Charles Kutz-Marks
Friends, it is the official beginning of the year for UT students, and we’ve already got one more football victory under our belts, 21 in a row! Hook ‘em Horns! And this year we start off with 2 national collegiate crowns in football… and partying! So as the students return, and all of Austin gets back to school-year-normal, I’d especially like to address our University students here in the Sanctuary this morning.
Some of you are here at University Christian Church for your first time. Some of you here for your first time, and could also be here for your last time… depending how on valuable you find your time here. In other words, as a congregation this morning we are “on probation,” and right now I’m on Homiletic Probation. I may get only this one shot at you, so I had best make it a good one. I have children who are 22 and 19, so I existentially understand that folks your age don’t cut preachers much slack.
And what raises my challenge level even higher is that the Scripture lesson suggested by our lectionary cycle for today, is a toughie. The little Letter of fire; the short – but never sweet, Letter of James. James, the little Letter that barely made it in to the Bible as the canon was decided. James, the little Letter that Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation thought so antithetical to the New Testament focus on Grace, that he sought to have it removed from the Bible that Protestants use. James! I really love James, but as a Christian, not as preacher.
As preacher I’d rather have a passage that is a challenge to comprehend! That demands some background, some study to be able to really understand properly! James isn’t that kind of Letter.
James is so straightforward…. So earthy. Advice in James sounds like the kind of thing your Mom would say before you head out on a date; the kind of thing your assistant dean says in your orientation to UT.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God… is… to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
True, so true. But profound? No. And what can a preacher DO with something so….. clear? Why would you need to get up early on Sunday and come in to church to hear a minister say that?
“Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” Who could disagree with that? James is full of these aphorisms, these pithy Palestinian proverbs:
“Every good gift is from heaven” (v. 17),
“be swift to listen, slow to speak” (v. 19),
“lay aside filthiness and wickedness” (v. 21),
“be doers of the word and not hearers only” (v.22). It does sound like your mother, doesn’t it?.
- Be thoughtful of your roommate.
- Pick up your dirty clothes!
It is SO obvious. If the whole Bible were like the Letter of James, you really wouldn’t need preachers, for who needs a preacher merely to remind you of what you already know? After all, you are into HIGHER EDUCATION, right?
But, friends, maybe this is exactly why we do need to attend to the Letter of James, because we “know” it. In James’
“be doers of the word, and not merely hearers” understanding it is not the problem. Here, doing is the problem. Therefore, this may be hard, even for you. Around here, in the university, folks are mostly in to knowing. Knowledge, that’s the game. That Perry Castaneda library next door - which you students may occasionally visit, the professors, the specialized learning centers, countless millions of dollars and thousands of human lives….all here, all dedicated for you to get more knowledge.
And yet here, in James, we are told that some profound knowing of what to do, is not as important as doing what you already know to do.
With the exceptions of the book of Proverbs and the Gospel of John which are inordinately concerned with how wise you are and what you believe, the overwhelming Biblical witness is
less concerned with what you know, and
much more concerned with how you live,
who you care for,
what you stand for,
what you do!
Look at Jesus. Did He EVER say to his students, his disciples: Are you clear on this concept?
Is this new paradigm evident to you now?
Do you grasp these principles?
No, Jesus was a teacher, but not of that knowledge- the abstract from action, divorced from living kind of knowledge - that for the most part you students will learn your next years here at this fine institution.
Jesus wanted more than mere agreement. Jesus simply called to people and said, “Follow me.” Walk the road with me. Live as I live. Learn more than my teaching. Learn me. Breathe me in. And that last night – gathered around that final meal, he said, now become me. This is way more than simple, intellectual agreement.
Let’s all be honest, OK? It may be that that is why our first instinct is to turn the Gospel’s call upon us… into another intellectual problem. We’re more comfortable with that. How often upon hearing some scripture reading do we start that interior dialogue with ourselves:
>”How interesting!
>I wonder how that might have happened?” Or,
>“Isn’t that just the most fascinating historically conditioned, culturally bound, ancient, way of understanding….”
