Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Recap
Technology has come with many great promises.
Computers would save time.
Appliances would reduce work.
It was predicted that we would eventually have to work only 20 hours per week, because we’d be so much more efficient at everything.
Technology is amazing!
A cousin of mine posted a video on Facebook showing a brick laying machine.
Bricks get dumped into a hopper, they get sorted into a herringbone pattern and are gently angled into position as the machine moves along.
Amazing.
But do we have more free time?
We have less, I’d wager.
People can access files, email, programs, right from their phones.
Work is just a screen tap away.
We’re busier than ever, packing more into our lives.
We get frustrated more and more easily.
We can’t bear to wait for a page to load, we complain about slow connection speeds.
We complain about traffic.
Everything must be immediate.
We need it now, we can’t wait.
It drives us crazy to wait.
How many people here self-identify as being patient?
I know I’m not.
I want things now, I don’t like waiting.
We get frustrated when technology doesn’t deliver instantaneous results, we get angry and upset when traffic backs up, for no apparent reason.
We lose patience with our loved ones, our siblings, our friends, our spouses, our children.
The patience that James is talking about in our passage is deeper than those surface frustrations.
Make no mistake, they matter to God also, but God is looking deeper.
To sum up this passage, it goes like this: be patient: Christ is coming.
Be patient: God’s at work in you, he’s not done yet, be patient with yourself, be patient with others.
Be patient: you can trust God’s promises.
Be patient with each other.
So, James is writing to people who are experiencing oppression from outside their community, as well as experiencing conflict within the community.
While we don’t have much of the former, we have had and are still having some of the latter.
But let’s learn what God is teaching us.
1. Be patient, Jesus is coming.
Christians have been waiting for Jesus for nearly 2000 years.
There’s a lesson there, though every generation thinks that things are so bad now, that Jesus must be coming soon.
Sometimes, when I’m tempted to think that’s true, I remind myself of the holocaust.
I don’t think things are as bad as that, yet, though they sure are in some places in the world.
But we have something amazing to look forward to.
There’s a reason why every generation thinks things are so bad.
We’re always seeing the present in light of the future, or so we should.
Listen to the picture in :
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'
And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"
This is what we’re hoping for.
Everything will be new, and right, and just and pure.
No more sorrow, no more tears.
No more worry, no more fears.
We’re closer to that reality than we were yesterday!
Be patient.
Trust.
It will come.
2. Be patient: God’s at work in you, he’s not done yet, be patient with yourself.
Remember the illustration James uses: “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
You also, be patient.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
This is hard to grasp.
Picture yourself on a timeline.
Here’s the beginning, here’s Christ’s incarnation, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, here’s his return.
We’re somewhere here, in between.
We’re living under God’s grace, and he’s in the process of transforming us.
He’s changing us from people who hated God and others into people who love him first and foremost, to loving others ahead of ourselves.
In this process of transformation, God uses joys and sorrows to transform us, to conform us into becoming more like Christ is.
If you are going through a hard time, please know, please understand, it isn’t because God is punishing you for something you or your family did.
God put all his punishment on his Son.
You are loved and accepted and cherished if you belong to God.
God works in you, but he doesn’t punish you, he may discipline you, but he won’t cause you to experience pain and sorrow because he’s mad at you.
He’s not like an earthly, imperfect father; he’s a perfect heavenly father.
We love our children right?
But we know they’re not perfect.
We’re disciplining them.
Discipline, can mean to punish, but it also means to teach, to train, to encourage a certain behaviour.
Difficulty in life is God moulding and changing us to be like Christ.
God’s discipline, motivated by his amazing love for us, causes us to change our behaviours.
But we interpret this as painful and bad, because we don’t want to change our behaviours, we’ve become comfortable in them.
Remember in chapter 1:2-4 James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, 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.”
God is producing fruits of righteousness in you.
Be patient; God is working in you through your struggles.
He’s working through your joys.
He’s working through the losses you experience.
He’s working through the discipline he’s giving you.
He’s building you up in your trust in him, and tearing down your trust in yourself, your idolatry.
Be patient, God’s working in you.
Be patient, he’s coming.
3. Be patient with others.
Chapter 5:9 says, “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.
The Judge is standing at the door!” Basically, we’re all in the same boat as everyone else.
We’re all living under the same grace God gives to all people.
Sometimes we don’t see that.
Sometimes, all we can see are the flaws.
We look around, and we see the stained and separating carpet.
We see the beat up downspouts.
We see people who are not perfect.
People who don’t agree with us, who don’t like the same things we like, who have different ideas, different preferences.
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