Hard Words

I hate today’s Scripture readings! I don’t want to preach on any of them! I don’t want to confront what any of them have to tell me! I don’t want to hear Moses remind the Israelites that they are to fashion their lives, not according to the gods they knew in Egypt, not according to the gods of the people around them, but according to the Law that God has graciously given them. I don’t want to hear the psalm lay out for me the standards of behavior that God expects of anyone who seeks to draw near to God. I don’t want to hear Jesus remind religious leaders, including me, that being holy does not consist in hedging our lives around with myriad human traditions. I certainly don’t want to hear Jesus remind me that most of the world’s evil stems from our own base desires. Nor do I want to hear James’ reminders of God’s expectations of me as Jesus’ disciple. I don’t want to hear any of it, and I don’t want to look at my own life in the light of what God expects of me.

In some ways, James’ message is the hardest to hear – and we will be hearing different parts of it all this month. Actually, except for a very brief portion during Advent in Year A, this month is the only time in the Revised Common Lectionary that we hear from the Epistle of James. Perhaps that is because in some ways, James is a strange letter. It was probably written in the early ‘60s, most probably by James, the brother of Jesus, who was the leader of the Christian community in Jerusalem. But it wasn’t written to a specific community as Paul’s letters were. Because of that, and because it doesn’t mention Jesus much, Martin Luther called it an “epistle of straw.” Nevertheless, we need to hear James’ voice – even if we don’t want to hear what James has to tell us. We need to hear James’ voice because he could have been writing yesterday! We can’t pass his words off with a shrug and say, “Well, that was two thousand years ago. Things are different now.” And we need to hear James’ voice because James so aptly and expertly zeroes in on all the ways that we avoid hearing the truth about ourselves and resist cooperating with God.

We are close to the beginning of the letter in today’s reading. James has commended his readers for their endurance and resistance to temptation. Now he has begun his major theme, which is the exhortation we’ll hear later in the letter that “faith without works is dead.” James begins by outlining for us three ways we deceive ourselves about who we are and what God expects of us. First, James reminds us that none of us is a self-made person. “Every perfect gift is from above,” James tells us, given to us so that we might “become a first fruits of his creatures.” All that we have, every gift and skill that we have, all our resources are gifts of God. All of us are dependent on the accidents of our birth, our families of origin, our teachers, all the people who support and encourage us, and all those around us who keep our way of life going. Do you have trouble remembering that you’re not self-made? Before bed, try a review of your day focusing on the events and people for which you’re thankful. With God’s help, you may become more aware of how much other people help make our lives possible.

Second, James reminds us that we are called to do more than just pay lip-service to the Gospel. “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves,” he exhorts us. Yes, we may – and should – worship regularly, say the creeds with as much belief as we can, and proudly name ourselves as Christians. However, we also need to let the Gospel work an inner transformation on us, so that it also affects our behavior. Do you remember the song, “We are one in the Spirit?” Do you remember the refrain? “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Takes me back to the ‘60s! But it’s still true. Christianity is an incarnational religion. The Word became flesh and actively worked among us. We may come to commitment to Jesus in our heads, as we accept the possibility that we really do see God in the face of Jesus. We may voice that commitment with our lips, as we profess our faith, make promises, and allow ourselves to be baptized and confirmed. However, ultimately our commitment has to translate itself to our hands. Our commitment to Jesus has to impact what we do in our lives. There is no such thing as a “gallery Christian.” There is no one who is not called to “walk the talk.” They will know we are Christians by how we live.

And how are we to live? What are we to do? James reminds us that the third way that we deceive ourselves is to think that we can neglect either personal morality or social justice ministry. Any one of our lections for today gives us clear ideas about what personal morality consists in. Try testing your life against the standards of Psalm 15. Does anyone of us measure up to God’s standards for speech or action? If we practiced private confession – which some Episcopalians do – or if you were to do serious self-examination, say in Lent, the list in today’s Gospel would be a good starting point. At the very least we might ask ourselves how well we follow James’ exhortation to “bridle our tongues.” How much wickedness might we avoid if we could just keep our mouths shut!

However, living as Jesus’ disciple does not end with sterling personal morality. James warns us in no uncertain terms that, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress….” True religion includes both personal morality and social ministry. True religion, we will hear as the letter progresses, includes showing mercy, striving for peace, helping the needy, loving our neighbor, and supporting a fair minimum wage. It’s not a question of one or the other: if we are truly Jesus’ disciples, if our lives have truly been transformed by the Gospel, then it is both/and. We are called to a way of life that reflects both a high standard of personal morality and passionate commitment to the needs of the “least of these.”

In James’ time, widows and orphans were those on the farthest margins of society, those in the most dire straits. If we are truly committed to being Jesus’ disciples, we must ask ourselves who are the widows and orphans of today? Millions around the world live in desperate conditions and daily face death from starvation, disease, or persecution. Millions more face the ravages of severe weather. What responsibility do we, as Jesus’ disciples, have to them?

Grammy winning singer Rihanna was born in Barbados and came to the U.S. when she was just sixteen. Now twenty-four, Rihanna has already supported seventeen different charities. She has donated her earnings, made personal appearances, and given benefit performances. After her performances, she has met children from local charities, signed autographs, and posed for pictures with her young fans. She was a 2007 Cartier LOVECHARITY Bracelet Ambassador, she performed at Madonna's Raising Malawi/UNICEF fundraiser, and she even used her fame to help a mother of two find a bone marrow donor. In 2006, to strengthen her support of children in need, Rihanna created the Believe Foundation to help terminally ill children. Explaining her reasons for starting the Foundation, Rihanna said, “When I was young and I would watch television and I would see all the children suffering, I always said: when I grow up, I want to help.”1

And who are the widows and orphans among us? Poor, single mothers, perhaps, like the ones who turn up in my office? Those who come to the Mobile Food Pantry, or receive our diapers, or can’t afford school supplies for their children? How about all the others in this county, this state, this country who live on minimum wages at best and who lack basic healthcare or enough to eat? How about the victims of gun violence? Those caught in the throes of addiction, or those seeking to free themselves from abusive spouses? How about those struggling to rebuild their lives after having served in Iraq or Afghanistan, or having been incarcerated? Are we ministering to them as a church, as a nation? In this election season, are we asking our politicians to explain their understanding of government’s responsibility to care for the poor?

At this point, you might be asking, where is the good news in all of this? None of these texts provides us with a lot of feel-good reassurance. In terms of our responsibilities as followers of the one who went to the Cross, God does not let us off the hook! Even so, that we are here at all, that we are willing to grapple with these hard texts shows us that God is already at work in us. So perhaps the good news is this: if we pay attention to the needs of those around us, if we pray, if we periodically examine our lives against God’s standards, and if we do our best to follow God’s leading, God will help us to grow up into Christ. God will encourage, support, and deepen our desire to be more like him who is “our pattern and our King.” So be it, Lord.

1. http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/593-rihanna