DOERS OF THE WORD

James 1:17-27

A sermon for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, 2018

Our Epistle lesson for today comes from the book of James. We don’t get passages from James in our lectionary that often. When the bible cannon was being formed, James was nearly left out and even when it did make the cut, it was regarded with suspicion. Martin Luther, for example, would have happily banished it altogether, referring to it as the “Epistle of straw”.  As you know, he was a grace guy and this book, with it’s emphasis upon doing good seems almost anti-grace. He was worried it would confuse believers. 

Fortunately, you’re not the kind of believers who would be confused about something as important as grace so I think I can safely preach on this passage today. You know full well that your salvation comes from the grace of God in Christ and it is not your own doing at all. So don’t boast. But now that you’ve got grace, what are you supposed to do with it? Well, that’s where the book James comes in with advise for how to live. Spoiler alert: it does not advocate couch potato Christianity. It exhorts us to get up off our duffs and do God’s work.

The manuscript of this book attributes the authorship to James, the son of Zebedee but later it was traditionally held that it was James, the brother of Jesus. While the authorship is still disputed, whoever wrote it was passionate about helping the believers of the early Christian community live our their faith.

The Christian life is an ongoing journey according to this book. You don’t ever arrive but you keep on trucking, following in the footsteps of Jesus no matter how much you stumble and fall short. 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.”

The entire book of James is only 108 verses long and each one is dense with wisdom to help us follow Christ more faithfully. So let’s examine each of the 10 verses in today’s passage with the hope of gaining new inspiration for our journey.

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

Did you hear that? It says giving is a gift. Did you ever think of giving as a gift? It is. The old saying is true: it is better to give than to receive. God gives to us and all the gifts are good, so when we share this goodness with others, we are generous and God’s blessing expands. Thrivent Financial has T-shirts that say “Live Generously” and I love seeing people wearing them because that’s the advice of this verse and so many other in the bible. 

It also refers to God here as the “Father of Lights.” This refers to the lights of heaven—the sun, moon and stars—which God has created. These lights change throughout the day and the season. Now as we enter the autumn season we notice the hours of daylight diminishing. Yet God is the creator and author of all this light and, therefore, does not change, even as the shadows fall. This is a God we can rely upon and trust to supply us with all the gifts we need. That’s why we can always be generous.

In fulfillment of God’s own purpose God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures. 
—James 1:18

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 give us words of discouragement, but God doesn’t. 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 fruits 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. Are you a sign of hope? Is that how you live? Do people look at you and say: “Oh the world’s going to hell but look at her! She give me hope!”

It reminds me of the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who had the courage to fight against slavery at a time when it wasn’t the popular or accepted thing to do. Yet he found the Holy Spirit’s wisdom guiding him onward. One day, after giving an impassioned speech condemning slavery, somebody asked him, "Wendell, why are you so on fire?" 

He said: "Brother, I'm on fire because I have mountains of ice before me to melt." 

You can call the book of James ancient wisdom but I think it was never more relevant. Just take a look around and you’ll see that there are mountains of ice that need melting. There is growing hatred and injustice and despair. Yet God is here and we trust that God is love. Are you shining forth that love? Are you on fire? Do you provide the first sign of hope to people looking for a spark of light? Well, if you’re looking for something to do with the grace that is within you, this would be a good start.

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 
—James 1:19

This one is so straight-forward and so powerful we should commit it to memory: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Are you quick to listen? Most people aren’t. Here’s a bit of brain science: the average speaker says about 125 words a minute in normal conversation and our brains have the ability to comprehend 400 words a minute. Our brains are bored. They’re busy doing other things. We aren’t listening, we’re thinking of the next thing we want to say or making a to-do list or contemplating the forms.

And that doesn’t result in real communication or connection. In America today we have become especially good at not listening to each other when we have differing opinions. Yet when we listen, we begin to understand each other and walls fall down. Fear fades and enemies can even become friends. So be quick to listen and slow to speak.

