Hearing and Doing

The New Revised Standard Version Trial and Temptation

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved.

17 Every 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. 18 In 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.

Hearing and Doing the Word

19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore 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.

22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But 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.

26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 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.

Introduction-Cycling Story One

It will shock absolutely no one around here that I’d like to center this morning’s sermon in two stories about cycling.

I remember very vividly when I decided to take cycling seriously.

Sarah and I had moved to a new house a whole bunch of years ago that was exactly 1.5 miles away from my office.

So I decided that I would take my mountain bike and ride to work as often as I could.

There was one big hill on the way to work, and more days than not I would walk my bike up the big hill.

But still, I felt like a real cyclist, and started to brag like it.

1.5 miles there, 1.5 miles back, maybe once or twice a week, and I felt like a real cyclist.

So I was at a dinner with my friends and I was bragging about how I’m a real cyclist.

And my friend Travis, who is in fact a real cyclist, said “Oh, then you’ll be doing the MS 150 with me this year, right?”

The name is all you need to know about this torture test. It’s a fundraiser for MS research, and it is in fact 150 miles over two days.

And here lay the conundrum:

I can only ride 3 or 6 miles a week at this point, and I’m walking some of those hills!

But I also just unleashed “I am a serious cyclist” to a room full of my friends, and one of them has thrown down the gauntlet.

What followed was months of me working hard, getting the right gear, crashing a few times, and eventually whipping myself in to shape enough to take on the MS 150.

But it points out a problem that many of us have:

We can claim anything we want.

We can claim to be a serious cyclist.

We can claim to be a loving person.

We can claim to be in love with Jesus.

But can we back those claims up with any kind of action?

Bible Breakdown

Previously on Church...

Jesus gives this big, and weird, speech about how he is the bread of life, and that everyone who wants to have eternal life is going to need to eat him.

This naturally throws people off a bit, and so a whole bunch of disciples take off for the hills.

Jesus painfully turns to his closest 12 disciples, and asks them if they’re going to run as well.

And Peter’s response is actually pretty spot on:

Where can we go Lord? You have the words of life.

And though James is not responding to this text specifically, I think it’s a really great follow up to what Peter had to say to Jesus.

God is the giver of gifts

For those of us who study theology, one of the biggest debate lines is how much credit you give to God, and how much credit you give to humans.

On the bigger end of the question are things like predestination and fate and things like that.

But this question shows up in normal, every day life too.

Did I have that idea, or was that God giving me a vision?

Was that a sign from God, or am I just cracking up a little bit?

Is this a blessing, or am I just lucky today?

For my part, I almost always want to give God more credit than myself. That’s just my theological bent.

It seems though, that at least when it comes to the blessings and gifts of this life, James agrees with me.

God is the giver of every good gift.

That promotion that you got at work? God.

That sunshine that we’re enjoying this morning? God.

This family here at the church that we enjoy? God.

Anything good and worthwhile, James argues is right from God.

And this makes sense from last week’s text, doesn’t it?

Jesus gives us the words of life.

It’s a gift.

It’s a blessing.

It’s not our own doing.

Now, you might be pushing back on this a little bit.

Don’t we earn the good things that are coming to us?

Do we have any skin in this game?

If God is the giver of good gifts, can’t I just sit back and wait for the blessings to come rolling in?

James has us covered here, and in fact gives us three ideas that I think are absolutely critical for us today, in the year 2021.

So let’s look at these one at a time, and I have a challenge for us with each point.

A verse for 2021:

Quick to Listen

I don’t know about you, I hope I’m not alone in this:

But I’m betting that at least once this week, someone was talking to you, and your mind started to wander.

Maybe it went to the laundry or what you were going to make for dinner or something like that.

But wander it did!

And you come to and realize “Oh no…I didn’t hear what my friend was saying!?”

We have lost the skill of deep listening.

Pastor Rob Bell even noted something interesting going on with our society right now.

Facebook

Twitter

Blogs

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Everything is set up so that we can broadcast, but those platforms are not really set up to let us listen to each other.

