I am sure you’ve heard the old saying

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

But I think I might get to see that more vividly than you do.

Part of my ministry involves funerals and part of most funerals is pictures.

It’s kind of standard practice now to play a video montage of the person who passed away during the visitation.

And to you, those are pictures you’ve grown up with.

But can you imagine what those pictures can do to someone who has never seen them.

Sometimes I’ve only seen them old.

And then I see their young pictures, and I go - “Wow - Imagine what their life was like when they looked like that.”

One of our senior church members was told when he was young that his daddy had been killed in the war.

But we have 23 and me and ancestry now - and a DNA test was done.

And our member found out that what he been told all of his life wasn’t true.

His daddy was completely someone else.

The birth family was contacted and a meeting was arranged.

The day came and he walked into the house.

And there on the wall was a picture of him.

Only, it wasn’t really him - it was a picture of his dad.

And he looked just like him.

That would be a kick in the pants, wouldn’t it?

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Try as we might, we can’t help but look like our parents and act like our parents.

I remember the first time I was scolding one of my children and I heard my dad’s voice come out of my mouth.

I’d said I’d NEVER say that to one of my kids.

And there I was - without effort - saying it.

That’s James’ premise in today’s scripture.

If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,

If God is our Father, doesn’t it stand to reason that people will see a family resemblance?

Our scripture today is James 1:26-27.

I trust you have your Bible with you so open it up to James 1:26-27.

If you don’t have your Bible with you, you can use one in the pew racks.

And if you don’t own a Bible, please feel free to take one of ours as a gift from us.

If you are watching via live stream or video and you don’t own a Bible, if you will contact us we’ll see what we can do to help you get one.

Hear the Word of the Lord from James 1:26-27

James 1:26–27 ESV

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Short and sweet.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

When we started our study of James, we said James was divided into two parts.

Chapter one focuses on us - to help us get the log out of our own eye.

It also sets up the themes for chapters two through five that concentrate on how we relate to everyone else.

But before we relate to everyone else, James gives us a test over what we have learned so far.

In a sense James says, “Ok guys, before we move on to anything else, let’s take a good look at ourselves and answer one question.

Am I real or am I not?

Am I the real deal or am I an imposter.

Or, as we say, do I walk the walk or am I really good at talking the talk?

There are three questions on this test.

Question 1 - Do I talk like my Father?

Question 2 - Do I care for the helpless like my Father?

Question 3 - Do I look like my Father?

James 1:26 “If anyone thinks he is religious...

We need to start with a definition - what does it mean to be religious?

As James uses the word, he means “to be devoted to a proper expression of religious beliefs - ‘devout, pious, religious.’

Its what we believe in our hearts.

What we are convinced is right, that our whole person and personality is built on,

Is it properly expressed in our behavior.

So James is saying, if anyone is convinced that they are properly displaying their Christ-likeness

If anyone is convinced they are following Jesus just like He should be followed, well, then there are three questions everyone should be able to answer.

Do I talk like my Father.

Typically I hear this and I immediately go to gossip and slander.

We must watch our mouths and not tear other folks down.

Some of that is in this.

But there is something that I learned in my literature classes and in my seminary classes that applies here.

Let the text interpret the text.

What have we been studying for the last 4 weeks?

Has James addressed this?

Yes.

Yes, he has.

In verses 2-4, James asks, “Are you speaking well of your Father?”

We all face trials and hardships “of various kinds” all of the time, does our speech say that we truly believe God is in control?

Not that we are spouting Bible verses every three sentences.

But, can people hear that we trust that God is going to provide an acceptable outcome?

And when God does bring the resolution, can they hear that we are content with it?

In verses 5 - 8, James asks, “Are you trying to talk like your Father and the world at the same time?”

If we followed you to work, would we hear one person there and another person at church?

Do you sound like one person at home and another person when you are around church folk?

In verses 9 - 11, James asks, “Are you telling more about how great you are or how great your Father is?

I was at a party a number of years ago.

Everyone there was a well thought of Christian.

But what they talked about.

There was this game of one upmanship was going on.

I love your new shoes.

Really? I got them from some wealthy store somewhere.

