The Harvest of Righteousness

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

B Lectionary 25 – 20 September 2015

Text: James 3:13-18 (Mark 9:30-37)

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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If you plant cabbage seeds, you will get ____.

If you plant watermelon seeds, you will get ____.

If you plant corn, you’ll get ____.

I’m no farmer, but these are some very basic things that I do know about growing plants, and basic agricultural examples about planting seeds and then seeing what comes up are pretty common in the Bible. That makes sense – their culture was much more agrarian than ours is here in the suburbs of DFW.

I know some of you know about farming, and others of us know very little, but even those of us who know very little about farming can figure out what James means when he says that “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” If you want righteousness, James says, then plant in peace.

This statement comes at the end of the six verses from James 3 that we just heard, verses that are all about the contrast between those who are wise and understanding, and those who dwell in envy and selfish ambition. James has apparently heard reports that the people to whom he is writing are consistently boastful, and saying that they better than everyone else – and he calls them out on it, saying that such attitudes are “earthly, unspiritual, [and] devilish.” In other words – such attitudes are not helpful in the work that God has given us to do.

Some of you know that I love watching the shows “Project Runway” and “Top Chef” – reality-type competition shows about fashion design and cooking, respectively. One reason that I enjoy these programs is because they are interesting studies in human behavior. It never fails that over the course of a season, one or more of the participants grows arrogant and full of themselves, throwing other participants under the bus, and competing with a fierceness that allows for very little human kindness.

Almost always, this arrogance leads them into trouble. In one older season of “Top Chef” that I watched again recently, there are several of the chefs who think they are It – they are God’s gift to cooking. In one episode, their arrogance distracts them from their work, and one of them ends up being sent home. This kind of thing happens time and time again.

Conversely, the participants who walk in humility, the ones who show themselves willing to learn and to grow, the ones who go about their tasks with confidence and yet also a heart for helping others – these are the ones who proceed the furthest along in the competition. These are the ones who thrive. It sounds counter-intuitive – you would think that the most arrogant and cut-throat among them would win, but again and again, the boastful ones, the prideful ones, the ones who think they have everything all figured out – they are the ones who get themselves in trouble.

It is reminiscent of the conversation between Jesus and his disciples that we hear in today’s Gospel reading. They are traveling along, and as they walk, the disciples are arguing among themselves about who is the greatest among them. After they reach their destination, Jesus asks them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” They’re silent, maybe because they know they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing.

Whatever the case, Jesus turns their argument upside down by saying that whomever wants to be first must be the servants of all. To Jesus, greatness isn’t about puffing ourselves up and making ourselves better than everyone else. Greatness is in how we serve others and how we welcome others.

Which takes us back beautifully to James. He says that “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy,” and so wisdom from above is shown not in our ability to blow everybody else out of the water. Wisdom from above is shown in our ability to be peaceable. Wisdom from above is shown in our ability to yield. Wisdom from above is shown when we are merciful and loving to all – not just those that we like the best.

Today we are beginning a Bible Study called “Being the Body of Christ” – it’s all about part of 1 Corinthians 12. Today’s lesson will cover what it is to be gifted by the Holy Spirit – not only what are the gifts that we have from the Spirit, but what is the purpose of these gifts? There are many different gifts, Paul says, but all of these gifts are activated in us by the Spirit, and they are given to us so that we may show love for one another. Professor James Bryce at Luther Seminary says this: “The gifts of God have an immediate and very practical purpose – they intend and point to a fullness of life exercised in a disciplined love and care for the neighbor.”[1]

We each have gifts – we have them in different measure, certainly – but we each have gifts. And we are called to use these gifts not for our own advancement or glory, but for the benefit and the care of others in God’s name. Using our gifts for the benefit and care of others is the harvest of righteousness, and that is the way in which we live in greatness.

Let us live greatly. Let us love greatly.

Amen.

