Pastor Laura Gentry
James 1:17-27
When I read the critical bits of wisdom contained in our Epistle reading for today from James, I get the sense that I’m reading a Twitter feed. If you haven’t already heard the buzz about Twitter, it is a popular social networking Web site that allows users to share little messages with the world. The messages are short because they are limited to 140 characters—about a sentence in length. These fragmented bits of information are called “tweets” and there are a lot of tweeters out there. According to an article in the New York Times I recently read, there are 14 million users, who visited the site 99 million times last month to post messages and read the messages of others.Because Twitter limits these communications to 140 characters, it forces people to be extremely concise. Messages simply can’t be long and flowery—it they have to get right at the heart of what needs to be conveyed. In our day and age, we expect this kind of economy of words, not just with tweets, but with just about everything. It’s a busy world and we have developed pretty short attention spans as a result.
That’s why I find the words of James’ so contemporary even though they were written for an ancient audience. The writer of this book, traditionally believed to be James, the brother of Jesus, is passionate about helping the believers of the early Christian community live our their faith. The authorship has been disputed but regardless of who wrote it, the wisdom contained within it is still valuable.
Lutherans don’t dig into this book all that much because Martin Luther didn’t like it. He called it the “Epistle of Straw” because he felt the emphasis upon good works might diminish our understand of salvation by grace. We are saved, Luther insisted, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ and not at all by our works. Other Christian scholars have argued that James seems to understand that we are saved by grace but that he is also interested in what we do with this gift of grace. Do we just hide it under a bushel or do we live it, thus allowing the light of Christ to grow within us and illuminate the world?
Reading James we get the sense that Christianity is an ongoing journey. You can’t ever just say: I AM a Christian. It is more like: every day, I am becoming a Christian. We don’t ever walk in the footsteps of Jesus perfectly, but with each step of our journey, we can work to walk in those footsteps more closely. Mother Teresa understood this. She once wrote: “Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures.”
This entire book of James is only 108 verses long—many of them the length of a tweet or less—but it is steeped in wise and timeless advise designed to help us walk the walk of faith so that we can become Christians and we can be patient with our fellow becomers. So let’s take the 10 verse passage from the lectionary reading today and look at it one tweet at a time in hopes that we can be inspired by God’s word anew.
1. Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. —James 1:17
Giving is a gift? Have you ever thought of giving a gift? That kind of makes the giving we do like a double gift—the gift we give it coupled with the fact that God’s spirit gave us the gift to enable us to give it. Generosity is a good thing and we must be grateful that God helps us to be grateful, as it is a “perfect gift” that is given to us from the Father of lights. This God is pure light and will always be pure light. God’s light doesn’t have a “dark side” like the Force in Star Wars. We can trust in God’s goodness and we don’t need to fear that it will ever change.
Imagine you are reading this verse at Twitter and it stands all by itself. Just this tweet alone gives us wisdom if we contemplate it and allow it to shape our ideas and behaviors. It bids us ask ourselves important questions.
• In your Christian walk, how do you act generously?
• Think of a gift you recently gave. How did you feel blessed in the giving of it?
• What can you do to invite the Father of lights to give you even more generosity and other perfects gifts such as wisdom, love and joy?
2. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. —James 1:18
Now in the second tweet here, James reminds us that we have been given new birth by the “word of truth.” This refers to the good news of the Gospel. The world may speak a word of discouragement. The Media, for example, presents only 1 positive story out of 17 negative ones. But that’s not at all the way God words. The word of truth which our Lord speaks is all positive, all good because it is about redemption through Christ.
And so with this new birth as children of God, we become the first fruist of God’s creatures. In biblical tradition, the first fruits are the first ripe sheaves of grain or the first fruits that appear on a tree. They are signs of a greater harvest that is to come. They give hope. That’s why these first fruits were offered to God to show that they trusted in God for not just these fruits, but the entire harvest. So for us to be first fruits is to be the sign of hope and change. We are not going to listen to the word of the world. Instead, we are going to listen to the word of truth. We are going to give God our hearts and really belong to God, to walk in God’s ways.
Being the first fruits of creation means we’ve got to put our heart and soul into the living of our faith. We can’t do it half-heartedly. It reminds me of the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who, after making an impassioned speech condemning slavery, was asked, "Wendell, why are you so on fire?"
Phillips looked at his friend and said: "Brother, I'm on fire because I have mountains of ice before me to melt."
Indeed, we have mountains of ice before us even today.
• Are you on fire with the Spirit’s passion?
• Do you want more than anything to let your lives reflect your status as a first fruits of God’s creation?
3. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
—James 1:19
This one certainly reads like a tweet. But it is not detached from the tweet that came before it about being the first fruits of creation. Here, he is giving us absolutely concrete advise for how to live as a first fruit. It is so simple but so important. I think this is one we ought to commit to memory: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
Not enough people are quick to listen these days. G.K. Chesterton once said that there is no such thing as an uninteresting subject, only uninterested people. The average speaker says about 125 words a minute in normal conversation. Yet our brains have the ability to comprehend about 400 words a minute. So we can get bored with a speaker and let our minds wander—thus, not really hearing and comprehending what’s being said. When we turn all of our focus to someone and really hear them out without judging immediately, we can connect with them in a most powerful way.