And so we’ve become a society where it appears the highest virtue is just expressing your opinion.

But we’re not spending any time listening.

So the challenge on this one is to set aside some time to listen to someone this week.

This challenge is deceptively challenging!

To listen well means to not have your phone with you.

To listen well is to not let your mind wander.

To listen well is to stay focused on the problems and issues that your friend may be lifting up.

It’s hard, but it’s what we’re called to do!

Slow to Speak

A while ago I used to work with my father in law at a church.

One of the things that he does super well is that occasionally he starts a prayer with a time of silence.

So we were working together leading a Christmas program for the preschool in our church, and he began to lead the prayer.

After a few moments of silence, one of the kids in the front row whispered “Hey Mr! You start with ‘Dear God!’”

And as funny as that is, we’re uncomfortable with silence, aren’t we?

We even label it an uncomfortable silence.

I know for me, I so want to avoid uncomfortable silences that I will be thinking about what I’m going to say next while the person I’m talking with is still going.

It doesn’t really matter if what I’m going to say next is at all relevant or related to what my conversation partner is saying.

I just want to make sure there’s no uncomfortable silence.

We are called to be slow to speak.

We are called to be perfectly comfortable on the holy ground of a good pause in conversation.

We are called to care more about what another person is saying than we are to get our opinions out there.

We are called to, as James puts it later, tame our tongue and keep it in line.

So the challenge on this one again, sounds really simple, but try it out:

Get comfortable with silence.

Spend some time this week, a half hour or so if you can spare it, being totally silent.

No music, no talking, no podcasts.

Just you and God.

It’s WAY harder than it sounds!

But I think it will help us connect with God, and with each other, in deep and meaningful ways.

Anger is not righteousness

One of the things a pastor does is to try to look at the broader culture and notice what’s going on.

And what I’ve noticed is how pervasive anger is in our culture right now.

People just want to be mad.

Some people have discovered that you can sell a lot of products to angry people.

Some people have discovered that you can gain more followers when you provoke enough anger.

Some people have come to find that there are a lot of votes available in an angry society.

And so what we have come to tell ourselves that if we’re angry, it must be a righteous anger.

If I am angry about what is not fair in the world, that’s enough for me right?

If I am angry for my brothers and sisters in need, that’s as good as helping them right?

If I send out the right tweet denouncing the people I disagree with, that will settle the matter, right?

No, James says.

In fact, he puts it in pretty stark and harsh terms for us today:

Your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.

Anger by itself does not make the world a better place.

Anger by itself is not a catalyst for change.

Anger by itself is not the tool for many of the jobs ahead of us.

This isn’t to say that all anger is bad.

James in fact gives us the warning first to be slow to anger.

There is a time and a place for anger, to be sure.

But all by itself it cannot produce the kind of righteousness that God requires of us,

and all by itself, anger is a drug that far too many people in our culture are hooked on right now.

The challenge for this point:

Notice when someone is trying to provoke anger in you, and ask yourself why?

Again, my experience is that most folks are using anger these days to manipulate others for their gain.

Usually your anger is tied to a product, or a vote, or just to make the other person feel validated in their anger.

Don’t play that game.

Anyone can dress up like a Christian.

Peter from last week: Anyone can listen to the words of life from Jesus

I know lots of people who claim to be Christians, but have the hardest time listening to anyone other than themselves.

I know lots of people who claim to be Christians, but are much more interested in broadcasting their beliefs than actually doing anything about them.

I know lots of people who claim to be Christians, but are so full of rage and anger and vitriol that I simply can’t see Christ in what they’re doing.

And these Christians, much like Peter, have heard the words of life from Jesus.

They have been to church.

They have been to bible studies.

They have listened to Christian music and watched Christian movies.

They’ve heard the words of life, but they’re just not interested in living in to them.

They look a little to me like myself when I was running around pretending to be a cyclist, but unable to pedal more than three miles or so.

James very much encourages us to be not just hearers of the word

Not just people that listen to the bible.

Not just people who show up in church.

Not just people who surround ourselves with Christian media.

But doers of the word.

We’re supposed to be people who are slow to speak.

