13th Pentecost
James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
"I would rather see a sermon than hear one." You've heard that old saying many times; maybe you've even used it. It's a trite, well known saying. "I would rather see a sermon than hear one." It is also true.
Just because a truth is well known, does that make it any less true?
"Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves," says the Letter of James. I confess that I don't like the book of James all that much. James is full of those pithy little truisms that everybody already knows. It's much more fun to preach on a story that you can find a place in or to preach on a more complex unfamiliar idea that has to be unraveled. If the whole Bible were like the letter of James you really wouldn't need preachers, for who needs a preacher to remind you of what you already know.
Yet, maybe that's one reason why we need to attend to this saying from the Letter of James; we already know it. But knowing this--be doers of the word and not merely hearers -is not the problem. Here, doing is the problem.
Jesus never asked his hearers, "Do you agree with me?" or "Does this sound reasonable to most of you?" He wanted more than just agreement. Jesus said, "Follow me" He was after discipleship, not just simple intellectual agreement.
Perhaps that why we tend to turn the gospel into some kind of intellectual problem. We listen to scripture and say"Now, how could that have happened?" or "What do I think about that?" But scripture doesn't just want to be understood--it wants to be put into action. So we step back, ponder, think consider, reflect when the Bible longs for us to get moving, get into the act, perform the text rather than just speak or hear it.
I think our gospel lesson today is on to the same issue. I think Jesus is saying that the scribes and Pharisees are hiding out in the traditions and forms of the faith instead of really engaging in the rough and tumble life of the faith. We all know it's a lot easier to rest in the past rather than to take on the demands of a challenging future.
I'm sure many of you remember the Broadway musical and then the movie Fiddler on the Roof . The plot was fairly simple. The story, supplemented throughout by lively Klezmer-style music, was about two Eastern European peasants; Tevye and his wife Golda and their three daughters, and about how their lives changed because of the times in which they were living and the war that came to surround them.
The one song that most people remember from this musical was called "Traditions". The chorus goes, "Tradition, tradition, tradition...". In the story, this song is repeated several different times. Some crucial event will be taking place in the family or in the community, a betrothal, a wedding--and one of the characters will turn toward the audience and ask, "Why do we do it this way?"
Tevye will begin, "Well I'll tell you..." Then he would go on to explain that there have always been certain traditions in the village--that fathers have certain duties, and children have certain duties. All of these traditions are important because they keep the community in balance. At the end of each of his explanations, he asks, rhetorically, "How did this particular tradition get started? Then he would pause for a bit and finally go on, "I don't know. But it's tradition."
There's no question that traditions have their place. They serve a valuable purpose in grounding us, making us secure, giving us stability and yet always those traditions must bump up against the world as it is and make way.
For Tevye, every time one of his daughters finds love outside the parameters of tradition Tevye's heart melts in his love for them and he gives way.
Our lessons today point to the fact that faith is not an intellectual exercise, faith is not the dry dusty profession of form and ritual. Rather faith is the give and take of relationship, the engagement of ones whole self. That's not always tidy or neat or pretty but clearly it is the life we are called to.
Jesus says to his accusers, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me."
Years ago, I remember discussing with a group of lay people what they looked for in a good sermon. "I like a sermon that helps me think about things in a new way," was a big response. I like a sermon that engages my mind, that spurs my thinking and reflection.
That sounds good to me. I like to preach engaging interesting thoughtful sermon--when I can! But is that altogether right? There really is something about us that loves to think that all worship is about sitting, listening, taking in. Is this why today's text from James links our inaction to deceit? Be doers of the word not hearers only who deceive themselves.
We deceive ourselves into thinking that we have done the faith when we have merely listened, reflected, pondered, agreed. Sometimes I have heard people say of church on Sunday morning, "I think of church as a filling station. I come here empty, and during the service I get filled so I can make it through the week." Passive, receptive, inactive. It makes church into a place where we come sit back and say, "O.k. preacher, choir, organist, do it to me, fill me up."
But the test for good worship, the mark of a good church is not what we do here, during this brief hour of worship; it's what we do outside those doors for the rest of the week.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I can not hear what you are saying, for what you are keeps ringing in my ears."
The world is quite right in judging the truth of the gospel on the basis of the sorts of lives the gospel is able to produce. Do we really look like the God whom we praise here on Sunday morning? Have our songs and prayers changed us, made us into that which we profess? That is the test says James.
We already know that. We already know that any sermon that is "seen" in deeds of love and mercy is more effective than one that is only spoken and heard. How many people have been turned off with the church, have gone away from Jesus, because they have been hurt or scandalized by the actions or lack of action on the part of those who profess to follow Jesus?
So worship will soon end. I'm sure you agree with the sermon, you understand thoroughly the biblical texts for today. Agreement, understanding are not the problem. The issue is now before us: what will we do with which we have said sung and heard?
Amen