NRSV JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But 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. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Many years ago, when our daughter was just a little older than her children are now, she developed a keen interest in a series of books known as the American Girls. At the time there were just three girls who were written about, girls who lived in different places and in different times but who all showed that special spunk and can-do attitude that we yearn for all of our American Girls. That collection has now expanded exponentially to include the stories of many more young ladies from all kinds of racial and ethnic backgrounds, along with all kinds of material items that reflect those stories. It makes us feel a bit overwhelmed to see how this whole thing has mushroomed. It has become a real American classic in every sense of the word, including expansion beyond our ability to comprehend the whole thing.
At the time when it was easier to get a handle on this, our little American girl was especially attracted to Samantha, to the point where we got Mindy a Samantha doll one Christmas which will be passed on to her daughter one of these days. In the story Samantha Parkington is a young lady who was an orphan who lived in the New York City area in the early days of the 20th century. Though her parents had died she had the good fortune of having a well to do background, so she went to live with her grandmother and her uncle, who remained a keen influence on her even after his wedding.
Her grandmother, known as Grandmary, allowed Samantha probably a lot more freedom than most young ladies had in those days; but there were still certain lady like activities to practice, such as needle point. Throughout the first book, Samantha is working on one that has the inscription, “Actions speak louder than words.”
Through several of her books she learns the lesson of that. She befriends a young lady who lives in considerably less advantageous surroundings than she does. It amazes her that this young friend cannot go to school, cannot afford the things Samantha has come to expect. So Samantha learns that the words on that needlepoint need to be applied in her life – such as when she gives up a doll she has received as a treasured gift to her young, impoverished friend.
All of that is a nice little morality tale, one that has evoked all kinds of warm fuzzies among American girls and their families since it was written in 1986. And it should; it is a good lesson, one that I remember hoping would stick with my little girl as I read her that story way back whenever. But I also remember thinking as I read that story: this is nice, but what about me, and others, not just Samantha Parkington? Am I aware that my actions speak louder than words? Or am I just faking it?
We don’t need a story that led to a vast commercial enterprise to remind us of that basic lesson. One that says it is easy to talk a good line, to voice all kinds of wonderful ideas and beliefs. But if your life isn’t matching that, if your actions are showing a different picture to the world, it doesn’t mean much. As the often-used expression goes, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?
There is a lot of distance between ourselves and the fictitious Samantha Parkington, and even more so with the non-fiction letter of James. Actually, this is less like a letter and more like a series of wisdom sayings. You could say, and some have, that this letter is the wisdom literature of the New Testament, roughly equivalent to the Old Testament books of the Song of Solomon, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. As with those books there are contained in this little gem a series of sayings that lift up the virtues of true wisdom – not just the accumulation of intelligence and smarts that can be used at our discretion to show off how smart we are. But the kind of wisdom that comes from the rough and tumble of daily living, and for James’ context, the rough and tumble of life in the church.
This is the book of the Bible that contains that well known and often cited verse that says, “Faith without works is dead.” It is lines like that – words that call out for human action and responsibility – that caused the old reformer Martin Luther to toss this book into the fire, calling it “an epistle of straw.” Brother Martin‘s concern was that anything that took our attention away from the grace of God was not helpful, and in fact could be very hurtful. Grace alone, that intrepid Reformer said, along with the call to live out our lives leaning not on our own understanding but on the plans and purposes of God.
But how do you know when you get there? I appreciate Brother Martin’s concern that we can casually dismiss the movement of God in our lives, but I also appreciate James’ insistence on all of us who follow Jesus that our actions do matter; it does make a difference how we talk to each other; it does matter how we relate to those around us – do we show favoritism to those with wealth and power, at the expense of those who are poor and silent? Do we teach our children that it is okay to let their hormones run wild and crazy or do we teach them that self-control is a needed tool in life, that it is important to treat each other with respect, and not as an object to use for our pleasure?
