Don’t Be Presumptuous! - Some Thoughts from James 4:13-17
I
return for my Thursday reflection to the Letter of James, which my Bible Study
group is working through. We explored James 4:11-5:6, which has some
interesting messages for us. For one thing, James picks up his concern about
the way we speak. He would have us not speak evil of others. Not only that, he
suggests we not judge others, because if we do, we judge the law. As to the
nature of this law, James likely has in mind what he called the “royal law”—"you
shall love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8; Lev. 19:18). So, just don’t
judge others, because you don’t want to be a lawbreaker!
Later in the
reading (5:1-6), James takes aim at the rich. He doesn’t have much good to say
about rich people. In fact, he suggests that they should weep and wail (howl)
because of the miseries that await them. They might have lived in luxury and pleasure
in this life, but all they’ve done is fatten themselves up for slaughter (think
here of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man—Luke 16:19-31).
Both of those
sections, at the beginning and the end, speak volumes. However, for this
meditation, I wish to focus on the section that lies between these two messages.
That section speaks to the sin of presumption. What is that? It’s the idea that
we control our own destinies (James 4:13-17). James writes: “Come now, you who
say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year
there, doing business and making money.’” If 2020 has taught us anything
it's that we can make plans, but we can’t determine what tomorrow will bring. I
expect that 2020 hasn’t turned out the way we all anticipated last January. It’s
possible that some reading this knew that a pandemic was about to break, but I
don’t think many had that on their calendars. I remember back in March when we knew
that Easter might not come off the way we expected, there was much chatter
about celebrating Easter when we returned to fully open buildings. The
assumption was that by May things should be okay. Do you remember? Well, that
never happened. We never got that chance to redo Easter. Then we faced the
prospect of doing the same with Pentecost.
Now, with the pandemic
surging we’re making plans for a much different Christmas season. I assure you,
this isn’t the way I planned to celebrate my last Christmas season with the
congregation. We’ve decided to gather just a few people to bring a service that
will be shared online with the congregation, but with the church building closed
to everyone else.
The optimistic
side of me hopes that we’ll be back for Easter, though I know that’s
increasingly unlikely. Maybe a large number of us will be vaccinated by April 5th,
but will it be enough? Well, we simply don’t know. It would be presumptuous of
me to say otherwise.
James makes this
clear. We simply don’t know what tomorrow will bring. James’ warning stands in
line with the message of Proverbs 27:1: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you
do not know what a day may bring.” So, as James reminds us, life is a lot like
mist. It’s here for a while and then it’s gone. Jesus understood this to be
true, so he suggested that we “not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matt 6:34).
If this is true,
then what should we do? The word James offers us is this. We should simply say:
“If the Lord wishes we will live or do that.” To do otherwise is to boast in
arrogance, and all such boasting is evil.
Now, here’s the
question—does this mean we shouldn’t make plans for the future? Is it a sin to
put money in savings for important purchases or to fund college expenses or
prepare for retirement? As I near retirement, I’m glad we have savings to draw
upon. So, is James against preparing for the future? Not necessarily. As Martha
Moore-Keish writes, “it is not a repudiation of the future that James
recommends here, but a humility about our ability to control it” [Moore-Keish, James:
Belief, p. 160]. Instead, we should humbly say, we will if God wills.
Now, I have to
offer a caveat here. I find myself aligned with those who speak of an open
future, who would say that God doesn’t control everything. That means, we do
have a role to play in creating the future. Nevertheless, we may play a role,
but we don’t control everything. That means we will need to have the ability to
adapt to the situation at hand. Again, 2020 has made that abundantly clear. I
had my plans in mind. There were things I expected to accomplish in the months
between last February when I announced my impending retirement, and that
retirement date I set for the end of June of 2021. Things haven’t worked out
the way I expected, but you do with what you have before you. To do otherwise
is to be presumptuous.
The most important
thing, as James reminds us is that if we know “the right thing to do and fails
to do it,” we “commit sin.” So, do the right thing! As Martha Moore-Keish interprets this word: “Be
a friend of God, not the world. Cultivate the word that has been implanted in
you. Pay attention to God’s law, and just do it” [James, p. 162].
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