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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Hearing and Doing |
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James 1:17-25 Rogation
Sunday April 27, 2008 This morning’s reading from James began in the 22nd verse of the first chapter. I want to back up a couple verses and look at verses 17-25. So please turn with me in your Bibles to James 1:17-25. I am going to emphasize the two main points of this passage; receive the word, and do the word.
Receive the Word Let’s talk about receiving the word first. The word, in James means first of all the Old Testament, which he calls, the law (2:8), and the scripture (2:23). In it’s fuller sense, however, it refers to the totality of the revelation of God. It is the Old Testament and it’s fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and it is the Gospel of Christ as given in His own words and recorded and explained in the pages of the New Testament. It is the word, in this complete sense, that brings a soul to God. As James says, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,” (1:18). We see this idea again in 1:21 where we are told to lay aside evil and “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” Of course this is a principle of the Christian faith that is spread throughout the Bible. “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” (Heb. 11:6), but faith is not something conjured up in us by our own efforts, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” (Rom. 10:17). So our faith starts by receiving the word of God. It is the means by which God brings us into the faith. It is also the means by which we come to a mature faith. There are other factors, of course, but the word is a major player among them. So Peter says, “ grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (2 Pet. 3:18). He also shows the way to grow in grace and in Christ, saying “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby,” (1 Pet. 2:2). To receive the word is amazingly simple, and at the same time, exceedingly difficult. It is like the definition of playing the piano I heard one time; “just push the right keys at the right time and you can play any song you like.” As the saying goes, “easier said than done.” So it is with receiving the word. James tells us to, “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” We could say there are two things we must do if we want to receive the word. First lay aside anything that becomes an obstacle to receiving the word. Lay aside filthiness. Sin is filth in the eyes of God, and seeking to receive His word while clinging to our sin is like bathing in toxic waste. Like wise, we are to lay aside the superfluity of naughtiness. Some people delight in the appearance of naughtiness. I am sure you know ministers who take pleasure in the appearance of naughtiness. They think they are being “cool.” They think they are being relevant. They think they are advancing the cause of Christ by freeing people from oppressive rules and doctrines and moral views. They think they are showing God’s way of love and liberty. Not all ministers are like that, of course, but we hear, “Christianity must change or die” from so many voices today, we should not be surprised to learn that many ministers also believe it. We should not wonder that some of them think the biblical doctrines and ideas of holiness are stifling the cause of Christ and strangling the faith of good people who “feel” that something “can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” So they revel in things I think God abhors, and they delight to appear naughty rather than avoiding even the appearance of evil. James tells us to lay such things aside if we are truly going to receive the word of God. Then we are to humble ourselves before the word. We are to receive it with meekness. This is so difficult because we are proud by nature, and our pride makes us unable to receive the word. We are too proud to be able to admit that we are weak and needy before God. Too proud to admit our sin, or to admit that we can’t save ourselves. I saw a movie once, I can’t recall the name of it, but it featured two Oxford professors, the self-proclaimed intellectual “elite” of the world running around England for some reason. One scene showed them in a church or a cemetery, perhaps at a funeral, I don’t remember it exactly, but somehow someone said that Jesus died for our sins. The two “intellectuals” discussed this afterward, both agreeing that, “I don’t want anyone to die for my sins.” May I say, with all the love I can find in my heart, that such pride is an obstacle to receiving the word. To really receive the word requires us to admit to ourselves that we are foolish and needy and ignorant and stupid before the great God who created all things and hung the stars on space, and knows even the number of hairs on your head. Surely such a God knows best how to save our souls. Then we are to receive the word. Let it in. We must read it, hear it, ponder it, pray over it, let it work in our hearts. Let it transform our minds. Let it shape the way we think, and the thoughts we think, and the things we do. Let it dwell in us. Give it a home in our hearts. That is what it means to receive the word.
Do the Word Hearing the word is not enough. We have all had the experience of trying to talk to someone who just wasn’t listening, and we have all had the experience of having someone hear our words without acting on them. And we know hearing is not complete until we act on the word. Think of a soldier lying in bed when the sergeant comes in and yells, “Everybody up.” If you’ve been in the service you know everyone in the barracks hears that word. But is it enough for the soldier to hear the word, and roll over and go back to sleep? Probably the sergeant will take a dim view of that. So it is with us and the word of God. Hearing is not complete until we act on it. We must be doers of the word. James compares hearing the word of God to looking in a mirror. Most of us got up this morning and went to the mirror to prepare ourselves for church. We bathed, we shaved, we brushed our teeth, we combed our hair, we put on our make-up, we dressed. During much of this process we checked ourselves in the mirror, and, when we found something out of place we fixed it. Now what if we had looked in the mirror, and walked away from it without fixing anything? We might have come to church in our pajamas. We might not have combed our hair or brushed our teeth or done any of the things necessary to appear in public in polite society. James says that a person who looks into the word sees himself there. It is like a mirror that shows us who we are and what we are. We see there that we need to comb our hair and brush our teeth and change our clothing, spiritually speaking. But some people look at themselves in this mirror, and walk away without making the changes needed. They walk away and forget what they saw in the mirror. The engrafted word which is able to save our souls has no part in such people. Such people are “forgetful hearers.” The one who looks into the word and “continueth therein,” (25), is the one who has truly heard the word. Thus, the word of God is not just pretty language we read for the sake of beauty and tradition. It is the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. But it must be heard, and acted upon, or it has no effect in our lives. Let us pray. Holy God, who gave the engrafted word that we may have life; grant that we may hear and do the word. In The name of Christ our Saviour, the Living Word of God we pray. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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