James 1:12-18 “Perfect Gifts”

Stuck in the middle of this passage and almost missed with all of the other theology that is going on here, we find a comment about ‘perfect gifts.” Do you see that in verse 17? That is what I want to focus on today: Perfect gifts from above.

First gift from God: Life itself. This last Tuesday night we were gathering at the dominoes table to play as regular. Helen Masaki arrived with her sister, and the sister had a shoe box with a blanket with a little baby chick in hand. She explained that she had found an egg with a chick struggling to break through the shell. So, she carefully opened up the top of the shell to help the chick survive. Not knowing what else to do with the chick, she put it in the box and brought it to church.

The chick was hungry. So, we were all on the look out for bugs or worms. Since it was raining and at night, we did find some delectable insects to feed the bird.

What a gift is life! We really must care for it and appreciate it. I have to say that our cat at home does not appreciate life enough. The cat’s name is Liam. Recently with all the baby chicks around out in the yard because of Springtime, Liam has been catching and chomping on the baby chicks–even bringing them into the house through the cat door.

On the other side of the spectrum of life, I am amazed that Helen Masaki would be inclined, no, insistent, on coming to game night at the church! She really uses every last bit of strength she has to come out at night in the middle of a rain storm to try to beat the rest of us. Actually that night she had a perfect score half way through the game. She really did well that night. Nothing is going to keep her home. Nothing is going to keep her from being with others and living her best life now!

The first word of the scripture for today, “blessed,” is simply the Greek word for “happy,” makarios. We see that in folks who have lived well and according to God’s Word.

The scripture also mentions receiving a crown from God. This is a sign that we are not just living (breathing and heart beating) but rather we are living victorious and spiritual lives. What a gift it is to be alive!

Is there ever a time when we should take off our crown of life, release our happiness? Is there going to be that moment when maybe we should doff the halo? Actually there is! But, this is so cool I could hardly wait to get to this point in my sermon! For this point, turn a page over to Revelation 4:9-11”. . . .they cast their crowns before the throne, singing ‘You are worthy, our Lord God. . . .”

Yes! God gives us the crown of life, that eternal blessing, in this life so that in the next life we can give that blessing back to the Almighty seated on the throne. It is as if we are just borrowing this crown of life to get us through the trials and temptations of this world. That blessing that has been given to us by God is of course the best part of us. It is this best part of us that we will give back to God one day.

When? On campus a the high school there is a poster on the Learning Resource Center with a countdown of days until graduation. Yet, with our graduation to the life eternal only God knows. But, it is coming. The gift of life includes the eternal life with God through Jesus’s death and resurrection.

I believe that the crown of life that is written about is a reference to what we know today as the “halo.” Ezekiel 1:28, “Like a bow in the cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendor all around. . . .” Or, we have the tongues of fire that are above the heads of those at the time of the Pentecost in Acts 2.

We need to be able to look at each other and see that radiant glow of the fire of God over us. 1 Corinthians 9:25 says that this light around us is imperishable. This leads me to think about that time when I will not be anything more than ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Yet, that crown given to us by God is imperishable. Everything else on will fade, but the crown of life will shine forever.

The second perfect gift from God above is “love.” Look now at verse 12 again: “the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” A victorious Life is promised to those who love Him. Verse 16 states that we are “beloved” of God. So, the gift of love goes both ways!

I know already that all of us will agree that we do not deserve God’s love. 1 John 4:16-19 says, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as He is, spare we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. . . .We love because he first loved us.”

God does not love us because of anything we do. God loves us because of Who God is! There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God therefore.

The entire bible is a love story of how we keep on messing up but God keeps on loving us. He loves us enough to even punish us sometimes. Well, tough love is still love. We see that God never forsakes throughout the entire track of human history. God never says “Done” even though we would be deserving. The story of Noah is God almost going so far. The story of Adam and Eve also could be seen as our testing the limits of God’s love for us. I wish we could all love as perfectly as God, even to be able to sacrifice himself on the Cross for us–and still love us. He takes all our sins and still loves us.

The third perfect gift from God above is listed here as Truth in our text Verse 18, he gave us birth by the word of Truth. I have to say that in our day and age of deepfakes and all, Truth really is a huge and perfect gift. But, we have always had the lie, nothing new in that. The deceiver was there in the Garden of Eden from the time of Creation. WE have always had the option of choosing the untruth.

So, at the after school program this last week, sitting right next to me were about six girls. They were all in Middle School. They started this thing that adolescents do when they start asking “Who do you like?”

The one girl who is being asked said, “I am not gonna tell you!”

“Oh, I bet I can guess.” says one of the other girls. “Give me a letter in his name.”

“He has a ‘J’!”

“Oh, give me another letter”

“You have to give us at least four letters!” Another girl giggles.

It was really frustrating for me to listen to this. I like playing twenty-questions but this was not even any kind of a challenge. So, I named my guess. They did not even know I was listening in on them.

The girl being questioned looked at me with scorn. “Hey, how did you know?”

I responded truthfully, “You ladies are in Middle School. In Middle School there is only ever one boy who all the girls like and one girl that all the boys like. I was once your age, you know. The trick is to like someone as a good friend for real because they are a good person with a good heart.”

They all kind of agreed.

“By the way, God loves you. In life that is really where all love comes from.”

They were completely awkwardly quiet. The Truth does that to people. There is no comeback, no retort. You know the Truth when you hear it. What a gift that is.

We all know that there are other perfect gifts from God, blessings from our Father in heaven. I am not going to list them all for you today. Three is a good round number–especially for the standard three point sermon. Life, Love, and Truth are today’s perfect gifts.

Amen.