Sermon 11th January 2009
Today, our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from James 1: 19-27
Listening and doing
Last Sunday’s sermon in which Cameron introduced this new teaching series from the book of James, brings to mind the story of a husband who upon arriving home, was met at the door by his sobbing wife. Tearfully she explained, "It's the pharmacist. He insulted me terribly this morning on the phone." Immediately the husband shot out downtown to confront the man and demand an apology.
Before he could say more than a few words, the pharmacist told him, "Now, just a minute sir, please listen to my side of it...
This morning the alarm failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and hurried out to the car, just to realize that I locked the house with both house and car keys inside. I had to break a window to get my keys. Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket.
Three blocks from the store, I had a flat tyre. When I got to the store, there was a bunch of people waiting for me to open up. I opened and started waiting on these people, and all the time the phone was ringing."
Then a customer handed me a handful of coins, and they spilled all over the floor. I got down on my hands and knees to pick them up; the phone was still ringing and ringing. As I rose from my knees, I banged my head on the open cash drawer, which made me stagger back against the shelf with perfume bottles on it...all of them hit the floor and broke.
Meanwhile, the phone was still ringing with no let up, and I finally got to answer it. It was your wife. She wanted to know how to use a rectal thermometer and, honest sir, all I did was tell her!"
There is a bit of this in James’ letter. The tone is that of ‘enough of beating about the bush - I will tell it as it is’. And trust me, it hurts. Hear him start to tell:
V14 but each of you is tempted when you are dragged away by your own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is full grown, gives birth to death.
James reminds us that in every human being an innate tendency to sin. The prophet Jeremiah many years before had talked about the heart and said:
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
And the way that evil desire operates in us is described metaphorically with the words ‘dragged away and enticed.’ These words remind me of how as a young boy we set traps for wild birds that were damaging crops in the farm. To lure them, we would pour seed and watch them being slowly lured and lead to the trap. Before they knew it they would be dangling, caught and facing our wrath.
The temptations of Eve & king David follow the same sequence – desire, sin, death. Eve desired the forbidden fruit and before she knew it, she had sinned and set off a sequence of events that led to the fall. (Gen 2-3) Similarly the famous Israelite king David desired Bathsheba from the roof top of his palace and before long the whole saga eventually led to the death of Uriah, her husband. (2 Sam 11-12)
But James has some encouraging news for us all:
V18 God has chosen to give us birth through the word of truth
Birth in this sense means regeneration – renewal, revival, rejuvenation. This gift of God’s word to us, however confronts our innate tendency to sin. The old nature to sin and the new nature given by God are in constant conflict. We could say that there is a battle of wills. This is an issue that the apostle Paul articulately dwells on especially in Romans 7.
It is also the thing that gets us easily stuck in infancy as a Christian. We are only 11 days into the year. You have probably purposed to make a few changes in your life this year – it may be a stride in your faith in 2009! A new start! But the question remains: how do we get ourselves unstuck from those unhelpful habits and lifestyles of the yester years? Sometimes life feels as when a vinyl record player got stuck and repeated a phrase endlessly, if you remember them? So what is the way forward then?
Well James has an answer for us.
My dear brother and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because our anger does not produce righteous life 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. Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says…
In four verses he brings us back to the word thrice – that is the word of God – holy scripture. Why does he do this? I looked up some research results posted by the Barna Group in the US who research about religious belief. Here are some results for a research done 3 years ago on people describing themselves as Christians:
37% could name all four Gospels.
42% of adults could name at least five of the Ten Commandments correctly.
¼ of all people never read the bible.
A UK blogsite suggests that 70-80% of people in the UK who call themselves Christians have never read the entire bible! We might also have heard it said that the bible should not be read from cover to cover – that just reading the gospels and the Psalm should suffice. Others insist that since Paul was not Jesus he should be read with a pinch of salt. Still others cast doubt on the historicity and therefore the authenticity of the bible and which means that it should be taken as one huge symbol. This and other arguments abound. I am also aware that statistics can be made to say what we want and for that reason, I will leave it to you to extrapolate these research findings and apply them to yourself.
