James in the Suburbs

A Disorderly Parable of the Epistle of James

Love-Fordham

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781630874148
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Do you consume God's blessings, or do you share them?Most Christians are consumers. We are obsessed with knowing the right theology and following the right set of rules in hopes that God will bless us. Yet, no matter how much God blesses us, we are still looking for more. James says our faith is dead. But there is another type of Christian, one who craves being put to work as the servant of God to share God's blessings with others. Their faith spurs them on to become the hands and feet of Christ. James says their faith is alive. James in the Suburbs is far more than your ordinary Bible study guide. It is also a parable--an energizing story of the lives of six men and women--that wraps itself around the Epistle of James, making its teachings immediately applicable to modern life. You will walk away with not only a thorough understanding of the epistle, but also the unforgettable story of people just like you, whose lives the Holy Spirit turned upside down. This book can be read casually by an individual or studied within a group. The final chapter provides everything readers need for a guided twelve-week study.

1

You’ve Been Warned

What follows is just one of the finales of a disorderly parable of the Holy Spirit breathing life into the dead faith of the men and women of a suburban church. The parable meanders through the teachings of the Epistle of James meddling endlessly in the culture of the wealthy and middle class churchgoer. The men and women whose lives unfold in it are forever changed. Therefore, consider this a warning: I guarantee the Holy Spirit wants to meddle in your life too.

Be prepared.

My cell phone erupted into the serene silence of the sanctuary echoing from the ceiling to the crucifix and right back at me. The bubblegum-country ringtone, “This One Is for the Girls,” made me smile. It was a fitting tribute to girls everywhere and an encouragement for them to dream big. Isabella Perez, the teenage all-American Latina beauty, had installed the ringtone on my smart phone just the week before. Bubblegum-country might not be the trending sound most Latina girls her age were attracted to, but it had become the official theme song for Sueños, the afterschool club for Latina girls now going on its fifth year at our church. Sueños meant dreams—and these girls had dreams in spades! The song had permanently attached itself to us when Helen, one of the founders of Sueños, in her usual bebopping way, had sung it to the girls one afternoon while dancing her way through clean up. The song had stuck and each class of girls at Sueños taught it to the next class. The girls had even choreographed an official Sueños line dance to which my husband and I had danced, along with parents and others, at multiple celebrations over the years. So when Isabella asked for my phone to install it, how could I say no?

Sueños’s goal was to equip and support the physical, spiritual, and educational needs of Latina girls from preteen into womanhood. It was the brainchild of Olivia and Helen, two very unlikely candidates to lead such a ministry. In fact, they were the most unlikely candidates to lead any ministry. Both, in their own way, had been living the suburban dream with accomplished high-paying careers and children in tow. Until, during a study of the Epistle of James, the Holy Spirit took hold of their lives—and the lives of the other men and women in their study group—and turned them all inside out.

My thoughts jumped to the very first meeting of Sueños. Isabella had been only twelve then, and shy. She and her equally beautiful mamá had immigrated here illegally just a month before her birth, seventeen years ago. Her mother, who cleaned hotel rooms at the Hyatt in order to afford their tiny one-bedroom apartment in a good school district, had made sure Isabella didn’t miss the first meeting. Little did Isabella and the four other young attendees know, Olivia and Helen were more anxious than the girls. Nevertheless, Olivia and Helen put on a great welcome. In truth, all they had to face the girls with was love and the unfailing faith that connecting with these girls was their destiny. They knew nothing about being a Latina pre-teenager growing up in America—nor would they pretend to. They were depending on the girls to teach them. Their Spanish was pathetic at best. Yet, this was no accident and no whim. The two of them knew they were called there to be the humble hands and feet of Jesus to these precious girls at high risk of experiencing violence, abuse, teenage pregnancy, and the ever-spinning cycle of poverty. Convinced that they were on God’s mission, what more did they need than love?

I looked down at my phone to see who was calling me. It was Olivia.

“Hola amiga,” I answered cheerfully.

My words echoed. I was alone in the sanctuary. I went there every Monday morning on the weeks when I would be preaching the following Sunday. I would read the lectionary Scripture and pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate my sermon preparation that week. Then I would stay a little while meditating in the sunlight that filled the church.

“And to you!” I responded to Olivia’s “Buen día.” My Spanish was still not good and completely unnecessary for this phone call anyway. Olivia and I were as white bread as they came. No response followed, but I could tell the call was still active.

“Are you there?” I asked, confused.

No answer.

“Olivia?” I heard a catch in her breath. “Olivia, is everything okay?”

She could barely get out “Yes.”

“Are you crying?” This was baffling, because professionally polished, cool-as-a-cucumber Olivia never ever cried.

“No,” she claimed. We both knew she was lying. She followed her “No” quickly with a laugh. A really good laugh. The unearthly kind. The kind filled with overwhelming joy that can’t be expressed in any other way. “I better call you back when I can get my words out,” she half-whispered, half-choked into the phone.

Standing now and beginning to pace, I laughed, saying, “No way. Do not hang up. Breathe deep!”

She said okay and told me she was going to put me on mute for a second. I was amused to be able to hear her still. She was breathing in deeply and talking to herself at the same time. Then she would exhale with a high-pitched voice in rapid staccato syllables, “Be calm! Be calm! Be calm!” This was a priceless and humorous insight into the mind of Olivia. While I waited, I wandered from the pew down the aisle toward the crucifix, looking up at it and smiling. I asked God out loud, “What have you done now?”

