October 29, 2006 James
5:1-6
(This is a tough text for an
evangelical preacher. Luther once said, A preacher is like a carpenter. His tool is the Word of God.
Because the materials on which he works vary, he ought
not always pursue the same course when he preaches. For the sake of the variety
of his auditors he should sometimes console, sometimes frighten, sometimes
scold, sometimes soothe, etc. Luther's works, vol. 54 : Table Talk. In following this text, this sermon will do
more frightening and scolding than much else - but stick with it.)
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of
the miseries that are coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have
eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will
testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in
the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields
are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears
of the Lord of Armies. You have lived on earth in luxury and self_indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of
slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous, who is not opposing
you.
Now listen. James
starts out this text by telling rich people to listen. This is the kind of text where a lot of
people will immediately excuse themselves by saying, “This is for Bill Gates -
President Bush - Madonna. It’s not for
me, because I’m not rich.” Don’t forget
that as modern day Americans a majority of us are living as the richest and
most prosperous people the world has ever known. Compare your living conditions to those
immigrants from
James says, “now listen.” Rich people often don’t have time to
listen. They’re too busy managing their
money - going to work - taking their kids to practice - enjoying a cappuccino
at Starbucks. They work so hard making
their money, that they also take their play time very
seriously. They do not want to be
interrupted while they are in their private little movie studios or curled up
in front of the TV enjoying the latest comedy.
Their caller ID protects them from unwanted invasions of even friends
and family. Perhaps you also had to pry
yourself out of bed and convince yourself to come and listen to the sermon this
morning - busy person that you are - even with daylight savings time giving you
an extra hour. James doesn’t care you
busy you are. He says to these people
who are so wrapped up in their lives, to LISTEN RIGHT NOW - not after you’re
done earning your promotion - or doing your homework - or after you are married
and have kids - or after you have sown your wild
seeds. LISTEN NOW. So put down your day timers and listen for a
minute. This is important.
Look.
Listen. Weep and Wail.
I. Your wealth has rotted
What does James have to say that is so important? Weep and wail. What?
That’s what you wanted me to put my life on halt for on this Sunday so I
could come here and be told to cry? What
is James, some sort of wacky wing nut fire and brimstone preacher? Well, let me tell you right now that James was
no Joel Osteen. If you have ever seen
this guy on TV - he’s got thousands of people coming - and all he seems to do
is about how to be positive in life and think happy thoughts. James is completely different from that -
saying to weep and wail. You might say,
“I know my back sometimes acts up - that DVD in the minivan isn’t quite opening
correctly - and my air conditioning isn’t working in my car - but it’s nothing
to cry about. Overall life is good. The Dow Jones is at an all time high. My marriage is going fine. My kids and I are healthy. I have a more positive outlook on life. I don’t feel like weeping. I didn’t come to church to hear this.”
Hang on here a second.
“Weep and wail”, James says.
Why? Weep and wail because of
the miseries that are coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have
eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will
testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. Take a burrito from a fat man and you hit him
where it hurts. Why is this going to
happen? You have hoarded wealth in
the last days. There’s nothing wrong
with being rich. Abraham was rich, and
so was Joseph of Arimathea. But these rich people were hoarding their
wealth - keeping it all to themselves.
As a result - they have more than they know what to do with. It sits around and does nothing, and then
corrupts - probably from inactivity.
When you think about how much we have, and what we really
need - this is a condemnation on many of our lifestyles. Now granted, our silver and gold may not
corrode - since a majority of us are in debt up to the hilt - the average
American’s credit card debt is nine thousand dollars - at twenty percent! But what are you getting with that worn down
credit? If you have food that gets
freezer burnt, could it be because you’ve bought more than you can eat? Do you have a closet full of shoes? Do you have pants that you’ve bought but
never worn? A
different outfit for every day of the month? Is your house full of stuff piled up in the
corners? What is it all worth - if it is
just going to sit in the corner and get old.
