Pentecost 13B August 30, 2009
James 1:17-27
Let’s talk about James. Martin Luther did not like the Epistle of James. He called it the “straw epistle,” stating that, in essence…it had the spiritual nutritional value of a bail of straw. He reasoned this because there is no mention of the death and resurrection of Christ in this epistle. Luther also did not appreciate that the letter of James to the Christian Diaspora seemed to counter act Paul’s writings about salvation by grace through faith apart from works. Instead, Luther found in James the temptation towards works righteousness. In fact, Luther disliked James so much that he wanted it removed from the New Testament Canon, along with Revelation.
I would like to go on record as being in disagreement with Luther. Yes, I am a good Lutheran, born and bred to eat jell-o and casserole, drink coffee and celebrate Oktober-fest…but I like the epistle of James. I like that it is not the typical type of form of biblical literature that you would find in the New Testament…and I would agree with one commentator that the Epistle of James is likely a form of Christian wisdom literature, not unlike the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that we find in the Hebrew Scripture.
In James we find a sort of “how to” manual on being an authentic religious person. What does a religious person look like? is the question he seems to be addressing in this letter to the early Christian community. The author of the letter of James gave these early Christians practical tips on how too be a true religious person instead of being a person who just calls him or herself a religious person…this is something that they needed in their time of persecution and it is something that we still need today, for as one of my friends once said, being at a worship service doesn’t make you a religious person any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. So we have our question, what does a religious person look like??
In our text this morning, we find a reader’s digest version of the answer…one that will be parsed out as the letter of James continues to be present in our readings for the next couple weeks.
But first, what about this word religious? It seems to be a very taboo word in modern day vocabulary. We have books like “how to be Christian without being religious” and “I’m spiritual, but not religious,” is the catch phrase of generations W and Y. It seems that the term religious has gotten the same bad rap that the word Christian has been hit with in recent years…if not a worse one. It seems that we’re not living up to the expectations that James has for us if the word, which was at one time taken to mean someone who receives the word of God and puts it into action, has been turned into an ugly, disliked word, demeaning of those whom it describes and scary for those in the presence of an individual marked by that descriptor. This is not a recent development, however.
In our Gospel text this morning, Jesus reprimands the scribes and the Pharisees who question him about the cleanliness of the disciples’ hands. They were not referring to the actual cleanliness of their hands, but rather their ritual purity. The disciples apparently did not take part in a second washing of hands that was placed in the laws of Moses. You hypocrites Jesus says to those who question them, you have turned away from the words of God and have clung to human traditions.
Before I get ahead of myself, however, we should turn back to the question at hand. What does a religious person look like? What are these expectations that James has for us? And we are given multiple hints to discerning this. According to James, a religious person is quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger…this person is one who receives the Word of God without pride and becomes not just a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word. A religious person is one who bridles their tongue and puts away, in the words of the Bible in Basic English translation, “dirty behavior,” a translation that makes more sense than rank growth in wickedness as the NRSV states. An authentic religious person helps the widow and the orphan and keeps him or herself from becoming unstained by the world.
That’s quite a list of attributes! And it also puts a phrase into my head, “easier said than done.”
How many times have any of us lost control of our tongues or refused to listen so perchance our opinion could be heard and validated in the midst of those that we both agreed and disagreed with? How many times have any of us been merely hearers of the word, choosing to keep it to ourselves rather than share it with others in word and action? How many times have we allowed ourselves to become stained by the world, choosing to cling to human things instead of the things of God? I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, for that’s not important. It happens, though and we’re all guilty of it at sometime or another.
But I do ask you for one thing…think of your last trip to the airport. I was reminded this weekend as I planed, trained, and automobiled my way to Madison, Wisconsin for my best friends ordination that flying the friendly skies…well travel in general, is not always the most conducive environment for tongue holding, quickness to listen and slowness to speech. After boarding our plane headed from KCI to Chicago O’hare on Friday, the passengers on board our flight were informed that we would be waiting at the gate for the next hour and ten minutes so that the traffic at Chicago O’hare could become less congested. The cacophony of sighs and variety of rolling eyes and worried or even angry looks was quite memorable. We had all lost control of our time schedules. Connecting flights were missed, pick-ups had to be rescheduled, and time spent with friends was cut short. I can only imagine some of the words spoken about either the airline company or the air traffic control over this delay.
It’s difficult to bridle our tongues, it’s easy to become stained by the world…influenced by economies of greed and pride that are gaining force as the financial economy still continues to struggle.
It’s easy for us to become like those James describes, those who glance at themselves in the mirror and see what they look like then quickly walk away without giving our appearance another look. But James also tells us that we need to take another look in the mirror…a mirror of perfect law, to get another glance at ourselves…let ourselves linger there. For it’s there that we find ourselves at the foot of the cross, staring our sins in the face as we see the pained expression of an innocent man being put to death in one of the most painful ways imaginable. Our sins hang without decoration, bare and bloody for all to see how vulnerable they make us. They are like blemishes on the skin….we want to scrub and scrub and scrub, but they won’t go away. At least they won’t go away on account of our efforts. For when we linger at the mirror of perfect law for a little bit, there is a change in appearance that takes place. We no longer see the blemishes caused by our sins. Instead we see the face of Christ staring back at us. This is not some painting that we’re staring at…we still see ourselves, but we also see that Christ has come into us and become apart of us.
Christ has become apart of us in the waters of baptism, the implanting of the Word of God and the taking in of bread and wine each week. Christ enters into us, wiping away our sins with his own blood, and making us to be his hands and feet in the world. This sacrifice was made for us because we are God’s first fruits, the best of what God created. And when we linger in the mirror and listen to hear the words of God saying “look at how beautiful you are, you cannot imagine how much I love you,” we see Christ inside of us and are moved, out of Joy and thanksgiving to give back. We are empowered to serve the poor and the widow, to be quick to listen instead of speak. It is because we listen for God’s voice and are humbled by the extravagant love of God that we become the people that James describes. Take some time to listen for the voice of God and look into the mirror of perfect law, which resides at the foot of the cross, where our sins were washed away, once and for all.
Amen
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