James 1:17-27
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 fulfilment 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. 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.
Even in reading and hearing this text again now, it reminds me a lot like a big pile of spaghetti on a plate. It just keeps going around in different circles where there seems to be no beginning or end! My hope is that I'll help unpack/organize it that so it's a little more palatable and we understand, at least in part what James is calling us to do.
The book of James is beloved by some people and avoided by others, most particularly because chapter two is often used as a carrot to dangle in front of those fearing they will not be saved except through their ‘works’ or deeds. And while that's a common theology in other denominations, it is not Presbyterian theology. Instead Reformed or Presbyterian theology maintains that good works do not flow toward salvation in any way. They flow from God's word and through our baptism in every way. Additionally, the letter of James is much harder to read and understand than Paul's letters, and the Gospels, which are driven by narratives where the words of Jesus are clear to us of how to live, how to speak, how to act, right from Jesus’ mouth.
Scholar Pheme Perkins encapsulates the section that we just read and she calls it “true piety--putting the word into practice”. For those of you who are actively serving in the mission or the ministry of this church or in many ways in this church, it would be easy to look into the mirror and say, “But I do put the word into practice. I have no need of this message.” And what James is getting at in our text has little to do with our actions and activity. It's more to do with how we behave, how we speak, how we listen and how we act and react to one another. Verses 19 through 21 speak directly to that. So let's look at this together again in our bulletin.
“You must understand this, my beloved. Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore, rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save our souls.” That's a tall order: being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. We all know the old adage ‘You can tell the character of a person by what makes them angry.’ That comes directly from a quote from Abraham Lincoln, who said, “You can tell the greatness of a person by his reactions and what makes him angry.” But it's also anger to things like injustices which Lincoln was speaking directly to. That's another sermon.
I think what James is getting at, is self-control, and growing into our maturity as baptized Christians. We've all had the experience of a difficult conversation with a spouse, a loved one, a child, a sibling, a neighbor, a co-worker where they've not even finished what they're saying and we jump in, and “Yeah, but…” In that moment we digress as Christians where our sole aim is to be right. We want to win the argument. We want to regain our own perceived sense of power or authority. But… we've also been on the receiving end of that when we're trying to express something that concerns us, troubles us and the other person pounces, flies off the handle with snark or even unwanted and unwarranted hostility. This does not help nurture relationships. Instead it actually cuts off the possibilities for growth and for the sweet fruits from the garden of God. Pheme Perkins entitles this as “controlled speech and humility in overcoming wickedness”.
Yet in the moment, and even after the fact, we often find ourselves triggered and angered, even self-righteous. And if it remains with us, we start popping antacids like they're Tic Tacs while we look for the next opportunity to settle the score.
Now, intrinsically, most of us know and understand that winning the debate or getting our way or winning the point doesn't settle the score, it only stresses the relationships further and turns the sweet fruit that God is requiring into bitter grapes. Eugene Peterson helps us hear this call in James by rewriting verses 19 through 21 like this:
Dear friends, lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue and let anger struggle along in the rear. God's righteousness does not come from human anger, so throw away this spoiled virtue and concerns, leave evil in the garbage. Instead honor simple humility. Let our gardener, God, landscape you with word, making a salvation garden of your life.
Imagine if we were all a “salvation garden”--what beautiful imagery. Now I know not everyone enjoys gardening, but I think we can all enjoy seeing a beautiful, lush well-cared for garden of fruit or vegetables or flowers. The last couple weeks I've been looking for a climber. I have this enormous pole at the corner of my deck and last year I found this beautiful climber. I've been going from garden center to garden center to try and find something similar that can climb up this pole and stay with me until the beautiful warm days end in October.
I went to the first place that shall remain nameless, but it begins with ‘home’ and ends with ‘depot’. And when I got there, so many of the flowers, pots and climbers were burned and tired and dried out. And I left there feeling frustrated, but also sad. Then I went to another garden center (Agway) and there, everything is lush. People are regularly watering them, taking care of the plants. There were more things there that I wanted to buy than I could afford and I felt happy and joyous. I didn't find my climber, but it left me feeling like ’Yes, this is a place I want to return to.’
This is the invitation for us. Do we want to be to others that dried-out bitter garden center that's not cared for, with more dead than alive plants or a garden center that's lush and thriving and brings joy and beauty? (I know which one I want to be. I'm still trying to get there.) What if we were that garden center for all of our relationships--the ones at home, and at work, and at church. What if our presence and our actions and activity were not for naught, because we listen more and talk less. We don't argue, we understand. And we seek to partner instead of seeking to win the point. Pheme Perkins calls this in this last section verses 22 to through 27 “those who practice the word bring blessings”.
Yesterday was an extremely painful day for me as I buried one of my oldest and dearest friends. She was my first spiritual director. She was my beach buddy for years. She taught me the contemplative activity of walking the beach quietly and seeking out glass when it was there to be found. (And she only stole my blue glass after I was asleep at night). But she had a deep, unending faith and was a woman who had many resources, but had a very deep and loving heart.
She owned a beach house that was a rental in the summer time and every time there was a turnover, instead of hiring the cleaning company (who never does it as good as she could), she would get up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday and drive in her old tired car down the Parkway to clean the house before the turnover. And she would take her old English sheepdog, Paddington with her .
On one Saturday morning she did this and her car died on the Parkway. This was probably 20 years ago, when she still smoked and didn't yet own a cell phone. So, there she was on the side of the road of the Garden State Parkway on a Saturday morning (now you know what that looks like!) She got out of the car. She lit up a smoke to try and figure out what to do. And she said to God, “I'm not going to get angry thinking you're punishing me and I'm not going to be afraid, because I know that you know where I am and that you will take care of me.”
About seven minutes later, a car went whizzing by her. It was one of our close friends, Anna, and she said to her husband, “Tommy! Tommy, stop the car! Stop the car! That's MaryAnne! Go back and get her! Go back and get her!” And so Tommy backed up on the Parkway, called for a tow and got her sorted.
Anna and Tommy too were on the way to the shore, but there was so much stuff in Tommy's car, Only MaryAnne could fit. Also that morning Anna decided she was not going to nag her husband to get out of the house. She was going to let him pack the car and go on his own schedule. And because of that the timing was such that they saw MaryAnne. that's why they connected. So, of course, Tommy calls AAA, but there's only one seat left in the car. So MaryAnne is in the back of their car and her car is being flat bedded. Paddington now is sitting in the car passenger seat by himself until they're towed to safety.
I can tell you for sure I would not have had the courage or the faithfulness to say what she did, (regardless of how many people I know that go to the beach on Saturday mornings).
This is a garden of salvation, my friends, and all we have to do is stop talking so much and stop arguing so much and listen to one another and listen to the Almighty God and God's words, so that we can start again producing beautiful fruit for all those to come and eat. May it be so. Amen.