You see, stewardship is about using the things you’ve
got. The problem isn’t with being
rich. It’s with accumulating stuff and
then doing nothing with it. In a
parable that Jesus told, he gave out a different amount of talents to each
man. One man, who was given the least
amount of talents, decided to just bury his talent in the ground. The man who gave him the money judged him as
a wicked and lazy servant - and gave his talent to the man who had the
most. God is angry with us when we don’t
USE what we’ve got. If you’ve got the
ability to sing - then use it. If you’ve
got the ability to give, then give it.
When you don’t use your gifts, natural decay corrodes it. Your brand new china in the cabinet that you
paid hundreds of dollars for - ends up getting busted by one of your kids. The car you planned on fixing up in the next
six months gets all rusted out in the driveway.
This may get worse as time goes on. If we continue to hoard what we’ve got - God
may accelerate the process. Perhaps our
economy will tank - and you won’t have money to fix your TV or your car. Perhaps the crime rate will get so bad that
you won’t be able to relax and enjoy your house because it will be broken into
on a regular basis. Maybe the cost of
prescription drugs will get so bad that you have to let yourself deteriorate
because you can’t afford to pay for the medicine. Perhaps these things will prematurely rot as
our society rots.
In the book of Haggai, the Israelites were planning on
having a huge harvest, but instead it ended up being very small. God explained why -
Haggai
1:6-11 You have planted much, but have
harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have
your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put
them in a purse with holes in it.” This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give
careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber
and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says
the LORD. “You expected much, but see, it turned out
to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD
Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while
each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the
heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought
on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and
whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”
You see, God has the power to
make all of that STUFF that you value so greatly - your new car, your daily
work out routine, your favorite sit-com, your routine drink - whatever it is -
rot from right under your feet. He can
take away that routine, that nest egg, that thing you cherish so dearly. When we start HOARDING our time - our talents
- our treasures - and only thinking in terrms of how much I ENJOY this or that -
God won’t hesitate to take it away - to make it eat away at our flesh - make it
deteriorate so we don’t get to enjoy it as long as we would like.
II. It’s the last days
That’s not the only reason God wants us to use what we’ve
got. Notice a key term
here. You have hoarded wealth in
the last days. Now, you might
look at that and say - that was two thousand years ago - and the end still
hasn’t come. Do not scoff. Jesus spoke about the rich young man who had
a great harvest. So he built some bigger
store houses - thinking he could take life easy, eat, drink and be merry. Little did he realize that his life would be
taken from him that night. What good did his riches do him on his last
day? Sooner or later all of the goods
that we have will be burned in the fires of Judgment Day. It’s ok to plan. It’s ok to save. But don’t forget that you can’t take it with
you. Don’t forget that Jesus will come again in the clouds and take us FROM
this world.
Think about that concept in respect to the things you
spend your money on - your time on - your worries over. If a remodeled basement is not going to get
you any closer to God - might the money and time do better elsewhere? In heaven, will you have wished that you had
spent more time reading your Bible instead of watching the latest sit-com? Might you wish you had helped more with a
mission than with your DVD collection?
If you spend more on your cable bill or alcohol than you give to church
per month, are you really being a good steward?
Will God be proud of the way you’ve used what you’ve been given? It doesn’t mean you have to give up
luxuries. It doesn’t mean you can’t
enjoy a relaxing night in front of the TV or spend any time on yourself. What it does mean is that you don’t have to
be so selfish about what you call “your time” and overly protective of “your
money”. In reality - it’s not YOUR
time. It’s God’s. It’s not your money. It’s God’s.
He calls on you to use it to His glory - in light of the coming
judgment. The last thing you want is for
God to say to you on Judgment Day - “I wasted my time and generosity on
you! I gave you your life and your
possessions and all you did was to let it sit or pamper yourself with it!”
III. You failed to pay the workmen
This text is
difficult, because James seemed to be dealing with some real schnooks. As he goes on to describe what they were
doing - he seems to be addressing sheer pagans.