Oh, I used to shop there but I found this adorable new place...

Did you see the pictures from our vacation?

Oh, we did, it looked like you were having so much fun.

Did we tell you about our trip to Mars....

I knew these folks.

I had known them for years but something had happened to them.

They had all run into money and all they could talk about was their money.

But that game is not limited wealthy folk.

Poor people out poor each other.

Sick people out sick each other.

And in all of those competitive conversations, what does any of it say about our Father?

Now I’m not saying we can’t talk about the stuff of life - but why are we talking about it?

What is our motive?

Who are we trying to impress about what?

Can anyone hear any God in our lives, anywhere?

In verses 12 - 13, James asks, “Are you telling people the truth about your Father?”

There were obviously people there saying that, since God was sending them trials, the Father was tempting them to do evil?

We talked about that, remember?

And we said that can’t happen - that God hates evil.

Listen carefully.

In our world, truth is being turned on its head.

Gavin Newsome last week got into hot water because he said that having babies is a women’s issue.

And the Twitterverse pounced.

Because the misled have turned truth on its head, you have an emoji on your phone of a pregnant man.

But we know better.

President Biden who claims he’s Catholic stated that the majority of world religions support a woman’s right to abort their babies.

They do no such thing.

If you are “religious,” are you telling people the truth about your Father?

In verses 14 - 15, James asks, “Are you desiring the things your Father desires?”

We are bombarded with things all day every day.

If you have a weak spot - there is a temptation that comes your way every stinking day attacking that weak spot.

Often many times in a day.

And some of the temptations are unavoidable.

Open your phone.

Open your computer.

Go out to eat.

Go to the ball field.

And there they are - luring you.

Enticing you.

How are you handling that?

Are you taking 2 Corinthians 10:5 “...every thought captive to obey Christ,”

Is that our goal, to obey Christ?

In verses 19 - 20, James asks, “Are you telling people off or are you telling people about your Father?”

There’s a lot to be angry about in our world right now.

As I said a second ago, the truth is being turned on it’s head.

But we know, no one is angered into the kingdom.

They are loved into the kingdom.

Can people tell that by the way we speak or is all they hear a bunch of angry Christians?

In verse 21, James asks, “Are you speaking life or death into people?

James 1:21 “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness...”

We live in a crass world - we must make a conscious effort to not be crass.

We live in a permissive world - we must make a conscious effort to not do what they do.

Summer time is coming - what do our swimsuits say about our Father?

What do our boat coolers say about our Father?

What do our vacation destinations say about our Father?

What do our movies, what do our books, what do our podcasts and music say about our Father?

And what do all of these things say about us?

Are we the real deal or are we Christian poseurs?

James mercilessly nails us here.

He strips away the argument that, “well, that’s just the way I am.”

Really, the almighty God of the universe, who created all that is from nothing.

I heard a cute joke the other day.

Scientists confronted God and said they could make a living person.

God said, “Really?”

“Really,” they said.

“I’ll bite - show me,” God said.

So one of the scientist grabbed a hand full of dirt and God said, “Hold it.”

The scientist said, “What’s the problem?”

And God said, “You’ll need to make your own dirt.”

So, you are saying to me, that the one who created dirt and formed a man from it, can’t change your behavior?

Really?

James 1:26 “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”

The mirror James holds up in front of us is not distorted.

Who the Father is is pretty plain.

Do we talk like our Father?

Do we care for the helpless like our Father?

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction”

In those days, losing your husband or losing your parents was pretty much a death sentence if there wasn’t someone there to help you.

In reality, it’s always been difficult for widows and orphans.

You may have heard of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

He was a Swiss philosopher in the 1700’s and much of our modern - “I must be who I feel that I am” - thinking is based on this man’s writings.

And what kind of man was he that has had such an impact on our modern world?

As the book I’m reading quotes, “[He] notoriously sent all five of his children to an orphanage (and thus to almost certain early death) shortly after each was born.” (Trueman, Strange New World, p.34)

He, in essence, aborted his children after they were born.

This is one of the guys that laid the foundation for the modern secular worldview.

Child labor laws were enacted during the industrial revolution to protect orphans and poor children from essentially be turned into slaves.