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[1] Commentary on James 3 for Lectionary 25 found at workingpreacher.org

Image courtesy of "adamr" at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's God's Work, With Our Hands

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 24, Year B – 13 September 2015 (God’s Work, Our Hands Weekend)

Text: James 2:14-17

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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We’ve reached a really tricky part of the Epistle of James because this is the part that makes it sound as though in order for us to achieve salvation, we have to do all kinds of good works. James says here: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?...faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

And so, there it is – right there – faith alone doesn’t save us. In fact, James says that faith by itself, without action, is dead faith.

So where does this leave the Apostle Paul’s idea that we are saved by grace through faith? Paul says it clearly in Ephesians 2: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” In other words, according to this verse in Ephesians, God doesn’t save us because of the good things that we do but because of God’s grace. It’s all gift.

But - what else are we also given?

According to the very next verse in Ephesians 2, Paul says that we are also given life.

“For we are what [God] has made us,” Paul says – and not only that, but he goes on to say that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Good works are to be our way of life, Paul says. We are created to do good for others.

So, going back to our reading from James for today, this is one of those instances in which it is helpful to remember that the Epistle of James was written by a specific person and to a specific group of people. We must place James within the context of Jewish and early Christian life for which it was written. Apparently, the audience for this letter had forgotten that it is in the living out of our faith in God that our faith becomes the most living and active.

James uses a concrete example to make his point: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 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?”

James does not say that we must change the entire world with our work. James does say that faith without works is a dead faith – a faith that has no beating heart, a faith that has no breath within it.

We know that – just like back then - there are plenty of needs. Creation needs care, and so yesterday, we sent a group to help care for a local garden that needed some work. A couple of others stayed here to work on our lawn and trim our hedges. Children need care, and so yesterday, we had a group here making blankets for foster children, and today, we will assemble school supply kits that will be sent all over the world.

We do not know who will eat the cabbages that were planted by our folks yesterday in the garden. We don’t know the foster child who will wrap up in one of these blankets as she shuffles from place to place, longing for safety. We don’t know where in the world these school kits will be sent, or the name of the child who will write in the notebook or use the blunt scissors. But we do know that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, and that these good works are to be our way of life.

We call this weekend “God’s Work, Our Hands” and it is a nationwide initiative by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which means that all over the country this weekend, there are Lutherans out doing good in their communities. We call this weekend “God’s Work, Our Hands” – because this is all God’s work, done through us. It is God’s love, shown through us.

A lawyer once asked Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[1] For Jesus, the connection between loving God and loving others was a solid connection, so solid that every other teaching from God hangs upon loving God and loving neighbor.

Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard told this parable: Once upon a time, there was a land inhabited only by ducks. Every Sunday morning, the ducks got up, washed their faces, put on their Sunday clothes, and waddled off to church. They waddled through the door of their duck church, proceeded down the aisle, and took their familiar places in their seats. The duck minister entered the pulpit and opened the duck Bible to the place where it talked about God’s greatest gift to ducks—wings.

“With wings we can fly,” the minister said. “With wings we can soar like eagles. With wings we can escape the confines of pens and cages. With wings we can become free. With wings we can become all God meant us to be. So give thanks to God for your wings. And fly!” All the ducks loudly quacked, “Amen.”

And then all of the ducks waddled back home.[2]

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let us be the ducks that use our wings and fly. We have been created by God and then re-created at our baptisms to love God and to love our neighbor. Since this is true, what else can we do?

Amen.

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[1] Matthew 22:36-40

[2] See more at: http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters/proper-17b/?type=lectionary_epistle#sthash.vg1yQRVq.dpuf

With Discrimination Comes Dishonor

Photo of Syrian refugees from the Lutheran World Federation website.
Please visit www.lutheranworld.org to help those in need.

The second in a sermon series based on the readings from James.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 23, Year B – 6 September 2015

Texts: James 2:1-13

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Today, we pick up in the Epistle of James where we left off last week. At the end of last week’s lesson, James concludes by saying, “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.” He then takes up the heart of the matter with his readers, which is what we hear today: that as a community of Christ-followers, they are discriminating against one another. They are forcing the poorer Christians to sit at their feet, while offering the best seat in the place to those who are rich.

James is pretty firm with them: “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor,” he says. Discrimination is at the heart of the ministry of James’ readers – and he says that with discrimination comes dishonor.

