Sermon Audio
April 24, 2016 Fourth Sunday After Easter
A Metaphysical Word
Job 19:21-27a, Psalm 116, St. James 1:17-21, St. John 16:5-15
The philosopher Aristotle wrote an eight-volume work he titled “Phusis” in which he recorded his observations on the world around him. This set resided in a section of his considerable library bearing the same name.
From “Phusis,” which we translate “nature,” we get our word “physics.” The physical world has fascinated man from time immemorial.
We don’t stop there, however; we want to probe to a greater depth. We want to know what’s behind all that we can see and touch. The next section of Aristotle’s library was titled “Metaphusis.” The prefix “meta” here means “after.”
What comes after physics, or nature, is metaphysics. One definition of metaphysics is “philosophy, especially in its most abstruse branches.” Metaphysics is concerned with the origin of things:
There’s the moon. We can measure its distance from earth. We can send men up to land on it and take soil samples and test its atmosphere.
But, metaphysics asks, how did the moon come into existence?
Well before Aristotle men were pondering such questions. Aristotle himself posited the Unmoved Mover, the uncreated being that created all the things of nature.
Up to this point, anyway, his study of metaphysics led him to a conclusion similar to that of St. James, 500 years later. James scans the heavens and the earth.
Up above are the lights, the sun, the moon, the stars. Down below is man. The lights that shine down on man proceed from the Father of lights, but He is nowhere to be seen.
This is the picture St. James paints. Has he forgotten the Father? May it never be!
James daubs onto his canvas only the flickering created things. The lights in the sky loom now over here, now over there . . . shifting, ever shifting.
They spill out upon this brooding creature, slow to hear, quick to speak, quick to wrath. He knows no more constancy than a meteorite.
God has no place in this earthscape of shifting shapes and bodies in motion. He is the immortal, the invisible and, yes, the immutable. Always the same – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
He abides over there, just off the canvas, no part of the created order but Author of all. His word creates. His word re-creates. His word never changes. His word never fails.
This is the composition of James the Just, leader of the Jerusalem church, president of the Jerusalem council, half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The deposit of his quick mind is this bare-bones letter, devoid of clutter. Its elegance resides in its simplicity.
Some have called it the Proverbs of the New Testament. Others have claimed it is a collection of aphorisms tossed like lettuce and tomatoes. But it is more. It is wisdom distilled; the likening of it to Proverbs is apt.
The ancient world found wisdom in the contemplation of wisdom. Solomon, that wisest of men, found a great deal to say about it. Here’s Proverbs 10:19: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking. But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
And 29:20: “Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”
This preoccupation was hardly confined to the biblical authors. Many dwelled on when a man should act with haste and when with deliberation. Be slow to punish, said Ovid, but swift to reward. Be slow to harm others, said Philo, but quick to benefit them.
The admonition against anger in this first chapter of James’ letter is puzzling here; it’s probably connected to something outside these few verses before us today. Still, the flow of the argument is not hard to follow.
James has observed already that living successfully involves making the right choices in times of trial and temptation and stoking the fire of love for God regardless of circumstances. Good decisions flow out of that love for God; we must cling steadfastly to it.
The problem, he goes on, is that our sin-soaked hearts yearn for fulfillment of desires and lusts that lead to iniquity and death. We have not the capacity to operate in a way that promotes our best interests. Our corrupted nature compels us to turn from the path of life and chase after death.
Where is our hope? “Every good and every perfect gift is from above . . .” God provides what we cannot, the good and perfect gift of our salvation.
The wise man deliberates long and well before deciding. The rush to judgment is the way of the fool. Emotions fueled by our sinful passions cloud our decisions and propel us over the precipice and into the pit.
There is truth rooted in the wisdom of the ages and it resides with God, the One who never changes. Beloved, in our time of all times we must hold fast that truth. We confront such an array of amusements and diversions that sometimes I scarce can see how anyone keeps his focus on the eternal verities, on the wisdom of God.
And – be not deceived – it is our salvation in view. The reference to those lights in the heavens might suggest at first blush a creation scenario. In fact, James is splashing before us a picture of re-creation, of God’s redemption of His fallen world.
“Of His own will,” James the Just says of God – of Him who is perfectly just -- “He brought us forth by the word of truth . . .” This is not birth but rebirth. God created by His word, to be sure, but James would have us see that the word, specifically the word of truth, the gospel, is the divine agent of regeneration. By it, we are born again.
James is the New Testament’s pre-eminent ethicist. He uses more verbs in the imperative mood – believe this, do that – by far than any other New Testament writer. He exhorts his readers, then and now, to keep ourselves unspotted, free of the world’s contamination.
