Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Dear John,

I have found someone else...

No, my name is not John, and Mari and I are doing great - coming up on our 25th in less than a month - but have you ever received a Dear John or Dear Jane letter?

If you have, then for sure you still remember how it feels.

Letters are like that.

For better or worse, the letter writer has a purpose and a context.

No one sits down and takes the time to write a letter for no reason.

Dear John letters may hurt, but their purpose is to allow both to move on to something better.

The letters, or if you want to use a religious word - epistles - are some of the best kept secrets in the Bible.

Why?

Because they are real.

It’s one thing to read a story or a history.

It’s easier to detach from the situation - especially the Bible in this day and age.

So you don’t believe in miracles.

Awesome.

How easy is it to say that you just don’t believe in the Bible.

You hear it all.

the.

time.

The letters don’t allow you to do that.

They are written by people that have suffered for the sake of Christ.

They reflect the reality of the authors.

And they are all different - Paul basically went through the Harvard of his day.

Extremely well educated.

His letters explain in glorious detail the faith - especially to people from other religions.

His letter to the Romans is extremely dense, with every chapter building on the previous one.

John was an apostle in Jesus’ inner circle.

He was the only one of the 12 who was not martyred, and lived a long life, and was able to see how faith blossoms over time.

And James...

Well that’s what this sermon is all about.

James is my favorite book of the Bible.

Period.

I think as a pastor in training I’m not supposed to have a favorite book.

It is true that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteous — thanks Paul for another letter — this his second to Timothy 3:16.

James wrote a really special letter, though.

And when I was reading the lectionary - well, rather than just preach a message from a small part of it, I wanted to tell you a little about the whole gem.

Fair warning - you have homework after this.

I want you to read the entire book.

It’s five chapters you won’t regret.

The Beginning

Let’s start at the very beginning… A very good place to start.

When you read you begin with A B C, when you sing you begin with...

When looking at an epistle, the most important thing to do first is read the beginning.

That might seem kind of obvious, but all too often we get a verse, and we want to just read around that verse.

Today’s lectionary reading is no different - it’s the end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4. But when we do this, we lose something pretty big - who wrote this, and why?

Let’s take a look at the first four verses:

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings.

Testing of Your Faith

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Most of the letters in the Bible begin with a short description of who is writing, who they are writing to, and an overall theme - the why.

In this case, the letter says straight out - James wrote this.

But who is James?

In Greek, the word is Ἰάκωβος - Jacob.

As you can imagine, among Jews that was a pretty common name!

The word occurs 42 times in the New Testament, referring to at least four different men.

Three of these are mentioned in one verse — Acts 1:13

We have James, one of the inner circle, another James who to be honest is barely mentioned in the Bible, and then the father of a Judas - named to separate this one from the far more infamous Judas Iscariot.

The fourth is mentioned in the gospels - James the brother of Jesus.

Another thing we know about this James.

He’s apparently well-known enough that he can just go by James and people know who he is and respect him.

And that actually limits things:

James in the inner circle?

Absolutely well known enough.

But he was killed in the early 40s by Herod Agrippa I, likely before this letter was written

James the son of Alphaeus?

Probably not.

James the father of Judas?

Definitely not.

James the brother of Jesus?

Yeah.

Even though he came to faith late, he rose to a position of prominence in the church.

He’s mentioned in the book of Acts where he speaks at an assembly of “apostles and the elders” (Acts 15:6).

Paul made a point of meeting with him on a few occasions.

So even though it’s not definitive, this letter traditionally has been ascribed to this James.

-

Think about that for a second.

The guy who probably wrote this letter grew up — with Jesus.

It certainly gives “why can’t you be more like your brother?” a pretty different context, right?

But I’d like to take it a slightly different direction.

Sometimes people like to say that if God would just do miracles than everyone would believe.

We don’t know authoritatively if Jesus did any miracles before what is recorded, but if anyone were to believe, wouldn’t it be his own family?

But that’s not what Scripture tells us.

On the contrary, James and Jude - another brother - did come to the faith.

But only after the resurrection.

John 7 mentions a story where His brothers were trying to make a spectacle of him.

John 7:5 sadly comments “For not even his brothers believed in him.”

That - my Christian friends is us.

And that is why this letter has such a special place in my heart.

It was written by a man who had a rather uncommon life, but still dealt with disbelief.

And it’s written to the people who knew better - God’s chosen people the Jews.

And yet, they, like us, too often didn’t get the point.

But why did James write this letter?

Because God’s people were suffering.

I think we can relate on many levels.

Wholeness vs. Brokeness

This letter is famously hard to outline probably because it is really more about a theme than a particular argument.

And that theme is wholeness.

Peace and harmony do come from God, and strife and disharmony from the world.