James 5: The rich are condemned.
Pray!
We now turn to the climax of James' letter. In James 5:1-6 the
rich are condemned without pity and without possibility of conversion.
We can almost hear James preaching reach its peak, and then see
him catch his breath as he turns to verse 7. A return to the endearing
brothers and sisters signals a return to hope for the local congregation.
Our patience will be rewarded as we wait for the condemnation of
our oppressors. And then James closes with a call to a life of prayer.
1. James 5:1-6. Your riches are rusting
away! (estimated time: 90
minutes including the worship planning. 60 minutes without it.)
Supplies
Lottery Tickets in a hat or bowl
Play money
Sales Catalogues and Real Estate Sections from newspapers
Word studies on Rich and Poor for each group
Commentary on James 5:1-6
Optional: United Methodist Hymnals for each group
Experiential Activity
Using colored paper, make enough Lottery Tickets for every
member of your study. Make it so two people win a million dollars,
most of the group wins a thousand dollars, and a few win a hundred
thousand dollars. Using play money, bring enough bills to pay out
about half the winnings.
Explain that you have a million dollar lottery and hand out gift
catalogues and real estate sections from the local newspaper for
everyone to choose what they will buy if they are the winner. Work
in the large group, but encourage sharing catalogues as each person
chooses some things they might buy with their winnings. Allow about
five minutes.
Once everyone has chosen some items to buy bring the hat around
the circle for everyone to choose their lottery ticket. Then, starting
randomly, hand out the play money to each person from their winnings.
Working your way around the circle, skip a winner if you don’t
have enough money to pay the winnings in full. When you run out
tell the group that you don’t have any more money, so they
won’t get the prize after all.
Divide into three groups: those who won nothing, those who won
a hundred thousand or more, and those who won a thousand dollars.
In these groups take twenty minutes to discuss these questions:
- How did it feel to plan for the lottery? Was it fun to consider
what you would buy?
- How did you feel when you got your “winning” ticket?
- How did it feel when you realized that there was not enough
money to pay everyone?
- Is wealth a limited or unlimited thing? If it is unlimited,
why do so many in the world have so little? If it is limited,
is it OK to have more than your neighbor?
Study the text
Break up groups that have more than six people into smaller
groups. Hand out the commentaries on rich and poor. Ask each group
to discuss whether the definitions of rich and poor in James’
time are the same as today. Take no more than 10 minutes for this.
As groups finish the discussion on rich and poor ask them to turn
to James 5:1-6. Each group should read it aloud and then sit with
it in silence for a minute. Going around the circle each person
should share what stands out to them from the text. Read the text
aloud again and then have each person read the commentary. Discuss
for about 20 minutes.
- What does this text say to our congregation?
- What does this text say to North American churches today?
- What does this text say to you individually?
Optional Activity
This text is not included in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Take a half hour to plan a worship service around this text in your
small group. What hymns would you sing? What would the prayer of
confession and the pastoral prayer look like? What would be the
main topic of the sermon?
James 5:1-6
When we reach chapter five it is clear that it is the rich
who are condemned. James offers none of the hope for conversion
from chapter four here in this passage. In 4:17 those who know what
is right, but fail to do it are committing sin. In 5:1 the punishment
for that sin begins. The rich are condemned for their wealth, but
also for their use of the wealth (Moo 210). In James 4:9 we lament
and mourn and weep as a sign of our repentance, but the weeping
and wailing in James 5:1 is from suffering in the last days, not
from repentance.
These passages are linked to 4:13-17 by the opening words: come
now or now listen. The message is urgent, in the style of the prophets
condemning the nations (Moo 210). The tense of the verbs in verses
2 and 3 imply that the rotting and rusting has already begun, even
though the wealthy may be unaware of this (Moo 213). Scholars make
extensive efforts to explain why James would use the word rust for
silver and gold, which do not rust. However I suspect his point
is that even the safest of our treasures are not safe from the ravages
of God’s judgment. Human fire will not destroy silver or gold,
but the fires of God’s judgment destroy all human treasures.
Is everyone with human treasures condemned? Moo argues it is not
the owning itself that is the sin, but rather our focus on earthly
treasure instead of heavenly treasure (Moo 214). This connects to
4:13 where the sin is planning our life around wealth. Yet James
5:4 makes it clear that the wealth these landowners have has been
created by oppressing the poor. The image of withholding wages is
linked to Leviticus 19:13, and thus, once again, to James’
focus on the law.
Withholding wages from a subsistence laborer is to risk their very
lives. The first century conflict between landowners and workers
was acute (Moo 210). In Deuteronomy 24:14-15 the Israelites are
called to pay wages before sunset every day. James makes no distinction
between one who obtained their wealth without oppression, and those
whose wealth was gained at the expense of those who are poor. Perhaps
the question for middle class citizens of first world countries
is whether wealth today is different from the wealth of the first
century?
Writing to a first century community, James presumes that wanton
pleasure, or self-indulgence, described in verse 5 comes from the
condemnation of the righteous one in verse 6. Like James 2:6 the
language of 5:6 (especially the word condemned) presumes
a court setting or judicial procedure (Johnson 217). Early Christian
commentators presumed that the righteous one was Jesus, but it is
generally understood to be the innocent or perhaps the typical Christian
who is condemned.
There is some question as to who is not resisting this condemnation.
