In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

A couple of weeks ago we explored an old understanding of the nature of Christianity that has suddenly become or is becoming new again. And that is Christianity as “the way”. A term that is taken from the book of Acts in the earliest period of the church.

Marcus Borg, in his book the “Heart of Christianity”, addresses this old/new understanding of Christianity with a story. Borg writes, “on a recent plane trip the woman sitting next to me said, ‘I’m much more interested in Buddhism…than I am in Christianity.” When I asked why, she said, “Because Buddhism is about a way of life, and Christianity is all about believing. I understood her comment, Borg writes, even as I silently disagreed with part of it.”

Borg goes on to write, “Christianity is about a way of life, a path and it has been from the very beginning. At the center of Jesus’ own teaching is the notion of a way or path, and the first name of the early Christian movement was the Way.
But the woman who was into Buddhism summarizes what is probably the most popular misunderstanding concerning Christianity.

That Christianity is all about beliefs, doctrines and creeds which suggests a certain permanence, unchanging forever and ever, amen even though as Heraclitus said, “the only permanent thing is change.”
 And it is perhaps this popular misunderstanding of Christianity as consisting of static and unchanging beliefs that has led many people to deem it irrelevant to their post/modern lives.

However, if we begin to understand Christianity as the Way, as a way that we live our lives in those ordinary moments, or how we journey through our lives with Christ the practical dimension cannot be ignored. And It is this practical dimension of Christianity that brings us to the Letter of James.

I have always enjoyed the letter of James even though it has never gotten a great deal of respect within Protestant circles. Martin Luther called it “an epistle of straw” because of its emphasis on works rather than faith. Now we don’t know exactly who James was, the letter has been attributed to James the brother of Jesus but there is scholarly dispute concerning authorship.

But I appreciate the letter because it is filled with practical wisdom for following “the way” in our daily lives. In  a brief five chapters it covers such themes as “trials and temptations, listening and doing, faith and deeds, taming the tongue etc. As we turn to our passage from chapter 1  beginning at v.12, James is addressing the subject of trials and temptations that come with following “the Way”. Now if we have been following the way we know that trials and temptations are part of the package.
The trials – those things that come to us from outside of ourselves can come in a myriad of forms-personal tragedy, life threatening illness, even unemployment. We could also include war, economic depression or natural disaster. Each of them have the ability to break us and test our faith in God’s providence concerning our lives and creation as a whole.

Temptations are the other side of the coin. They emerge from inside of us because of false need. Again, they can emerge in a number of ways but according to the theologian Paul Tillich they take basically three forms – unbelief – the temptation to turn away from God towards the self, hubris – the temptation to elevate the self to the place of God, and finally concupiscence – the temptation or unlimited desire for material goods, money, power, knowledge or sex.

But I ran across an example of temptation the other day which I couldn’t fit into Tillich’s categories. It was the story of a man who despised his wife’s parakeet because of its annoying and constant jabbering. A neighbour came to visit the man and was aware of the man’s feelings towards the bird. So the neighbour was surprised to see the man trying to coax the bird to speak and when the neighbour listened closely he almost died laughing. Now along with its constant annoying jabbering, the bird also calls out a suicidal, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!”

Trials and temptations then are part of the package if we follow “the way” seriously and faithfully. And according to James they can be a vehicle for building endurance for the journey if they are met and defeated. That is why I have such an aversion to the “gospel of prosperity” that is offered by television evangelists to simple souls.

You know the gospel of prosperity-that if you believe in Jesus as Lord your life will not have any troubles and you will healthy, wealthy and wise because Jesus wants you to be rich. This message is a perversion of the gospel and it drives me nuts because it feeds on the temptations that James is talking about and enhances people’s lack of self-worth.

But James goes on to make the point that these trials and temptations do not originate with God-God does not test our faith. Certainly, in the Bible there are instances of God testing the righteous. I can think of Abraham and Job but James disagrees and he goes on to write, “Don’t be deceived…” concerning the origin of these trials and temptations.

God, rather than being the author of trials and temptations, is the giver of every good and perfect gift in the face of trial and temptation, the gift of strength, of courage, the gift of peace, the gift of wisdom. These gifts are ours because we belong to God. God chose us and called us into relationship with the divine. We are not left alone.
You are created by God. You are a child of God. You are beloved by God. You are accepted by God. To hear these words, to understand these words, to carry them in our heart marks the beginning of our journey on the way. Yes, trials and temptations are part of the journey as we seek to be faithful to Christ on the way in the ordinary moments of our lives. But they are not the last word because God who has claimed us as his own has given us the word of truth and wisdom to carry with us on “the way”.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.