For our text this morning the writer of James has just gone off about how dangerous the tongue is, and how it can be used as a weapon or a blanket. Now he – or she? – is onto something else, and that something else is wrapped up in the second sentence: “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” Works done in gentleness, born in wisdom, born in integrity as much as intelligence, born in the capacity to learn and grow and be open to the other.
It is also shown in how this section of the letter ends – “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.” Draw near to God – not in the sense of lifting up all kinds of nice and pious phrases to get what you want, but drawing near to God in the wholeness of your being; of paying attention to God not as the guy in the sky, but that dynamic and loving presence that flows in and out of every life, and every situation. Not ‘pantheism”, not that everything is God; but “panentheism,” God is in everything. God is in every day, every moment, every person we meet.
In between those verses the writer goes on about how this – and any Christian community for that matter – doesn’t get what they want because they don’t ask for it; they don’t enter into a time of prayer. God has become just another thing to possess and manipulate, something to be used at their own pleasure. They do ask but they do not get it because they do not ask the right way – not humbly but with a stubborn insistence that they get what they want when they want it. There is another call here – a call to leave ourselves open to God coming and giving not always what we want but certainly what we need. It is God coming to this and every community of faith and seeking a harvest of righteousness; a harvest of right–relatedness between the people of that community and the people of other communities. God wants us to live in right–relatedness, no matter what our socio-economic level, our educational background, or our racial and ethnic heritage. God seeks for us to come together in right-relatedness, and to seek the peace that God gives.
As I read this text my mind went to a series of discussions that have been going on in this church. They are not directly related to this church except as a member of the faith community of Farmville. There is a group of ministers (myself included) who meet on a regular basis to go over the Bible texts that are suggested for worship services, but some time ago several of us felt that there were a lot of unmet needs in our community that we need to educate ourselves about and, if possible, address.
That led to our inviting community leaders to come once a month and sit at the table with us and talk about those unmet needs. We have had representatives of the designated community action agency, STEPS; Piedmont Senior Resources, Habitat (both organizations we support), and a social worker from the Department of Social Services. We have also had Charlotte Green, CEO of Green Properties, who has helped with some house rehab work, in on our conversations. At our last meeting this past Tuesday we had an extra guest, a lady who is the youth leader of a Catholic Church in Williamsburg who has been bringing work crews to our area for the last ten years to work on homes. She, Charlotte Green and the DSS social worker identify those homes which need the most work, and this past summer they had over 100 people of all ages, working in teams. A lot of times we think of taking young people or people from a church and going to far-away places for mission trips. But these people are teaching us that our very area, this one we call home, is a rich mission field.
The problem came when they were done with their week’s work and the people said, “Hey there is still a lot to do.” The social worker could just shrug and say, “You guys are the only resources we have.” The concern out of this meeting is that there are people in our own area who live in dreadful conditions but they have to wait for a year for a group of people from Williamsburg to come and help them. We pastors of churches in this area looked at ourselves and thought, ”We should be doing more here.”
I don’t know exactly what that ‘more’ is going to look like. But it is starting to look like churches who are socially engaged working together with organizations like the DSS and STEPS and Habitat and Piedmont Senior Resources to identify and work on homes in which the living conditions can only be described as abysmal. We don’t have a plan yet but we are talking and working it, and we covet your prayers.
We know it will take more than prayers, but for now we start there. We start with prayers for a group of people who want their actions to speak as loud as their words, actions that speak of a harvest of right-relatedness as God’s children come together in the love of Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We seek to give hope to people who have known so little for so long. We seek to be a people who participate in works done in gentleness born of wisdom, works done in a spirit of righteousness. For that is where real wisdom takes us – to the place where our deep gladness that comes from wanting to be God’s instruments intersects with the deep needs of the world, and especially the part of the world where God has planted us. We pray that our actions will speak as loudly as our words – actions of love and mercy for others, as we would want that love and mercy to come to us. Amen.