Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-november-18-2024
James 1:19-27
Listening and Doing
19My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
The Presbyterian Church is one of the denominations that make use of what’s called the “Common Lectionary.” It’s a list of Bible readings for every day of the year. For each day, it includes one reading from the psalms, one reading from the rest of the Old Testament, one reading from the gospels, and one reading from the rest of the New Testament. Most of the time, our Bible Reflections are based on the gospel readings for the day. But sometimes we use other Old Testament or New Testament readings because there’s something particularly noteworthy in them.
And once in a while, the readings for the day include two passages that are both particularly important. In that case we have a choice to make: Which reading will we use as the basis of our Reflection? Last week the New Testament readings switched over from the book of the Revelation to the Letter of James. At the same time, the gospel readings were very important parables from the fifteenth chapter of Luke. So we thought about those gospel readings from Luke instead of the readings from James. But this week, I’d like to go back to look at a couple of those readings from James, because I think they have something important to say to us as modern followers of Jesus.
But first, let’s review a couple of important things about the Letter of James. Church tradition says that James was the biological brother of Jesus, and that he became the leader of the church in and around Jerusalem after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. It’s sometimes said that James was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, although the term ‘Bishop’ wasn’t used at that time.
It’s also worth noting that this letter that bears the name of James is what is called a “general letter” – in other words, it was not a letter intended for a particular church with particular problems. Instead, it was a letter about the Christian faith intended for believers throughout the Christian world.
It seems to me that the reading we’re looking at today is particularly important for a couple of points it makes.
First of all, at the beginning of the passage, James says that everyone should be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” Then he goes on to say, “for a person’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
That seems like a particularly important idea for followers of Jesus to think about regularly. Lots of people seem to believe that the mark of a true believer is it kind of righteous indignation about the sins of others – especially those outside the faith. There’s a kind of chronic, low-level crabbiness that seems to be regarded as a sign of true righteousness.
But James counsels us against that kind of attitude. It isn’t being angry about the sins of others that marks us as a follower of Jesus, but rather our remorse about our own sins and our willingness to serve others in Jesus’ name.
It strikes me that a capacity for deep listening is one of the marks of genuine discipleship. Lots of people seem to think that talking about the Christian faith is the most important thing we can do to bring others to know Jesus. But James – who apparently knew Jesus better than any of us ever will – stresses the importance of listening. My sense is that we all need to be instructed by this important thought. A successful evangelist I once met said that if we have an hour to share our faith with someone, we should spend the first fifty-five minutes listening and only the last five minutes talking.
Cultivating relationships with other people is an unappreciated aspect of Christian witness. That’s why God guided the early church into sharing table fellowship with gentiles as a part of their ministry. Getting to know people – including listening to their stories – is an irreplaceable of sharing faith. Most people probably wouldn’t include listening on a list of vital Christian skills, but I sense James would.
In the final verses of today’s passage, James talks about the nature of true religion – or as he puts it, “religion that God our father accepts.” In a number of our Reflections in the past, we’ve said that the Christian faith is not meant to be a religion. We make that distinction because a religion is usually a set of practices people do to make their God like them. And religion is often used to set up walls between one group of people and another. But the way of Jesus is not really a religion because it’s not about obeying rules to make God love you, and it’s not meant to be the system of walls that divide us from others.
In this reading, James is using the term religion in a different sense – as a way of life that reflects our relationship with God. What James says is that our lives should reflect a relationship with God built on the life and ministry of Jesus. It’s a way of life that’s characterized by looking after widows and orphans – by which James means the most vulnerable and needy people around us.
On Jesus’ last night among us, he got down on the floor and washed the feet of others. Then he told us to do likewise – to be servants to those who need our help. If we are truly to be the disciples Jesus calls us to be, it will not be because we angrily denounce the sins of others around us and tell them they’re going to hell if they don’t straighten up. If we’re truly to be the disciples Jesus calls us to be, it will be because – like him – we live lives of service to those who are in need and we stand up for the needy and the vulnerable that we encounter day by day.
It seems to me those are the points Jesus’ brother James would like us to carry away from this passage in the letter that bears his name.
Let’s pray. Lord, guard us against being the kind of people characterized by anger at the sins of others. Instead, let us be known as people that listen to the stories of others and serve them in Jesus’ name. Let us be, as James wrote, “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be become angry.” Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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