humility and honesty

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell in us desire envy? But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:1-10; NRSVue

There are certainly a number of things we can take from this passage, but a certain basic is the need for humility and honesty, or we might well say, honesty and humility. You can’t have one without the other. There’s the most basic need to be totally honest before God and others, honest with ourselves. Only then can come the needed humility.

Humility is not a kind of brow beating, put down of ourselves. It’s nothing more than understanding the truth about ourselves and it can honestly come only in the light of Christ, or in God’s light to us. We’ll remain in darkness, in our own darkness, in pride and all that is related to that, apart from that light. Only the light exposes the darkness and what’s in the dark.

Truth is key here. We want to get at the bottom of what is troubling us as individuals and as community. As we begin to get there, a response of humility in totally owning up to our wrong is crucial. From there, we’ll find God’s help to live well in the grace God has for us.

no, God has not abandoned God’s people

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted,
but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:27-31; NRSVue

God’s people have a mission on earth. One could say in a nutshell that it’s essentially to be God’s light to the world. In fact, Jesus told his disciples that they are the light of the world, and I take that to mean especially together. That they already are. But also, that this light might be hidden if it is not shown in good works. We are blessed to be a blessing, called in Christ to not just shine a light on the darkness, but for that light to make a difference in a new, grace-filled way of life, challenging the old way of greed and power.

God’s people of old struggled with their calling, not unlike us as God’s people today. It was more than easy to settle down into the idolatry of the nations around them. For us it’s certainly no different. God’s people are caught up in the idolatry of the love of money in greed and lack of faith and the authoritarian power of the world. And enmeshed in a mind and heart set completely contrary to that of the reconciling gospel, which not only unites all people as one in Christ but breaks down all injustices at least in the sense of challenging all such, as well as working at living in an entirely different way.

Yes, we’re little better than God’s people of old, if better at all. Repentance is called for all of us. It’s all too easy for us to be caught up in the same priorities of the world, rather than the calling and priorities of Christ. I expect this to fall on deaf ears, because like God’s people of old, usually a change comes only through a breaking, as we might say, the hard way. But are any of us really immune to this? Don’t we struggle in similar ways? Yet in that struggle we should be endeavoring individually and with others to truly follow Christ.

And the call here is to wait on God. Our strength and all we need comes from God. And again, it is all about fulfilling the reason of our calling as God’s people. Nothing other than that.

live like what you already are in Christ

…for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Walk as children of light…

Ephesians 5:8; NRSVue

In Christ we’re brand spanking new. But if that meant we’re incapable of descending into the old, then a lot of what Paul (or whoever the author was) wrote in the context (click link) is a waste of papyrus and ink (or whatever they used). We’re still perfectly capable of doing the stupid things, which while they can always be cleared by confession as in open acknowledgment of such to God and when necessary to others, can cause a heap of trouble. That is why we’re told that while in the Lord we’re light, we’re to walk as such, as children of light, walk of course meaning how we live. As has aptly been said, we mature in what we already are, or at least that should be the case. And it’s addressing people together, living in community and in the world.

We are light in the light, Christ. We are different in him. And part of the good news is that this light is meant for all. Light exposes the deeds of darkness. Of course, when I refer to darkness, I’m not at all referring to color, or the wonderful color black. Darkness here means the absence of light, and all of this is in a moral sense. And actually, darkness even in this sense is not altogether bad in Scripture. God is said to dwell in the darkness. But again, what we’re referring to here is clearly different. And the light exposes the darkness for judgment and salvation.

But to the point of the post. In Christ we are light; we are not darkness. Paul is saying that and it’s a powerful statement on its own. But his emphasis seems to be that since that’s the case, we’re to live accordingly. And he goes into detail in that context just what that means and doesn’t mean. That’s the emphasis. You’re light in Christ, so live like it.

Even when we inevitably stumble that should never deter us from this truth. We’re light in Christ, new people. So, we are both willing and able to do that, individually and together.