Home Sermons Reflection on James 3:1 - 12

Reflection on James 3:1 - 12

Sermon for Sept 13/09 James 3:1-12 There is something I’m discovering about the book of James and that is—in its five short chapters there are over 100 basic rules to follow. I have preached on some of them already: Bring your faith to your work. Don’t show favoritism. Don’t just say you’re going to do something. Do it! And today the rule is: Watch your tongue. The book of James is a book of rules. And all those rules makes me think of a well-known poem that a retired minister wrote called: “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”, by Robert Fulghum. All we really need to know about living is learned in kindergarten. You don’t have to go to the “graduate school mountain” to learn about living. You have to go to the sandbox in kindergarten. And so I thought it might be fun to think about going to kindergarten, and remembering what we learned there. I’m hoping Robert Fulghum’s poem will help us to do that. I call it the ‘kindergarted kingdom for adults’. How many of you remember kindergarten? I have one memory of kindergarten and that was on the first day or the first week of school the class made a circle and each one of us were invited to stand in the middle of the circle and say something about ourselves. When it was my turn I remember being able to spell my name. The teacher asked the class if there were other children who could spell their name and only one other child could. I thought I had the best name to spell because the letters were repeated: b-a-r-b-a-r-a. That’s the only memory I have of kindergarten. It’s amazing that I can carry that little memory around for all those years and I can’t remember why I went downstairs yesterday! So back to kindergarten. I have listed 10 things that we learn in kindergarten (with the help of Fulghum’s poem) 1. Share what you have: Some of us have learned that lesson well over the years. We are going to be sharing non-perishable food items in the Sundays in October. 2. Don’t hit people: None of us civilized people carry firetrucks or plastic hammers around and hit people with them. But sometimes we carry words or actions and end up doing just as much damage. This rule for living is the one in our scripture lesson for today in James: Watch your tongue. 3. Clean up your mess: We try to do what we can to recycle and care for God’s good earth. And we try to be responsible in keeping the habitats for the animals healthy. But this is ongoing all the time. There is so much more to do, so we need to keep that rule for living in the forefront of our lives. 4. Wash your hands before you eat: Schools all over the world will be teaching this one to the children. Preparing to eat a meal is like preparing to share communion. How do you come to this Table? How do you come to church. As you are walking up the sidewalk do you say a quiet prayer to God asking God to help you see or hear what you need to know at church today? How do we prepare ourselves? 5. Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone: Did any of you catch the CBC Radio program this week? It was all about saying you’re sorry. To apologize to someone else is to be made vulnerable and it is very hard and risky for us to feel vulnerable. 6. Flush: Get rid of the bad stuff that is eating away at you. Acknowledge your need for God and step into freedom and forgiveness. A wise minister once said to focus only on God and Jesus and let everything else go. 7. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you: Churches everywhere are discovering more and more just how important those cookies and milk, and tea, cake and conversations are to the life of a congregations. That’s where things happen—when you come together over cookies and milk. 8. Take a nap: It can’t be all about work can it? Part of living in the world is being aware of the world. John Wesley’s hymn (Love Divine All Love’s Excelling) says it beautifully: “Lost in wonder love and praise” We need to lose ourselves in wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how to why. And the birds—they must think they’ve died and gone to heaven with all those mosquitoes to feast on. They don’t even have to leave their tree branch. Just open their mouths and 10 mosquitoes would fly in. 9. When you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together: This rule for living can be a hard one for many of us. We are all connected in some way, shape or form. Every part is a part of every other part. God has given us community to share burdens so that nobody need ever to suffer alone, and to share joys and celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries. 10. And the last rule for living is the most difficult one us humans will ever have to learn. Remember the goldfish, and the hamsters, and the white mice and how some of them die in the kindergarten class. And remember how the teacher gathered the class together to talk about dying and how the little hamster went to heaven. That is a hard lesson to learn. And that is basically, in essence what the book of James is all about. Really it is in essence what the whole Bible is all about—God’s Kindergarten Kingdom. To take all those rules for living that we learned way back in kindergarten is to be a part of God’s kindergarten kingdom. In a nutshell it all boils down to loving your neighbour as yourself. That’s all!