Study: The Letter of Jimmy and Peacemaking #7

Conclusion

The church’s business is not to establish peace between the nations, but to bear witness to the love of God, to live in his peace and righteousness. Concerned for pure speech in Jas. 4:11-12, he commands not to speak evil of another, but to show love. This is a moral and ethical teaching of nonretaliation. Slander against a community member is forbidden for one reason: it makes a judge of the law and usurps God’s role. Thus, 4:11-12 finishes with an oppositional chain of thought that began in 3:17.

James writes that justice pursued in peace by those who make peace marks true wisdom and stands in opposition to the human craving and desire that generates envy which leads to quarrels, fighting (violence), and murder, oppression of the poor and wars, and idolatrous pride and slander. The author denies war and class struggle. Love is the most durable power in the world beautifully portrayed and exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ; it is the most potent instrument available in man’s quest for peace. The connection between peace/peacemaking is formatted in the Trinity, the “God of peace” in Phil. 4:7-9, “Christ of peace” in Col. 3:12-15, and “the Spirit of peace” in Gal. 5:22. Ever since the beginning, shalom has been presented in all of God. James knew the connection of intrinsic formation in Jesus, “Christ being formed in you” (Gal.4:19) means that the gospel-peace reigns in each believer’s heart.

Unless the church is ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, they should confess that they never meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword. Most Christians in the United States are finding it difficult to promote peace and love because of government policies and actions. The world sees clothed in battered garments of catastrophic wars, which leave men and nations morally and physically bankrupt. The tension and struggle between good and evil dramatically reveals a war inside of man. James knows the forces that wage in the heart and soul. Thus, he says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

Music: Neil Young – Greatest Hits

Neil Young’s best songs compacted into pure genius. I absolutely love this C.D. It has been out for sometime, yet I wanted to share some of my favorite songs with everyone. “Down by the River,” “Old Man,” “Heart of Gold,” and “The Needle and the Damage Done” are the best in my opinion. I rate this C.D. a 9/10. If you like Neil Young, then you need to buy this C.D. and chill out to the poetic lyrics.

Study: The Letter of Jimmy and Peacemaking #6

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace. James did not want violence as the means of reaching a desirable end, but he wanted peace because it is nonviolent. He was announcing that a social revolution was underway – the messianic reign of shalom had begun.

James takes for granted the world’s present social and economic situation that had been established, as it had to ensure that the righteous would grow and mature spiritually through suffering. He writes about hope, however, he knows that the social structures will not offer to the poor the promise of a radical change that Jesus instilled in all his followers. Violence always provokes violence and irresistibly engenders new forms of oppression and enslavement. James desired freedom in all of humanity, Gentile or Jew.

The church was not fostering social or economic justice. The oppressed were tempted to become bitter and angry. James develops his thesis under the premise of loving people. He challenged the community to foster love through the channels of economic and social justice.

Scripture: Phil. 1:22-23

I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.

Study: The Letter of Jimmy and Peacemaking #5

The beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God,” is a positive work of reconciliation. This beatitude is thus an identity-forming announcement. Due to the social dimension of the beatitudes, such reconciliation cannot refer to our relations to God; rather, it concerns relationships among humanity. Striving for peace means one’s desire for harmony and order. This requires dedication to social justice. Peace is an effort to resolve degrading and anguishing conditions arising from national and international injustice, which threatens human society with violence and destruction.

Peace includes striving for justice while making it accessible to everyone and seeking progress without exclusion or discrimination. James was familiar with these collections of Jesus’ sayings; therefore, he adapted and partially recited them for his own persuasive purposes. Justice then, is a function in James as reconciliation, which itself is a role of “loving your neighbor.” The Old Testament, which James and his readers were familiar with, has a vision of God ending all war and bringing peace.

James Fostering Economic Justice

James preserves the ruins of a different kind of battle, communal and nonviolent, where love and purity are the weapons of choice against foreign power and moral deterioration. The practices of peacemaking are confirmed by the fruits that produce righteousness. James clearly wanted social change in his listeners’ attitudes and he desired for them to begin sowing seeds that disarm conflict without any acts of violence. Economic deprivation is a major cause of homicides. Due to the rich oppressing the poor in the Palestine church, the likeliness of the poor to act out in violence increased.

Music: Melody Gardot – Worrisome Heart

This C.D. was unveiled in 2006, yet still has a brilliant artistic expression today. I am amazed by the pure sound of her voice. Jazz, the genre that takes a lot of talent, has been most soothing to my soul as of late. Worrisome Heart is best played when you are studying, relaxing, or just want to think. I cannot pick a favorite, however, “All That I Need Is Love” and “Worrisome Heart” have bubbled to the top of the list. I bought this C.D. for $5.99, therefore, anyone can afford this one. I rate this C.D. a 8/10.