I’m reminded of an episode of the show “The West Wing.” This is the show from the late 90’s and early 2000’s that follows the work of White House staffers and a fictional president. In the episode I have in mind, we find out that a man named Roberto Mendoza has been jailed in Connecticut, allegedly for driving while under the influence. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? A drunk driver getting pulled over and jailed…

Except Roberto Mendoza isn’t any man, he’s a nominee for Supreme Court Justice. And as the White House staffers get involved, we find out that – because of a chronic health issue, there’s no way he could’ve been driving drunk because if he’d had enough alcohol to be legally drunk, he’d be dead. The staffers go to the jail to get him released, and we find out that Mr. Mendoza was actually arrested – not for driving while drunk, but for driving while Hispanic, and he was arrested in front of his wife and young son. Even in this fictional storyline - with discrimination comes dishonor.

It is James who reminds us of what he calls the “royal law” – also what Jesus calls the Second Greatest Commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.)

Now, this is the month in which we are focusing upon Service as a congregation. We will be focusing on it big time next week with our God’s Work, Our Hands Weekend. So, what does all of this talk about discrimination have to do with Service, anyway?

The connection for me is this: we don’t always get to choose whom it is that we serve.

It was last summer that Grand Prairie was embroiled in a debate about having a shelter for immigrants at an old GPISD campus way up on the north side of town. It was last summer that I attended the GPISD School Board meeting in which we received information about exactly who would be using the shelter, what the process would be for both getting them there and keeping them there, and what would happen to the immigrants when they left the shelters. As I sat in that meeting, listening to fervent speakers on both sides of the issue, and feeling the tension and the anger of those all around me, I realized something. I realized: We are arguing about the care of children. The care of children.

I felt compelled to speak. I reminded those in the room that the Bible has plenty to say about caring for children. I said that the children weren’t asking to come here and be put up in the Ritz Carlton, or to eat eggs benedict for breakfast (that’s the soundbite that made the news). I said that they weren’t asking to stay in our homes or asking for our jobs or our paychecks. I said that they are here needing shelter and food and safety. They are asking not to be sold as slaves, not to have their lives ended. These the things they are trying to escape.

Steve told me later that, as I spoke, there were people sitting right behind me, shaking their heads in disagreement the whole time.

I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that most of the people in that room would consider themselves good, God-fearing Christian people. And as I sat and listened to them complain that these children would not be welcome in Grand Prairie because they’d bring disease with them, and they’d get out and commit crimes, and that their mere presence in our community would cause property values throughout Grand Prairie to drop, I was stunned.

With discrimination comes dishonor.

Meanwhile, our world is now experiencing what the U.N. has called the “biggest humanitarian emergency of our era,”[1] as millions of Syrians flee their country because of civil war. Amid the stories of some countries closing their doors to the refugees, many stories and pictures of those who have chosen to help the refugees are also emerging. Lutherans in Hungary, for example, have mobilized to help the refugees who are passing through their country. Crowds of Germans at a train station in Munich clapped and cheered in welcome, and bishops shook the hands of the refugees entering that country.

This love and welcome shown to these refugees stands in contrast to those who want to throw out the “royal law” of loving our neighbor as ourselves by choosing who is worthy to be served, and who is worthy of receiving love. Making that particular distinction shouldn’t be up to us – because – think about it, if we as a society can’t even decide to serve and love children – let alone other human beings of any age - well, may God have mercy on us. “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy,” James says. With discrimination comes dishonor, and so it is Christians who should be the ones welcoming those who are desperately in need. It is Christians who should be honoring and loving those who are desperately in need.

So, where may the grace be found? The grace is found in James’ next statement, that “mercy triumphs over judgment.” Thank God that God’s mercy will always win out over our judgments of others. And thank God for the grace shown by some in this world to those who are in desperate need.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves isn’t always easy, and yet this is what we are called to do. This is what we are baptized to do. Like I said last week, like the mirror by the font says today: “God loves you – Go and love.”

Amen.

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[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/08/29/344219323/u-n-syrian-refugee-crisis-is-biggest-humanitarian-emergency-of-our-era

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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