We’re supposed to be people who are quick to listen.

We’re supposed to be people who can control our anger, and keep it in check.

We’re supposed to be generous people.

We’re supposed to be people who look out for the needs of others above ourselves.

We’re supposed to be a people of active forgiveness and reconciliation.

Real Religion is caring

The kinds of people who just listen to the words of life from Jesus are people who are following a broken kind of religion, James says.

He says at the end of our passage today 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.

Orphans and widows in James’ day were stand ins for the kinds of people that were most easily overlooked in society.

Another theologian called them lowercase people.

Real religion, the kind that honors God, leads us to looking after the lowercase people of the world.

Maybe for us it’s not so much orphans and widows, though I’m certainly down for looking after them!

Maybe for us it’s drug addicts who society has given up on?

Maybe for us it’s children, who rarely have a seat at any of the grownup tables?

Maybe for us it’s refugees, who the whole world right now seems to be saying “not in my backyard” to?

Maybe for us it’s the city of Washington, and those who are struggling to make ends meet here?

Whoever they are, James tells us that our real religion is to look after the lowercase people.

And to keep ourselves unstained by the world.

The world wants to play the anger game. Don’t give in.

The world wants to tell us that we’re only as valuable as what we have to say. Don’t play that game.

The world wants to tell us that the one with the most toys at the end wins. They’re lying.

The world wants to tell us that we have to look out for ourselves at all costs. Jesus says that’s his job, while we look out for our neighbors.

It’s not enough to hear the word.

We have to do something about it.

A second cycling story.

This one happened just yesterday.

By this point, unlike the story at the beginning, I would consider myself a pretty serious and avid cyclist.

I ride at least three or four times a week.

I’ve done a couple of 100+ mile rides.

I’ve done more events than I can remember.

I’m not just dressing up any more. I’m not just a hearer of the word, but I’m doing it.

Yesterday my friend David and I went to do a gravel race.

We had zero intentions of winning anything!

We just wanted to push ourselves a bit and see if we could survive.

There were seven hills in this 35 mile course over back gravel roads in Ohio, and we knew going in to it that it would be a challenge.

The first hill I was fresh, and full of energy, so I bounced right up no problem at all.

The second hill was incredibly steep, and full of loose gravel, so a lot of us dismounted and walked our bikes up the hill. But, at least there was a smile on my face!

The third hill was in direct sunlight, and I don’t know if you remember but it was crazy hot out yesterday. There was a lot of walking and a bit of panting on that one.

The fourth hill is where the wheels fell off. I was tired. I was dehydrated. I had blisters on my feet from walking. It wasn’t going well.

And so at the bottom of the fourth hill, where they had a little aid station, I abandoned the race.

A lovely Israeli man named Ron picked me up in his Subaru (which showed an outdoor temperature of 97 degrees, confirming my decision to abandon) and he drove me back to the finish line telling me about his home country all along the way.

It’s a little embarrassing to abandon a race like that, so when we got back to the finish line I was trying to just sneak back to the car without being noticed.

However, the race director of all people saw me stumble out of the car and take my bike of the rack.

He walked over to me with an ice cold bottle of water, gave me a pat on the back, and said “Hey man. You did great out there. You beat the pants off of everyone who was on their couch this morning, and I can’t wait to see you back here next year!”

And that story to me is a pretty good bookend to this idea.

We are not called to be people who pretend to be Christians while we have no interest in doing the work.

But I also know that this work is hard!

It is hard to be slow to speak!

It is hard to be quick to listen!

It is hard to avoid the anger of our culture!

And guess what? We will fail.

I know I have!

I know there are times in my life where I don’t live up to the expectations I have for myself.

And I know that every time I’ve failed, every time I’ve tried to live the Christian life and blown it, Jesus is right there.

He may not always have an ice cold bottle of water.

But every time we stumble and fall, Jesus says “Hey, good try out there. Dust yourself off. Give yourself a bit of breathing room. And we’ll get em on the next one.”

So my friends, let’s not just be hearers of the words of life.

Let’s go out and get it done.