Finally she spoke. “I had a phone call from the recruiter at Georgia Tech. Both Isabella and Luciana have been sent acceptance letters. And . . . are you ready for this . . . they are getting a combination of merit and need based scholarships!”

Looking back at the crucifix, I mouthed the words, “Thank you!”

It was happening. The dreams of these remarkable young women and their families were coming true. Furthermore, these girls were just the firstfruits. There were now more than a hundred girls and fifty volunteers at three churches across the city, with plans to expand to even more churches. The Holy Spirit’s wisdom and power, as promised, had shown up time and time again. And it was obvious that God had no plans to stop.

Now, let’s start at the beginning. The journey is important.

Part 1

The Journey to Servanthood

The Parable of the Good Samaritan—Dissecting the Priest

One morning, I ran into my pastor who said, “There was a man who was going down from the city to the suburbs, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by coincidence, I was driving down that road; and when I saw him, I passed by on the other side.”

I asked, “Why did you pass by on the other side without helping him?”

My pastor replied, “I could see the man needed healing, but I don’t know how to heal.”

—adapted from Luke 10:30–37

2

The Church in the Suburbs

All I longed to do was to open one of the old painted-shut office windows and let in some fresh air, but the windows would not budge. I pushed, pulled, and jiggled them side to side. I even took off one of my high-heeled shoes and thumped around their edges. Nothing. These shoes were worthless! I had not bought them because they felt good. They gave me blisters. I bought them because my ankles and feet were the only part of me exposed under my clerical robes. I wanted some part of me—even if it was just my feet—to look stylish and feminine. I stared at the shoes wondering if they were indeed inappropriate. The heels were awfully high.

But before I could decide, I hit the window with them one more time. Nothing. I gave up and stood near the window trying to satisfy myself with a draft of slightly cooler air, which I hoped would seep into my office from around the panes, if the wind would just kick up. Again, nothing—not even a bit of wind. Standing there, I could see below into the shadow-filled courtyard of the adjoining white clapboard church. The gloomy view seemed to confirm that the approaching holidays would be anything but cheery. Congregant after congregant had made appointments to see me that past week. Their grief, loneliness, and anxiety filled my tiny stuffy office. For some reason the week before Thanksgiving—like the week before Christmas—made their problems bigger and their burdens so much heavier than usual. I longed to be cheery, but these people had depressed me more and more as the week had gone on. If I was honest about this, and it should be noted that I didn’t want to be honest about this, it wasn’t really my congregants who had depressed me, it was my inability to cure their problems that I found so depressing. Somehow, I must have missed class the day they taught us how to do miracles in seminary.

We were having a heat wave. The leaves had turned, but the temperature hadn’t dipped as much as it should. It was unseasonably warm in Atlanta and extra stuffy inside the church. Nevertheless, the heat wave hadn’t stopped those of us in the suburbs from decorating with all the lights and glitter needed to make a spectacular showing of the holiday festivities. Typical of many of the suburbs surrounding Atlanta, the old center of town, usually designated “Main Street,” had been restored with artsy boutiques and unique restaurants. The Church in the Suburbs sat on the corner of Church Street and Main. From the c...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: You’ve Been Warned
• Part 1: The Journey to Servanthood
• Chapter 2: The Church in the Suburbs
• Chapter 3: Dream Catcher
• Chapter 4: The Group Forms
• Chapter 5: Mystery and Controversy
• Chapter 6: God’s Slaves—James 1:1a
• Chapter 7: A Kingdom of Slaves—James 1:1b
• Chapter 8: The Problem of Having Problems—James 1:2–4
• Chapter 9: James’s Strategy—James 1:2–5
• Chapter 10: Applying James’s Strategy
• Chapter 11: Asking for Wisdom—James 1:5
• Chapter 12: Doubting—James 1:6–7
• Chapter 13: Two Common Problems—James 1:9–12
• Chapter 14: The Potential of Problems—James 1:13–18
• Chapter 15: Turning Point—James 1:19–25
• Part 2: Servanthood: A Life of Pure and Undefiled Worship
• Chapter 16: Pure and Undefiled Worship Defined—James 1:26–27
• Chapter 17: A Life of Worship Is Impartial—James 2:1–13
• Chapter 18: A Life of Worship Has Faith That Produces Good Works—James 2:14–26
• Chapter 19: A Life of Worship Speaks Words That Bless Others—James 3:1–12
• Chapter 20: A Life of Worship Sows Seeds of Peace—James 3:13—4:10
• Chapter 21: A Life of Worship Does Not Judge Others—James 4:11–12
• Chapter 22: A Life of Worship Knows God Is in Control—James 4:13–17
• Chapter 23: The Meeting That Never Happened
• Chapter 24: A Life of Worship Gives Resources to Others—James 5:1–6
• Chapter 25: A Life of Worship Endures until Christ Returns—James 5:7–11
• Chapter 26: A Life of Worship Speaks Truth—James 5:12
• Chapter 27: A Life of Worship Prays—James 5:13–20
• Chapter 28: Goodbyes
• Part 3: Putting Servanthood into Action
• Chapter 29: Study Guide
• Bibliography