Our means of doing so is obedience to the word. James is a bit of a scold, but I suppose Jesus’ brother does enjoy a certain status.
He wants us – and he seems really to expect that we comply – to control and even edit our emotions. Psychologists testify to the impossibility of such a thing. We can suppress them now and again but we’re stuck with them.
James insists on the contrary. If God’s word and His Holy Spirit dwell within us, we can grow in the likeness of Christ, our model. In our collect for the day, Dr. Cranmer takes James’ side. We prayed to a God “who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.”
Dr. Cranmer, in fact, is every bit as convinced as James is. “Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise . . .” God has the power to make His desires our desires.
Why should we love God’s commands and yearn for the things He promises? “. . . that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Yes, God’s world is changing. But its Creator is not. The true joys belong to those whose hearts are fixed on His eternal word. There is no variation or shadow of turning in the One who provides every good gift and every perfect gift from above.
We’ll grasp more of James’ thinking if we probe a bit deeper. As our passage begins, he is concluding a thought. He has said, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
Far from tempting anyone to evil, we now learn, He supplies good gifts. The best of them is the new birth, by which we who are deserving only of death are rescued and redeemed and preserved unto everlasting life.
So it is that we become the firstfruits: Christians – you and I, brothers and sisters -- are the first stage of God’s work of reclaiming the world from the clutches of sin and death.
Next we read that warning against intemperate speech and anger that seems at first out of place. We will soon see how it fits into James’ train of thought. We can see on the face of it that careless talk and a hot temper subvert God’s purposes.
Yes, there is a holy anger. Our Lord Jesus unleashed it on occasion. But if I am to brand my anger as “holy,” I should first ask myself: Are you holy enough to own such a thing? If not, your anger is the fruit of self-importance, stubbornness, intolerance. And when you’re angry, you’re not listening . . . to God.
A quiet demeanor characterizes a man at peace. A brilliant linguist once received a great compliment. It was said of him that he could keep silence in seven languages.
But soon we see that James is setting up a contrast between the hot-tempered man of vv. 19-20 and the one in v. 21 who receives “with meekness the implanted word.” Meekness characterizes one with a teachable spirit. Many of us, if clothed in our meekness, would be darn near naked.
If you know better than the teacher how to run the classroom, better than the judge how to run the courtroom, better than the sheriff how to run the jail, better than the priest how to run the church, better than the bishop how to run the diocese, better than God how to run the world . . .you might consider stopping on the way home to pick up a gallon of meekness.
James is building toward that best-known verse in his letter, 22: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Here’s the progression: God will not tempt anyone to sin but will rather give good gifts, including salvation, which comes by His word; do not rage and blow your top but maintain a meek and teachable spirit so that you might respond well to God’s word implanted in you.
Our Lord’s brother wants us to welcome God’s grace and respond to it, to accept God’s gifts and answer with our service, to receive God’s word and become doers of that word. Centuries before, God had promised a new covenant that would replace the one He gave Israel under Moses and David. He would put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
So doing, He would stimulate in place of rebellion, obedience; implant in place of hearts of stone, hearts of flesh. A heart of flesh can receive the word. But then comes a statement to furrow the brow: This implanted word “is able to save your souls.”
Have we not seen salvation as the good gift already given? We note two things. The first is that to receive with meekness the implanted word is to allow it to have its full effect in our lives. The second is that the Bible uses the word “salvation” in two markedly different senses.
Definition (a) refers to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a moment in time. Definition (b) speaks of a process, often long and arduous – the “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” kind.
We have before us definition (b). God has used His word of truth to bring us forth – to effect rebirth in us. He has spoken that word into our hardened hearts, softening them and restoring life. Our softened hearts beat with new life.
Now He uses the implanted word to shape us. The word that generated a new nature in us in a flash ushers us by lurching, halting degrees into a new life, a lovely life. And some still insist that mere men dreamed this stuff up on their own.
Beloved, there is wisdom in these words, wisdom that flows from a truth that has not changed since Adam’s day and which will serve as the foundation of the New Jerusalem. Our culture tells us that after two millennia trapped in the now-discredited message of the God of the Bible it has escaped the rusty shackles of the word.
The culture doesn’t tell us that it has not yet discovered a transcendent truth to replace our Lord’s truth, a core of wisdom that it can substitute for God’s wisdom. When our thoughts turn to metaphysics . . . when we ponder the origin of all things . . . where will we search? In the wisdom of the world or in the gospel of our Lord?
As we read in St. John’s gospel, “the ruler of this world is judged” (16:11).
The Lord God reigns. He gives good gifts. He brings forth by His word. His word endures forever and ever. Amen.
