I have noticed something when I talk to people of younger generations? Well, it started with younger people? And then moved on to include even people my own age? I’m 43 years old? But notice I am telling you I am 43 years old? But it sounds like I am asking you I am 43 years old? It’s a way of communicating where our inflection always sounds like we are asking a question? It’s a way of conversing where it always seems like I am looking for your approval? Or reassurance from you? Like I have no passion? Or conviction? Whatever?

Last week we began looking into the Letter of James? I have no audio-based evidence for this, but I am certain that the inflection in James’ voice went down at the end of a sentence. The Letter of James is filled with declarative imperative sentences. James was a person of action. More particularly, his message was one of putting our beliefs into action.

James was about walking the talk. Walking the talk is easy? If you aren’t saying anything to begin with?

James makes the controversial statement that our faith without works is dead. Believing something and not practicing it, is useless. This has made James unpopular throughout much of Christian history. To later generations of Christians, James’ theology seems to be at odds with Paul’s. In Romans, Paul says that we are saved through faith not works. It was that idea, faith not works, that inspired Martin Luther to begin the Protestant Reformation. Luther maintained that people are saved by faith, not by following the rites and sacraments of the Roman Catholic church. He detested the Epistle of James and referred to it as an “epistle of straw.” When translating the Bible into his native German he even considered leaving it out.

Even today, Bible scholars tend to interpret James as a foil to Paul. His letter is read as if it were a minority voice within the New Testament. Sometimes, it is even suggested that James was familiar with Paul’s writings and was offering an alternative view on the subject of faith and works. That is unlikely. However, it is possible that James’ words were in response, not to Paul’s, but to a popular misunderstanding of Paul’s ideas. It may well be that in overemphasizing Paul’s idea that we are saved by what we believe and not how we act, that some early Christians were engaging in some very un-Christian behavior.

Nothing new there. When I look at Christian media, or walk into a Christian bookstore, I see a lot of emphasis on faith and belief. There are books and videos that explain and re-explain being saved, prayer, how God will give you a purpose, how God will make you rich, what to believe about the Bible, about evolution, about sexuality, about women – the list goes on. But I see very little on how to give away wealth, or how to speak kindly to people, or how to be compassionate.

That seems to be changing a little. Like his corrective to a people who misunderstood Paul, it seems James is making a comeback. In the past decade or so, people who were once almost solely concerned with being born again have a new awakening to the plight of the already born. Rather than socially conscious and evangelical Christians being at odds with one another over these issues, it is more accurate to say that we balance one another.

When I was a teenager, I attended countless youth events that all led up to a climactic altar call. We were asked to “accept” Jesus, which always seemed like such a weak word to me. Accepting Jesus seemed like nothing more than agreeing with the notion that Jesus was a good idea. The preachers of my youth often spoke of “putting Jesus on the throne of your heart.” I had no idea what that meant, but they had an diagram to show it. Just a verse before the passage we heard today, James tells his readers to “accept the word” that God implants in their hearts. That acceptance is to lead not to merely hearing that word, but doing it. That “throne of your heart” my bell-bottomed youth leaders told me about was not meant to be a La-Z-Boy recliner.

To a disciple of Jesus, passive belief is not enough. It is dead. James says that the person who listens to the word and does not put it into practice is like a person at a mirror. They look and see themselves as they really are, but walk away and forget what they look like. That mirror for James, is God’s law, the standards by which God wants us to, not just believe, but act. But you and I tend to encounter those standards, see our true selves, and just walk away and forget them.

Every Sunday morning, we gather here at Vision and look into that mirror. We worship God, encounter and experience what God has to say to us – and we just walk away. We walk away to our individual lives with our own private agendas of self-entitlement and self-improvement.
In James, the doing always happens in the community. It is not just a personal private matter. Religion is a public interconnectedness. The word “religion” means “to link.” If we are doing religion we should be linking with one another and with God. But I am concerned that Sundays have become a mirror from which we walk away and forget what we saw.

When we look into the mirror, and hold ourselves up to God’s standard, certain stories emerge. We should be hearing stories of marriages saved, people overcoming alcoholism, drugs and depression. We should hear stories of reconciliation not of division. As a church, all of our lives should be transformed into lives of more discipline – not less. As individuals, God is holding us up to living to a higher standard, not to run off on individuals journeys of self fulfillment.Many of you are concerned about your kids, no matter what their age. We have to teach our kids to work through your problems and grow in maturity not wallow in hip self-pity and detachment. Our kids are being programmed in cynicism and nihilism. My kids see stuff on TV that is so cynical that they are parodies of parodies of parodies. We need to give our kids and ourselves a word to build their lives around besides “whatever.”

That word is the word of God. Not the words of the Bible per se, but the message of God that comes to us through its words. More importantly, our kids and us, need to put that word in action.

Some would suggest churches only function when they are run on fear. Creating and convincing people that there is an angry God from which they need to be saved and then dispensing their particular brand of Jesus as the only solution. Maybe that is the only way inspire people to serve more, come on more Sundays or give more money. But I began this church on the assumption that people were more sophisticated than that.

I think if you give people a casual relaxed worship atmosphere, they would still have sense enough to remember they are still at worship and act respectfully. I think that if you don’t beat people over the head to come to church every Sunday, that they will come anyway because they want to. I think that if you created teen ministries that don’t manipulate kids emotions that teens and their parents will support it and flock to it. I think that if you preach about the incredible freedom that God gives us through Jesus Christ, that people will use that freedom to live a more Christ-like life – not self destruct. I believe people are capable of being motivated self-starters, and not have to be micro-managed like we were in some kind of ecclesiastical Burger King.

Churches can only motivate people without resorting to some huge cosmic “or else.” They can function and grow under the direction of leaders without huge egos and controlling personalities. Otherwise the only alternative to traditional church is not an alternative church, but simply no church at all. If that is the case, then secular critics are right. The church has truly become irrelevant.

James said that true religion was caring for the orphan and widow. That encompasses ministering to the poor but it means something even bigger. It means being mature enough to follow Jesus, not out of fear of punishment but out of examining ourselves against the standards God has set in front of us. And then, not just agreeing with them; not just agreeing that we should help the poor; not just agreeing that we should not be materialistic; not just agreeing that we should speak and relate to one another as Christ would.

It means actually doing it. It is more than being self-absorbed suburban spiritual hobbyists. The authentic church is one where the people hold themselves up to God’s standard, and do not just walk away from what that standard exposes in them. The authentic church operates out of our beliefs and putting those beliefs into action. Because if no one does it, the authentic church will cease to exist.