Asking Wrongly...

 Asking Wrongly

James 3:13-4:3

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for  those who make peace.

Friendship with the World

4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ² You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 

When you pray, are you rubbing the lamp, hoping the God/Genie will emerge and grant your wish? Think seriously about this question. And if you are honest about your response, what percentage of your prayers are these kinds of “rub the lamp” prayers? While you ponder this, let’s look at the theme of today’s lection passage from James.

 

If I had to summarize what the author is laying out, I would say it is all about what motivates us. Why do we do what we do, in terms of our faith, and even in terms of what drives us in life? The initial thesis of this passage is stated in the first verse, actually: If we are wise, we will live in such a way that our life, itself, is our best Christian witness. It will be a life lived wisely, gently, and with the common good in mind. Incidentally, this is a dangerous way to live.

 

Take the example of Jesus. He loved deeply, taught how to live wisely, doing so himself, and was certainly all about the common good. His goal was to bring about the Kingdom of God where all of God’s children may live in peace and harmony. He never spoke anything but the truth. And this lifestyle severely threatened the “powers that be” in his age. Setting aside the theology of his crucifixion, it is an historical fact that his message and its truth got him killed. Others living according to Jesus’ example met a similar fate: Joan of Arc, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

The author of James is encouraging us to live in the way Jesus did, realizing that it could be hazardous. This is most likely why the passage later reminds the reader to “resist the devil,” for a world that has chosen to NOT live by grace, in large part, will become hostile to those who try. 

 

Do we have purity in purpose regarding how we live? We are challenged to ask ourselves this question, as well. Jesus said “Ask and you will receive.” This author says, “You do not have because you do not ask,” but then adds “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly…” And then the author defines asking wrongly as asking with selfish motives, “to spend what you get on your pleasures.” It’s indeed a conundrum, when set alongside other biblical passages that seem to endorse having an “abundant life” and encouraging us to be joyful people. Can we have these things AND have purer motives? I believe James is trying to say, YES WE CAN, (with apologies to former President Barack Obama).

 

Let me take a moment to lay out a parallel thesis that may help us here. The other night, at our Conference Council on Finance and Administration (CF & A, as it’s known), one of our group led a conversation on diversity—something we have each month, in an effort to encourage diversity and strategize on how we might help dismantle racism. He had us read a few excerpts from a book by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and view a couple of his videos. (Rabbi Sacks served as the “Chief Rabbi” of Great Britain from 1991 until 2013.) Sacks posits that modern human society, if it is healthy, is built on three “legs”: the market; the state; and a moral code. He suggests that the market and the state are in the “I” business, providing for the wealth, power and freedom of the individual citizen, while the moral code “leg” is about the collective, or the “we.” (One could argue that the market can benefit all people, but rarely does it, and likewise, government can work for the common good, but its representatives are too often elected by voters focused on what is good for themselves.) Sacks says that, while the strength of the market and the state are relatively assured, the moral code “leg” has suffered, partly because of the waning popularity of religion (which used to help define a moral code) and more recently because of the politicization of religion. When society’s moral code—which is aimed at defining and protecting the “we” of our civilization—is eroded or left undefined, the selfishness of the market and the state prevail. Unfortunately, this means that those with less wealth and who are not adequately represented by the state, suffer. Initially these are the poor and the diverse minority groups, but as power gravitates upward toward those with the most wealth, the middle class begins to weaken as well. In his last book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Sacks urges us to pay more attention to the moral codes that may help restore a measure of egalitarianism to our culture and serve as an antidote to the toxicity that has overtaken our public discourse, thanks largely to the competitiveness between the market and the state. He seems to have a very good point.

 

The James writer is saying the same thing, but applying it to our prayer life. We may not see our prayers answered because we ask with motives that may just be too selfish, or at the least, self-serving. This is not to say we shouldn’t pray for our own needs, but it is to say that we ought to also pray for adequate resources for all who are in need. We liberals are fond of saying “It’s not a pie!”, meaning that the world’s resources are abundant enough for everyone to get a slice, if we work to assure that the “pie” is not owned solely by Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. But please note that James ALSO says that it is “asking wrongly” when our intent is to “spend what we get” on our personal pleasures. This is where wisdom enters the picture.

