This Week

This week at praxis...The Elephant in the Living Room

Who is wise and understanding among you? 
Show by your good life that your works 
are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 
But if you have bitter envy and selfish 
ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful 
and false to the truth.  Such wisdom does 
not come down from above, but is earthly, 
unspiritual, devilish.  
For where there is envy and selfish ambition, 
there will also be disorder 
and wickedness of every kind.  
But the wisdom from above is first pure, 
then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, 
full of mercy and good fruits, without a 
trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 
And a harvest of righteousness is sown 
in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, 
where do they come from? Do they not coome 
from your cravings that are at war within you? 
You want something and and do not have it; 
so you commit murder. And you covet something 
and canncannot obtain it; so you engage in 
disputes and conflicts. You do not have, 
becabecause you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, 
because you ask wronwrongly, in order to 
spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. 
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  
----James 3:13-18; 4:1-3, 7

A heroic quality of fortitude and intelligence is 
required in the face of any conflict within or 
outside ourselves, conflict which flings opposing 
energies into our lives. Sometimes these contrary 
forces feel like two gladiators tied together for 
a fight to the finish, and sometimes like the 
swimming bodies of yin and yang swirling around 
in the same fishbowl. Either way, the space 
they occupy together is like an ecotone, 
a transition zone between two ecological communities, 
like forest and grassland or river and desert. 
There is competition, yes: the word ecotone means 
a house divided, a system in tension. 
But there is also exchange, a swapping of juices, 
of information and resources. In fact, 
ecotones are characterized by tremendous biological
diversity and resilience.
---- Gregg Levoy, The Edge, Sept 2000

The dogs fight amongst themselves but are one against the wolf.  
----Ma ingalls in the Little House Series

The epistle lesson from James begins with a discussion 
about the nature of Godly wisdom. One might not 
catch the undercurrent of conflict in 3:13-18 
except for the context of the passage: between a 
discussion of poisonous tongues (3:1-12) and the 
cause of fights (4:1-12).  Clearly, James is dealing 
with a violent disagreement on the wisest course 
of action for the church which has degenerated into 
name-calling and slander.  Of particular interest in 
this context might be James' use of the alternative 
name for Satan in 4:7.  Jacques Ellul suggests that 
the Diabolos might be taken to mean "divider," 
a distinction whkh might be especially poignant in this passage.  
One can only give thanks that after two thousand years of 
prayer and refinement, the Church of our Lord no longer 
has to deal with such petty issues.
James' counsel is direct and sound. 
Wisdom will be seen not in the arguments people put forth, 
but in the lives they live. True wisdom will not separate people, 
but will bring peace. 			 
----Biblical Preaching Journal, Summer 2000


Questions:


	Where do the conflicts come from: on an international level? 
	On a national level? At the church level? Interpersonally?
	How do you handle conflict? What do you do with it?
	What does the praxis community do with conflict? 
	Should there be conflict at church?
	How is James helpful in handling conflict? 
	How does wisdom play a part in handling conflict?
	What brings unity in a group?
	Ecotones are places of biological richness, 
	as two different landscapes come together. 
	What happens when different cultures or peoples come together?  
	Is conflict a given?  Is the richness and diversity worth it?