Study: The Letter of Jimmy and Peacemaking #4

James and His Brother Jesus

Christians live between two advents: the parameters of violence and peace. Some would say situating peace within God’s divine relationship to violence protects us from using peace as a justification for war or an excuse for indifference. Others actively engage peacemaking needs in the prejudices of the world. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, connects his listeners to an envisage kingdom. The Synoptic Gospels’ presentation of Jesus, the Messiah, draws on Old Testament texts and traditions to mark Jesus as the holder of peace.

For more than two centuries, scholars have held that James uses a tradition of Jesus’ sayings throughout his epistle. James is not only the key to a re-evaluation and reconstruction of Jewish Christian history; he is also the key to understanding the historical Jesus. Jesus’ ethics did not identify with the Empire or any nationalism.

Jesus was defined by his words and actions. N.T. Wright states, “We must root our church practices, our discipleship, and our Christian faith in the real Jesus or we turn our faith into a feather – a thin, soft feather that blows with the wind and conforms its shape to whatever group interests it comes upon.” Early followers of Jesus tried to wrap their minds and thoughts around his extreme teaching on peace. For the first three hundred years of the Christian movement, the church was almost unanimously pacifist.

The church was committed to making a clear witness to Jesus’ ethics. In this view, trying to make that witness while advocating killing enemies is wrong because not only does it advocate killing people, but also it disobeys Jesus and distorts their lifestyles. Jesus cares deeply about the sacredness of human life and pointed to another way of deliverance from violence. Following Jesus focuses on finding alternative initiatives that prevent violence. Participation in God’s reign means the pursuit of God’s shalom in a world shattered by hostilities. Jesus offered an alternative model to break the cycle of violence and broken relationships. Those who are truly his children will emulate his efforts to make peace, even with those who are the enemies (Matt. 5:43-48).

Scripture: Romans 5:6-8

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

Quotes: Rich Mullins

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.

Study: The Letter of Jimmy and Peacemaking #3

Further, the use of phoneuete in Jas. 4:2 (“kill” in RSV, “commit murder” in NRSV) indicates warlike action within the community. According to Willard Swartley, the RSV translation of en tois melesin hymon at the end of Jas. 4:1, as “within your members” is a better translation than NIV’s “within you”. The Greco-Roman moralist tradition of envy was contentious within this Jewish Christian community.  Socrates regards envy as the “ulcer of the soul.” 

 

Ultimately, envy leads people to murder.  Due to the evil experienced in the social structure within the church, James wanted the listeners to consider the diseased human freedom to desire an uprising; however, he uses language against such actions.  According to Enrique Nardoni, “Anger and violence do not produce justice; they cannot establish the right social, political, and economic order on earth in accordance with the creator’s design (1:20).”  The alternative vision for community life is peace.  This kind of lifestyle in Jas. 3:17 will lead to a harvest of righteousness-justice.  The two opposing paradigms of wisdom are against each other: the fruits of peace or the fruits of the evil one.

  

Shalom in the Old Testament Scripture

The mainstream ethical consensus among Jews was the affirmation of shalom.  The reconstruction of this social ethic derived its guidance from a peaceful God.  Jesus’ own message proclaimed peace on earth.  He had positive respect for the institutions of society, even the Roman government, yet he constructed a shalom message to his followers. 

 

Shalom is an iridescent word, with different levels of meaning in Hebrew Scripture.  The basic meaning is wholeness or completeness.  Understanding its meaning in the Hebrew Bible is a prerequisite for the study of peace in James.  Shalom occurs well over 200 times in the Hebrew Bible and has many dimensions of meaning in context: wholeness, completeness, well-being, peace, justice, salvation, and even prosperity. 

 

Perry Yoder proposes that the word shalom contains a moral quality, therefore shalom is the opposite of violence considered in James.  James writes that bitter envy and selfish ambition in the heart are actions that violate shalom.  Early Rabbis reflected on the relationship of peace to justice, truth, and mercy.  The rabbinic tradition provides a rich resource that complements Christian understanding of peace. Swartley says:

In the early medieval period, Jewish reflection spiritualized biblical war imagery, while Christian theologians, notably Augustine, spiritualized or internalized the pacifist teachings of the New Testament.  Christian thought began to take OT war imagery literally to develop “just war” doctrine and justify imperial extension, leading in subsequent stages to theological justification of the Crusades. 

Reflections on the relationship between shalom to justice and truth to mercy are harmonized in the right kind of wisdom.