When
I observed United Nations Organization’s special days I saw today,
20th
Nov, is the “World Philosophy Day”. Being placed between two
other important days “World Toilet day” (19th
Nov) and “World Television Day” (21st
Nov), it looks like placing wisdom as a transition point between our
un-exposable state of life to the open expression of modernity and
change in public. The given passage for today, James 3:13-18, also is
a challenge to think about our transition in the modern day society
from an un-exposable state of life to the expression of our Christian
public witness, keeping wisdom as the transition point.
The
direct and indirect use of the synoptic ideas about Jesus, the use of
high standard Koine
Greek that is better than the Johannine Greek and Letter to the
Hebrews, use of the themes of the Sermon on the Mount, use of 59
imperatives, use of the Septuagint, finest knowledge about the twelve
tribes of Israel, compassion towards the poor, widows and the orphan,
condemning the lavish life, etc., makes the letter one of the best
studied texts among the New Testament scholarship but at the same
time a controversial one.
At
the end of James chapter 3, in a chapter almost entirely dedicated to
taming the tongue, we come across this small section, which appears
to be thrown in by James as an afterthought on wisdom. James gives to
wisdom the same prominence that Paul gives to faith, John gives to
love, and Peter gives to hope.
James
3:13-18 can also be seen as a story of wisdom presented as two
completely different sides of the same coin. On one side, we see a
heavenly wisdom from above, which is full of mercy and peace. On the
other, an earthly wisdom, which is characterized by jealousy, greed,
pride, and selfish ambition. The present day context challenges us to
be mindful about such duality present in ourselves and in the world.
Thus I would like to title this reflection as Transforming
Wisdom into Faith: Challenge in Modern Mission.
Based on this, I would like to place three challenges in such a time,
in the world and the cosmos to strive for mission in its pure form.
1.
Challenge of wisdom to transform vocal conviction into gentle action.
The
mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual are expressed
through their words, but understood by others through their actions.
Here in 3:13, James negates the Pauline idea of “Justification by
Faith” expressed in Romans 3:28 by his unique expression of
“Justification by Work.” Doctors have to practice what they
learned. Likewise, a lawyer or an engineer. But the only one field
where people can survive without practicing what they have learned
seems to be the theological circle. But a true Christian is the one
who practices what he or she has learned and is saying. I think,
James was aware that none of us will keep our mouth shut. Once our
mouth is shut, we are jobless. Because, preaching is our primary job.
But James wants all of us to use wisdom when we open our mouths. That
will ultimately lead us into transforming our vocal conviction into
gentle action.
2.
Challenge of wisdom to transform weaknesses into talents.
Think
positive and positive things will happen in your life and through you
to the others. Through rationalizing, our weaknesses will be exposed
to ourselves, but through faith all those weaknesses can be
transformed into talents. When I was a child, I had a stammering
tongue. To say a word, for example, if I want to say the word Jesus,
I had to try more than five times. But my teachers gave me a strange
advice. They instructed me to put small stones in my mouth and asked
me to speak out. I think I practiced vigorously for about two years.
Now I think I can speak better. James emphasizes that wisdom is
living a Christ-like life in ordinary human circumstances. A change
of attitude or character lays in our own choice and so also our
talents. For James, being wise is seen in our willingness to
acknowledge the will of God in our own life, and our readiness to
change our weaknesses into talents.
3.
Challenge of wisdom to transform ego into humanness.
Being
foolish is not a crime, but more than that. Wisdom comes from only
one source, that is God. But when it comes to making a fool of
yourself, you have your choice of thousands of different ways. James
through this passage challenges to learn that, before you do
anything. James expects total commitment, expressed by subordination
initially not subsequently. We spend much of our life time in search
of knowledge. In that process, sometimes it is possible that we may
be influenced by the wrong knowledge or foolishness in many ways.
We
know the equation of life that “no one can serve two masters”.
Likewise, no one at the same time can bear ego and humanness. How
many of us are thinking that we are wise? One of the supreme examples
for this is recorded in Matthew 2:1-12 and its result in 2:16-18.
There, we read about the “wise men from the east.” In Matthew
2:16-18 we read about the wisdom of those so-called wise men having
resulted in the slaughtering of all the innocent boys below the age
of two, in and around Bethlehem. That wisdom cannot be called as
wisdom but for me they are called the wisest but are egoistic fools.
Now
in this 21st
century, we are also witnessing the slaughtering of innocent children
in Syria and in Iraq. All the forms of unrest in and outside our
campus and in the society, persecutions in the world arena are an
outcome of wisdom in its un-upgraded form. No faith community in its
pure form is life threatening, but life affirming. We are one such.
Are we a life affirming or life threatening community? The real
challenge that all the faith communities should seriously engage in
the present day context is to upgrade our wisdom. For me, when we
upgrade wisdom, we will get faith. Through upgrading our wisdom into
faith we are providing goodness today and hope for tomorrow, no
matter the circumstances.
Friends,
we are called to express a clear faith in this unclear world now and
here. We are called to present everlasting, divine principles that
are relevant to the context. For that cause are we using our wisdom
or faith? What are we learning for: to become wise or to grow in
faith to help others to grow in faith? Why are we here, to learn
wisdom or to upgrade our faiths? If a professor is grading low, we
ask why did you grade me low. But if anybody asks you about the
standard of your faith before and after theological training, what
will be your answer? Let us create a habit of respecting all who help
us to grow in faith, especially our teachers.
UTC
is a permanent mission field for none of us. But our permanent
mission field is the society. Are we really preparing for that? No
doubt that wisdom can take you to some extent, but faith can take you
and through you others even further up to the life eternal. We all
will upgrade our mobile phones, but what about our faith? Let us pray
to the triune God to help us to transform our wisdom into faith.
Amen.
Vinod
S. Sailus
MTh
II
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