How do you like to be introduced? What do you like people to call you? On Sundays, I’m pastor Mike. But when I’m just hanging out around town, it’s just Mike. Unless I go to Starbucks, and they write my name down as “Mick” for some reason. To my kids, I’m Dad. Unless they want something, then I’m Daddy. They know how to pull on my heartstrings.
And that brings us to the book of James. There were lots of ways he could have introduced himself, a lot of titles he could carry around with him. He was Pastor James, or better yet Bishop James. He was known as James son of Joseph for most of his life. He would probably also answer to James from Nazareth. In fact, his name really isn’t James. That’s just our English way of saying the Greek translation of his Hebrew name, Jacob.
One title that he certainly had the right to was “Brother of Jesus.” You see, they shared the same mom, but not the same father. He grew up with Jesus, who has become the most famous figure in the entire world. But when he sat down to write this letter, a general message to all the Christians around the world, he calls himself something else – servant.
In the shortest words possible, he told us all we need to know about his faith, his purpose, and his motivation. What he was all about. It wasn’t who he knew, because he knew the biggest name in the closest way possible. It wasn’t how much he could gain from his life, but what he could offer. He chose the name servant because his rhythm of life led him that way.
We get to choose what defines us and what our purpose will be. Really, we do. There are lots of things in life that are out of our control. But when they come at us, we choose how we respond. And one of the ways we respond is by either taking or sharing.
How we choose what defines us will determine the rhythm of our life. What does your rhythm say? The rhythm of taking or the rhythm of sharing? It’s up to us. We can offer what little we have in the service of Jesus, or we can keep it all for ourselves thinking it’s so much more than it really is. But when we choose the rhythm of share, it becomes a regular lifestyle of giving ourselves away.
The next few weeks we’re going to really dig into what this means. We’re going to see how the rhythm of share is really about being hearers and doers of Jesus’ words. Anything else is like using sand as your foundation. We’re going to see that the rhythm of share gets interrupted when we only include some and exclude the rest. True sharing doesn’t pick favorites. And we’re going to see that the rhythm of share is the center of a faith that is alive and active, not distorted and dead.
But before we get to all of that, let’s just take a moment to think about how James responded to the question of, “Who are you?” He didn’t think being a family member of Jesus worthy to put on his name tag. Instead, he said, “I am completely at the disposal of Jesus. I’m fine with being a means to an end. I am satisfied in finding my purpose in serving someone else.” I hope we can mirror just a fraction of that attitude.
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