Are you adaptable?

 Charles Darwin, of evolutionary fame,

            did not coin the phrase, “the survival of the fittest.”

Rather, he argued, it is those species that can adapt and change that survive.

 

We, of the human species, try to figure things out.

We look for meaning that we can understand, 

that we can accept.

We are selective in what we accept,

            what fits our view of life, our world view,

but that can work against us.

For in this current time of multiple environmental crises,

            adaption can mean the difference between life and death.

 

Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation from last Sunday.

 

Jesus was not the Messiah the people of his time and place and culture 

had believed would come.

He didn’t fit this meaning frame of reference. 

Instead he said,

            “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, 

and they will kill him, 

and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”

 

This was the message no one wanted to hear; it was too hard to take in.

“They did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.”

 

So instead the disciples are hanging onto the idea of Messiah they wanted,

                                    what they thought they needed,

            and they vie each other

about who among them was the greatest of the disciples, 

who would get the places of importance and honor

                                                next to the Messiah as they expected him to be.

But Jesus said,

            “Whoever wants to be first [among you] must be last of all

            and servant of all.”

 

The disciples were going to have to change their whole way of looking at Jesus 

            and change their whole set of expectations

                        not only about him but about themselves.

And so must we.

 

Why are we here?  at church            as self proclaimed followers of Jesus

Is it for ourselves first?

            to assure ourselves of being in God’s favor?

The Gospel for today says no.

It is for others.

            Not first, but last and as servant to everyone else.

Yes, that is what Jesus said.

 

For us as a faith community, a congregation of the faithful,

            when there are newcomers, it’s for them that we are here.

When there aren’t any newcomers that day, it is for each other.

 

Lose yourself in terms of what you hope to get here, 

and turn your attention to your brother or sister across the aisle from you, 

and you will find yourself, 

you will receive more than you would have anticipated.

 

Now with that in mind,

            let us turn to the week’s reading from James, 

                        as we make our way through 

                                    this hard hitting and tell it like it is Epistle.

 

James 3:13

“Who is wise and understanding among you?  Show by your good life 

that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.”

 

This week’s selection zeroes in on what is wrong 

            with a lot of what we see going on in the world at the moment:                                                the violence of war, the conflicts and disputes

greed and ambition in the corporate business world 

                        and among nations

the envy, coveting, and craving,

all that in the face of grave natural disasters 

                                                of the environment and pandemic.

This is not only on the global scale,

            but, even more so, close to home;

                        in fact, within our own hearts is where most of this takes place.

 

James writes:

“…if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts,

            do not be … false to the truth.”

 

Whatever is going on out there on the macro level,

            we can be sure that it is a reflection of what is going on

                        in here on the micro level.

That’s where it all starts.

 

Again quoting James:

“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? 

Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 

You want something and do not have it; [so you are murderous.] 

And you covet something and cannot obtain it; 

            so you engage in disputes and conflicts. 

You do not have, because you do not ask. 

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly,

            [in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.]”

 

That is our human situation spelled out very clearly.

 

So James gives out the free advice:

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. 

Resist the devil [resist evil], and it will flee from you. 

Draw near to God, and [God] will draw near to you. 

 

Beautiful words, true words.

But how do we really follow through with them?

How do we actually do what James is telling us?

 

We could look at this as an exhortation to a program of moral behavior

            so that we could somehow purify ourselves.

Purify ourselves…

            But that doesn’t sound very grace filled to me,

            smacks of “works righteousness” – work it out on your own strength.

 

Or maybe this is an invitation into a spiritual process,

            a spiritual process of openness of heart to the Spirit working in us

            bringing to ever greater fulfillment the work of salvation within us.

 

“Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”

This is a spiritual process of openness of heart,

            through, say for instance, prayer, 

                                                and what has been said about meditation.

 

Meditation is a way to submit ourselves to God

            a way of drawing near to God, 

                        and discovering God drawing near to you

                        by simply sitting in the presence of God doing nothing,

            a way toward purifying the heart

                        and moving from being double minded

                                    to being unified and integrated as a whole being

                                                                        in union with God.

 

Prayer is a way to submit yourself to God,

            for that spiritual process of inner refinement and healing and cleansing

 

“Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”

 

                        so that the wisdom from above might dwell in us,

                        that Wisdom who is Jesus himself, the Word of God,

            so that the fruits of that wisdom may be fully evident:

                                    peace, gentleness, willingness to yield, 

                                    full of mercy, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy,

                                    a harvest of righteousness sown in peace.

 

Practice compassion for one another 

until this becomes the characteristic that best describes 

both you yourself individually and as a parish family

Practice here so that you can be that way everywhere else too.

 

From one of the verses in James skipped over in the Epistle reading

            James 4:4

“Friendship with the world is enmity with God” 

Friendship with the world is enmity with God 

because the world mind set 

            makes distinctions, and therefore separates and divides – 

people, groups, positions held, even belief systems 

– making for exclusivity and exclusion.

This is at enmity with God 

because in God we live and move and have our being.  

All, we come to see, is in union in God. 

On the level of creation everything belongs, nothing is left out.

This is a truth that endures, that does not pass away.

 

Now remember this however:

            Being of one mind does not equal all thinking the same thing!

Being of one mind in the diverse expression of creation 

is evident in the flow of life.  

Is the flow of life experienced as rough and frustrating, 

or as easy and naturally flowing?

 

Verse 36 Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them

            and told the disciples to welcome such little ones.

 

The child who is the example of the least of them, the weakest, the last,

            not the leader, not the greatest – but the most adaptable - 

is the one whom to welcome, is to welcome Jesus himself, the servant of all.