Sermon 18th October 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 3, verses 1-18. 

Words and Wisdom

Sajid Javid, who was appointed Business Secretary in the Cabinet after the May General Election, tells this story about when he first became an MP in 2010. He was driving home from the count and turned to his wife and said: ‘Laura, did you ever imagine, in your wildest dreams, that one day I would actually be a Member of Parliament?’ And she looked at him in the eye and said: ‘Darling, in my wildest dreams, you don’t feature at all.’

Fortunately Sajid Javid was able to see the humorous side of his wife’s perhaps tactless response. But often ill-considered words can prove to be very hurtful and harmful, as James so vividly shows in today’s reading from his letter. In our Bibles, there are two headings in today’s passage, the first ‘Taming the Tongue’ and the second ‘Two Kinds of Wisdom’.  Although the headings don’t form part of the original text, they do summarise the main themes from James 3, and they are in fact closely connected.

There are two kinds of wisdom and there are two ways of going through life. There is a life that is based on the wisdom that comes from heaven – God’s wisdom. And there is wisdom that is ‘earthly’ – that has nothing to do with God’s wisdom. In chapter 3 James sets out what that means for the way we use our tongues – how we use words.

We may read these words from James and think that – we mustn’t lie, we mustn’t slander people behind their backs and we mustn’t insult people and belittle them with hurtful words. These are all very important things, and James had them very much in mind. A hurtful word can be devastating and have long lasting consequences. A small lie can lead to bigger lies and ultimately to the destruction of a relationship. And of course the Internet didn’t exist in James’s time. An ill-considered text message or tweet can literally spread around the world in a matter of a few hours – perhaps even quicker. We often use our mobile phones as an extension of our tongues.

James certainly puts his case very strongly. He was also referring to a bigger picture – the slipperiness of speech and how we use words. I’ll give an example, perhaps a trivial one, to show what I mean. There’s a supermarket which has its ‘Essential’ range of goods. ‘Essential’ means absolutely necessary, indispensable – you can’t do without it. Here are some of the things that this supermarket thinks we can’t do without: vermicelli nests, artichoke hearts, cappuccino mousse, cardamom and black pepper soap, ratatouille provencal and profiteroles. A trivial example, perhaps, but it shows how words can be manipulated to make us think that we really need items that are not remotely essential.

George Orwell, in his famous novel 1984 about the ultimate totalitarian state, was well aware of the power of words. He developed the fictional language ‘Newspeak’ which was to take the place of English. Newspeak’s aim was to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts by eliminating from the language the words by which people might be able to think rebellious thoughts.

In today’s society, indeed, words are often used to create an alternative reality. There have been calls to redefine what counts as a refugee to make it harder to qualify as one. By defining your political opponents as ‘scum’, it becomes OK to spit at them and to abuse them. Murderous suicide bomb attacks are called ‘martyrdom missions’ to justify the slaughter of innocents. Yes, words are slippery, they can be easily manipulated.

James emphasises the power of the tongue in no uncertain terms. And he also points out that it needs to be subject to the authority of God’s word. James tells us that the tongue is far more powerful than we can imagine, because he says that if we can control our tongues, we can control our entire person. That’s a very bold statement. And it’s a very positive statement. If we can get our tongues right, all else follows. But in contrast James paints a very negative picture of our ability to control our tongues.

James gives some very graphic images to show the power of the tongue. He likens our tongues to the bit in a horse’s mouth. The horse is a great animal which gallops with great power, yet the little bit in its mouth can be used to turn the mighty animal in the direction the rider wants it to go. There’s also a great ship in the ocean; that great ship is turned by a small rudder that’s under the water. In the same way the tongue can direct the course of our lives.

I don’t think many of us would have said that before we came to church this morning – that the tongue directs the course of our lives. If I ask, ‘What directs our lives?’ I wonder what our answers would be.  We might say our hearts, or our minds or our reason. But probably not our tongues. We might be tempted to think that James is giving our tongues too much authority. Yet if we think about, we will probably agree with James that the tongue is immensely powerful.

