“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds.”    I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the Jewish Christians who were the first to read James’ letter in those early decades of the church.  Consider it pure joy?  They probably wanted to ask, “James, have you been drinking?”  Or, “Have you lost your mind?”  They might have even gotten angry with James for making such a ridiculous demand.  Didn’t he know how much these Jewish Christians were suffering?  He had to know that the people he was addressing were not welcomed in Jerusalem anymore, because they had become Christians.  But they were not warmly received outside Israel because they were Jews.  They had no safe home base.  They were experiencing persecution from without, and tension from within. The first readers of James’ letter, they were having a really rough time.  Struggling economically, struggling physically, struggling spiritually.  Count all of that pure joy?

Frankly, that sounds pretty far-fetched to me.  Let me tell you, when I was preparing food for our Labor Day picnic on Monday and dropped my can opener on my foot, the first word out of my mouth was NOT, “Joy!”  It took a chunk of skin out of the top of my big toe, messed up my pedicure, and hurt a lot!

I know a banged-up toe is nothing compared to the trials and tribulations James had in mind, but it just goes to show:  we are not hard-wired to react in joy to our trials!  Problems are, well, problematic.  They might seem almost incompatible with joy.  When people call me with a prayer concern, I have never once said, “I’m sorry to hear about your problems.  Be sure to count it all joy, though!”  I think if I started saying that I might get fired!

But notice James says to “consider” it pure joy, or in some translations, “count” it pure joy.  He does not say, “Immediately respond in joy”.  No, he says consider, evaluate, take a careful look.  Joy is a chosen response, not our human impulse.  I cannot imagine God wanting us to feel the burden of responding to bad news with a hearty, “Oh joy!”.  It’s the truth that will set us free, not a made-up, fake response on our part.  So no one is asking us to pretend to feel something we don’t feel.

But the truth is, all of us need to find a way to address the pain in our lives.  And some ways are better than others!  One of the main tools we have for coping with pain is our perspective.  I like how William Barclay translates this verse.  He says, “Reckon it all joy when you face hardships of many kinds.” James wants us to regard our sufferings from a particular point of view, through a specific perspective or lens.

And that lens, of course, is the cross.  The cross at the front of our sanctuary, and at the front of almost every sanctuary in the world, is there to remind us that God can make great things happen in even the worst of circumstances.  We call the day Jesus died on the cross Good Friday because, although it was a Horrible Friday, it was Good because it paved the way for Resurrection Sunday.  The cross is our reminder that not even death can stop God from being at work for good.

But the good God does most often is not magically making our problems disappear.  The good that God does best is changing US, not changing our circumstances.  James tells us to count it all joy when we face trials of many kinds, because hard times provide some of the best chances we have to see and feel God in action, as God transforms us and matures us in our faith.

There’s an old saying, “Smooth seas do not make skilled sailors.”  Experiences of hardship, suffering, and trials of many kinds–these are the best chances we have to learn and grow.  And learning and growing–maturing–that is God’s plan for helping us handle adversity.  The way to get past growing pains is to grow up!  James says to count it joy when we suffer, because that testing builds perseverance.  Sounds like macho, football coach theology to me.  But that is not just James talking.  Many people of both genders have discovered this truth.  I love how Helen Keller put it: “Character cannot be developed in ease and comfort.  Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, and success achieved.”  A woman blind all her life, and she says that experiences of suffering clear our vision?  Amazing.

Even more amazing, suffering doesn’t just gives us the chance to strengthen our souls.  The real goal of Christian maturation is not just character.  It’s communion!  Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper, I no longer call you servants, now I call you friends.  He prayed that we would be one with each other and one with God.  The goal of Christian maturity is unity with God.  This is important to keep in mind, because James was writing to a group of Jewish Christians who had grown up under a different system.  The goal of maturity for these Jewish Christians used to be perfect obedience to the law.  Learning to keep the law completely, that was the goal of spiritual formation.  Following orders was what made you a good Jew.  But now they were trying to live by grace.  They were focusing on obeying God because they were God’s friends.

I can’t imagine how difficult this must have been for them to switch their thinking.  Traditional Jewish wisdom held that if you obeyed God’s laws, you would be rewarded in three ways:  you would live a great number of years, you would have many children, and you would be blessed financially.  Simple system.  Obey, get blessed.  Disobey, get cursed!

