This sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa on September 2, 2018. It’s based on James 1:17-27 and Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson.
James 1:17-27
17Every 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. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore 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.
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But 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.
26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion 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.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
One day they were just there, where they hadn’t been before: notes of encouragement taped to the mile markers on the Trout Run Trail. I don’t know who put them there. I don’t know if they were placed there with a specific purpose in mind. But I do know they’re a gracious word along the way. When you’re on the trail doing whatever it is you’re doing—walking, running, biking, daydreaming, crying, smiling, sighing—these well-placed words encourage you to keep going. The note on mile marker 5 was the first I noticed: You, my friend, matter.
What if our world was filled with such words? What if we were filled with such words?
My vocabulary has expanded recently, as I’ve been part of a closed facebook group whose purpose is to support and encourage women working through a particular fitness program together. Each day, after we work out, we post our sweaty selfies and receive encouragement from fellow members: Whoop! Way to crush it! Woo hoo! Great job, girl! You rocked it! I’m amazed at how effective this daily encouragement is in keeping me going!
Words matter.
In our reading from James this morning, I was surprised to see the word word show up four times. Now, James can feel like a lot of law. In fact, Martin Luther, with his emphasis on God’s grace, lobbied for the book of James to be removed from the Bible. He wasn’t a fan. But here, in the midst of some, yes, challenging language about being doers of the word and not just hearers who deceive ourselves, the author of James begins with a reminder that our relationship to God’s word is God’s doing. We are not the starting point when it comes to doing, rather than merely hearing, God’s word. God is the starting point.
In fulfillment of God’s own purpose God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures…Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
The Word matters.
With a Word, God created us as creatures, dependent on God’s generosity for all that we have and all that we are. God’s Word is at work in us to grow us, that as first fruits in God’s field we might yield kindness and mercy and justice for all creation. The author of James uses the word implanted to describe the Word that has the power to save our souls. This particular word is unique to James, a combination of en (in) and phyo (germinate, grow, spring up).1
God’s Word is implanted in us like a successfully engrafted shoot, placed in us so that we might develop, might grow, might become what God has created us to be. We can’t develop on our own any more than a fruit tree can graft a piece of another tree onto itself. It needs an attentive gardener to do that grafting, that implanting, for it.
God is that attentive gardener in our lives, implanting God’s Word in us that we might be saved.
Indeed, it was with an awesome intention to save the whole world, that God’s Word became flesh in Jesus. God’s Word walked among us, ate with sinners, healed the sick, welcomed the children, fed the hungry, stilled the storms, called us to follow.
God’s Word, in Jesus, rankled the Pharisees and the scribes. God bless them. They were so intent on keeping God’s word, living God’s law. They were committed to serving as witnesses to the world so that others would come to know and worship the God they knew as their creator and their liberator. And somewhere along the way, they lost their way.
They couldn’t see Jesus as the Word of their liberating God in the flesh. They couldn’t understand his seeking out and eating with tax collectors and sinners. They couldn’t tolerate his healing on the Sabbath, seemingly ignoring the law. They couldn’t stand his breaking with the traditions they deemed so necessary in order to guard God’s word. And earlier in Mark, we’re told Jesus was grieved at their hardness of heart (Mark 3:5).
I imagine Jesus is grieved at our hardness of heart too.
Because despite our best intentions and our commitment to protecting and promoting God’s word, so many of the words that fill our world are not notes of encouragement.
They’re words that demean and destroy and leave 9-year-olds feeling as though death is better than enduring any more bullying.
They’re words that can find basis in scripture, but are taken out of context and miss the big picture: God’s desire to save and to bless the whole world.
They’re words spoken from places of great grief and anger—but do nothing to help, and instead only create more sorrow and frustration.
Too often, we are the ones honoring God with our lips, but far from God when it comes to our hearts. We are the ones with unbridled tongues. We are the ones who forget that 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.
I don’t know exactly what the author of James had in mind when he talked about keeping oneself unstained by the world. But I do know this. The world is God’s beloved creation. This world is where the Word of God is alive and at work. But there are elements of this world that aim to make us forget that we are all beloved. There are words in this world that are not of God: words that attempt to deceive us, words that want us to believe there are hearts beyond the scope of God’s grace, words that tell us we don’t matter.
You, my friends, matter.
You don’t have to go to mile 5 of the trail to hear it. Hear it now. You, my friends, matter.
Following Jesus is hard. A liberating God—intent on freeing all creation from all that would keep it in chains—is a dangerous God to follow. We might have to wrestle with our hearts. We might have to wrestle with our words. We might have to wonder, together, if we’re really doing God’s word or if we’re content to be merely hearers.
Wrestling is good. Wondering is good. It’s part of that implanted Word at work to save us. It’s God’s Word growing in us, that we might yield kindness, and justice and mercy.
You, my friends, matter.
Let’s encourage one another along the way. Life as a follower of Jesus is a workout. No need to post a sweaty selfie; I see you living as doers of God’s word. I see God’s Word at work in you. I see you loving God and loving your neighbors in all those daily ways that really do make a difference. Woo hoo! Great job! You’re rocking it!
Amen.