The horse has to have legs for the bit to be able to steer it. And indeed what moves us is what is inside, what is in our hearts. I don’t think James is saying the initial impetus of our lives comes from our tongues, but with our tongues we construct the reality of what is in our hearts. If we want to know what is in our hearts, then look at how we use our tongues.

James goes on to say that out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. And he goes on to give some examples that don’t exist in reality to press home his points. In answer to the questions he poses in verse 11: No, fresh water and salt water can’t flow from the same spring. And no, a fig tree can’t bear olives, nor a grapevine bear figs. These images don’t exist in reality.

When we live by a reality that isn’t God’s reality, then we create something that isn’t real. We create something that simply serves our own intentions and our own interests. James says that when we praise God but attack our brothers and sisters, that has as much place in God’s reality as a freshwater spring that produces salt water. They are inherently incompatible. One is real, the other is false. It’s made up; it’s an image and it’s a lie.

So, how can we tame our tongues? How can we use them in a Godly way? The answer lies in where we find our wisdom. As I said near the start, James said there are two kinds of wisdom, God’s wisdom and earthly wisdom – so-called wisdom that rejects God’s wisdom. The way to tame the tongue is to define reality not by our own interests, but by subjecting it to God’s reality – God’s reality that is revealed in God’s word and in his flesh in Jesus Christ. That becomes our lens through which we view reality. And that can help us to use our tongues properly.

What does God’s reality look like? The Bible is full of it. But for today I’ll stick to James. James has given us plenty of examples which we’ve looked at for the past few weeks.

In James chapter 2, as Ben explained to us two weeks ago, in the church we should not be showing favouritism. If we favour the rich over the poor, if we distinguish between rich and poor, we are creating a reality which is different from God’s reality where there is no such distinction – or perhaps even a bias towards the poor.

And also, as Simon explored last Sunday, faith and good works go together.  If we say we have faith but don’t show it through good works, then we are creating a false reality. Faith necessitates works. The more we learn about God’s word, the more we learn about the life of Jesus, the more we will be changed to become like Jesus.

It’s also very easy to use words to disguise reality in seemingly small ways, but those seemingly small ways can also be very damaging.  How easy it is to say to someone, ‘Let’s do lunch’ when you have no intention of doing lunch. Or to say, ‘Do drop by’, hoping that the person will never drop by. Or to say you’re going to do something when you don’t really mean it. When we do that, we’re using language to hide and to avoid facing the issues. Also, how easy it is to gossip behind someone’s back, to make snide remarks you wouldn’t make if the person was there.

When we say things like that, it’s salt and freshwater coming from the same spring. We’re contradicting God’s reality. And to tame our tongues, to get away from saying things we don’t mean and to avoid petty gossip, we need to tune into God’s wisdom.

James doesn’t mince his words here. The wrong kind of wisdom is bitter and arrogant. It is a spirit which is carping and critical. It may seem superficially wise, but in reality it is cynical and destructive.  And when a person with that kind of spirit claims to be a Christian, James has a sharp response. That sort of spirit is ‘earthly, unspiritual and demonic’.

Harsh words, but this earthly wisdom can be very pernicious in its effects. It may give some appearance of wisdom. Cynicism often does; it often has some appeal. You wouldn’t expect a demonic mind-set to make itself too obvious, would you! But the most notable thing about this earthly wisdom is that it drives people apart, instead of bringing them together. Instead of producing harmony, it brings about strife. A person with this type of wisdom may have a sharp brain and a persuasive tongue.  But their effect, whether in church, on committees or in a community group, is to cause trouble and hurt relationships. It’s a spirit that seeks to find fault without suggesting any solutions. Yes, we should stand up for what we believe in, but we should do it in a positive, constructive way.

