Podcast Summaries

from James 3, verses 13 to 18. Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have better envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly and spiritual devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of partiality. And a harvest of righteousness is shown in peace for those who make peace. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you. So with those words in our minds, let me pose a question for you. Is it possible to be a peacemaker without being a person of peace? There's a question for your Sunday dinner tables perhaps later on. The Nobel Peace Prize is among the world's most prominent international honour. And in recent months, the US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to be awarded it. After failing to receive this accolade in his first term, his obsession with this prestigious award seems to have returned with a vengeance. Indeed, when he was sworn in as President for a second time in January, he made a promise. He said this, my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier, he told his audience at home and far beyond. And certainly he has tackled things head on. In a social media post in October, he claimed that he has ended eight wars in just eight months and that he is the President of Peace. His motto, peace through strength, rests on his belief, it seems, that his sheer force of personality, bold threats and even direct telephone calls can end wars. He has said indeed he could end wars in a day. And yet since first becoming President in 2017, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is capable of both preventing and precipitating armed conflict. The same instincts that lead him to broker agreements can push him to inflame the situation in the belief that only by creating the appearance of imminent disaster will he be able to extract a deal. I hope that ultimately his legacy will be measured not by how often he played the peacemaker, but how long that peace lasted. Clearly, Donald Trump is not the only world leader now or throughout history who has sought to create peace, perhaps because of their own selfish ambition. The tendency for human beings to try to appear to be doing something good whilst harbouring bad motives is an age-old problem. And that's the very thing which James, the writer of the Bible passage that we just heard, was trying to address. He poses this question, he says, what does godly wisdom look like in practice? And then he goes on to answer it by saying that those who are truly wise will be peaceable and will act with gentleness. And he acknowledges that many of us, all of us perhaps, are prone to bitterness, envy and selfish ambition. And that those things, when left unchecked, can cause us to be boastful and to fly close to the wind when it comes to the truth. And he reminds us that where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. And this is just one of many, many passages in the Bible which point out that even though what is within us is hidden, other people can't see it, who we are on the inside really matters. I'm sure we've all had that slightly unpleasant experience of slicing open a piece of fruit only to discover that what looked healthy enough on the outside was actually rotten on the inside. Jesus frequently criticised the most well-behaved people around. They were called the Pharisees. He called them hypocrites for caring more about the appearance of their good works rather than actually having good motives. These were the folk who everyone else looked to as examples of righteous and holy people. I wonder who it is, maybe in your class, maybe in your workplace or your family, who's always well-behaved. I'm sure there will be somebody who you can think of who always seems to be doing the right thing. Well, let me let you into a secret. Even that person who you're picturing in your mind now is not 100% perfect. They will have mixed motives and will sometimes do good things but for the wrong reasons. And this is because none of us can do the right thing all the time. All of us fall short. We are all like that piece of fruit which isn't so tasty looking when you slice it open. And the only alternative, the only way to make that inner change is through God. James describes God's way as wisdom from above. He says it's pure, it's peaceful, it's gentle, it's willing to yield. It's full of mercy and good fruits and without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. Does that describe you 100% of the time? It certainly doesn't describe me. In fact, it's only a fitting description for one human being in history and that is Jesus. He is the only person who was truly full of peace and gentleness. The only one without a trace of hypocrisy. And so we each need to be forgiven for and cleansed from the sinful motives which pervade our hearts. And the only way, the only way to do that is by putting our trust in Jesus. And in doing so we humbly acknowledge that his way is the way. His paths are the right ones for us. And so we turn away from the things that might bring us glory, fame, success. And we turn towards him. Following him towards the ways of peace and mercy and goodness and gentleness and self-control. And we still won't do it perfectly. But with the Holy Spirit to help and to guide us we will slowly become wiser. More humble and focus far more on others than on ourselves. And so let me return to that first question. Is it possible to be a peacemaker without being a person of peace? People who understand the need to empty themselves of all of the sinful things which clog up our hearts will be ready vessels to be filled up with the peace that only God can give. And those who have been filled up with God's peace will, without even having to try, be the peacemakers in the world. Jesus testifies to this when he says, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.

And today's passage ends with these words, A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. Just imagine in your mind for a moment a field that is full and is ready to be harvested. The crops are ready to be brought in. And the crop of that field is righteousness and goodness. So how did it get there? How did that crop get there? Well it was planted, says James in the Bible, by those who live in peace. And we live in peace when we have complete confidence that God will provide everything that we need. And if we're living like that then we won't feel the need to fight other people for what we need. We can look to Jesus, the one who promises good things for his children and then we can look out and bless others by sowing seeds of goodness and mercy and peace. In a moment we're going to sing again. But if you feel comfortable to do so, I would just like you for a moment or two to close your eyes and picture a landscape filled with fields that are bursting with crops that are ready to harvest. And holding that image in your mind, just hear these words from the second verse of our next hymn. And there's another country I've heard of long ago, most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know. We may not count her armies, we may not see her king, her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering. And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase, her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace. And so my prayer is that each of us will one day be welcomed into that other country as we cross the threshold of death. And then we will be awarded something far greater, far greater than any Nobel Peace Prize. Our reward, friends, will be to hear Jesus say, calling us by name, well done, good and faithful servant. Thank you for following me. Thank you for being a person of peace. Come and celebrate with me forever. Amen. And so if you're able, let's stand together as we sing, I vow to thee my country.