Heavenly Wisdom
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
-- James 3:13-18
The audience was awed when the world famous violinist announced before the concert that he would be playing one of the world's most expensive violins. His composition was played brilliantly. The master violinist played the number without a mistake. The audience was thrilled.
Then the musician took the instrument and smashed it on the floor. The strings and wood flew across the stage. The audience was shocked and assumed that the violinist had gone mad ... until he explained that the violin he had just destroyed was a cheap imitation. Then, picking up the expensive instrument, he began to play again, and amazingly, most people could not tell the difference. The quality of the instrument was secondary to the skill of the musician.
So it is with those of us who would live the "good life." The beauty of a kind deed does not rely on the physical, financial, or social well-being of the individual who performs it. The master can take ordinary instruments like you and me and produce beautiful music with our lives. Good deeds done in humility come from heavenly wisdom.
How can you tell if someone is living the good life? Look at the people who surround him or her. Are those people smiling, happy, and content? Are their lives richer because of that friendship?
How is it with you? After your friends have spent an evening with you, do they come away feeling better about themselves? Have their spirits been lifted, their thoughts elevated? Have the words you have spoken improved the quality of their lives?
And to what influences do you expose your life? Who is playing on the strings of your hearts? With what wisdom are you filling your minds?
The quality of our lives depends upon the source of our wisdom. Are we influenced and led by the wisdom that comes down from heaven, or the message that is earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil?
You and I become what we focus our minds on, what we expose ourselves to. Hours of listening to inspirational messages will engender a pure, peace-loving, considerate personality. Hours of exposure to trash-talking lyrics, or degrading images on television will diminish your soul and arouse hostility or selfish ambition.
Violent entertainment not only leads to violent acts, but encourages depression. Repeated exposure to horror films lowers the immune system. Maybe that is why medical studies have shown that people who worship regularly and have spiritual values recover more quickly from illness and live longer.
To what do you expose your life? In the hands of the master even the most indigent, the least attractive, the most inept of us can produce a symphony of peace and kindness, a harvest of righteousness. Our service is not so much dependent on us as it is on him.
How tempted we are to think that wealth will bring us happiness? We resent it when a fellow worker earns more than we do. We study the stock market, we watch our bank account, we shop and mindlessly accumulate more and more, cluttering our minds and our closets. We teach our children to save their money, but not their souls.
We look at our Hollywood idols and come away with the wrong lesson. Take a look behind the doors of the huge mansions and you find souls more desperate than you or I will ever be. Many of them are men and women who are lost in addictions, filled with anxiety, deluded by bigotry, filled with envy and selfish ambition, and searching for meaning. When we happen to hear those few who express gratitude to God we are impressed and faintly surprised. Yet, the beauty of that testimony is nothing more than what you and I are capable of expounding. When we witness one of them committing a kind deed, we are touched. But you and I, when working in the service of our Lord, can respond in this way daily.
Margaret Sangster, a social worker, told about a young boy in an urban ghetto who had been struck by a car and had not received proper medical attention. His legs were twisted and lame. Even though it was outside her area of responsibility, she took the boy to an orthopedist, who performed surgery on his legs. Two years later, the boy walked into Sangster's office without crutches. His recovery was complete. The two embraced. Margaret Sangster said to herself, "If I accomplish nothing else in my life, I have made a real difference with at least this one!" She paused in telling this story, and then went on. "This was all several years ago. Where do you think that boy is today?" Her listeners suggested that he might be a schoolteacher, a physician, or a social worker. With tears of emotion, Margaret Sangster responded, "No, he's in the penitentiary for one of the foulest crimes a human can commit. I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk."
This is what happens when we teach our children that competition is more important than compassion; that charisma produces more influence than character. Long gone is the teaching of virtue from our public school classrooms. The only place our children are going to hear about the values of honesty, sincerity, kindness, peacemaking, and forgiveness is in Sunday school, or from you -- parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, because with few exceptions they are not going to hear it from their coaches or the television or their iPod.
James speaks of the wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. It is the wisdom that is spoken around us daily: that who we are depends on what we have; that happiness consists in having more; that our human worth is defined by our net worth, and that I'll feel better about myself as soon as I feel better about my checkbook.
There is nothing new about this way of living. It has been the nature of men and women since history began. Only a few are able to see through the delusion. Some of you will realize the falseness of this path. I hope that all of you will.
Thousands of years ago, Jeremiah shouted the warning, "How can you say, 'We are wise' ... From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain ... Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they're punished, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 8a, 10b-12).
The wisdom of the world is the path to envy, greed, and selfish ambition. We must fight daily to prevent ourselves from falling for the clever copywriters of consumerism, whose evangelism is advertising, whose church is the mall, and whose values are appearance and affluence.
Listen to the voices of heavenly wisdom that whisper to us: Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart. For the desire for possessions is dangerous, knowing no satiety. It drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil.
Let's do an inventory of our values. What is of ultimate importance to you? To find out look at another book. It's shorter. And you wrote it. It's your checkbook. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).
If you want to find your god, look into your checkbook. You'll find him in intimate detail.
"Who is wise and understanding among you?" That depends upon where you are looking for your inspiration. Who is producing the message that guides you? What composer is playing on the strings of your heart, the timbrel of your soul?
Look for your friendships among positive people who value compassion more than possessions. Listen to music that fills you with peace and composure. Let your speech be filled with gratitude for what you have, not with complaints for what you lack.
The good life is accomplished when you and I put ourselves into the hands of the master, who can take the most ordinary of us and produce beauty and elegance and grace. Amen.