James declares a special blessing in verse 18 on peacemakers. They will reap ‘a harvest of righteousness’. Right at the start of the letter James encouraged his readers to ask for wisdom as God will generously and graciously give us the wisdom we need. And now James tells us what that wisdom will look like. It’s not a question of knowledge or being a rocket scientist. The true wisdom produces right relationships. It brings people closer to each other and to God. James describes true wisdom in verse 17 as ‘pure … peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere’.

The cynic full of earthly wisdom might dismiss these characteristics as naïve and unrealistic. But what do we want in our church and community? What will build up our church and community? What sort of people do we want serving and helping us? Which one would you rather have as your neighbour? Someone full of bitter envy and selfish ambition? Or the peace-loving and considerate person? It is, as they say, a ‘no-brainer’.  The challenge for us is to become that neighbour ourselves, the peace-maker who builds up and who is willing to serve.

I’ll end with some words from the commentary on James by Tom Wright, the noted theologian and former Bishop of Durham; ‘These characteristics [that is the characteristics of heavenly wisdom] are hard to acquire and hard to maintain. They can only be sustained at great personal cost. They only appear when there has been a steady habit of prayer and self-discipline; even then they may take a while to show themselves. It would be worth spending time to work through the words in this list one by one [‘pure … peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere’]. Do it slowly. Review your life in the light of them. You might want to make a note of the times, the places, and particularly the people, that make it hard for you to live in this way – and then to pray for strength, and for this wisdom from above, to hold firm when the challenge comes round once more.’

Let’s pray: Father, help us to use our tongues wisely. Give us insight to follow James’s encouragement, so that we may live by your wisdom. Amen.

 

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[i] 18 October 2015

Sermon 11th October 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Simon Brindley, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 2 verses 14-26.

“Faith without actions is dead” (but what about actions without the foundation of faith?)

I preached on this identical passage from the letter of James nearly 7 years ago, in January 2009, and actually I remember it very well (I am not remotely expecting anyone else to!) – and better than most of what I have said in church – because I used an image from my childhood and one that I can still easily recall. I remembered looking out over the low front wall of my primary school in the North East of England in the 1960’s at the site of what had once been a whole coalmining community, a village called New Delaval. But the mine had been closed in the 1950’s and the village largely demolished and all you could see was the bare foundations of where the houses and other buildings had been. Our school was pretty much all that was left standing. And I used that image to illustrate the message that James is trying, quite forcefully, to get across, that if all you have is the foundations of faith, but you have nothing built on them…

…..if you do not build on your faith by your actions, then your faith is, effectively, dead. You have, pretty much, a derelict wasteland. No life….no signs of hope….no laughter.

We’ll obviously have another look this morning at what James says about the need to put your faith into action but I also want to look at this from a slightly different angle and ask another question as well today.  I want to ask not only “Is it not enough that I have my faith, and can’t I even leave the actions, the loving of my neighbour, to other people?” and so on but I also want to ask the following: “But why have faith as the foundations of your actions at all? Isn’t it enough just to love your neighbour? Why do we have to go on about believing in God as well?”

I hope the reasons why I think that is also a good question to ask in 2015 will become clearer over the next few minutes. So here goes. (And what I have tried to do in preparing this morning is just to watch out, over the last couple of months, for examples in real life: in the books I have read or just dipped into, listening to people talking, in the stories in the newspapers, on the radio and so on, for these questions about the relationship between faith and faith in action being thought about - and appearing – all around us, so I hope that at least some of the illustrations I have gathered will help show just how important these issues still are today).

To start with though and putting it at its simplest, this passage from James pretty much hits us between the eyes with its clear-cut message. If all you have is your faith, your believing in God, and you do not actually put it into action, your faith is dead. You simply cannot claim to love God, to have a living relationship with God, to be saved, to be born again, to be a follower of Jesus Christ, in whatever precise terms you prefer to express the fact that you are a believer, and not have with it, some compassion, some desire to do good, some desire to forgive, some desire to love your neighbour, some desire to stand up for what is right, some desire to fight for justice, some desire to work for peace, some desire to help people or however you describe what it might mean for you to put your faith into action. 