But I have some good news for you today. And I mean everyone here today; God has brought us here for this one reason: God would like us to start living fully; to start living as we were meant to; to stop getting a raw deal from life. Get ourselves unstuck. Even those who have accepted Christ – God wants to take you to yet another level – a newer life.
James provides an answer for all categories of people:
And this is it; we really need to hear the word. It is both our point of departure into this new life promised by God, (because hearing it initiates this new birth). It is also and must be a continuing and dominant factor in our lives.
If the word is to have any impact, there must be a willingness and eagerness to listen. It is possible to hear something and not really listen to what has been said. How often do we just sit through a sermon and drift away – I am happy to take some of the blame for that as a frequent preacher. But equally how often do we not read the word for ourselves, and when we do - how often do we after 15 minutes realise that we haven’t really listened to what we have just read?
It is instructive that James does not go into methods and plans of bible reading, use of devotional materials and the like, important as they are. Methods and plans are useless, if the heart is not attentive, if the reading is not really being heard.
Secondly, those who want to listen and hear God speak must be less impressed with the sound of their own voices. I know we have a lot to say, but a little less talking will put us on the right track, of listening and hearing. It reminds me of the saying about God giving us two ears to listen twice as we speak.
And so how do we know that we have heard? Well the word of God changes our lifestyle – thoughts, aspirations, outlook to life.
Is 55:10
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The word of God, the word of truth, does not affirm our sinful nature, but rather confronts it bringing us to repentance. It gets us unstuck from regrettable lifestyles, even breaks chains of bondage from unhelpful habits. This is the new life. That is what it accomplishes because it is God’s desire to do so! So friends, do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Just do it!
And for those who choose to do this – there is blessing.
V25But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.
Law and freedom in our modern thinking are strange bedfellows. If anything, the law curtails our freedom! But we can understand this unique relationship between the two if we look back at when God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. God starts with the declaration:
Ex 20:2
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…He then goes to address a people who are now free, giving them commandments to live by and therefore fully enjoy their new found freedom; the freedom he has secured for them. We are truly free when we live lives that are appropriate to those created in God’s image. God’s law safeguards and ensures that freedom/liberty. It is for this reason that James declares that those who take God’s law seriously, anyone who looks intently, suggesting a sustained gaze, everyday; that continued immersion in God’s truth, all day, for all our lives. For such people – there is a blessing.
The outworking of a truly religious life is grounded on this word of truth. But if we don’t read it - how shall we know God’s will for us? How shall we engage with the world? How shall we live the full life that God has called us into?
Finally:
Listening, hearing and doing this word will help us engage with three difficult areas of behaviour mentioned:
taming our tongue, showing a practical concern for others without looking for a return or recognition – because how can a widow or orphan repay you?; resisting to be swept away by worldly values and standards. As a people who know who God is, how different is our use of time, money and energy from those who don’t know Christ?
Why do I ask this question?
Because the new birth brought about by the word implanted in us cannot leave our lives unchanged. Something transformative happens. The word does not affirm our sinful fallen nature – it transforms it.
I know God’s word changes lives, because mine was changed. I also know that God speaks to us in a myriad of ways. The word says that God even "shouts" to us through creation. Psalm 19"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard… to the ends of the world."
God speaks to us through dreams, and even other people..God also speaks to us through various circumstances – and often it is when a crisis strikes because then we are more likely to stop and listen. God also speaks very specifically through his Word, the Bible.
But friends, the bottom line is this; in life we see what we want to see, we pay attention to what we want to pay attention, we hear what we want to hear. Hearing God's voice and doing it is a choice – and I leave that with you with a prayer that we would choose to hear and God’s word and do it. Let us pray.