-- James 3:13-18
The audience was awed when the world famous violinist announced before the concert that he would be playing one of the world's most expensive violins. His composition was played brilliantly. The master violinist played the number without a mistake. The audience was thrilled.
Then the musician took the instrument and smashed it on the floor. The strings and wood flew across the stage. The audience was shocked and assumed that the violinist had gone mad ... until he explained that the violin he had just destroyed was a cheap imitation. Then, picking up the expensive instrument, he began to play again, and amazingly, most people could not tell the difference. The quality of the instrument was secondary to the skill of the musician.
So it is with those of us who would live the "good life." The beauty of a kind deed does not rely on the physical, financial, or social well-being of the individual who performs it. The master can take ordinary instruments like you and me and produce beautiful music with our lives. Good deeds done in humility come from heavenly wisdom.
How can you tell if someone is living the good life? Look at the people who surround him or her. Are those people smiling, happy, and content? Are their lives richer because of that friendship?
How is it with you? After your friends have spent an evening with you, do they come away feeling better about themselves? Have their spirits been lifted, their thoughts elevated? Have the words you have spoken improved the quality of their lives?
And to what influences do you expose your life? Who is playing on the strings of your hearts? With what wisdom are you filling your minds?
The quality of our lives depends upon the source of our wisdom. Are we influenced and led by the wisdom that comes down from heaven, or the message that is earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil?
You and I become what we focus our minds on, what we expose ourselves to. Hours of listening to inspirational messages will engender a pure, peace-loving, considerate personality. Hours of exposure to trash-talking lyrics, or degrading images on television will diminish your soul and arouse hostility or selfish ambition.
Violent entertainment not only leads to violent acts, but encourages depression. Repeated exposure to horror films lowers the immune system. Maybe that is why medical studies have shown that people who worship regularly and have spiritual values recover more quickly from illness and live longer.
To what do you expose your life? In the hands of the master even the most indigent, the least attractive, the most inept of us can produce a symphony of peace and kindness, a harvest of righteousness. Our service is not so much dependent on us as it is on him.
How tempted we are to think that wealth will bring us happiness? We resent it when a fellow worker earns more than we do. We study the stock market, we watch our bank account, we shop and mindlessly accumulate more and more, cluttering our minds and our closets. We teach our children to save their money, but not their souls.
We look at our Hollywood idols and come away with the wrong lesson. Take a look behind the doors of the huge mansions and you find souls more desperate than you or I will ever be. Many of them are men and women who are lost in addictions, filled with anxiety, deluded by bigotry, filled with envy and selfish ambition, and searching for meaning. When we happen to hear those few who express gratitude to God we are impressed and faintly surprised. Yet, the beauty of that testimony is nothing more than what you and I are capable of expounding. When we witness one of them committing a kind deed, we are touched. But you and I, when working in the service of our Lord, can respond in this way daily.
Margaret Sangster, a social worker, told about a young boy in an urban ghetto who had been struck by a car and had not received proper medical attention. His legs were twisted and lame. Even though it was outside her area of responsibility, she took the boy to an orthopedist, who performed surgery on his legs. Two years later, the boy walked into Sangster's office without crutches. His recovery was complete. The two embraced. Margaret Sangster said to herself, "If I accomplish nothing else in my life, I have made a real difference with at least this one!" She paused in telling this story, and then went on. "This was all several years ago. Where do you think that boy is today?" Her listeners suggested that he might be a schoolteacher, a physician, or a social worker. With tears of emotion, Margaret Sangster responded, "No, he's in the penitentiary for one of the foulest crimes a human can commit. I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk."
This is what happens when we teach our children that competition is more important than compassion; that charisma produces more influence than character. Long gone is the teaching of virtue from our public school classrooms. The only place our children are going to hear about the values of honesty, sincerity, kindness, peacemaking, and forgiveness is in Sunday school, or from you -- parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, because with few exceptions they are not going to hear it from their coaches or the television or their iPod.
James speaks of the wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. It is the wisdom that is spoken around us daily: that who we are depends on what we have; that happiness consists in having more; that our human worth is defined by our net worth, and that I'll feel better about myself as soon as I feel better about my checkbook.
There is nothing new about this way of living. It has been the nature of men and women since history began. Only a few are able to see through the delusion. Some of you will realize the falseness of this path. I hope that all of you will.
Thousands of years ago, Jeremiah shouted the warning, "How can you say, 'We are wise' ... From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain ... Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they're punished, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 8a, 10b-12).
The wisdom of the world is the path to envy, greed, and selfish ambition. We must fight daily to prevent ourselves from falling for the clever copywriters of consumerism, whose evangelism is advertising, whose church is the mall, and whose values are appearance and affluence.
Listen to the voices of heavenly wisdom that whisper to us: Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart. For the desire for possessions is dangerous, knowing no satiety. It drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil.
Let's do an inventory of our values. What is of ultimate importance to you? To find out look at another book. It's shorter. And you wrote it. It's your checkbook. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).
If you want to find your god, look into your checkbook. You'll find him in intimate detail.
"Who is wise and understanding among you?" That depends upon where you are looking for your inspiration. Who is producing the message that guides you? What composer is playing on the strings of your heart, the timbrel of your soul?
Look for your friendships among positive people who value compassion more than possessions. Listen to music that fills you with peace and composure. Let your speech be filled with gratitude for what you have, not with complaints for what you lack.
The good life is accomplished when you and I put ourselves into the hands of the master, who can take the most ordinary of us and produce beauty and elegance and grace. Amen.