You cannot even leave the good works to others within the church family and, as it were, ride on their coat-tails.  James is abundantly clear about that as well. “But someone will say”, he writes, “You have faith and I will do the good works?” But James rejects that option as well. You just cannot leave the actions to others. 

These two elements of Christianity, faith and good works, if you like loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself, inevitably go together. And history, old and recent, is littered with examples of people whose faith has come alive in the good things they have done. James mentions Abraham, prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac although spared from actually having to do so, and Rahab the prostitute, who hid the Israelite spies and let them down the walls of Jericho in a basket during a siege, as examples of faith in action that his readers would have been very familiar with.

This does not mean of course that we must do great things for them to be of real value. The commandment is to love your neighbour, the person or people you come into contact with in your daily life, whoever that might be. The commandment is not to solve the world’s huge problems by yourself, to take everything on your shoulders. There are examples of people of faith who are called upon to do that, to stand out nationally or locally, but for most of us it will be in smaller acts of kindness that we contribute to the bigger picture, whether that is leaving harvest gifts for the refugees (on that one by the way the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers have said thanks very much for the “bumper crop” we sent them from our Harvest Service recently!) or filling a shoebox with good things for Christmas (listen out very soon for details on this year’s shoebox appeal) or a cup of tea for the neighbour who has lost someone or been abandoned by their partner or a listening ear for the friend whose child is in serious trouble at school or a meal or a visit for the elderly person or a visit to the person in hospital, or cleaning the church hall floor or helping with one of those other many tasks that needs to be done in our church community, or whatever it is. 

Don’t forget the story of the widow’s mite. The two tiny coins were of far more value than the larger gift, because the widow gave from her heart from the little she had to give.

So never think that your own good works are of no value because you think you cannot do much. Do what you can from the heart and God rejoices. If you think what you do is worth little because you cannot do much, you have not understood the message of the gospel. The journalist and broadcaster Libby Purves, who is reported as having clearly stated many times that she does not believe in religion, actually said exactly this in the Times newspaper on September 7, 2015 (1), agreeing that faith can inspire many good things, not only in the famous names – William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King for example - but also in those of whom the author George Eliot wrote, “That things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs”.  There is so much that can be done by ordinary people in their ordinary lives. It may go unseen, what you do for others in your life may be hidden from most other people, but do not underestimate its value.

So far, I hope, so clear enough.

And today of course there are many examples also that do hit the headlines, of faith being put into action. In our own Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby spoke at an evensong service at a church in Tower Hamlets on Tuesday 29^th September 2015, to a group of about 50 or 60 church members involved one way or another in the battle against the burden of unfair personal debt. “Money” he said “could be a slave-master of the utmost cruelty, without grace and guidance,” as he commissioned the first 150 or so Church Credit Champions to lead debt-counselling and support for credit unions in our own churches. Our Church of England is already heavily involved in this work on the ground; the plan is to roll the work out to another 27 dioceses and train 6000 credit champions in parishes across the country. Much of the work unseen, with ordinary people in the poorest areas of our society but absolutely rooted, said the Archbishop, in the love of Christ and a desire to set people free from the tyranny of unfair finance. If you want to read about this, see the Church Times for 2 October just gone (2).

However, however, however….this idea of good works founded on religious faith is not just now the predominant culture in which we live, at least not in this country. We live in a society that has to a large extent, I think it is fair to say, rejected or at the very least marginalized faith as a foundation for everyday life. The senior Jewish and Catholic leaders in this country Rabbi Mirvis and Cardinal Nichols writing in the Daily Telegraph on 3 September 2015 (3) said that “publicly identifying with any religion has become an act of courage in many western countries because believers are now routinely assumed to be naïve, unsophisticated and narrow minded”. They were urging society not to reject out of hand what people of faith have to say about vital social issues like assisted dying and family values.