Listening and doing
Last Sunday’s sermon in which Cameron introduced this new teaching series from the book of James, brings to mind the story of a husband who upon arriving home, was met at the door by his sobbing wife. Tearfully she explained, "It's the pharmacist. He insulted me terribly this morning on the phone." Immediately the husband shot out downtown to confront the man and demand an apology.
Before he could say more than a few words, the pharmacist told him, "Now, just a minute sir, please listen to my side of it...
This morning the alarm failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and hurried out to the car, just to realize that I locked the house with both house and car keys inside. I had to break a window to get my keys. Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket.
Three blocks from the store, I had a flat tyre. When I got to the store, there was a bunch of people waiting for me to open up. I opened and started waiting on these people, and all the time the phone was ringing."
Then a customer handed me a handful of coins, and they spilled all over the floor. I got down on my hands and knees to pick them up; the phone was still ringing and ringing. As I rose from my knees, I banged my head on the open cash drawer, which made me stagger back against the shelf with perfume bottles on it...all of them hit the floor and broke.
Meanwhile, the phone was still ringing with no let up, and I finally got to answer it. It was your wife. She wanted to know how to use a rectal thermometer and, honest sir, all I did was tell her!"
There is a bit of this in James’ letter. The tone is that of ‘enough of beating about the bush - I will tell it as it is’. And trust me, it hurts. Hear him start to tell:
V14 but each of you is tempted when you are dragged away by your own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is full grown, gives birth to death.
James reminds us that in every human being an innate tendency to sin. The prophet Jeremiah many years before had talked about the heart and said:
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
And the way that evil desire operates in us is described metaphorically with the words ‘dragged away and enticed.’ These words remind me of how as a young boy we set traps for wild birds that were damaging crops in the farm. To lure them, we would pour seed and watch them being slowly lured and lead to the trap. Before they knew it they would be dangling, caught and facing our wrath.
The temptations of Eve & king David follow the same sequence – desire, sin, death. Eve desired the forbidden fruit and before she knew it, she had sinned and set off a sequence of events that led to the fall. (Gen 2-3) Similarly the famous Israelite king David desired Bathsheba from the roof top of his palace and before long the whole saga eventually led to the death of Uriah, her husband. (2 Sam 11-12)
But James has some encouraging news for us all:
V18 God has chosen to give us birth through the word of truth
Birth in this sense means regeneration – renewal, revival, rejuvenation. This gift of God’s word to us, however confronts our innate tendency to sin. The old nature to sin and the new nature given by God are in constant conflict. We could say that there is a battle of wills. This is an issue that the apostle Paul articulately dwells on especially in Romans 7.
It is also the thing that gets us easily stuck in infancy as a Christian. We are only 11 days into the year. You have probably purposed to make a few changes in your life this year – it may be a stride in your faith in 2009! A new start! But the question remains: how do we get ourselves unstuck from those unhelpful habits and lifestyles of the yester years? Sometimes life feels as when a vinyl record player got stuck and repeated a phrase endlessly, if you remember them? So what is the way forward then?
Well James has an answer for us.
My dear brother and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because our anger does not produce righteous life 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. Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says…
In four verses he brings us back to the word thrice – that is the word of God – holy scripture. Why does he do this? I looked up some research results posted by the Barna Group in the US who research about religious belief. Here are some results for a research done 3 years ago on people describing themselves as Christians:
37% could name all four Gospels.
42% of adults could name at least five of the Ten Commandments correctly.
¼ of all people never read the bible.
A UK blogsite suggests that 70-80% of people in the UK who call themselves Christians have never read the entire bible! We might also have heard it said that the bible should not be read from cover to cover – that just reading the gospels and the Psalm should suffice. Others insist that since Paul was not Jesus he should be read with a pinch of salt. Still others cast doubt on the historicity and therefore the authenticity of the bible and which means that it should be taken as one huge symbol. This and other arguments abound. I am also aware that statistics can be made to say what we want and for that reason, I will leave it to you to extrapolate these research findings and apply them to yourself.