A Metaphysical Word
Job 19:21-27a, Psalm 116, St. James 1:17-21, St. John 16:5-15
The philosopher Aristotle wrote an eight-volume work he titled “Phusis” in which he recorded his observations on the world around him. This set resided in a section of his considerable library bearing the same name.
From “Phusis,” which we translate “nature,” we get our word “physics.” The physical world has fascinated man from time immemorial.
We don’t stop there, however; we want to probe to a greater depth. We want to know what’s behind all that we can see and touch. The next section of Aristotle’s library was titled “Metaphusis.” The prefix “meta” here means “after.”
What comes after physics, or nature, is metaphysics. One definition of metaphysics is “philosophy, especially in its most abstruse branches.” Metaphysics is concerned with the origin of things:
There’s the moon. We can measure its distance from earth. We can send men up to land on it and take soil samples and test its atmosphere.
But, metaphysics asks, how did the moon come into existence?
Well before Aristotle men were pondering such questions. Aristotle himself posited the Unmoved Mover, the uncreated being that created all the things of nature.
Up to this point, anyway, his study of metaphysics led him to a conclusion similar to that of St. James, 500 years later. James scans the heavens and the earth.
Up above are the lights, the sun, the moon, the stars. Down below is man. The lights that shine down on man proceed from the Father of lights, but He is nowhere to be seen.
This is the picture St. James paints. Has he forgotten the Father? May it never be!
James daubs onto his canvas only the flickering created things. The lights in the sky loom now over here, now over there . . . shifting, ever shifting.
They spill out upon this brooding creature, slow to hear, quick to speak, quick to wrath. He knows no more constancy than a meteorite.
God has no place in this earthscape of shifting shapes and bodies in motion. He is the immortal, the invisible and, yes, the immutable. Always the same – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
He abides over there, just off the canvas, no part of the created order but Author of all. His word creates. His word re-creates. His word never changes. His word never fails.
This is the composition of James the Just, leader of the Jerusalem church, president of the Jerusalem council, half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The deposit of his quick mind is this bare-bones letter, devoid of clutter. Its elegance resides in its simplicity.
Some have called it the Proverbs of the New Testament. Others have claimed it is a collection of aphorisms tossed like lettuce and tomatoes. But it is more. It is wisdom distilled; the likening of it to Proverbs is apt.
The ancient world found wisdom in the contemplation of wisdom. Solomon, that wisest of men, found a great deal to say about it. Here’s Proverbs 10:19: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking. But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
And 29:20: “Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”
This preoccupation was hardly confined to the biblical authors. Many dwelled on when a man should act with haste and when with deliberation. Be slow to punish, said Ovid, but swift to reward. Be slow to harm others, said Philo, but quick to benefit them.
The admonition against anger in this first chapter of James’ letter is puzzling here; it’s probably connected to something outside these few verses before us today. Still, the flow of the argument is not hard to follow.
James has observed already that living successfully involves making the right choices in times of trial and temptation and stoking the fire of love for God regardless of circumstances. Good decisions flow out of that love for God; we must cling steadfastly to it.
The problem, he goes on, is that our sin-soaked hearts yearn for fulfillment of desires and lusts that lead to iniquity and death. We have not the capacity to operate in a way that promotes our best interests. Our corrupted nature compels us to turn from the path of life and chase after death.
Where is our hope? “Every good and every perfect gift is from above . . .” God provides what we cannot, the good and perfect gift of our salvation.
The wise man deliberates long and well before deciding. The rush to judgment is the way of the fool. Emotions fueled by our sinful passions cloud our decisions and propel us over the precipice and into the pit.
There is truth rooted in the wisdom of the ages and it resides with God, the One who never changes. Beloved, in our time of all times we must hold fast that truth. We confront such an array of amusements and diversions that sometimes I scarce can see how anyone keeps his focus on the eternal verities, on the wisdom of God.
And – be not deceived – it is our salvation in view. The reference to those lights in the heavens might suggest at first blush a creation scenario. In fact, James is splashing before us a picture of re-creation, of God’s redemption of His fallen world.
“Of His own will,” James the Just says of God – of Him who is perfectly just -- “He brought us forth by the word of truth . . .” This is not birth but rebirth. God created by His word, to be sure, but James would have us see that the word, specifically the word of truth, the gospel, is the divine agent of regeneration. By it, we are born again.
James is the New Testament’s pre-eminent ethicist. He uses more verbs in the imperative mood – believe this, do that – by far than any other New Testament writer. He exhorts his readers, then and now, to keep ourselves unspotted, free of the world’s contamination.
