“Living Our Faith”

The Yorktown United Methodist Church

Pastor Roy Grubbs

 
August 30, 2009                                                                                              Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
13th Sunday after Pentecost                                                                                      James 1:17-27

  Franklin Roosevelt often endured long receiving lines at the White House.  He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said.  One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment.  To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, "I murdered my grandmother this morning."  The guests responded with phrases like, "Marvelous!  Keep up the good work.  We are proud of you.  God bless you, sir."  It was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia , that his words were actually heard.  Without pause, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, "I’m sure she had it coming."

While funny, the story makes me wonder just how often I don’t listen closely enough.  Especially at home.  Gina would be the first to tell of all the things that she has told me that have gone in one ear and out the other.  Sure, I may have heard what she said… but I definitely wasn’t listening.

Even more, how often are we in conversations where we do more talking than listening?  Or better yet… how many of you use the time that the other person is talking to think of what you are going to say as soon as they stop.  Yet… with all these examples, I find it strikingly odd that God gave us two ears, but only one mouth!

And our desire to flap our gums doesn’t stop with our fellow neighbors, we have to inflict it upon God too. In a recent survey, it was discovered that on any given week… 37% of Americans read their Bible.  Pretty good right?  But, get this… same survey; 85% will pray.  By that standard, we are three times more likely to talk to God than to listen.

James starts out our scripture this morning striking to the very heart of this problem. “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, and slow to speak.” (v. 19) While this is good advice for us for how we should treat our brothers and sisters… even more so… it is important for us to do this with God.  We should be quick to listen to what God has to say, and slow to speak.

Do you get the significance of this?  Instead of a one way communication from us to God, it should much rather be communication from God to us.  Now that I say it, doesn’t it just sound right?  Doesn’t it just make sense?  Well, listening is the first step.  The second step is accepting what is heard.

This second step is laid out for us by James in verse 21.  Let’s look, “accept the word planted in you.” It is not simply a matter of listening, but accepting it and believing it.  Now I can hear what a person is saying, I can even listen with all my might, I can even understand 100% of what their saying and where they are coming from.  But at the same time that doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with them.

Likewise, it is not simply a matter of listening to God’s word, nor a matter of understanding what is being said, or where God is coming from. I t is a matter of accepting it and believing it.  Making it part of yourself.

Well, the next step might seem like a no-brainer, and yet it is the step that most often gets overlooked.  Let’s pick it back up at verse 22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  DO what is says.”  It is one thing to listen for God and to accept the Word; it is an entirely other thing to actually act on it.

“So tell me Pastor, what’s the harm in skipping that last step.  We are saved by faith right?  Right?  We hear the word?  We respond in faith?  We accept Jesus, are saved… and are going to heaven.  We hear it and we get it.  What else is there?”

Some, when the church service is over, will seldom think of anything but going home.  Others may pass a remark about the sermon, and then dismiss the subject forever from their thoughts.  A few will express even more pleasure, but perhaps even these are satisfied merely with having enjoyed it.

The purpose of preaching, however, is not that the people may be “very much pleased,” but that they may be profited, edified, and inspired to respond in action.  The highest praise that can be bestowed upon a Christian minister is not to tell them how much their sermon is enjoyed, but to let them see how well it is being translated into their lives - on the other 6 days of the week.  While it may be very well and good that the sermon is enjoyable and profits them one good hour per week… but what does it profit them, if their church-going carries with it no power to direct their daily life?

I’ve talked about looking to God, and looking to the will of God… it is good for you to hear and even better if you accept it.  But what if that message isn’t taken into action?  What if we go on, and on without actually looking to God’s will in our lives, actually looking to God’s will for our church, and we continue to go on serving our own desires?

Several years back, the annual convention of the American Heart Association met in Atlanta . 300,000 doctors, nurses, and researchers gathered to discuss the importance of low fat diet plans in keeping our hearts healthy.  But at these very same meetings, guess what they all ate for lunch… fast food burgers and fries.  Imagine that… being specialists in health… talking about the dangers of high fat food, and then going out a few minutes later to eat it!

When one cardiologist saw the irony, he asked a colleague whether or not his partaking in high fat meals set a bad example, he replied, “Not me… because I took my name tag off.”

Isn’t it amazing how we can disconnect our behavior from our knowledge?  We can hear something, even accept it as true, and never let it change our behavior.  That may be humorous when we are talking about doctors and researchers.  It is disheartening to me when we are talking about our ability to hear and accept the Word of God and yet live lives of disobedience.

There are a lot of Christians who mark their Bibles, but there are all too few who let their Bible mark them.  It is so easy to hear a Word from God and say “Yeah, I hear that, and I accept that as true,” and that is the end of it.  But to let God’s Word dwell in you, and grow within you, and swell within you until it motivates you to do something… that is when God’s word ceases to be simply roots, and starts to bear real fruit.

Looking further to verses 22 through 25, James uses a somewhat strange illustration to further his point.  He uses the example of a person looking into a mirror. “Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like.  But those who look intently into the Word and continue in it - not forgetting what they have heard but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do.”

Now if that all went by a little quick, James tells us that there are two ways we use a mirror for our personal use… the quick glances as we shoot at the door… and those long sessions where we take in every detail.

Well, James compares this to two ways of looking into the mirror of God’s Word.  Sometimes, in a very superficial way (like when we grab that quick glance of ourselves in the mirror before heading out). We read a chapter and are proud of our accomplishment.  We move from listening to the talking phase of our conversation with God and pray.  When we do that we are glancing in the mirror.

But it should be more than that. When we read God’s Word, it is the time for us to consider who God is and who we are.  You don’t do that in a glance.  It takes some real inspection, (it is like those times when we stand before the mirror… going over every little detail… every line in our face… every imperfection, looking… and truly seeing what looks back at us in the mirror).  This is how we need to treat God’s Word… looking into it… seeing ourselves… and taking the time to see what stares back.

A scary thought perhaps, but an amazing thing happens when we take that time to TRULY listen, and TRULY examine ourselves, and then TRULY respond. Let me reread verse 25, “But those who look intently into the Word and continue in it - not forgetting what they have heard but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do.”  When we look intently into the mirror of God’s Word, when we hear the Word, accept the Word, and then choose to DO the word… a transformation occurs.

Indeed, when we finally listen for God, accept what is said, and act on it… then we really will be transformed… into the disciples he has called us to be.  Amen.

* S. Homan, Sept. 2006

 
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