“Doers, not merely hearers” 

(James 1:17-27) 

 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.  In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human 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 your souls.

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

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

            Some say that this morning’s lesson could be summed up in three words, “Walk the talk.”  James, our author, really does say: “be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves….”  Walk your talk. 

            I think the whole first chapter of the Book of James (more than what you heard read) requires us to look at our own understanding of God.  It seems to me that James is reacting against seeing God in the too-simple way of only a cause and effect kind of thing, which is like, if we do this, then God will do that.  That God would be a reactor to human behavior. 

This way of understanding and experiencing God is like we live in a closed system in which there is a lack of resources, the opposite of abundance—it would be scarcity.  We would be always worried about what we do and what God will do in reaction to whatever we do.  And this reduces God to a being who thinks and acts like us—sometimes the worst about us.

            It is different for James.  For him God is the One who is most real and defines reality for us as a community.  God has created us, listens to our prayers, gives to us generously, is the source of not just our thanksgivings, but the source of all of life.

            Our challenge from James is that we need to not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are the center of Creation.  But, rather, we are encouraged by James to live life abundantly, to live generously in this life and live with simple hearts and philosophies.

            Instead, if we choose to live in anger and building fences around ourselves and our resources which we have been fooled (deceived) into thinking will protect our resources and keep us safe—if we choose this life we will be deprived of the joy of living, of being generous and, further, deprived of closeness with our Creator.

            And so, back to walking our talk.  Even though we are claiming that we want the joy of living close to our God, it’s still hard to be doers, not just hearers of God’s Word.  It’s sometimes tough to walk our talk.

            The preacher who, with silver tongue, mesmerizes the crowd with sermons that are magnificent, who confidently instructs the parishioners in the way they should go.  This preacher is so good at being a leader and a guide, but, then, is ultimately found to have feet of clay—so very human.  Walk the talk, be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.  

            Then there’s the person who can sit down and consult with people about their finances, help them work out a budget plan to get out of debt and save for the future.  He, himself, is a gambler and is hopelessly in debt.  Walk the talk, be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.

            There’s the counselor who sits day in and day out listening to clients, offering guidance, sounding as if she has it all together who, then, turns out to not have a clue about her own dysfunctional life.  Walk the talk, be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.

            There’s the good church folk who say all the right stuff about everyone being welcome who are confronted with a difficult-to-accept person who fits an uncomfortable stereotype of a different race or religion or sexual preference.  Turns out they are not so welcome.  Walk the talk, be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.

            There are the people of good intentions who say, “I can do this or that” but are not able to follow through.  Ouch!  Walk the talk, be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.

            It is a wonderful gift to read scripture with an understanding and experience of God as Generous Giver of good gifts, a non-judgmental Being.  This is all good until we are confronted with our own inability to be generous and our own tendency toward being judgmental.  Reading scripture as folks who want to walk our talk is not easy because most of us in some way, shape or form are hearers of the word, but not always doers.

            …I only have the courage to preach this text because I hear it speaking to me and my own struggles first before I ever open my mouth in front of you.  We, as a community of Christ, are to walk the talk, to be doers, not merely hearers of the Word.

            I think of the story in the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 8) about how Peter’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever.  Jesus came to her, touched her hand and healed her.  What did she do?  She got up and started to serve them.  She was not only a hearer and recipient of the Word.  She was a doer.

            Being a doer of the Word is not just a one-off, though.  It’s a way of life.  It needs to be our daily response to our Creator God’s generosity toward us.

            We will be hearing more from James in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.  As Rachel Maddow says, “Watch this space!

…It does seem to me that our Christian tradition has been mostly driven by the Pauline letters, and, let’s face it, James has a different and interesting approach.  This is the beauty of our scripture, if we allow it, that there are many different voices that have contributeed.  There are different ways to know and think about God and different ways to understand the Christian faith. 

            I’m amused when I hear folks say this about the Bible: “God said it.  I believe it.  That’s the end of it.”  But what is the “it” that God said?  I think it’s beautiful that there are voices that are at least 6000 years old in our scripture.  The voices about Jesus cover some 200 to 300 years, and that was 2000 years ago.  And then there are all the church traditions that have come after.  There is so much to love about this work and these conversations that we can have as people of faith. 

            So, for today, let’s allow James to teach us about his community’s faith, about his love of scripture and Christ.

            In a bit we’ll be celebrating communion today, which is a commemoration of Jesus’ great act of love for us, the ultimate example of walking one’s talk, of being a doer of the word rather than only a hearer. 

            It’s a chance for us to recommit to living lives of love and to be nourished for our journeys of faith.  We can be hearers of the Word who joyfully act on our faith.  Our goal is to be hearers of God’s word who can look in the mirror and not see hypocrites or deceivers, but, rather, hearers who will be blessed in doing God’s Word.  Amen.