|
|
|
|
|
|
My
home church in One
of the most beautiful pieces from the mansion was an old marble balcony no more
than six feet across. The balcony was mounted high on the left wall above the
sanctuary. It was hardly ever used but it was the perfect place for some
preacher to wax eloquent or simply to wax on and on and on. It was a decoration;
but everyone knew what it was. Yet, lest anyone forget what it was for, on the
wall over the doorway leading into the balcony were inscribed the words from
today's Epistle from James: "Be doers of the word and not hearers
only." Today’s reading has
it: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” Not
to pick on my old pastor, but I think I would have inscribed the whole verse and
included what I think are the most important words, the ones at the end.
"Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
Those last words about deceiving ourselves make the first part of the sentence
real and meaningful. At one time in the history of the Church a vast number of people ignored the whole verse altogether. Martin Luther ignored the Epistle of James altogether. Many people believed that the world was so bad, so rotten, and so corrupt that their only choice was to leave the world altogether. So they went off to the desert or to the monastery or to some backwoods cottage -- away from the wicked world. And there they prayed for the world. They read the Bible and prayed some more. They heard the word all right, but they did not do anything about it. They were hearers and not doers. To a great degree, what they were doing was deceiving themselves. On
the other hand, Martin Luther believed that there was really nothing anyone
could do to be saved. Works were useless. We are saved by grace through our
faith, by God's free gift to us, he said. And, to a degree, he was right. No
matter how good we are, no matter how much a treasury of good works we build up
on earth, that in and of itself will not earn us eternal life. To believe that
is, to a degree, to deceive ourselves. Now
I am not saying that a contemplative life is wrong. There is certainly a place
for that life in the church and for contemplation in our own lives. Christians
must be contemplative. We must take the time to pray, to read the Bible, to
think about our own life and our life of faith. If we do not, we will never
truly understand what our faith is about. Jesus routinely took time off and went
away to deserted places to pray so that he could return refreshed and renewed to
continue his ministry. So must we. And
I am not denying the fact that it is only through the grace of God that we can
inherit and merit eternal life. It is God's free gift to us. No matter how many
good works we do, no matter how good we are, we cannot earn our way into heaven
or demand or deserve any rewards. Yet we must not misunderstand what Luther says
or ignore what James says. Faith is necessary; so are works. To think otherwise
is to deceive ourselves. There
is a story about an old abbot who lived in a monastery in the desert. One day he
asked the novices at the monastery a simple question: How could they tell when
the night has ended and the day has begun? One bright young man volunteered that
it was when you could see an animal in the distance and tell whether it was a
cow or a horse. "No," said the old Abbot. "When
you look at a tree in the distance and can tell if it is an olive tree or a
mango tree," said another. "Wrong again," said the Abbot.
"Well, then what is it?" asked his disciples. The Abbot smiled and
said, "It is when you look into the face of any man and recognize your
brother in him; when you look into the face of any woman and recognize in her
your sister. If you cannot do this, no matter what time it is by the sun, it is
still night." Jesus
spent his whole ministry trying to help those around him discover the difference
between night and day. Or perhaps we might say that Jesus spent his whole
ministry trying to turn night into day, darkness into light. Jesus spoke to
people who were living in darkness. They refused to recognize one another as
brothers and sisters because they could not or would not see that they were
indeed brothers and sisters. Rather one was either a friend or an enemy. And,
as today’s Gospel reminds us, Jesus ministered to people who believed that
they were enemies both of God and of their fellow human beings because of their
physical or social impediments: blindness, speech or hearing problems, the fact
that they were poor or Gentiles of even Romans -- outcasts of society, outcasts
from God. Times
have not changed. There are still outcasts among us, people who live around us
and maybe work with us. There are still people we refuse to look upon as a
brother or sister for whatever reason we may have. As long as we allow that to
happen, we remain in the dark. For it is in our power to change night into day,
darkness into light. But
to do that, we have to be doers, doers of the word, and not merely listeners;
not merely saying "Yes" to what Jesus has to say, not merely asserting
that the old abbot was correct; not merely hearers of the word, hearers of the
truth, but doers as well. Unless we do, we deceive ourselves and we remain in
the dark. In
a few moments we are going to welcome Andrew into the Christian Community
through baptism. As the Baptismal Covenant reminds him and as it reminds us, to
live out our life of faith we must be doers of what we believe. He and we must
seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
He and we must strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the
dignity of every human being. In doing so, he and we will proclaim by word and
example the Gospel message. But
to do all of this he and we must persevere in resisting evil in our own lives.
And when we do not, we must repent and return to the Lord. And last but not
least, and perhaps first and foremost, we must continue in the apostle’s
teaching and fellowship. This means being part of this Christian Community of
Christ Episcopal Church so that together we can be fed by our Lord’s Body and
Blood, strengthened by a life of prayer and supported in our faith journey by
one another. No one becomes a Christian alone and no one can live as a Christian alone. We are a people of prayer and works, works and prayer. We cannot separate the two. We cannot simply pray our way through our faith nor work our way through it. To think that way is to deceive ourselves. As we welcome A.J. into our community of faith, we will also promise A.J. that we will do all in our power to support him in his new life in Christ. To do so we must live a life of prayer and good works: not either-or but both-and. |