 

For the most part, people of faith are well within our ethic to pray that our needs may be met. As I said earlier, we should also care about the needs of our neighbor, as Jesus taught, but that aside, today’s passage shines a light on what we DO with what we GET, in answer to our prayer. There are those who resist helping the poor, out of a believe that they will spend it unwisely and don’t know how to manage their money. But are we not often guilty of the same lack of wisdom? How often do we “spend our blessings” on ourselves, and not for things we need, but on things we want--on things we believe will improve how others see us, from the standpoint of power or status? James thinks we do. 

 

This author indicts us with a harsh phrase, calling us “double-minded.” Think of this as a split personality when it applies to our moral code. On one hand, we want what we want when we want it, while on the other hand, we espouse to live a “Godly” life, believing we are modeling the Gospel that Jesus preached. The two don’t share the same quarters well. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said we can’t serve “God and mammon,” or to use a more common terms, God and “wealth creation.” As I got closer and closer to retirement, I found myself more interested in monitoring the stock market, since it had a bearing on my pension, which I was going to need sooner, than later. I saw firsthand how “addictive” watching the market can become, especially if a person has developed a “portfolio” designed to “create wealth.” It can mirror playing the machines at the casino or pumping $50 a week into the state lottery, both of which most “enlightened” people frown upon, especially those who are serious about “creating wealth.” James is asking us: WHY are we doing it, and WHAT will we do with what we get? These are the moral questions.

 

As I was working on this “sermon,” my dear wife came into my “lair” and we opened a discussion about the text. She reminded me that part of the “good life” that we have been blessed to build from the very beginning of our 44-plus years together was that we have always been “tithers” who gave a minimum of ten percent of our annual income to our church, AND we purposed to give “offerings” beyond that to the various concerns and causes we chose to support, like my seminary, the college our kids attended, and numerous missions and charities. We literally built this ethic into our family budget, and have never strayed from it, even when we were putting our children through colleage. We have been blessed with more than enough to live on, and enough to enjoy a few luxuries, like my little sports car and Dara’s fancy embroidery machine. This discipline of giving has formed in us a spirit of generosity. One that is now deeply ingrained in our lives. 

 

This was demonstrated to me a few months ago when one of our neighbors—a teacher who teaches in one of the underprivileged areas of the city—had a student whose family home was destroyed by fire. She appealed to folks in our development for aid for this family. Using the online giving method she shared with us, I sent a financial gift toward helping this family. The response I got back from her was like we had donated a million dollars! I was dumbfounded. She went on and on about how generous the gift was and that it far eclipsed the other gifts the fund had received to date. I was embarrassed, in that I thought it was a meager offering, and would certainly be overshadowed by donations from our much wealthier neighbors. Every so often I STILL get a note of gratitude from that teacher. All this to say that part of our “good life” has been becoming generous and cheerful givers. 

 

Let me take one more stab at trying to define the “balance” that the James author is encouraging us to find in our living out of the gospel. I’m sure I’ve shared this in other messages, but it’s worth sharing again. During my first go-round at St. Paul’s, I had several visits with a parishioner who was living with cancer. He was a deeply spiritual man, but also highly practical in his philosophy of life. During almost every visit, he would tell me that as long as I set the bar of what it meant to “live the Christian life” too high, people would listen politely, but continue to maintain the status quo. He urged me to preach what he called “enlightened self-interest.” Human sociology observes, he said, that human beings will usually “go home” to what is best for themselves. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the moral code of the scriptures, casts the higher vision of caring ALSO about our neighbor’s welfare, as well as for the broader human community. My friend said that people are more apt to yield to the idea of “sharing” their blessings to help a neighbor in need, rather than to hold to a theological giving goal like “tithing.” This “enlightened self-interest” could create a practical balance that would make sense to people, and once challenged to adopt this principle, they may grow beyond it, developing a ministry of personal philanthropy, if blessed with greater resources. The willingness to “love neighbor as self” would preach, if presented in this way. He was right, and this may be one of the keys to the “good life” the James author espouses.

 

“Asking wrongly” happens when WE (or someone in our immediate family) are the main beneficiary of our prayers, if answered the way we ask. And it happens when we intend to “spend what we get” on our own pleasure. The Christian believer is called to more than a “rub the lamp and ask the genie for a wish” spirituality. If it can be summarized in the phrase “enlightened self-interest,” and if that works for you and motivates you to adopt this concept, so be it. It may indeed set you on the path for what the scriptures view as the “good life,” which will often be in direct opposition to what the culture calls the good life. And, as James says, it will show. It will show. Amen.