And all this raises the question, which is very much alive in our society today, why have faith as the basis of your actions at all? Is it not enough just to do good, for goodness’ sake?! Will that not get us to where we really want to get to?

On more than one occasion over the last few years I have wondered if sport in various forms is not in effect the modern religion? I remember being in a huge and noisy football crowd at St James’ Park Newcastle some years ago and sensing all around me a passion and a sense of belonging and common purpose and commitment and identity that felt almost religious in nature. Not too far from what you might experience in the best of church life. And I was reminded of this thought about sport and religion just a few weeks ago when I read this book, on the recommendation of my son Michael, “The Society of Timid Souls” (4). It is very well researched and movingly written and it is about real people showing incredible courage and dealing with real fear in all kinds of situations. I can highly recommend it. 

In one chapter in this book the author Polly Morland says that the gym has become the twenty-first century church and she describes being part of a crowd of 15,000 runners in a provincial half marathon, so many running for good causes, for cancer sufferers, treatments for a whole range of illnesses and disabilities and so on, often in memory of lost loved ones. And the sense of belonging, of common purpose, of really worthwhile action, of being appreciated, of wanting to help, of good humanity in a modern Sunday morning race, wearing a shirt like this one (5) (Green Macmillan Cancer care T shirt) as I did last Sunday morning in a crowd of many, many thousands in Glasgow can be close to anything you will experience of loving your neighbour through the activities of your church community.

Loving your neighbour does not have to be built on a foundation of faith to be of value. You may want to argue differently, I don’t know, but for me actions without faith are not dead!

I thought of this again during the last few working days. The London Evening Standard, you may well know, has been running a really strong campaign in just the last two weeks first to enquire into the dreadful gang culture and blight on the Angell Town estate only hundreds of yards from where we are this morning, literally just round a few corners in that direction, as I am sure most of you know. And it has culminated in grants of about £150,000 to local heroes setting up all kinds of wonderful improvement projects. It really does seem to me to be a sign of hope and of trying to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Here are some of the local heroes in a beautiful picture on the front of last Monday’s evening paper (6). You might even recognize one or two of the faces.  If you have not read about this yet, please do so.

There are in fact at least two local, ordained Christian women ministers mentioned as very heavily involved in all this effort in Angell Town, but does its value depend on the foundation on which those involved try to build? No, I do not think so, and I do think God rejoices when by their actions people show their love for their fellow human beings, whatever their fundamental foundation and motivation. Good actions without faith are far from dead. They certainly can be signs of hope, of life, of laughter. For this reason among many, perhaps it is not entirely surprising to us who do try to base our lives on the foundation of faith that its role as a foundation for good works is being questioned in our society.

For all kinds of reasons our generation is struggling with its traditions of faith. Jennie and I went to the west of Ireland for two weeks in late July and early August, to a country which seems in many ways to have raced away in recent decades from religion to a much more secular society. While there I dipped into a large volume of poetry by the great modern Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and in his lecture titled “Crediting Poetry” to the prize-giving ceremony in Stockholm that year (7) he describes the incredible hardship and internal turmoil of seeing religion and political violence tear apart his country and its people’s lives during the decades of the Troubles. I wish I had time to share more of his moving account but the point I want to make is that the violence surged so powerfully that it became too much for Heaney. He describes himself like a dutiful monk at that time, sitting over his desk, “blowing up sparks [on his fire] for meager heat” and,

 “Forgetting faith, straining towards good works. …Attending insufficiently to the diamond absolutes, among which must be counted the sufficiency of that which is absolutely imagined.” 

Because sometimes life’s circumstances can be so hard, so powerfully against the idea of faith that it can become easier just to forget about God and focus on good works. 

Seamus Heaney himself goes on to write that “finally and happily and not in obedience to the dolorous circumstances of my native place but in spite of them, I straightened up. I began a few years ago to try to make space in my reckoning for the marvellous as well as the murderous.”

