9-2-12 - Do, don't just Hear

James 1:17-27

¹⁷Every 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. ¹⁸In 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.

¹⁹You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. ²¹Therefore 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. ²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. ²³For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. ²⁵But 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. ²⁶If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion 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.

Millard Fuller was a business man.  When he was six years old he began his life of business by raising pigs and selling them for a nice profit.  He moved on to others animals as well, and then in college he sold cakes and lamps and other items, and he invested his money and his roommate and him invested that money into real estate, and they owned half a city block and a small trailer park.  By the age of 28 he was a millionare.  He got married and had kids and he was wealthy, and he was living the American dream.  There was just one slight problem.  You see, he and his family were completely miserable, to the point that his wife was ready to leave him.  All the business sense that he had and all the hard work that he did did nothing to save his relationship with his wife, because he was so focused on the worries of the world and the status that wealth brought, and his joy was in doing the work, in using his skills, not in his family nor in God.  So Millard went to his pastor and talked to his wife and they decided together to do something drastic, in order to save their marriage and to become closer to God.  What they did was that they took Jesus’ advice to the rich man in Matthew 19 to heart, and they sold all that they had and gave of their money to charity.  Instead of focusing on money, and all the worries that it brings, and instead of focusing on work, and all the stress that it brings, they began to work together to focus on God and what God wanted them to do with their lives.  And their joy grew and grew as their lives were focused on God.

            Then in 1973 they had another life changing experience.  In that year they lived in Zaire and they helped build housing for poor families.  They worked on these houses and saw the good that it did and the joy that the families had when they saw that they had someone safe to live, somewhere to call home.  So when they moved back to Georgia in 1976 they worked to create a similar project here in the states.  The wanted those who are in need to have a roof over their heads, a place to call “home.”  What they started became known as Habitat for Humanity, which last year alone helped 13,503 families in 18 countries, including here in the United States.

            James tells us that “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.”  The world tells us what is important – Money, power, status, having as many activities as possible, to have people praise you for your work or your sacrifices.  We live in a country that uplifts the individual above all things, being told that what matters is ourselves, and maybe those in our family, but really it is all about us.  We are told to look in the mirror and say “look how great I am!”   But instead in James we are told the opposite.  Instead of looking in a mirror, we are called to look outward, to see the orphans and the widows in their distress, to keep one unstained by the cares of this world and instead to focus on the will of God in our lives.

            And each and every one of us has a part in God’s world plan, each of us given a calling.  We are not all called to be like Millard Fuller and to give away all that we have and to go off to Africa, but we do have callings.  They may not be what we want in the world, or what we think that we want, but they are fulfilling, they are purposeful, and in serving God we find our greatest joys. 

            Being a Christian, having faith, is about more than just our minds, more than just thinking that we are Christians and more than just coming here on Sundays.  Being a Christian means having our lives centered on God, so that all that we do is to the glory of God and showing God’s love and compassion.  So when we leave through those doors, we are not leaving a spiritual world and entering into reality, but instead we are re-energized with God’s Spirit so that we may enter into the world, ready to carry God’s love and grace to all that we meet in our lives.  It is in caring for the poor and the oppressed and the victimized.  There is a reason that James talks about the orphans and widows in our text today.  Today we think about the orphans and widows and we have good thoughts about them, perhaps it is pity or perhaps it is our heart reaching out to those who are in pain, but in ancient times that was not the case.  Widows and orphans were worthless members of society back then, because women were purely objects owned by their husbands who had no identity since they were no longer attached to a man, and children were not so highly though of but instead were seen as worthless since they couldn’t work and just took up food and resources, so an orphan is even worse since they are not attached to a mother and father and they are sucking up the resources of the community.  And yet James is saying true religion, true faith is in carrying for them, carrying for those that the rest of society was casting aside, carrying for those that no one else would even look at, let alone help.  Because that is how God acts, God acts in love for all people, especially those who are alone and helpless.  And that is how we are called to do as well.  Not only to orphans and widows, but to all those in out society who are cast aside and neglected – The homeless, the incarcerated and the felon, unwed, single mothers, and all others that society looks down upon, all those that society wishes to claim as “sinners” we are to look upon and say “You are loved, and we will care for you and we will help you.”  That is true faith and true religion, which lifts up those who are pressed down.

            Our faith is one that is lived out every moment of every day, from the jokes that we tell, to the ways that we do our jobs, to the ways that we spend our money, and every moment in between.   This does not mean that it needs to be a life spent on our knees in prayer that we must sacrifice everything that we hold close to us, or that we have to all go to Africa and start massive charities.  What it means that we take seriously the good news of Jesus Christ, that Christ did come to save us from ourselves, to promise us eternal life, and to show us the will of God, that we may be a light to all people.  

            Thus our lives are ones of celebration.  We celebrate in the light of God and in His everlasting love and forgiveness.  Instead of worrying constantly about our lives, we are freed to enjoy life, to enjoy the company of one another, and to enjoy our connection with all of God’s children, across all social boundaries and statuses.  And when we celebrate in this way, when we share in the joy of God with one another, we truly live out our Christian faith because we will be showing love and compassion to all, just as God loves all of us.  No longer will we look into a mirror, but instead we will look out and we will care for the orphans and the widows and all of God’s children, because we will be so filled with God’s grace.  We may not be completely there yet, but by the grace of God and our allowing God to work through us, we shall find that joy and that love and we shall truly be called the children of God. 

Amen.