over there mid-morning and spend the day together.

We would swim, or play horse-shoes, or smoke mullet in Granddad’s home made refrigerator smoker that was built in the old horseshoe pit.

Sometimes they would work on the old VW in the barn, and I would go watch.

But no matter what we did before the dinner, after it we would always do the exact same thing.

When I was growing up

picofpeopleplayingcards

We would sit around the table and play cards.

I know that talking about playing cards might be a bit taboo here in church, but that is just what we did!

As far back as I can remember, I was sitting there watching, at the very least, and trying to play with them from about 5 on.

Now in my family you didn’t talk about two things - I bet you can guess them - religion and politics.

Now even with those rules, inevitably someone would start talking about it, and then the good natured ribbing began and before you knew it, things start to get a little out of hand.

And that’s when Grandma steps in.

She calms the storm and makes everyone see the other’s point of view.

She clarifies.

She relates.

She regulates the craziness to help us see the truth.

And then we were back to playing cards.

pichere (paul versus james)

That is really what I see when I read this text.

Here is James, having laid low his audience by telling them they would suffer, and that they should not complain really, and definitely not get mad about it, but they should persevere and keep standing up and doing what God needs for them to do.

And then comes our text.

You might not know it, but this text has some backstory.

You can read about it in Galatians chapter 2.

You see, right before the time of the writing of this book James was sitting around a dinner table, well, James’ men were sitting around a dinner table, but they were there on his behalf.

So they were sitting at this table while Peter and Paul were there together, eating with the Gentiles.

Now this is something that Peter did all the time, but when James’ men can to town, to sit at that table, Peter withdrew from the gentiles.

He stopped being cordial.

Conversation ended.

Paul, of course, writes about this and talks about how he opposed Peter and rebuked him.

And then there is our text; James’ letter.

This is James opportunity to give his side of the argument, sort of, to set the record straight, or at the very least to launch his volley at someone he was a little put out by - his brother, his family.

In James, I see my uncles.

I see them when there were yelling at each other about whatever issue of the day they were upset about.

Just looking for any chance to launch a volley.

James 2:

And what an argument!

What a great indictment right off!

If you see someone who is needy and you tell them to just have faith, and don’t help them, your faith is dead!

You have to do something when you see someone hurting!

But I don’t have time right now, we say.

I need to be somewhere.

Well that might be true.

But I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the Matrix movies.

“If we don’t ever take time, how can we ever have time?”

It reminds me of a quote from the Matrix movies: “If we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?”

If we never use our faith, how can we ever have faith to use?

It is sort of a chicken or the egg situation right?

But as I said, this is in response, in a way to Paul, and whether or not it was written on paper first, it is clear that James felt there was a need to argue this point to Paul.

I say that, because Paul is on record about it!