Think of people who you consider to be good listeners: folks that give you their full attention when you talk to them and ask meaningful questions to help you further unpack your ideas. What a gift they are giving you when they listen attentively! Being a good listener is key to forming strong relationships with others. That’s why James reminds us to listen first, being quick and eager to do so.
Then, only after careful consideration, should we speak. This would really keep us from putting our foot in our mouth as we so often do. Slow to speak, it says. Some people love to say whatever is on their minds. They brag of themselves: “I just tell it like it is.” But these words can often be hurtful and damaging. James would advise these folks to be much more cautious about speaking. Furthermore, we should also aim to be slow to get angry.
• Am I quicker to listen, to speak, or to get angry?
• What can I do to learn the art of listening better?
• How would being quick to listen improve my relationships?
4. For your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. —James 1:20
Now this one is a no-brainer. Living a life of anger will not make us filled with God’s righteousness. The American Psychological Association says that anger must be expressed when it is felt because if we turn it inward, it can cause hypertension, high blood pressure, or depression. But allowing our anger to fly out at others isn’t helpful either. As people of faith, we are called to turn our anger and other undesireable feelings over to God and ask God to transform us from the inside out. This is why we pray and worship and read scripture. These things help direct our focus upon God and the righteous ways in which God wants us to walk.
• How much do I struggle to manage my anger?
• What can I do to give my anger over to God so that I can be transformed?
5. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. —James 1:21
As with anger, we are also to let go of other wicked behaviors and welcome the implanted word. This is a wonderful image of how God’s mighty word is given to us and dwells in our hearts, like a seed that has been planted. It is a gift and it must be nurtured just as a plant must be watered. When we focus our hearts upon God’s word, then the word within us can grow and guide us from within.
• How can I work to rid myself of wickeness?
What am I doing to nurture the implanted word in my heart?
6. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. —James 1:22
This is probably the chief tweet of the whole book. James is all about action. If we believe God, it should change the way we live. We should be doers of the word. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:”Go put your creed into your deed. What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
• If someone didn’t know I was a Christian, could they figure it out based upon my behavior?
• How can I make my actions more consistent with my belief in Jesus?
• If I were a true “doer of the word” how would my life be different?
7. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
—James 1:23-24
Now if you looked into a mirror and then walked away and forgot what you’d seen in the mirror, we’d say you were pretty ridiculous, now wouldn’t we? James’ point here is that God’s word is like a mirror—it shows you who we are. Who are you? You are someone who has been blessed by God's gifts, someone who has been brought to new life through God's word—a person who is a first fruit, set aside as someone who belongs to God. If you want to walk in God’s way, you have to remember who you are in Christ. And when you do, it will enable you to be a doer of the word.
• How would it change your life if you were more constantly aware of who you are?
• What can you do to keep your identity as God’s child ever in your mind?
8. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.—James 1:25
Look at yourself again, James says, in the perfect law of liberty. The law brings liberty because it directs us to live in love. Yes, it demands a lot of us but it is freeing. The law it shows us how very loved we are and how much love we can give.
• How does following God’s law free you?
• What will it take for you to persevere in the law of liberty?
9. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. —James 1:26
James has a thing against tongues. This isn’t the only place he talks about their danger. Just a few verses earlier, remember, he said we should be slow to speak. Obviously, he knows how painful words can be and how we must use our ability to communicate wisely. Just as a horse is a great and powerful animal but it must be bridled or it could hurt someone—so our words have the potential for good or ill. Therefore, we must be careful to bridle them. This is about Christian maturity. To be mature in faith means knowing what to say and what not to say.
• How have my words been hurtful?
• How have they been helpful?
• What can I do to bridle my tongue so that my words can honor God and help others?
10. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.—James 1:27
Here we are at the tenth tweet of today’s lesson. James pushes us toward compassionate action. To live in God’s love means that we must help those most vulnerable in our society. In biblical times, it was widows and orphans. They would starve if it were not for the kindness of others. The prophets of old all called out for this same kindness to the widows and orphans. If we want God’s kingdom to come, we must seek out those in trouble and give them what they need. This is what it means to be a doer of the word.
Finally, it says we must keep ourselves unstained by the world. It would be easy to fall into the self-serving patterns of our society. But as Christians, our calling is higher. We’ve got an exciting challenge to live out God’s love each day.
• How can I be more intentional in caring for the vulnerable?
• What can I do to stay unstained by the world?
James has an immense amount of wisdom for us to contemplate in these ten short tweets. May we ponder these insights and allow them to challenge us and move us into a deeper, more meaningful walk of faith. Let us continue to BECOME Christians. Amen.
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