Stirring Hearts to Action

 

Sermon James 2:1-10; 14-17 September 12, 2021 Commissioning Sunday

Stirring Hearts to Action

Today is the official start to the church year as we rev up with activities. It sure does feel good to be back to planning and doing and being church in familiar ways.

James is revving up his church in chapter two telling them about how to act with the rich and the poor. He’s telling them to not be taken by glamor and glitz. He’s telling them about the folks who really matter. The poor, the vulnerable, the ones who are hungry need us to show them that we care. James puts grace to the test. He says if we say we have faith but don’t show it in our actions then our faith is dead.

Ouch!! We Christians have loved the grace card so much that it’s become our excuse for not doing stuff. We hide behind excuses of being too busy, or the need to care for ourselves because our lives are overwhelming, or we dare not go near crowds or strangers or people we don’t know because we may be hurt by them, or get ill, or…

We use those excuses and then comfort ourselves with the fact that we know God’s grace through Jesus Christ has been poured out upon us and therefore all is well. We have a tendency to use grace in the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it, ‘Cheap Grace.’ We’re covered by the grace of God and his love. We forget we belong to a community of believers. We belong to a community of faith. We belong to the body of Christ. And all that is bigger than ourselves.

If we read and reread James carefully we become aware of something so powerful and so important in the life of our faith and our faith community. That Grace, real grace lived out has substance.

This letter is filled with the ‘what’ of our love for Jesus. You see we are here today because we love Jesus. We are here today because we are curious to learn more about the Christian life. We are here today because someone dragged us out of bed and made us come. We are here today because we know we get food afterward. We are here today because there is this constant nudge in our heart that is stirring us toward something we do not yet understand; yet to be revealed. We are here today because we recognize that as the body of Christ gathers we are nourished and fed through word and sacrament.

James gives us the ‘what’ to do with our faith in Jesus. We can seriously ask ourselves when we said that we believe in Jesus and we made the commitment to follow him all the days of our lives, did any of us really understand what that looked like? I didn’t.

Well, it looks like the love commandment that Jesus gave us. Ok. But, how does that love commandment play out? How does it work when two children are arguing over the same toy? How does it work out when a husband wants to buy a lawnmower and the wife wants to buy a washing machine and they only have money for one and they need both? You could say the love commandment doesn’t play into a situation like this. But, it does.  Everything is spiritual. Everything is influenced through the love of Jesus in our life. Everything.

When our faith is fueled through the overpowering presence of Jesus in our everyday breath, it makes it easier to face the mundane of everyday. Authors have told us this. From recent Rob Bell statements in his book “Everything is Spiritual” to as far back as Brother Lawrence, ‘all things are spiritual even washing dishes.’

 

We hear about how we should read our Bible more to get to know Jesus more. But in today’s schedules that’s really a hard thing to ask. It’s also a hard question to know where to start. There are some really useful apps such as YouVersion Bible app. It has audible reading programs of the Bible and daily plans for devotions. On the YouVersion app it has segments that take off to videos and to kid podcasts that teach about living the life of faith as a kid. There is also the online version of Our Daily Bread and the Upper Room which are simple daily devotionals written by regular folks, not scholars with big words, a scripture and a prayer. Living the life of faith in practical ways needs practical tips.

It’s up to us as the church to help guide that process.

That’s why we’re really excited that we can do so many of our faith activities again in-person.

-I diverge for a moment-I must say that the amazing experience of not missing any of our mission goals even while in isolation or in hybrid worship is a testament to the way we value the words of James about putting our faith to the test with the works of good for others. This year we are spring boarding from our success with the youth leadership and providing opportunities for them on several more projects throughout the coming year.

I guess where I really want to go today is to speak to you from the heart. I want you to know that it’s less about the why we believe or why we come to church.

It is more about the what that brings us to church.

What draws us into a life of faith.

What excites us about living with Jesus.

Why forces us to analyze and dissect. Why throws us into a quandary of right or wrong. Are we believing in the right God.

Are we going to the right church.

Are we going to be ok.

But the what of our life puts us into the sacrifice of action.

The what of life and faith stirs our hearts into doing the work without agonizing over it. The what instead of the why takes away the worry and the anxiety.

 

When I was a teenager, I was searching for something beyond my comprehension. I knew I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was living out my journey of life. I had two very best, most precious and wonderful friends. They were devout Catholics. Their families were deeply involved in their churches. I remember I used to mock them for the waste of time it was for them to ruin perfectly good weekends going to mass.

They and two of their friends invited me to come with them to mass one Sunday. I did. And that invitation changed my life.

I stand before you today because my friends loved me enough to introduce me to a life of faith and a faith community who loved me as I was. They were not about the why I was there.

They were about the what.

They said come.

They said, just join us.

They said, we’ll go together.

They never bothered me with why I should go, or why I should believe, or why it was good for me.

They just said come along with us, my friend.

I responded to their invitation and they demonstrated in real concrete ways that they cared.  

 

This Jesus that came into my life during that time with my precious friends wasn’t a Catholic Jesus or a Baptist Jesus or a Presbyterian one. This Jesus was a real loving caring presence that took me to a place of faith.

I was stirred to a life of purpose that allowed me to think beyond myself and care about others. My parents had already instilled incredible strong values of  honesty, integrity, duty to country and fellowman. Those values translated into the love commandment of Jesus and helped all of life find its purpose.

As we go forward in this new Christian calendar year, let’s consider the ways our faith feeds us and excite us. Let’s begin to be fueled by the strength of who we are with one another. Let’s feel the fire of the Spirit at work within us.

James is stirring the hearts of the people of his church to figure out how to put that faith they believe into some practical action. Sometimes that’s what we’re asking for; some guidance on this path of life.

I’d like to offer you a few tips as you go from here today.

1. Be blessed.

2. Be assured that God loves you.

3. Don’t let guilt rule your life.

4. Take 30 seconds as a start to whisper a prayer asking Jesus if he hears you and then wait 30 seconds in quiet.

5. Breathe

6. Hear Jesus calling your name.

7. Say to Him, Here I AM.

8. Do one thing for someone else.

9. Do one thing for yourself.

10. Don’t go to bed angry.

11. Go to church-it doesn’t matter which church or where, but go to church. Enter into worship, pick up the hymnals, sing the songs, say the prayers-participate.

12. Ask for forgiveness-it doesn’t matter who was right or wrong-you both had a part in it.

13. Plant a tree, a flower, a bulb, a seed-start something new.

14. Don’t give up on anybody, including yourself, ever.

15. Believe in the resurrection-every day is Easter-a new beginning-God gave us new life, so let’s live it.

Friends, we are one in the Spirit, we are One in the Lord. Let’s be stirred to action in the name of Jesus. Amen.