Sermon Tone Analysis

Wedding Day

On this day 15 years ago, I was nearing the end of the most anticipated countdown of my entire life.

The countdown was at three days… and the anticipated event was… my wedding day!

Now there is something very special about the period of a couples engagement, particularly for couples that wait until that day before they move in together and become united physically together.

We were 3 days before Fiona and I were married.

By three days out, most of the preparations had been made.

We were on the final straight for this momentous occasion.

Admittedly, Fiona had put in the lion share of the smaller details

You see, there is a lot of preparation for the wedding.

Some of that preparation involves the ceremony and the subsequent party at the reception, and three days out for us, thankfully I can say that things were all but done - of course, that’s mostly thanks to Fiona.

But what I think is easy to gloss over is that the preparation for the ceremony and the reception, in many ways is the easy part, although in the stress of making all the decisions it might not seem like it at the time.

The bigger part of the preparation is actually working on the relationship.

You see, you have two individuals who have their own ways of doing things.

They have their own set of habits.

In addition to all the family baggage that they bring.

When a couple first start dating - these differences are easy to ignore.

You can just enjoy being with each other for who you are.

But when that question is asked and an agreement is made to get married - we now have a commitment.

And if we want it to work, the couple now have to move from the point of just being happy together, to actually being united together.

You have to learn compromise.

You have to learn how to really speak to one another and listen to what they are actually saying, not just what you think they are saying.

You learn how to deal with the bad habits, and perhaps the big one - learning how to fit into their family and all the traditions and expectations that they might have.

Sometimes this preparation is really difficult, but you know what - it is actually a really beautiful thing as well.

And so, by the time the bride walks down the aisle on the big day, the big preparation is not just in the dress and flowers - although the beauty of this is important - but in the preparation of these two lives that are about to come together.

The Bride in

Now, I want to use this imagery of a bride preparing ourselves for her groom as we conclude our series in James.

While James isn’t using this imagery, the analogy I’m using is not foreign to the Bible.

In fact, we see the imagery used a few times, perhaps most famously in .

This chapter essentially begins the conclusion of the entire bible, and essentially describes the church as the bride, who is now ready to be wedded to Christ as the groom.

I love this image we can imagine ourselves, on the day we made a commitment to Christ, we joined this body which is preparing itself for a wedding.

We are essentially in the engagement period.

In the engagement, the commitment is there, but the final consummation has not occurred.

Prep in

Well, coming back to , while he doesn’t use the image of a wedding, he does however describe well for us what it means to prepare ourselves for this great day.

We see James bringing this into mind when he starts in verse 7 by saying: “be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming”.

You see, he is talking about this expectation that the Christian has of something amazing that is going to happen - the return of Christ.

But what James wants to make clear is that this expectation is not something that we just sit back and wait for.

You know sometimes we have events that we really look forward to but require no preparation - like a concert or a sporting event.

There’s anticipation, but no involvement.

You just turn up at the end.

But as James describes the patient waiting that we must do, we’ll see that it is not just a passive waiting, but one where we are being transformed.

Context of James

This is a fitting conclusion for the letter.

You see, the entire letter has been pushing us to think about the practical outworking of our faith.

It is super clear that faith is not just a theoretical thing that we gain, but something that will have a real effect on our life.

But James sees an end goal to all this.

We are not just meandering along in some aimless way, rather we are getting to the point of the return of Christ.

Waiting for the crops

Now I’m going to use the image of a bride and her groom, but James actually starts with a different picture in mind.

He gives us the picture of a farmer waiting for his crops to yield a harvest.

This image helps us to see how it isn’t just a passive waiting, but one where the farmer is deeply embedded in the process.

But you see, while the farmer prepares the crop, there is also a sense in which he can’t speed up the process.

Rather he has to wait till the right season comes.

And so we can see the two sides to this.

On one level he is deeply involved.

And on the other, he does just have to wait.

In the same way, we can see the two sides to our waiting for the return of Christ.

On one level, we do just wait, but on the other, we need to be doing all we can to prepare ourselves for that day.

In verse 8, James gives us the two parts clearly.

He says: “You too, be patient [that’s the first part] and stand firm [the second]”.

Being careful with our words

So let’s look then as James fleshes this out for us.

Well, in this first section he draws us back to a theme he took us on early, namely the tongue.

You might recall back at the start of chapter 3 he elaborated on the damage that the tongue can cause.

Well, now in verses 9 and again in verse 12, he talks about the ways in which our tongues can get us into trouble.

Grumbling

Firstly, in verse 9 he talks about grumbling.

Now I think this is perhaps something we are all guilty of - I know I am.

It is also something we can think of as unimportant.

You see, what does it matter if we grumble.

Well, you see, the problem is that it isn’t just grumbling.

Our grumblings put a division between us.

The reason you grumble is because you think someone hasn’t done the right thing.

Essentially you’re becoming judge.

This is the exact opposite way of how we should be preparing ourselves for the return of Christ.

When Christ comes, it is a unified bride that is presented to him.

This is not the uniting of Jesus with countless different groups - but with the New Jerusalem (to use the language of ).

That is, his beloved church.

Yes and no’s

In verse 12, he talks about simply letting your yes be yes and your no… no.

You see, one of the problems that the tongue can cause is that we can over complicate things.

We can use our tongue to create loop holes with a heaps of caveats.

But as we present ourselves before Christ, he doesn’t want to hear a long justification of why we did this that or the other thing.

He can see through our words.

He wants action.

You know, we can become very good at bargaining, and we can take these skills to God.

But he wants simple commitment.

Just like the bride and groom aren’t going to be happy with some fancy justification for not being faithful.

Peseverance

You see, while James here gives us further practical examples of how to make ourselves prepared for Christ, the bottom line is that we need to persevere.

You see, while this process can at times be a beautiful thing - it can also be tough.

This is why I think the analogy of a relationship is useful.

For anyone who has been in a long term relationship you will know that while there are great joys, there are also some really tough times.

But it is through these tough times that we actually become better people.

In verse 11, James gives us the example of Job.

He went through some of the toughest times imaginable, and yet with God’s help he persevered and in the end, he saw something truly amazing.

Prayer

Now, while James calls us to persevere, there is another aspect to our preparation which is so very important - prayer!

The young couple

I mentioned before that for the couple about to get married, one of the important skills they need to learn is to communicate with each other.