An intellectual issue.
But scripture doesn’t just want to be understood – like your Kreb’s cycle, your taxonomy listings, or your differential and integral calculus. Scripture longs to be put into action! God wants us to get moving, get into the act, perform the text, rather than just speak it or hear it.
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Years ago I remember discussing with a group of lay people what they looked for in a good sermon. The general response was something like:
“I like a sermon which helps me to see things in a new way,”.
I like a sermon which engages my mind, which spurs my thinking and reflection. At the time that sounded good to me. I didn’t want to preach mom’s sermons, the dean’s sermons, or Letter of James sermons that propound and then pound on the obvious.
But now I’m not so sure. You are a fine congregation of some of the most thoughtful people I have ever known. And while I love your creativity, and your openness, you may be—OK, OK, we may be – like so many others…. Basically thinking that all worship is about is sitting, listening, taking in.
Is that why today’s reading from the Letter of James links inaction to deception? @We deceive ourselves into thinking that we have done the faith when we have merely listened, reflected, pondered, agreed. James here is disagreeing with the nearly Gnostic Gospel of John…for example the famous John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life….18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned
Balderdash, says James. A few verses later…14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
Belief alone doesn’t cut it. Action is needed!
My own experience teaches that college students, like James, instinctively distrust beliefs not followed up with action….They say that professing is not nearly as important performing. Words are cheap.
A couple of years ago I was leading a class on various forms of prayer for a group of very bright Kalamazoo College students. It was our first meeting and they didn’t know me from Adam. That night, I was given some uncommon insight into what several of them were thinking. I could see it in their eyes.
Later in the evening we’d actually be praying in these different ways, together, but here at the beginning when I was setting the background, they hearing me rattle on about the characteristics of the prayer style Ignatius of Loyola. But some weren’t listening. I could see it on their faces. It is not that I was particularly self-conscious, but I could see that they were looking at me and thinking,
“When I’m 50 years old, I could look that bad!”
You students have thought that, too, looking at your professors. Come on admit it!
And, that’s what you should be thinking, too.
Education is far more than absorbing knowledge. In order to grow up well, to move from adolescence into adulthood, human beings need models…. Role models…life models… people they not only learn from…. But like Jesus and his disciples…someone they can follow, someone they can believe in and breathe in, someone they can become like.
You have every right to expect your professors, your preacher, your parents, your advisors, your church school teachers… to embody what they tell you… to walk the walk; to be Doers of the Word, just as we expect you to do, as well. Yes, you could look like this at 50.
Did you ever hear someone say, “I think of church as a filling station. I come here empty, and during the service I get filled so I can make it through the week.” That makes church into a place where we come, sit down, sit back, stretch out our legs and say, “Alright now, choir, preacher, organist, do it to me, fill me up.” Entertain me. Inspire me. Give me something interesting to think about. I’ll let you know how well you do.
Nope. No way. James is right. The test of good worship can’t be known right after you exit the Sanctuary this morning. We won’t know how good the worship was, until we see how we DO THE WORD in the week ahead. Have our prayers and singing and listening to the WORD changed us into agents of God’s will?
But we know already know that, right? We know that we have to embody the Truth before it really is true. Otherwise, more and more non-Christians will become anti-Christians because of the hypocrisy they see in us, because of the huge chasm between our words and our actions. James says that the choice is entirely ours, because Christ remains faithful.
So the sermon ends. And the worship service itself in little while. The evaluation is about to begin. You are a bright bunch. You can fairly easily understand the James passage for today. I’m even betting that you whole-heartedly agree with sermon.
But agreement isn’t the problem. James cries to us, “What will you DO with the WORD?” What will you DO in the week ahead with your inspiration and your high and holy feelings right now?
If any of you are bold enough to greet me after the service with “Preacher, that was a good sermon” or even a bad sermon, look for a quizzical response from me. Because the truth is, we won’t even know for a little while, will we?