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Sitting Shiva with James
Posted by Brian Beers at 7/27/2005 7:47:00 AM (3 comments left)
For the past few weeks, and for however long it takes, my wife has been sitting in James. She confessed that doesn’t like James. So she decided that she either needed to tear it out or sit in it until she understood the reality of what James wrote. Two years ago we held our son in a quiet room behind the ER, as his body gave up his three-month fight against his congenital heart-defect. This year, ten days after the 2nd anniversary of Joseph’s death, my wife’s father entered the ER, and two days later we again recognized this valley.
So when James says “count it all joy” he is either completely ignorant and a real jackass or he knows something and is trying to share it. We choose door number two. How we respond to Scripture is a microcosm of how we respond to God. My wife has chosen to allow James to poke and prod her heart –to open her wounds and, she trusts, bring healing. She wants to know God as James did. She wants James 1:2 to ring true in her heart rather than as a clanging cymbal.
People often seek out comfort from the Scriptures –from Psalm 23. But Kristina needs more than a bandage. The world is broken and a sharp edge pierced her soul. The multitude of trivia about what this word does or doesn’t mean cannot heal the soul. The knowledge of Scripture that comes through dictionaries and commentaries falls short of the glory of God. They cannot bring satisfaction. Kristina wants to know how James, if he was not sadistic, could write this. What did James know in the midst of all the suffering he saw and experienced that compelled him to write this? This is not a question that can be answered with words. This is a question of the heart.
When I was a child, I thought of Scripture as an ultimatum. “This is God’s Word. Believe it and be happy about it.” When I became a man, I realized that God desires a love relationship with me. This is why he sent his son as a servant rather than as a conqueror. He wants me to desire him. And this is the purpose of Scripture.
I appreciate my wife taking the time to allow this Scripture to soak into her pores. James showed Kristina that we misperceived life in some profound way. We would like to understand James fully, but the heart is not plug-&-play. This truth cannot simply replace some lesser truth previously relied upon. This truth will worm its way to the core of the heart touching and transforming many misconceptions along the way. When it arrives at the core of the heart many things will appear suddenly changed, but it will be the time spent sitting Shiva with James that wrought the change.
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Comment 1 by Sam:

I hope to make more comments on this post at a later time.  There are a lot of things i like in here, and a lot of things i don't like....but you know me...i'm going to start with one that i don't like:)  I was bothered by the reference of bandage being applied to Psalm 23.  It sounds as if its somehow lacking...or is a children's text... "its ok for kids to read that stuff, but real hurt needs something stronger." 

What i feel like you're missing is that scripture speaks to the same issues in different ways.  Some times we need to hear truth one way, another time we might need to hear it a different way.  James is didactic, David is poetic, but I think David and James are saying the same thing...though James spells it out a bit more.  He tells us that we suffer trials so that we may be perfected...but how does that work?  Beats me...we have to trust God to do what is best for us, and if our view of the world tells us something different, it is our eyes that are defective.  I'm not saying that its not valuable to try to understand what God does and why....but i am saying that we probably don't always have that good a chance of getting it.

Don't put down Psalm 23 because it is so familiar.  For a class i taught once i had the students rewrite the psalm in their own terms (no radical departures, please) and many of them commented that the Psalm grew in richness to them.  Sometimes we need to distance ourselves from something to see it again.

Posted  8/9/2005 3:34:00 PM 
Comment 2 by Brian:

Yes. Of course Psalm 23 is more than a bandage. The "bandage" is the greeting card approach to grief that quotes Psalm 23 (or even worse-Romans 8:28). Were Kristina reading Psalm 23, I would have written, "Sitting Shiva with David."

"The bandage" is the approach to Scripture in which I resign my self to this Scripture being true even though I cannot perceive the truth of it. The bandage approach happens when I keep trying to tell myself that I feel better because I am supposed to feel better because this Scripture is true. This is considering Scripture to be an ultimatum from God.

I appreciate that you acknowledge that sometimes it is OK to try to understand the world or God's words a bit better. You are also correct in identifying our eyes as what is defective, but when the words of Scripture sting, we are compelled in one of two directions. Away from Scripture, avoiding the pokey bits or the whole thing altogether, or toward it. Kristina has chosen to consider it pure hydrogen-peroxide, my brother, when the the words of James sting her heart. She wants James 1:2 to ring true. She seeks to have her mind renewed by Scripture. This takes time - more time than it ought - more time than we want it to...but no more than a lifetime...?...no...it will even take more time than that. In Revelation 6:10 the dead are still begging God for satisfaction.

This is no cheap, sound-bite/greeting-card faith that we have. We can wrestle with God and be blessed for it. Jacob wrestled God and he got blessed. He also got a life-long limp. Kristina already has the limp. Now she is seeking the blessing.

Posted  8/9/2005 5:42:00 PM 
Comment 3 by Paul:

As I was reading this, I came to understand that not all who reads the Word understand it as it was written.  Reflecting on James 1:2 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” you must know James 1:3 “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

 

I cannot ever know what you and your family has gone through in the past years.  However, knowing that all scripture is God Breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), it’s not James that is writing this, but God!

 

As Sam commented about Psalm 23 and how some of his students rewrote it, I had to read/study it in a different light.  For the most part, we use this passage as a Band-Aid, as Brian stated, but that is just the beginning.  To heal wounds, we clean then and add that band-aid.  However, if you do nothing after that, the wound will again become opened and infected.

 

I do not see James and David writing the same thing in different words.  This may just be me being ignorant with my readings.  David is the band-aid to me, the first steps for healing.  James is the follow up, checking to wound for infection and reapplying treatment to further the healing process.

 

Brian, you know me, I am not one that can answer the question that is stinging Kristina, but will pray that God will answer those questions.

 

I love the tile: Sitting Shiva with James, but would recommend changing it to Practice makes perfect!  Then read James 1:4  =)

 

Oh yeah,

I love reading the things in the site.  It challenges and encourages me all at the same time.  Thank you.
Posted  8/23/2005 12:14:00 PM email 

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