Sermon Tone Analysis

A song was written by gospel songwriter Ira Stanphill, and I am sure many of you know are pretty familiar.

It goes like this,

I don't know about tomorrow

I just live from day to day

I don't borrow from its sunshine

For its skies may turn to grey

I don't worry o'er the future

For I know what Jesus said

And today I'll walk beside Him

For He knows what is ahead

Many things about tomorrow

I don't seem to understand

But I know who holds tomorrow,

And I know who holds my hand

Who knows about tomorrow?

Do you think we can guarantee about tomorrow?

What about meteorologists?

Can they be sure about tomorrow's weather?

They might be able to predict what's coming, but sure enough, they can never be certain!

Before I go to work in the morning, I usually plot my route to church in my GPS.

It is not that I don't know my way to church, but I'd like to know if I'll be stuck in traffic.

The one area that Google constantly gets wrong is the split between Front Street and Columbia Street.

I prefer driving on Front Street because there are no traffic lights, but on Columbia Street, there is one every block.

But the sad part about Front Street is that it is unpredictable!

Even Google gets it wrong.

What's so unpredictable is the number of trucks that Google could never detect.

It is very frustrating at times because there are no alternate routes on Front Street.

All you have is the Fraser River that's next to you.

Even though I like to plan, and believe me, there's nothing wrong with planning.

The Bible encourages us to have a good plan.

Luke 14:28 and Proverbs 16:9, plus many more.

So, what today's passage talks about is not against anyone to plan out their days.

God is not asking all of us to take out life insurance and the savings for retirement, but what James is rebuking, yes he is rebuking here is that, quoting from Bible translator and theologian Douglas Moo is,

…any kind of planning for the future that stems from human arrogance in our ability to determine the course of future events.[1]

Let's dive in and see…

Arrogance about ourselves

James begins this teaching section by saying, "Now listen…" which means "come now."

Or, if you are disciplining a child, you might hear these words, "Get over here, now!"

A tone that the reader of this passage must take in seriousness.

And what is so severe that James is trying to teach is presumptuous.

In other words, one presumes, and, in this case, James warns about the presumptuous attitude that time is on our hands and at our disposal (Today…Tomorrow…a year…).

Nowadays, many of us rely heavily on our digital calendars, either on our phones or computers.

We'd like to make sure all the events we are booking ourselves into are not overlapped or missed.

I think that's a wonderful practice and something I encourage all of you to do if not already.

Laying out what's essential ahead of you and having a bird's eye view is necessary.

Still, if all that you are planning are for your own profitable gains, that's where the problem begins.

In the latter part of verse 13, James calls out those who only focus on personal ability (doing business) and the profit motive (make money) become their main focus in life.

James is not only speaking to those who want to be entrepreneurs.

Perhaps you are an athlete who dreams of competing at the highest level, such as in the Olympics.

Or maybe you are a gifted musician that has the ambition to play for the VSO.

Or even you are proficient with being a top-notch student and the only school you are applying to is Harvard or MIT.

These are the people that James is calling out.

The dreams and ambitions that become the sole focus of life!

You know what I call this "Selfish Planning."

It is planning for your own life.

Alec Motyer, a Bible commentator, writes,

James is not trying to banish planning from our lives, but only that sort of self-sufficient, self-important planning that keeps God for Sunday but looks on Monday to Saturday as mine.[2]

If life is just about when and what you will achieve today, tomorrow, or in a year, like an arrow cutting through thin air, then you have missed out so much more in life than you can ever imagine.

Joe Torre, a Major League Baseball manager of my most hated team, the New York Yankees, once said,

Competing at the highest level is not about winning.

It's about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart.

Winning is the result.[3]

We often call ourselves a "community," what does that term mean anyway?

It is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular interest or characteristic in common.

That is the dictionary definition.

As Christian, we take this one step further – we call it "church" or "ekklesia" in Greek.

What is an "ekklesia?"

It is those that are "called out" to become different.

So, to simply put it, Christians are a group of people sharing life together that are to be different from the rest of society which belongs to the universal body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Unfortunately, we speak to ourselves as if life were our right, as if our choice were the only deciding factor, as if we had in ourselves all that was needed to make a success of things, as if getting on, making money, doing well were life's sole objective.[4]

Then how can we be a community of Christians if our focus is "Selfish Planning?"

Next, circle this word in your Bibles verse 14, "mist."

We will talk about the fragility of life.

Fragility of Life

Mark Hall from Casting Crowns wrote these beautiful lyrics, says,

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

A vapour in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

You've told me who I am

I am Yours

These are from the song "Who am I?" and captured precisely the meaning of this word, "mist."

James cuts to the chase.

James points to the delicate truth: we do not know what the future holds.

We have no idea.

As Christians, we know where we will be in a million years.

That's in God's hands, and he's told us about it.

But we don't know what will happen tomorrow.

This is the frailty of life – you are just a mist.

I don't know if you remember the last time we met way back in December, and I casually commented about how true James' teaching applies so accurately to the 21st century.

Well, just look at all the unprecedented events in the past 2 years.

That should already be a lesson about the fragility of life.

We could plan for vacations, family trips, banquets, or even business trips with contingency plans or backup plans of a backup plan.

We may still have the odds stacked against us.

It's not something we like to think about much, but it certainly does tell us we are not in control.

I may finish preaching here today, and next week, I am gone and that our LORD has taken away my last breath of life.

That is a profoundly unsettling thought and one we unconsciously avoid thinking.

And so, we carry on planning our lives as if we were in control.