Sermon, by Pastor Ronald Nelson
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
September 1, 2024
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 15
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Twenty-Second Sunday in ordinary time.
Turtle Island
Well, this is it. Labour day is tomorrow, and everything will be back to normal? Eh! Programs in the community, in school, and in the church will be back to the usual routines. And above all, Pastor Joel will be back.
A cartoon recently depicted a woman saying, “my desire to remain well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” I would think the above is shared by many of us as we deal with politics, AI, wars, creation, and climate, among many others. Our first reading from Deuteronomy basically says, “Israel, if you follow the laws of God, all of life will fall into place.” We Lutherans prided ourselves in the fact that we lived by grace and not by law. But now we have to get serious about James’s teachings. So let us see if our lessons today give us a few clues on how even staid Lutherans can progress.
I have to admit I wish I could do this a few more weeks because James is now the second lesson for five weeks. The letter of James got Luther’s “knickers in a bind.” Martin said James was “an epistle of straw.” In Luther’s day, the need was to lift up the broad and sweeping themes of “justification by faith alone.” But now, James’s very ability to hold a magnifying glass to the ethics of everyday life. His capacity to urge us toward such deeds; as making peace in close and sometimes strained personal relationships, caring “for widows and orphans in their distress”, all as a life well worth living, seeking in family and vocation to live in such gentle ways that we reap a “harvest of righteousness” – comes as a deep and cooling refreshment.
James is looking at the big picture. What does a faithful person look like, act like, be like? James is sharing the importance of public faith, of being an example for others. For James, faith is life, and so a faithful life is one lived out, not hidden. Do not forget who you are. Whether you are stranded on a desert island or in downtown Toronto, faith is about what God sees and what the world sees. Hear the word, do the word, follow the word, alone or on a crowded bus. The journey is ours, but others may notice. Today, and for four more weeks, the writer of James will be one of the mentors we will hear from. The letter probably was not written by the person Paul met in Jerusalem, or the brother of Jesus. In fact, the author probably used the name James to counter Paul’s exaggerated ideas about “faith versus works.” It is interesting that the letter of James uses a variety of expressions for the gospel, “perfect law,” “law of liberty,” and even “royal law.” Scholars tell us it was written in perfect Greek, thus not the language used by followers of Jesus. It also has no personal references and no allusions whatever to the Jewish and Gentile conflicts in which either of the above James would have been involved. Therefore, this book was probably written by a Greek Jewish Christian in the late first or early second century. In fact, James was only accepted into the Christian canon in the fourth century, C.E., A.D. Practical advice, giving in tone and substance, James reads more like a treatise or sermon rather than a letter. It was aimed at averting an abstract and therefore an inauthentic expression of the Christian faith. As the author states in today’s second reading, those who have been privileged to hear God’s word are to let its power take root and then live and act by virtue of that power.
V. 22. “but be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
V. 23-24 “for if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror, and immediately forget what they were like.” Is that not what we should all be about?
To only listen to God’s word and not act upon it, is to deceive oneself. Like Moses, James is encouraging us to allow God’s word to continually bring us to be alive to life. While we listen to the word of God, we are challenged to see who we are and who we ought to be. God plants a seed in us and we need to cultivate it. To see what is wrong and do nothing to become better is to hear the word and yet not let it be a transforming power in our life. So, the word should have a dual emphasis on hearing and doing. For the month of September, we will be hearing much about doing and living in creation. For me, James is an ever-practical letter that reminds us that what we hear in worship must then be lived in our every-day life. Now as soon as I say all of the above, I have to put in a dis-claimer. Because I find many Lutherans today becoming followers of James and ignoring Paul. Can we be both followers and practisers of faith and works? Jewish readers of this text would have identified the word of God as the Torah, live the law and we have faith. Christian readers can take it to mean we have accepted the saving power of God. Which can mean we are back to where we started. Seeing ourselves in a mirror should help us recognize who we are and to do what is necessary to become all that God intends us to be. James calls us back to integrity and asks us as the community of believers to demonstrate what James called the true religion.
V. 27 “religion is to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
The author of James tells his community to just zero in on the above. Now that sounds kind of innocent, but “keeping oneself unstained” can become complicated. Now that I have basically repeated myself, let us turn to Mark.