But you can certainly understand why, in the face of horror, and even more so where the horror appears to have a religious element,  a thinking person might try to focus on doing good works but not on any foundation of faith.

So why, for the final few minutes, is faith persisting and bubbling up all over the place and why is it still such a powerful motivator to good works and a firm foundation for them?

Well, first I would say it is because faith deals with so much more than our love of our neighbour. It speaks to us about where we come from. It speaks to us of a living relationship with that Creator God. It speaks to us about being loved in spite of anything, it speaks to us of being forgiven in spite of everything. It speaks to us of life beyond the limitations of this life. It speaks to us of hope that is not based only on human effort but is positively and powerfully supported by the living, breathing, indwelling Holy Spirit of God. And faith speaks to us of the value God places on every single created human being in His creation.

And for us who call ourselves Christians, as the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded those who heard him speak on the burdens of debt last week Tuesday, it is the example of Jesus Christ, broken on the cross to set us free, that forces us to face again and again and again the needs of those who are not free, whatever it is that enslaves them.

You see, in this Christian duality of faith and good works, once you accept by choice the option of faith, I think trying in whatever way you can to love your neighbour is not an option, it becomes a command. Forgive me for speculating for a moment, but it may just be that in understanding just that, that the reality is that loving our neighbour as we love ourselves is not intended as an option but intended as a command, that the future of humanity ultimately depends.

And the point I want to leave us with is this. That although faith without actions is dead and although I think we can see that actions without faith are not, faith itself is far from dead and remains a really sound foundation for action. As well as dealing with so much more, our faith compels us to care for others. 

And so we still find the overtly non religious broadcaster Libby Purves this month (1), praising the example of the Queen who says every year that it is the teachings of Jesus Christ and her own accountability before God that provide her with the framework for her life, and Libby Purves wonders at the Queen’s silent steadfastness.

And we find the broadcaster and screenwriter Rhidian Brook talking on 8^th September 2015 on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day (8) about why he chooses to play football on a Sunday instead of go to church and stating, “Playing football instead of going to church isn’t a clash of faith and unbelief, its just a clash of timetables. But nor is football - for all its unexpected similarities – a substitute. The church carries a great hope beyond itself and that hope continues to draw me to pursue God with others, even if not always at the usual time.”

And it is why finally the new Liverpool football manager Jurgen Klopp – you may not know this yet – says that if anyone asks him about his faith, “I give information. Not because I claim to be any sort of missionary. But when I look at me and my life – and I take time for that every day – then I feel that I am in sensationally good hands” (9).

Amen to that.

Faith without actions is dead but faith remains a powerful and sound foundation for our love of others. Faith has inspired many generations to do good things. It continues to do so and will, I pray, for generations and generations to come, compel us to show love for those around us.

Amen

Sermon 5th October 2015

Today one of our Honorary Ministers, Ben Hughes, continues our study of the book of James. The reading is from James 2 verses 1-13. 

Favoritism Forbidden

Dear father, teach us to be always merciful – to love mercy and justice and to seek peace. May you teach us this morning as we look at favouritism? Amen

As the children came in from the playground the teacher asked Susie what she had done during play time – The little girl said I played in the sand pit – the teacher said great if you can spell sand – I will give you a chocolate biscuit – Susie spelt sand and received a biscuit. Little Johnny then came in to the classroom and the teacher said to Johnny – what did you play with at playtime – he replied I played with a ball – the teacher said if you can spell ball you can have a chocolate biscuit – Johnny spelt ball and the biscuit was his. Then a small snotty underfed kid came into the classroom  and the teacher said – what did you do a break time – he said I ran and hid whilst Susie and Johnny threw stones at me – the teacher said that is terrible – that is discrimination – If you can spell discrimination you can have a chocolate biscuit.