Maybe I’m just naive, but I would hope that none of us go to the extreme
of greed that these people were. As
baptized Christians we shouldn’t need to be addressed in this way. Yet there are still principles and
applications that we can get from the following warnings.
Look!
The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out
against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of
Armies. You have lived on earth in luxury and self_indulgence.
You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and
murdered the righteous, who is not opposing you.
These rich landowners were
not reimbursing those who had brought in their harvest. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:6 “The
hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.” These workers weren’t even receiving a drop
of what they had harvested - even though they had harvested plenty to
share. To make matters worse, these rich
landowners weren’t content with that.
They even using the court system to find and condemn the righteous
believers who weren’t even bothering the rich or working with them They were
looking for people to take money from - and the pacifist Christians seemed like
good targets.
I could go on and on about how this happens in today’s
world. Banks and credit cards are
willing to “loan” out money at exorbitant interest, and only give a smidgeon of
the returns when there are any.
Corporations are paying out the revenue to their CEO’s and leaving the
floor sweepers with minimum wages and failing to give them any benefits
whatsoever. The government is extracting
huge amounts of taxes and voting for their own salary increases through
them. Lawyers and attorneys are suing
good and hard working people - law abiding citizens - in order to squeeze them
dry of any money they earned just because of an accident that wasn’t even their
fault. They have now realized the cash
cow they have in churches as well - being willing to sue churches who do not
preach and teach according to liberal immorality. So while believers don’t buy into the dog eat
dog mentality of America and just try to earn an honest day’s wages - they are
being exploited by those who want a quick buck or an easy buck at their
expense. When James says “look” - it
isn’t hard to see people regularly doing this in our society.
You may not be a rich banker or a dirty lawyer, yet is
there an application for you as well?
James despises those who live in luxury at the expense of not paying
those they owe. We may like to paint
ourselves as the victims to credit cards and banks, yet don’t forget that you
voluntarily borrowed your money from them.
How much more righteous is it for you to charge new furniture and
electronic equipment - and then fail to pay back those debts that you owe
because you have sinfully gotten in over your head? Is it right to declare bankruptcy and be able
to pay nothing back when it was your own fault for borrowing more than you
owed? Is it right to spend yourself into
debt so far that you cannot be generous with the paper boy who delivers your
paper - the barber who cuts your hair - or the boy who mows your lawn? Is it right to be able to afford the latest
and greatest while knowing that many of our own missionaries are being sent
back from the mission fields due to lack of funds? Maybe if you weren’t so selfish with your
spending, you could be more generous with your tips and other charitable
foundations. We are not always the
victims. Many times we make the beds we
lie in - and cheat those in our lives who are hoping and expecting more from
us.
When we are cheated or we cheat others, God does not turn
a blind eye to this behavior. The
cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Armies. The same Lord of angel armies - Who decided
to put to death 185,000 Assyrians - hears the cries of those who are
cheated. He has a special concern for
those in society who cannot defend themselves - the fatherless and the
widow. If He sees these weak and
helpless people being cheated and exploited by those who are supposed to take
care of them, He becomes furious and He acts.
If God sees you acting tight fisted towards the needy in your life He
will not take it lightly. He will not
hesitate to take everything away from you if you want to be selfish with
it. He will even condemn you to hell for
such selfish actions - if that’s how you want to live.
IV. Then God can comfort you
Now, think about this - you rich. You’ve been given not just riches, but time,
family, church, and so much more. Can
you say you have been more than generous with what God has given you? Or have you been selfishly indulging yourself
with your time and talents? Have you
been cheap with your spouse or children or church - giving them only your leftovers? If you have, then you’d best “look and
listen, weep and wail.” Why? What possible good can that do? God says in
Psalm 51:17, The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise. God likes to see
us broken - begging - because then He knows that we see ourselves for who we
really are - sinners deserving God’s wrath.
Why does God want to see us this way? When God sees you weeping and wailing - He
then sees that you are in need of comfort and joy - He then knows you are ready
to listen and receive. There is no
better comforter than the LORD. Isaiah
40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to
Revelation 7:14-17 “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Amen.