Our means of doing so is obedience to the word. James is a bit of a scold, but I suppose Jesus’ brother does enjoy a certain status.
He wants us – and he seems really to expect that we comply – to control and even edit our emotions. Psychologists testify to the impossibility of such a thing. We can suppress them now and again but we’re stuck with them.
James insists on the contrary. If God’s word and His Holy Spirit dwell within us, we can grow in the likeness of Christ, our model. In our collect for the day, Dr. Cranmer takes James’ side. We prayed to a God “who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.”
Dr. Cranmer, in fact, is every bit as convinced as James is. “Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise . . .” God has the power to make His desires our desires.
Why should we love God’s commands and yearn for the things He promises? “. . . that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Yes, God’s world is changing. But its Creator is not. The true joys belong to those whose hearts are fixed on His eternal word. There is no variation or shadow of turning in the One who provides every good gift and every perfect gift from above.
We’ll grasp more of James’ thinking if we probe a bit deeper. As our passage begins, he is concluding a thought. He has said, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
Far from tempting anyone to evil, we now learn, He supplies good gifts. The best of them is the new birth, by which we who are deserving only of death are rescued and redeemed and preserved unto everlasting life.
So it is that we become the firstfruits: Christians – you and I, brothers and sisters -- are the first stage of God’s work of reclaiming the world from the clutches of sin and death.
Next we read that warning against intemperate speech and anger that seems at first out of place. We will soon see how it fits into James’ train of thought. We can see on the face of it that careless talk and a hot temper subvert God’s purposes.
Yes, there is a holy anger. Our Lord Jesus unleashed it on occasion. But if I am to brand my anger as “holy,” I should first ask myself: Are you holy enough to own such a thing? If not, your anger is the fruit of self-importance, stubbornness, intolerance. And when you’re angry, you’re not listening . . . to God.
A quiet demeanor characterizes a man at peace. A brilliant linguist once received a great compliment. It was said of him that he could keep silence in seven languages.
But soon we see that James is setting up a contrast between the hot-tempered man of vv. 19-20 and the one in v. 21 who receives “with meekness the implanted word.” Meekness characterizes one with a teachable spirit. Many of us, if clothed in our meekness, would be darn near naked.
If you know better than the teacher how to run the classroom, better than the judge how to run the courtroom, better than the sheriff how to run the jail, better than the priest how to run the church, better than the bishop how to run the diocese, better than God how to run the world . . .you might consider stopping on the way home to pick up a gallon of meekness.
James is building toward that best-known verse in his letter, 22: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Here’s the progression: God will not tempt anyone to sin but will rather give good gifts, including salvation, which comes by His word; do not rage and blow your top but maintain a meek and teachable spirit so that you might respond well to God’s word implanted in you.
Our Lord’s brother wants us to welcome God’s grace and respond to it, to accept God’s gifts and answer with our service, to receive God’s word and become doers of that word. Centuries before, God had promised a new covenant that would replace the one He gave Israel under Moses and David. He would put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
So doing, He would stimulate in place of rebellion, obedience; implant in place of hearts of stone, hearts of flesh. A heart of flesh can receive the word. But then comes a statement to furrow the brow: This implanted word “is able to save your souls.”
Have we not seen salvation as the good gift already given? We note two things. The first is that to receive with meekness the implanted word is to allow it to have its full effect in our lives. The second is that the Bible uses the word “salvation” in two markedly different senses.
Definition (a) refers to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a moment in time. Definition (b) speaks of a process, often long and arduous – the “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” kind.
We have before us definition (b). God has used His word of truth to bring us forth – to effect rebirth in us. He has spoken that word into our hardened hearts, softening them and restoring life. Our softened hearts beat with new life.
Now He uses the implanted word to shape us. The word that generated a new nature in us in a flash ushers us by lurching, halting degrees into a new life, a lovely life. And some still insist that mere men dreamed this stuff up on their own.
Beloved, there is wisdom in these words, wisdom that flows from a truth that has not changed since Adam’s day and which will serve as the foundation of the New Jerusalem. Our culture tells us that after two millennia trapped in the now-discredited message of the God of the Bible it has escaped the rusty shackles of the word.
The culture doesn’t tell us that it has not yet discovered a transcendent truth to replace our Lord’s truth, a core of wisdom that it can substitute for God’s wisdom. When our thoughts turn to metaphysics . . . when we ponder the origin of all things . . . where will we search? In the wisdom of the world or in the gospel of our Lord?
As we read in St. John’s gospel, “the ruler of this world is judged” (16:11).
The Lord God reigns. He gives good gifts. He brings forth by His word. His word endures forever and ever. Amen.