(Because of translation differences between NIV and Good news Bibles and for simplicity – the words Favouritism, Prejudice, bullying and discrimination have been grouped together)

Many of you have firsthand experience of favouritism/prejudice.  Either favorable or not? And many of you might have experienced bullying and discrimination no doubt. If I received a pound for every child that I worked with who had been bullied in some way - I would be a very rich. Bullying is a significant driver in children failing at school. And bullying is easy to identify as it is so prevalent.  What is very difficult is harder is to find the fix – so the question this morning is how can we as Christians help people who have been bullied and discriminated against.

James is offering practical advice in helping us better deal with this

First of all - James is absolutely clear – there is no place for it favouritism/prejudice in our churches. And I include in that bullying and discrimination. James addresses his command to ‘brothers and sisters’ – suggesting that he had equality in mind from the outset.

And if James is not clear enough in the title –favouritism/prejudice forbidden!  -  He also uses Christ’s own powerful ‘Royal law’– ‘to love they neighbor as they self’ as his underlying justification.

And if you are still not clear about that and you might ask like Pharisees and lawyers cleverly asked Jesus ‘but who is my neighbour’? - you have the fantastic parable of the good Samaritan to answer your questions – and if that is still not enough to see how God works in the matter - then you the story of Mary Magdalene, or the calling of the Matthew and James- the healing of the leper, blind Bartimaeus, the healing of centurion’s daughter, (as we heard from our series in Luke) the untouchable women with internal bleeding.  They all illustrate James point that ‘those that are poor in the eyes of the world are rich in faith’.

So James fundamental solution is – ‘judgment measured with mercy at all times’?  And favouritism forbidden

And James adds – law on its own is of little use – and no law trumps another – breaking one means that you break them all - but add the magic ingredient ‘Mercy’– then law becomes fulfilled in the love of God through Christ!  

Laws are just piles of bricks – you need the binding mortar of love and mercy to build the house.

And that mercy and love are sometimes in short supply in our lives. There is a massive need for love and mercy in our world – especially when expressed in small everyday acts.

And the rationale of why we need to love is that we are blessed by God are we not? So we do the same to others– and how do we do that?  - Responding to need? Giving a care?  - Migrants, Asylum seekers – those torn up by war – they are the obvious ones of course -  then there are the less obvious and more distasteful ones nearer to home - drug addicts, criminals – those with illness and mental health.  – And like the Samaritans in the Bible - we have our modern day outcasts too – those that have ‘crossed the line’   - the ‘deserving poor’, the elderly that nobody knows what to do with, prisoners who fail to reform – and those that are far too rich – we must not forget them.  ‘The harvest is plenty and the workers few’ and as Christians, we are the workers!

And we can assume from James’ letter that we are allowed judge - let’s not be wrong about that - we are not to walk around with our eyes shut –- he says so in verse 13 – but we are to be wise in judgment and temper all judgment with mercy -  

And we must not fear God’s judgment on us either. A good parent will chastise – or ‘tell off’ the child that they love – God is a merciful loving father who judges fairly and squarely – even if it does not seem so at the time! Why accept being judged by the world and the devil when you can be instead judged by God. Much better – much healthier.  I know what I would prefer.

So let’s not begrudge being ‘chastised’ and let’s not begrudge the helping of others because God continues to give to us always – pressed down tenfold and over flowing. He gives and gives - He is merciful and loving and slow to anger and quick in love us for whom we are. His wrath and judgment remain of course and will always be there for those who follow evil disobedient paths – But His judgments will always be merciful and quick to forgive – especially if we ask for forgiveness and show remorse.

And by being merciful we are really saying - it is God that can change people’s lives. We as a church we should concentrate on people’s good behavior through setting an example – and we should try and be  positive  and ignore the bad in people. Let God will use the Holy Spirit to convict people – we do not need to do that work for Him.

So no favouritism in the Church just the joy of being favoured by God instead

So what are we meant to do when we come across dodgy favouritism going on or some nasty discrimination?  - Well we must act – we always need to do something about it – speak out rather than remain quiet! It is our duty as the church?

