OUTRAGEOUS NONSENSE?
September 6, 2009
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 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? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. James 2:14-17
Several years ago, while I was attending a conference, I got up early and joined a handful of others as we loaded boxes bound for the United Methodist Committee on Relief Supply Depot. For about an hour, we moved hundreds of boxes of health kits, sewing kits, and medical boxes into awaiting vans to be transported to the Post Office and from there to be shipped to Baldwin, Louisiana where the kits would be sorted and packed before being dispersed to people in need in places all around the world. What captured my attention that particular morning was another handful of people who had gathered on the opposite side of the conference center to sing and pray in the new day. The division was obvious. Some of us sing our praises while others carry boxes for people in need… a curious combination of what it means to be faithful.
Faith versus works… since the earliest beginnings of the Christian faith, we have been debating which is more important – faith or works. Listen again to today’s lectionary reading… the words from James, this time from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase:
Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? James 2:14-17 – The Message
Outrageous nonsense? “Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” Yes, we say but why then has the Letter of James long been a controversial book? The early church debated if it even belonged in the New Testament. The author of James – possibly the disciple or the son or brother of Judas or even the brother of Jesus who was a leader in the early church or simply an unknown believer writing as James – insisted that people of faith not only be hearers of the word but also doers of the word. In his letter, James affirmed that faith alone is not adequate. Caring for those in need was a mark of true faith… true discipleship to James. He spoke of the need for unity between attitude and action. His point was not that actions were a substitute for faith but, affirming Paul’s message to the early church, James believed the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
Oh duh… James’ passionate insistence that faith must be translated into practice seems like a blinding flash of the obvious to many of us. It goes without saying doesn’t it? “Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” There is probably not a single person here today who would say that James is wrong. We believe in practicing what we preach… in walking the talk. We get it… actions do speak louder than words.
But the evidence is overwhelming. There is something deep inside of us that leads us to presume that knowing the right truth or holding the right position is enough to make us faithful. It is just so much easier to give ip service to our faith and in doing so, we have allowed ourselves, as James would say, to become friends with the world rather than friends with God.
Outrageous nonsense, we say! Not us, we say! But I’m the first to confess my failure to practice what I preach. I have spent much of this past week helping with our Vacation-Bible-School-End-of-Summer-Day Camp. Children have been teaching me what it means to practice what I preach... that my actions must speak louder than my words! Early in the week, as we were just getting started for the day, I was very aware of watching carefully as some of the street people – the regulars who come here for a sack lunch every day – were walking through the Fellowship Hall as the children were gathering. Concerned with the children’s safety, I was on high alert. In the middle of my vigilance, one of the girls in the older group of children came up to me, holding a package of Pop-Tarts from her lunch and asked me if she could share it with the street people who had just walked by the table. Carolyn called them “hoboes!” Again, “supposedly concerned for her safety,” I told her no and told her to join the other children on the far side of the Fellowship Hall.
A few minutes later, I returned to my office and opened up my Bible to the Letter of James and started my study for this morning’s message. Listen one more time to these words from James: “Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you!’
I tried to make excuses for myself. You know, things like…I needed to be sure the kids were safe… Carolyn needed her Pop Tarts for her own lunch… etc. But the words kept coming at me… “Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” Apparently it’s not obvious enough! What was obvious was that I certainly wasn’t walking the talk or helping the children in my care walk the talk. My actions were speaking louder than my words! I went into the office and found one of the lunches that we hand out and then I went and found Carolyn and I told her that I was wrong to have stopped her from sharing her own lunch – Jesus would have considered that a God-act in its purest form – and then I showed her the lunch that we give out and told her that I should have been a better witness to my faith. I thanked her for her faith-filled witness.
Later that same day, we spent part of our afternoon working at Food for Lane County’s Grassroots Garden. It was our job – all 35 plus of us – to move a pile of composting leaves to a section of the garden that they hope to plant next spring. It was great. There were children with pitch-forks loading wheel barrows with leaves while other children wheeled those loads through the garden and across a bridge and dumped them out before returning through the sprinklers to refill the wheel barrow. We were acting on God’s behalf. We were helping the garden produce more than 63,000 pounds of fresh produce to serve hungry people living in Lane County. Did you know that one in five residents in Lane County relies on Food for Lane County for food assistance? Did you know that half of the people served by Food for Lane County are children and seniors? Did you know that 40% of the children living in Lane County qualify for free or reduced cost meals during the school year?
But after about an hour of moving those leaves, I knew it was time for us to stop. We were hot and tired and we still had to get everyone back to the church. I wanted to be done Again, I was confronted with my own failure to consistently live as one who bears Christ’s when one of the boys that had been less than enthusiastic about anything else we had been doing during VBS found me and pleaded with me to keep working. He felt like we had just gotten started. He told me he could work there all day. I couldn’t believe it! He hadn’t cooperated with anything else all week. Did he understand that we were helping feed hungry children? Did he sense that pushing a wheelbarrow full of leaves was a God-act? Did he feel the sacredness of the moment? Well, I am choosing to believe that he did. I am choosing to believe that the outrageous nonsense called discipleship is finding a place in his heart. I’m hoping to follow his lead.
I am glad that the Letter of James made the cut and became a part of the New Testament. Yes, it is just a few often-overlooked pages tucked almost at the end of what most consider to be more important writings, but James’ passionate insistence that faith must be translated into practice challenges us to believe the Gospel message that the only thing that counts is faith working through love.
One final learning from our children. Thanks to Diana for sharing this story with me. Several weeks ago, Diana and her daughters Gwen and Laurel spent Saturday morning doing yard work at the William Ware Residence with other members of our congregation. On the way home the girls were talking about how much fun they had. Gwen even said things like “That was the best yard work time I’ve ever had in my whole entire life!” And she likes to garden! The girls kept on chatting with each other, and then Diana heard Gwen say, “It’s really neat Mom how the church is all about God and learning about that, but it’s also about taking care of people. It’s like all together in one place: learning about God And taking care of other people. Isn’t that really neat Mom?”
I think Gwen’s been reading the Letter of James. She has certainly been listening to Jesus. She’s practicing what we preach. She knows that “… that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” And it’s really neat!