If you do that, you’ll be slow to anger as well. 

For your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 
—James 1:20

Living a life of anger will not produce God’s righteousness. Holding onto anger against people is bad for our bodies and souls. It can cause hypertension, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and more.  As people of faith, it’s not like we’re not angry, but we should be angry at injustice and heartlessness, not people. So we need to let the Holy Spirit direct our anger to fighting evils rather than our fellow human beings. Because plain old anger just tears up our communities. And that’s not how God wants us to live.

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. In the original language the word translated here as “rid” was more like “strip”. The way you’d quickly strip off dirty clothes to go into the washing machine, you ought to strip off wickedness. Then, free of such filth, you can really welcome the implanted word. This is a wonderful image of how God’s 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 and given light. When we focus our hearts upon God’s word, then the word within us can grow and guide us from within.

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 

—James 1:22

This is the poster-child of the passage. See? It made the cover our bulletins this week. James is all about action. When we believe God, it changes 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 you were a Christian, could they figure it out based on your actions? Hmmm, that’s a tough question to ask yourself. James would prefer we ask if of ourselves often. Chances are we could be much better doers. Time to get to work.

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

What if you looked into a mirror after eating lunch and saw a big glob of mustard on your nose and then walked away and said: “Hey, I forget: did I have mustard on my nose? Or was it ketchup? Maybe it was on my chin. I just can’t remember.” If you did that we’d say you were pretty stupid, wouldn’t we? 

James’ point here is that God’s word is like a mirror—it shows you who you are. So when we look at God’s word what does it say you are? In these few verses of James alone it has a lot to tell you about who you are. It says you are blessed—blessed with God’s unchangeable love and gifts. You have been given a whole new life and you are like a first fruit of creation, giving hope to everyone around you. 

Now if that’s who you are and you believe it, then you’re going to be living out that reality. You’ll be a doer of the word and not someone stumbling around in the dark forgetting their purpose.

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

More doing. We did say James was big on action, didn’t we? Here, he talks about God’s perfect law. It is hard to follow but it brings liberty. Persevere in your efforts to follow God’s law and that will make you a doer. It will make you happy to live in God’s love.

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 and he’s often on about their danger as is the book of Proverbs. For example, in Proverbs 13:3 it says: He who guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opes wide his lips comes to ruin. Think about the cliche: Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. What an idiotic notion! Words totally hurt.  Think for a moment about something hurtful that was said to you. How did it shape your view of yourself? Have you healed from it? Maybe it was said when you were a child but it still hurts and shames you. That’s the danger of words and that’s why followers of Christ shouldn’t just “tell it like it is.” We shouldn’t be “Midwest Nice” and gloss over our concerns, either. If we’re quick to listen, slow to speak as it advised a few verses back, I think it is possible to communicate authentically but still keep from hurting people with our words. 

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 final verse of today’s lesson. James pushes us onward to compassionate action. To live in God’s love—to be doers of the word—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 why all the ancient prophets called on people to care for them. If we want God’s kingdom to come, we must not ignore the helpless and marginalized. Who is that today? There are a lot of groups you could identify as marginalized, as pushed to the side and not given fair justice in our system. What’s been on my heart so much lately is the immigrant children who our government separated from their parents at the border, some of whom were abused while in federal custody.

Keep yourself unstained by the world. That’s really hard to do when we hear political messaging and want to believe it. But when our primary allegiance is to God we not stand for children being caged in the name of national security. Like Wendell Phillips we’ll have the moral courage to fight against oppression. We will remained unstained by the world and on fire because we have mountains of ice before us to melt. 

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As you can see, there is a lot for us to contemplate in these ten short verses and you should probably go home and read the whole book of James. It’s only 108 verses so it won’t take you long. I pray that this book of timeless wisdom challenge us to not just say we’re Christians but to act like we are, to continue faithfully down the path of faith and really walk the walk of love. Amen.