We must also help heal people when they have been victims of discrimination or favouritism – and that also includes victims of historical abuse. The church is a great place to help people live their lives with their scars and should offer people new hope when hope is lost.

The wounds might heal but scars remain. And like the scars that Christ bore on his hands feet and side – our scars are likewise the evidence of our own suffering which will be rewarded in the words ‘good and faithful servant who has been dutiful and faithful in small things – take up your seat in the Kingdom of Heaven where you will be trusted with many greater things’!

And if we are perpetrators of favouritism and discrimination – be alert and be aware of your error!

It is also easy to become a bully if everyone around is doing the same. Let’s be different and stand out from the crowd.

What others cannot see God can - God will Harvest the world and nothing is hidden from Him?

The reality is that there are consequences to everything we do – but I am just saying this as a reminder to myself as well as to you all - the slightest peace of cruelty will never go unnoticed by God – so we need to repent and make amends towards those that we have hurt in the past and avoid doing so in the future.  You’re not going to get away with it!

Finally to encourage us all here this morning

Herne Hill parish is a good and generous parish and we all work hard to be inclusive and non judgmental – my nudge to you this morning is yes – carry on – there is always plenty to do!  And we do is already very good. We have rotas new ideas to help - Church is busy and the needs are endless

But if the business of doing church becomes a distraction or a vehicle of favouritism then we should check our priorities.

if it all collapses next week and we turn up here and the heating is  bust, and the chairs are not out and there is no coffee– It should  not matter if we are this inclusive church.   

I am not saying that I do not appreciate a coffee after the service or a chair to sit on but I would not enjoy it if it was at the expense of someone not being made to feel welcome!

Lastly I want to say this – what if you are the person that is out of favour at the moment?  Or you are the person who is bullied or discriminated against – Perhaps you have never got over the bullying and discrimination that you suffered at school for example?

Yes and Cameron reminded us a few sermons back that  – life is not fair – but that is not good enough for James when it comes to favouritism and discrimination - and so if it is not good enough for James then it can’t be so for us. Let’s not accept favouritism, prejudice or bullying – let us actively repent and do something about it and let us set the example and make the difference positively discriminating if necessary.

And if you are hurting from rejection - then Church is the right place for you – a real Church is a ‘loser’s paradise’. Our founder was brutally and unjustly murdered and that would have remained the case if he had not resurrected.  The church is where little is large and less is more – if you want the world it is out there through those doors. We in here - are the world standing on its head. Upside down values of the Kingdom of Christ the king! (As CS Lewis Calls it)

Prayer – is the means and is the vehicle of inner change. Prayer helps us deal with our brokenness and rejections. When we pray we involve the power from the Holy Spirit which allows the worn out to rise up on Eagles wings – (as we sang)

Prayer is also a good means of communication to your bullies. Pray for your enemies and those that persist in bullying you – it actually works! Pray for your persecutors and bullies – and you will see change. Prayer works as a medium of communication where earthly words and plans fail.  Every week at church we have a prayer   team available – make use of it - go and pray for your enemies after the service – form a queue. Pray for them   whether they at work, at school, in the street and so on. List them by initial to God and He will complete the necessary unseen work in a way that helps everyone.

And Check and then double check yours self that you are not discriminating.  If you cannot invite everyone who wants to come to your party perhaps don’t have the party rather than risking hurting people. If you need to have a  hierarchical membership group  - then have an open agenda and open membership criteria and provide training, help and teaching so that people can improve themselves and join and progress. Nothing in the church should be exclusive and if you think you are better than someone else then it is time perhaps to give up and hand it over to someone more deserving. That is how talent should work – humble, selfless and serving and a healthy fear of God – the nutrient that grows God-fearing knowledge and wisdom.  

To finish – No favouritism just God’s favour. Let’s be alert and awake to any discrimination and let us use the tools that God has given us such as pray, songs and the word of God to make a difference. And let’s continue to make St Saviour’s and St Paul’s inclusive welcoming churches where people can come and be changing and renewed by God.

Amen