We are beloved children of God, called to love others

On the mirror: "GOD LOVES YOU - GO AND LOVE"

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 22, Year B – 30 August 2015

Text: James 1:17-27 (James series)

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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For the next five weeks, I will use the epistle lessons – all from the book of James – as my sermon texts. Four of these lessons will help us focus in on Service as one of the Seven Marks of Discipleship. Then on that fifth week, we will transition to focusing on Encouraging as a mark of discipleship.

By way of introducing the book of James to you:

This is considered an epistle – a letter. It opens with a greeting (some of you will remember that the person writing the latter is named first because it would be at the top of a scroll), and then James moves along with a bunch of exhortations to this community of Jewish Christians who are the recipients of the letter.

Tradition has held that this letter was written by James, the brother of Jesus. He was also called James the Just (as opposed to other leaders of the time also named James) because he was known for his piety and good works for the sake of the gospel. This James was a VIP in the early church, especially as a leader of the Church in Jerusalem.

However, we don’t know for sure that James the Just was the author of this letter. What began to happen later – like in the 2^nd Century – was that letters would be written and distributed with famous names attached to them, to lend the letters some credibility. It’s sort of like when someone goes to the Antiques Roadshow with a letter that he is positive has been signed by Abraham Lincoln, only to find out – nope! – you have a fake!

Lutherans have had a challenging relationship with the Epistle of James because Martin Luther had a challenging relationship with it. In his Introduction to his translation of the New Testament, Luther wrote: “St. John’s Gospel and his first Epistle, St. Paul’s Epistles, especially Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first Epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that it is necessary and good for you to know…St. James’ Epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to them; for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.”

In other words, even though Luther did include James in his translation of the New Testament – close to the end – he didn’t think too highly of it. Luther’s main struggle with this letter was that it focused too much on what we do, and not enough on the gospel of what God has done for us in sending Jesus to live as one of us, to die, and to be raised again. Luther’s struggle makes perfect sense when we realize that the Church in Luther’s time taught that our works are absolutely necessary for our salvation.

We read this letter through a different lens, however, and so we can find great value in what this letter teaches us.

In today’s reading, for instance, James says that we are to “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”

When we look into a mirror, there are three basic outcomes:

•           We look into the mirror, turn away, and remember what we saw there.
•           We look into the mirror, turn away, and forget what we saw there.
•           We never stop looking into the mirror.

 James wants his readers to see that while hearing the word is important, doing the word is more important, because it is in our loving actions for others that we see ourselves as who we are: we are beloved children of God, called to love others. That is our identity as Christians. And when we only hear the word, but are not moved to loving action, we forget the One whose image we bear – and we are all made in the image of God.

If all we do is stare into the mirror, we miss everything that is going on around us in our world. We miss out on opportunities to love and take care of our neighbors – especially those in need (like the widows and orphans specifically mentioned by James). If all we do is stare into the mirror, we are in danger of becoming like the mythical Narcissus, who looked at nothing but his own reflection.

May we never forget that God has gifted each of us – God has gifted each of us with love and grace. But God has also gifted us with the ability and – hopefully – the will to love and serve others. May the great love of God, poured out on us at baptism, spill over into our lives.

Amen.

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