The Most Challenging Book in the Bible
Many in our community follow the Moravian Daily Texts (www.moravian.org) as we engage in the Scriptures throughout the week. I invite (and challenge!) you to join us.
Some days it can feel like a lot of reading but it is a 10-15 minute commitment a day - and I think if we're honest, we can all find 10-15 minutes in our day that could be redirected toward this (if you watch a one-hour television show, you're watching 18 minutes of commercials...so read your texts instead!).
Anyway, we are currently in the middle of two of the most challenging books of the Bible - Ezekiel and James.
Ezekiel is difficult because of its obscure, prophetic language - lengthy poems and diatribes of shadowy judgment. It can be difficult to track what's happening. It's a tough book.
But James, I think, is the most challenging book in the entire Bible (at least for Western/American readers).
Here's why:
James takes seriously the call to follow Jesus and live life in the economy of the kingdom of God. True identity - true wealth - true wisdom does not come from the way of the world, but the way of Jesus. "Anyone who needs wisdom should ask God."
James cuts to the heart of the futility our human longings. Sex, money, significance, relationships, whatever - James calls our our vices and shows the broken progression of our longings. "Everyone is tempted by their own cravings...Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin, and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death."
James believes in the power of words. We are a talkative people but often fail to recognize that words create worlds - our language shapes and creates reality for good or ill. "The tongue is a small flame of fire...Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire."
James calls us out as ones who rely more on material goods than on the goodness of God. We live in one of the richest economies the world has ever seen. We are wealthy beyond the belief of anyone who has ever lived yet we constantly worry and struggle with wanting more. "Pay attention, you wealthy people! Weep and moan...[for] your riches have rotted"
To read James is to swallow the bitter pill of critical self-reflection. To engage James as Scripture (meaning that it's a text God speaks to us through) is to radically rethink our actions and enter into a new kind of life.
What do you think?
/dave