While Mark frames his story as an incident in conflict between Jesus and the pharisees and the scribes, what is really at stake is the question at the heart of religion, to be specific, what we call Christianity. In contrast to traditions that may or may not bring people closer to God. In every society, from worship to families, once-beneficial practices easily became rigid customs, such as washing our hands. For instance, the sprinkling of some water on the servers’ hands before they distribute communion, has no sanitary value. Yet using some kind of disinfectant on the servers’ hands needs to be mandatory in the world we now live in. The bottom line is that the pharisees and scribes made doctrines of their preferences while ignoring the intent of God’s commandments. When Jesus talked about what was truly impure, He mentioned not one single infringement of ritual laws. Instead, he gave his listeners a list of actions that harm others, behaviours that defile the perpetrator even as they denigrate others. Our politicians could learn from that one. Jesus knew that it is a lot easier to wash one’s hands or follow the rubrics than it is to live in reverence for all of God’s creation. Jesus also demonstrated which one of these two options brings joy. Jesus minced no words. He challenged/challenges all of us to stop deluding ourselves by accepting compliance with regulations as a substitute for the kind of relationship with God that frees us to act out of love and nothing else. So, we look at the author of Deuteronomy one more time. Deuteronomy and Jesus provides us with the best reason for keeping God’s laws, for honouring creation, namely life itself. We are created with an interior longing for love and the source of love. When we are deeply aware, we know that love is our deepest desire. Remember in Deuteronomy’s time they knew nothing about an afterlife. But the writer was certain that keepers of Yahweh’s rules and decrees will have a better quality of life right here and now than those who disregard those regulations. The writer of James was saying the same thing. So rather than grumble about keeping some law, we should be grateful for the life we experience by obeying the rules - driving drunk and too fast instead of following the rules can kill you and others. It is that simple.
I have only touched the surface of these readings today, as is true every Sunday. But these readings especially, are calling us to an ever deeper, and broader integrity. Do we admit our own need for conversion and help, in order to grow in grace? The critiques of others that we heard and read about today, put our own values and integrity on show, and reveal whether our priorities come from God touching our lives or, just because we have a desire to look pious? When we discuss what “should” be done, our remembrance of Moses and Jesus and others in scripture demands that we question whether our interpretation of God’s will is life-giving or self-serving? Jesus did not convert many of his adversaries. What he did do was invite everyone to explore the depths and meaning of humanity. Most of them did not take him up on it. Even more interesting those who did listen and did something, were by and large outsiders. Religion is caring for others and freedom from false values of society.
So again today, we are challenged to balance God’s laws with our love of others. Remember Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that “the word of God, is like a two-edged sword.” Sometimes, like the pharisees, we place rules and conditions on how we share our love and who is worthy of receiving the gifts and the love we have to offer. Looking at Jesus we find an example of a hearer- and a doer – of God’s word. Today we are called to be – and do - the same. Finding and following our deepest desires will free us to follow Jesus who was accused of many things, but he was never accused of failing to love. God through Jesus understands we struggle in our human weakness. We live in a secular world that measures our worth by what we accomplish and possess. But God wants to draw us closer into a loving relationship with him. The good news of these texts today is that we are called to examine ourselves, revealing our hidden shortcomings, and that will draw us into a closer relationship with God and humankind. Yes, we are called today to reflect and introspect and in so doing we will find repentance that is [metanoia] change and forgiveness. When we do that, then we discover the joy of our truest selves, by transforming our hearts to love, seek peace, and walk in companionship with the poor and the marginalized.
Finally, I believe, as a new school year begins, we share with Moses a hope that our children will have the blessings of life. We pray they will enter into a place where we no longer have to carry them but that they will enter and claim the inheritance, that God has for them. May our worship and life show our children the wisdom and justice of God’s teaching, so they may trust in God’s promises and receive abundant life.
Let us never forget;
This is my father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my father’s world; i rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas.
His hand the wonders wrought.
[ELW 824 v. 1]
And so;
We lift our voices, we lift our hands,
We lift our lives up to you:
We are an offering.
Lord, use our voices, lord, use our hands,
Lord use our lives, they are yours:
We are an offering.
All we have, all we are,
All that we hope to be,
We give to you; we give to you.
We lift our voices, we lift our hands,
We lift our lives up to you:
We are an offering.
we are an offering.
[ELW 692]
Amen
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