James 4: 1-10, Ps 55:7-11,23, Mark 9: 30-37
Sometimes it’s hard to see the connection between the two readings that are assigned for the day. Not today. The letter of James is asking where conflict comes from while in Mark’s Gospel the Apostles are in the middle of a fight about who is the greatest, acting like spoiled children.
The reading from James suggests that our conflicts with each other come from conflicts within ourselves. We want things we can’t attain so we go after them in forceful ways. But even deeper than that James says we don’t even know who we are. He says we are made to want what God wants so that if we were truly faithful our desires would match God’s desires for us and then we would, in fact, receive everything we wanted. Not because God gives people everything they might want at any given time but that we would be so “close to God” that our desire would match God’s generosity.
I think James is pushing us toward a passionate involvement with God. I say this because he accuses his readers of being adulterers, adulterers in their relationship with God. This is the same imagery that Hosea and Isaiah use in the Old Testament about Israel’s relationship with God. James is using marriage language. He believes we should be faithful spouses. We are to be that close, that intimate with God that you know God’s every wish and desire. When two people love each other don’t they try to satisfy each other’s needs and desires? Don’t we even try to anticipate what our spouse would like and see they have it before they ask? That’s the kind of relationship that is being suggested here.
How do we do that? It seems to me that part of doing that is also like being married but in this case its one result of the eagerness to satisfy our spouse’s every desire. If I’m trying to meet your wishes I can’t get everything I want or have everything my way. Coming to love God is like learning to live with my spouse. I have to give up the idea that I’m going to be able to do everything the way I have always done it. It means recognizing the other’s concerns, the other’s idiosyncrasies and giving up part of how I may have defined myself until now. That’s what James is referring to when he says “laughter is turned into mourning.” This is letting go of things, personal, private, emotional things because of another. Isn’t that what happens when two people are in love. Don’t they become more like each other over the years and desire what the other desires?
Jesus is trying to teach the Apostles about sacrifice for others. He is telling them that he will give himself completely on the cross for the sake expressing God’s love. But they can’t hear that and they are too embarrassed to ask enough questions to help them understand. Instead, they proceed to argue about who is the greatest among them.
Jesus gives them another way to think about it. He says they have to be the servant of others, like James was saying we needed to “submit ourselves to God,” Jesus uses a child as the example of whom we need to give ourselves to. In this case, the choice of a child depicts someone who is totally vulnerable and dependent on others. To give to a child is to expect no reward or return for being generous. That is how God acts. God gives to us in total generosity knowing we can’t return the favor. the only thing we can do is act like God acts. Give to others, being willing to give up some of own desires and our concerns in order to benefit someone else. When we do that, we welcome God, we are becoming close to God and God to us. We are becoming more deeply who we were meant to be and less likely to worry about who’s the greatest among our circle of friends.
