Not read much

Vacations are wonderful things. They give one a great change of pace. They give great joy in providing a different routine, and they give one the great joy and comfort of returning to the familiar and the old routine. So it has been good to go, and it is good to be home.

My guess would be that most Presbyterian ministers and maybe lots of other ministers know that Martin Luther did not have much respect or appreciation for the book of the Bible called James. He called it an "epistle of straw" because it did talk much about Jesus. It has a lot of advice about living and doing the Christian faith, and not much about salvation by faith alone. Maybe that is the reason that the book of James is not read or preached very much.

Or maybe it is because in this day and in this culture nobody wants to hear what James has to say because James has a great deal to say about civil speech. James says that Christian people ought to be "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger." In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also says something about anger being the same as Murder and that when that anger causes one to call another human being a "fool" you are liable for the hell of fire.

Christians will not engage in angry, hurtful or destructive speech. No wonder we do not want to hear James preached. I am not one who knows how to judge our generation with other generations. I know that Thomas Nash and others in previous generations had some pretty hot and vicious speech. I know that during the Civil Rights and the War in Vietnam the speech and the protests were loud and confrontational. But it also seems to me that there is a level of harshness, a new level of viciousness, a new arrogance of the right of free speech that does not want to listen. The "over the top language;" the ability to make incredible accusations anonymously on the Internet; the ease with which people now talk while plays, concerts, and other presentations are being presented; the language and words that are now so commonly used, all seem to be at the worst level possible.

The praise for Ted Kennedy seemed to have as one major component the fact that he could engage in civil debate about issues. He could engage those on the other side of issues in a constructive and polite debate. One concludes that he was praised for this gift because so few seem to have it now.

James is that book that talks about bridling one's tongue. That in response to the gift of grace to us one of the great gifts of grace we can give to others is the gift of listening to them and then responding to them in a controlled and civil way. No wonder nobody wants to listen to James now.