The text offers no subject other than he, which most likely would
refer to the righteous one. This suggests that the Christians are
helpless victims of the legal actions the wealthy take against them
(Moo 220). Another possibility is that it is God who does not oppose
the wealthy (Johnson 217),
at least until the day of slaughter. This would fit the pattern
throughout James 5:1-6, where the behavior or the rich is contrasted
with God’s response. The verb here is the same as that in
4:6 where it is God who resists the proud.
God is clearly on the side of the humble and poor in James 5:1-6.
The entire letter has built up to this climax. Yet this text is
not included in the Revised Common Lectionary, and therefore is
not read during worship in most North American congregations. Elsa
Tamez believes this is part of the effort to intercept the letter
(T5).
What do you think?
Resources
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James in
The New Interpreter's Bible Volume XII, Leander E. Keck
et al, editors. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000).
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James in The Pillar
New Testament Commentary, DA Carson, general editor. (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000).
Elsa Tamez, The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without
Works Is Dead. John Eagleson, translator. With Study Guide
by Pamela Sparr. (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002).
2. James calls us to Patience and Prayer
(estimated time: 45 minutes)
Supplies
Handout of Commentary on James 5:7-20
Handout of Tamez on Militant Patience
Experiential Activity
Perhaps the most meaningful opening for this last portion
of James might be a healing worship service. If that is not an option,
consider instead breaking into groups of two or three and having
the members of the study share their experiences of healing prayer.
Have they prayed for someone to be healed? What happened as a result?
What do they believe about healing prayer? Spend about 20 minutes
on this discussion before turning to the text.
Study the Text
As the healing discussion wraps up, ask each group to turn to James
5:7-20. Have one person read the text aloud. Each person should
say one word or phrase that jumps out at them. Don't allow discussion
at this point. Sit in silence a bit, and then read it aloud again.
Allow about ten more minutes for discussion and then give each
group the commentary on James 5:7-20 and Elsa Tamez' study of the
words patience and endurance in James.
Discussion questions
James 5:7-20
James has finished his condemnation, and turns back to teaching
with the endearing brothers and sisters or believers.
In 5:1-6 the rich are condemned in the coming judgment, have been
warned, and now James encourages the oppressed believers to wait
patiently for that time.
James uses patience or makrothymia in verses
7, 8 and 10. Tamez argues James is calling for militant patience—not
resignation or even neutral waiting, but rather active and heroic
patience, facing the battles the world presents head on (Tamez 43).
The example of Job in verse 11 is one of a man who questions his
suffering and calls on God to explain Godself. James uses the term
endurance or hypomone here, and declares that
those who endure oppression are blessed in their waiting.
What are we to wait for? Certainly the condemnation of the rich
is one of the rewards for the oppressed, but also how the Lord
is compassionate and merciful. James uses Lord in
5:7, 8, 10, and perhaps synonymously, the Judge in verse
9. Although Christ is not mentioned in these verse, James’
language is similar to that of 1 Corinthians 15:23, 1 Thessalonians
2:19 and others, where Christ is clearly intended.
As we wait for Christ’s parousia, or presence
(Moo 221) we
are to strengthen our hearts in verse 8 and avoid grumbling
in verse 9. Grumble is more accurately groan or
a sigh, typically “an expression of frustration from
the people of God who are suffering oppression or even judgment”
(Moo 225). It is not just grumbling we should avoid, but, in James
5:12, oaths. This line seems somewhat disconnected from the rest
of the chapter, but perhaps is calling for simple, unadorned speech
in which what we say is what we mean (Johnson
222). Compare this to Matthew 5:34-37.
The comparison for James 5:13-20 is with the other New Testament
letters. They generally end with encouragement to pray, yet James
has a longer and more detailed exhortation than any of the others
(Moo 235). He offers three reasons for prayer: suffering, happiness
and illness. Illness in the first century is used for those
who are weak, mentally or spiritually impaired, or facing issues
of conscience. Illness is also used as we do today for physical
illness or disability.
Those who are ill are encourage to summon the elders, which implies
an official demand, not a casual request (Johnson 222). Elders in
the early church were guides of the congregation’s spiritual
development (Moo 237). We should not look for a line between spiritual
and physical healing here, they happen at the same time. The role
of forgiveness in the healing of physical ailments is found in Jesus’
ministry. The oil mentioned is widely used for medicinal purposes
in the first century, and for spiritual healing in the traditions
of Israel and of Jesus’ ministry (Johnson 222).
Early theologians thought the righteous person in James
5:16 might refer to Jesus. Yet the verse begins with a call to pray
for one another and proceeds to the claim that Elijah was a
human being like us. Scholars today agree that the righteous
person is an ordinary believer rather than a super saint, or even
a Christian leader (Moo 247). Elijah’s prayer was for rain
for the crops, which connects this to the farmer in James 5:7. It
also makes clear that we are waiting now for the answer to our prayers,
which will come with the parousia, or presence of our Lord.
As we wait, we should encourage one another in verse 19 and 20,
bringing them back from wandering. Again we find an allusion to
Leviticus 19:17 where the law says you shall reprove your neighbor.
You may find the meaning of verse 20 to be quite different in various
translations. The Greek is simply not clear as to whether it is
the sinner’s soul that is saved, or the soul of the faithful
Christian who brought the sinner back into the fold (Johnson 223).
Resources
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James in
The New Interpreter's Bible Volume XII, Leander E. Keck
et al, editors. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000).
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James in The Pillar
New Testament Commentary, DA Carson, general editor. (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000).
Elsa Tamez, The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without
Works Is Dead. John Eagleson, translator. With Study Guide
by Pamela Sparr. (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002).
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