Me and James 5: 1-5

I can't help thinking as I read this, that James has some serious personal issues/agendas with the rich ... his words are not just cautionary but angry. I found an interesting online article that talks of the piety/poverty connection in James and it fills in a little about the historical backdrop. I've always been on the edge of poverty (american style) so I tend to agree with James' attitude toward the rich ... but ... I think that to be rich is not to be evil and poverty should not to be envied or romanticized but we should strive to eradicate it. And remember, Jesus loved the rich young man :-)

Meredith on James:1-5

Wow, rich folks are getting a tongue lashing here. James rather fiercely admonishes the wealthy regarding their attitude toward riches, especially when riches are hoarded and laborers are not paid fairly. He suggests that the love of money could be one's downfall "...their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire." Monetary riches are worthless in the eternal kingdom.

In my experience, this attitude toward riches is accurate. Once the treasure in your own heart is found, for wealthy and poor alike, little else in the manner of riches compares. This is the nugget, the jewel, the gift. And once you recognize it within you, you will want only to share it, and share it abundantly with an open and grateful heart.

Meredith

Housekeeping

Two housekeeping issues I want to raise and hear responses on.

1) I've noticed some real problems saving blogs lately. I just changed to a new browser: Firefox. So I don't know if its the browser or the blogger. I have noticed the problem goes away if I save a draft version first and then publish. Anybody else having difficulties here? Mostly I want reassurance I'm not just messing up someplace :0)

2) We begin chapter 5 which puts us into the home stretch. I welcome input for the next scripture study. We can plough through a new book -- but we gotta choose one. For those who celebrate the season of the Guy-in-the-Red-Suit family issues may impinge -- we can deal.

James 5:1-5 A Warning to the Rich Oppressors

That worked well I thought. Here's the next paragraph according to the NRSV:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

-- James 5:1-5

In keeping with earlier concerns about using alternate translations:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is 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 Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. (NIV)

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. (Good King Jimmy)

Well now, you rich! Lament, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is rotting, your clothes are all moth-eaten. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be a witness against you and eat into your body. It is like a fire which you have stored up for the final days. Can you hear crying out against you the wages which you kept back from the labourers mowing your fields? The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Sabaoth. On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart's content. (New Jerusalem)

Re: James 4:13-17

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
-- James 4:13-17 (NRSV)


The defining lines in this verse for me are these: "...Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. "

We don't know what the future will bring. Our lives are so temporary. Almost all of us alive today will be gone in 100 years or less. Living as though God exists in us, perhaps a reasonable goal is that we are we able to fully appreciate this very moment. When I consider this very moment, I recognize its perfection, just the way it is, with not one thing needing to be different. To be fully mindful of God's presence, and the rich blessing of this present moment eliminates much fear and suffering.

"What is your life?..." This passage suggests that our life is illusory, and even this illusion will vanish in time. To accept the temporary and illusory nature of this life creates humility, and encourages us to drop any arrogance, and live a manner in which the God in us speaks.

This whole verse seems to teach us that it is not enough to talk about faith, but that we must live it with God in each moment.