Often by people wearing the mantle of Christianity.

James mentions widows and orphans because the Father talks about them over and over the Bible.

Some form of the word widow is mentioned 97 times in the Bible.

Orphans or fatherless are mentioned 46 times in the Bible.

Why?

Because God said in Exodus 22:22 “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.”

This rule was given right on the heels of the Ten Commandments.

If we love like our Father loves… you know, I’ve not thought of this before.

I wonder if we love characters like Rocky because of a remnant of the imago dei in us?

That we always pull for the underdog.

We want the “Pursuit of Happyness” movie to have a happy ending.

We want the hurt and abandoned spouse to overcome their pain and come out on the other side victorious.

Could that be because of what the Father has baked into us?

A desire, a need to see the helpless restored, redeemed maybe?

If we love like our Father loves, our hearts will break for the helpless.

But more than that, we’ll do something about it.

Something more than simply throwing money at it - although you can’t do anything with out money.

But Jesus didn’t hire people to touch the lepers.

He touched them.

He didn’t hire people to counsel the immoral.

He counseled them himself.

And then, through Jesus, the Father gave birth to us.

If the Father touches them, shouldn’t we too?

One of the most visible examples of that kind of love was Denise Saturna.

She was a member here and her heart broke for the homeless.

She fed them for a season - then moved downtown to live among them.

When she died very prematurely, I watched as one homeless person after another went to her husband Joe to pay their respects.

And although others have moved in and got a lot of credit for doing good work among the homeless.

It was Denise that laid the foundation for their work.

Denise cared for the helpless like her Father.

We could see and smell Jesus all over Denise.

Do we care for the helpless like our Father?

Do we take care to look like our Father?

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

I spend 5 minutes blow drying my hair every day.

Want to know why?

Because I want to look like I have hair.

Yep, that thick brown hair planted in tight rows on my head has given way to an anemic crop of grey that looks like it received no rain the entire growing season.

But if I blow dry it - it looks like I have more than I do.

We do lots of things to make ourselves look all kinds of ways.

Do we take care - are we mindful - do we think about what we are doing and what it makes us look like?

I can get seriously distressed thinking of times I didn’t - and still don’t - but I pray those times are fewer and farther apart.

There are things I avoid doing.

There are things I avoid thinking about - because I know they don’t look like our Father.

I suspect many of you do that too.

And it’s not easy.

That’s why James uses that word steadfast that I’ve made so much over.

Some how someone gave us the impression that following Jesus was more of an abracadabra kind of deal.

That if I read a little Bible and said a little prayer and came to a little church - well, kind of like a covid shot.

It won’t keep you from getting covid they said, it will just make the symptoms less severe.

If I do a little Jesus, it won’t stop hard times from coming, it will just make the hard times less severe.

And that’s a lie straight from the pits of hell and it smells like smoke.

Christians are losing their lives because they will not deny Jesus.

There are Christians that no one has heard from and we have no idea if they are dead or alive because when we abandoned Afghanistan like we did, we left them there.

That’s a whole nother level of steadfast.

If we care to look like our Father, there are things we will do to keep ourselves from being stained morally.

And there are things we will not do so we will remain unstained morally.

I know I fail - I know we fail - but I pray those times of failure are fewer and farther apart than ever before.

What’s the answer?

Well, of course it’s the gospel of Jesus.

James is not saying that we should work harder so we can be saved.

James is saying because we are saved, we’ll work harder.

But more specifically, we’ll work harder to imitate Jesus.

We are His children after all, right?

We think it’s so cute when a little boy wants to dress like his grandpa.

If grandpa wears overalls, junior can’t be happy until he’s wearing overalls when he’s with granddad.

If granddad has a piece of straw in his mouth, so does junior.

And if grandpa spits - well, how else do little boys learn how to spit?

We are the sons and the daughters of God.

As our love grows for the Father, so does our realization that He is so much smarter than us.

And He loves us so much more than we ever considered.

So we start wanting to be more and more like Him.

Talking like Him.

Caring like Him.

Living like Him.

Really, if we are the real deal, we’ll have no choice because

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.