But I have some good news for you today. And I mean everyone here today; God has brought us here for this one reason: God would like us to start living fully; to start living as we were meant to; to stop getting a raw deal from life. Get ourselves unstuck. Even those who have accepted Christ – God wants to take you to yet another level – a newer life.
James provides an answer for all categories of people:
And this is it; we really need to hear the word. It is both our point of departure into this new life promised by God, (because hearing it initiates this new birth). It is also and must be a continuing and dominant factor in our lives.
If the word is to have any impact, there must be a willingness and eagerness to listen. It is possible to hear something and not really listen to what has been said. How often do we just sit through a sermon and drift away – I am happy to take some of the blame for that as a frequent preacher. But equally how often do we not read the word for ourselves, and when we do - how often do we after 15 minutes realise that we haven’t really listened to what we have just read?
It is instructive that James does not go into methods and plans of bible reading, use of devotional materials and the like, important as they are. Methods and plans are useless, if the heart is not attentive, if the reading is not really being heard.
Secondly, those who want to listen and hear God speak must be less impressed with the sound of their own voices. I know we have a lot to say, but a little less talking will put us on the right track, of listening and hearing. It reminds me of the saying about God giving us two ears to listen twice as we speak.
And so how do we know that we have heard? Well the word of God changes our lifestyle – thoughts, aspirations, outlook to life.
Is 55:10
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The word of God, the word of truth, does not affirm our sinful nature, but rather confronts it bringing us to repentance. It gets us unstuck from regrettable lifestyles, even breaks chains of bondage from unhelpful habits. This is the new life. That is what it accomplishes because it is God’s desire to do so! So friends, do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourself. Just do it!
And for those who choose to do this – there is blessing.
V25But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.
Law and freedom in our modern thinking are strange bedfellows. If anything, the law curtails our freedom! But we can understand this unique relationship between the two if we look back at when God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. God starts with the declaration:
Ex 20:2
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery…He then goes to address a people who are now free, giving them commandments to live by and therefore fully enjoy their new found freedom; the freedom he has secured for them. We are truly free when we live lives that are appropriate to those created in God’s image. God’s law safeguards and ensures that freedom/liberty. It is for this reason that James declares that those who take God’s law seriously, anyone who looks intently, suggesting a sustained gaze, everyday; that continued immersion in God’s truth, all day, for all our lives. For such people – there is a blessing.
The outworking of a truly religious life is grounded on this word of truth. But if we don’t read it - how shall we know God’s will for us? How shall we engage with the world? How shall we live the full life that God has called us into?
Finally:
Listening, hearing and doing this word will help us engage with three difficult areas of behaviour mentioned:
taming our tongue, showing a practical concern for others without looking for a return or recognition – because how can a widow or orphan repay you?; resisting to be swept away by worldly values and standards. As a people who know who God is, how different is our use of time, money and energy from those who don’t know Christ?
Why do I ask this question?
Because the new birth brought about by the word implanted in us cannot leave our lives unchanged. Something transformative happens. The word does not affirm our sinful fallen nature – it transforms it.
I know God’s word changes lives, because mine was changed. I also know that God speaks to us in a myriad of ways. The word says that God even "shouts" to us through creation. Psalm 19"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard… to the ends of the world."
God speaks to us through dreams, and even other people..God also speaks to us through various circumstances – and often it is when a crisis strikes because then we are more likely to stop and listen. God also speaks very specifically through his Word, the Bible.
But friends, the bottom line is this; in life we see what we want to see, we pay attention to what we want to pay attention, we hear what we want to hear. Hearing God's voice and doing it is a choice – and I leave that with you with a prayer that we would choose to hear and God’s word and do it. Let us pray.
posted by Parish Administrator at 1:44 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home