But Jesus came and taught something completely new.  Blessed are the poor, he said, for they will see God’s compassion.  Jesus saw infirmities not as a punishment but as opportunities for God’s healing.  He saw death as a gateway to new life.  He lived a righteousness that went beyond merely following the rules.  It was based on being friends with God.  Being in love with God, and knowing God is in love with you.

This summer I spent a few days volunteering at Camp Innabah as a counselor with the Challenge Music & Drama camp, where I was introduced to Squishmallows.  These are wildly popular among kids and young adults, and I think it’s because they are so comforting.  Squishmallows were introduced in 2017, but they took off like crazy in 2020.  They are so cute, it makes you want to pick them up and hug them.  And when you hug them, something about the squishiness makes you feel like everything is going to be okay.  Years from now, when people ask us, “What got you through the pandemic?”, I have no doubt there will be a lot of people who put Squishmallows on their list!

Things like hugging our Squishmallows, or cuddling with our pets, or being with our friends—these experiences can be reminders that God loves us.  That feels natural.   But when James urges us to reckon it all joy when you face hardships of many kinds, he is asking us to do something very unnatural.  To me, he might as well advise us to hug a cactus!  Look at this thing, so spiky and sharp.  Who would want to hug that?  No one wants to do that!  It’s not natural.  We are naturally wired to protect ourselves and avoid pain.

But James has noticed over the years that people generally only grow when they experience pain.  They generally only change and mature when they are forced to embrace a difficult reality.  He urges us to regard our pain with joy—to look at it through the lens of the cross and see, this horrible day we are in today may turn out to be a very good day in the long run, because it leads us to greater communion with God.  Changing our perspective gives us the trust we need to do more than just “get through” the experience.  James urges us to stay open to God’s presence and goodness, even in the midst of suffering, so God can bring about the inner transformation God desires for us.  Times of suffering are not to be wasted, James seems to be saying, because this is the perfect chance for us to learn the perseverance that leads to maturity.  He wants us to see, it’s not just the comforting things in life that are proof that God loves us.  God can use discomfort to show God loves us, too.

I have spoken to quite a few people in recent weeks who tell me they feel their faith is being tested these days.  Again, not once did I think to say, “Oooh, you should count this experience as pure joy!  Because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance leads to maturity!”  No, my response has been more along the lines of, “I’m so sorry you are having a hard time.”  And although that is true, I’m not sure it’s all that helpful.  This week I came across a story by Buddhist monk Ajahn Bram.  He wrote, “Before I became a monk, I was a teacher in a British high school.  Teaching teenagers is enough stress to make anyone think of renouncing the world and becoming a monk!”  He said that when he had to give his first math exam, he got advice from an older teacher who said, don’t make the test too hard, or your students will become discouraged.  They will start thinking they’re no good at math and give up. But don’t make the test too easy, either.  What is the point of giving a test if everyone is going to get all the answers right?

The older teacher said, write the test so that the class average will be about 70%.  That way, most students will get enough points to feel confident in their ability to do math, and the questions that the students struggle with will reveal what you need to work on in coming lessons.  The older teacher said, the purpose of the exam is 70% encouragement and 30% learning.

Hmm…I never thought of looking at hardships as 70% encouragement and 30% learning.  Can you see how, even though your faith has been tested during the pandemic, you are actually getting a lot of the answers right?  Maybe it doesn’t look like that from your perspective, but I can see that amongst the people of Lima.  And so in addition to saying, “I’m sorry this is such a hard time for you”, I also want to say, “Guess what?  We’re passing this course!  You are learning and growing and making the most of this hard time.  Good for you!”

I also want to say, that even when it feels like the test is too hard, God is holding us and caring for us and guiding us through.  One of the first scripture verses I ever memorized is Psalm 118:24,  “This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”  That is the perspective of a much wiser person than me and reminds me that joy is not dependent on my circumstances.  This is the day for joy.  Not some day in the past, when we didn’t have to worry about the corona virus.  Not some day in the future, when all our problems will be solved.  But this day, this day is a gift from God.  We can rejoice and be glad in it, because we know that even the worst days can be used by God for good.  If you need a reminder of that, just look at the cross.

We are never commanded to act happy or pretend things are fine when they aren’t.  But our scripture today gives us a strategy we may not have thought of before when it comes to handling hardship:  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds, because these are the best opportunities we have for growing out of the old and into the new.  As Helen Keller said, “Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, and success achieved.”  Don’t let the difficulty of the test discourage you.  God is not finished with us yet.  And that is indeed a joy.  Amen.