James received a bad rap.
Luther was dismissive of his teaching.
Many contemporary preachers have done the same.
Yet his message is most relevant to 21st century
Christianity.
I have lived through a
long season of heightened spirituality, surrounded by people who assumed to
have a hotline to heaven and by others who presumed to know exactly what God
was trying to say to me, accompanied by a heap of well-meaning instructions.
Don’t get me wrong. I
am deeply spiritual. Since accepting Jesus into my life I have been consumed by
Him. Indeed, by the age of 7 He became my greatest hero and He remains my first
love.
I have no problem
being spiritual and I have lived enough in churches without the Holy Spirit to
say that no matter how they compensate with fine music and all the trimmings,
it does nought for me. Indeed, without the Spirit I would have shriveled up and
died a long time ago.
However, God is always
in the balance.
Notably, God follows
the regimens of science in the order of priorities that lead to deeper and more
meaningful spiritual engagement.
Thus, He first drove
the Jews into the desert and established a basic trust relationship by meeting
their fundamental needs, quite miraculously yet always practically.
Then He engaged them
in the relevant work of building a Tabernacle, a temporary tent of worship and
sanctification that would provide a stopgap solution to their emerging
spirituality, for the duration of their long sojourn in the Wilderness.
Only when that was
done did He then crown their practical provisions and the practical altar of
engagement, which they needed for their faith to achieve substantial meaning.
That crowning happened
when God indwelt that tabernacle and lived amongst them. In so doing, He left
His holy mountain and went with them on their continuing journeys.
Moses argued that one
of the greatest virtues of his faith was that God was willing to walk with them
and not just stay at an aloof, fearsome distance.
I will speak more
about the next step, but suffice to say that when He led them into the Promised
Land, He first had them tame the land and till the soil, before leading them
towards the spiritual zenith of a temple, and all that followed.
The same is true of
the New Testament church.
We tend to put
spirituality first and we feel naked unless we are using the lingo and applying
the mysticism of church liturgy, yet in truth such expressions often
anaesthetize us - leaving us feeling that what we are doing is good enough.
That results in a form
of denialism that detracts from practical priorities like leading families,
raising children, loving spouses, upholding the marital covenant, loving each
other, finding real solutions to the challenges of our time, or reaching a
dying world.
Yet, Paul’s teaching
in his letter to the Ephesians indicates a pattern of priority not unlike that
which described the Old Testament church.
For it is in the working
together of every part and the outworking of our faith through every member of
His body (the local church), that we come to the fullness of that which dwells
amongst us: until we grow up into His likeness as He richly indwells our faith
(Eph 3-4).
Perhaps we all need to
take a few steps back, because we have the cart before the horse. Get your
faith working at a practical level and spiritual depth with follow, else
neglect your practical world and you faith will ultimately face a rude
awakening.
(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com
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