Resume Builder
August 7 , 2005
Luke 4:1-2a, 5-8
James 1:26-27
Today marks the moment we’ve been waiting for all summer…the summation of the proverb-like sayings from the first chapter of James. In the summer of the morality war we’ve been trying to figure out what it means to be a moral Christian. Here’s a list of what we’ve found out so far:
- Joy comes from standing with the persecuted, for it brings endurance to the witness we bring of the gospel of love.
- Recognize what it is you believe and who or what it is you worship. And, if you’re Christian ask questions with the intention of growing your beliefs.
- Being busy wastes away the riches of living, focus your living on growth.
- Our desires tempt us not our needs. Blessed are those who struggle with temptation it yields truth in what you believe.
- Give generously in reflection that we are gifts and fruits of God’s true word.
- Be quick to listen and slow to anger.
- All true words must be action oriented or they are empty words.
And today we have number 8: We must use honest speech and back it up with action.
Are you surprised this is what all the grief is about: process, listening, being focused on serving the poor and persecuted, walking the talk? It absolutely seems to fly in the face of the rhetoric that we’ve come to hear involved in the morality war. In fact it seems only to be about God, our relationship to God and how we reflect that relationship with one another. Period. And, today’s proverb is no different, “Use honest speech and back it up with action.”
So to unpack today’s proverb let’s start with this idea of honest speech.
We’ve got two words off of the rolodex of terror today. Did anybody hear them? Devil and stain. First let’s talk about the devil.
In the UCC we do not believe in the embodiment of evil in a small person with horns, a pitchfork, and pointy tail. And in fact, we do not believe that any one evil being exists. We believe that God created, and all that comes from God is good, thus it would be difficult to have a being solely consisting of evil.
Second, if we’re working with getting to the core of honest speech, the word devil comes from two words meaning: accuser or slanderer. Knowing this let’s revisit the teaching from Luke. The slanderer took Jesus up and showed Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world. The slanderer said he could give him all glory and authority, that it all had been given over to him and I can give it to anyone I please. The slanderer said, worship me and it will be yours. So, I looked up slander in Webster’s…the utterance or spreading of a false statement or statements, harmful to another’s character or reputation. Can you feel that? Have you been there? Have you watched someone else who is there? Struggling with a false statement, a false person, a false idea which ends up harming their person? This amazing story from Luke is actually affirming our work to tell our own truths. It also acknowledges that this is a struggle and a challenge and that it takes hard work to choose and not to be taken in by empty promises or empty people, especially when the immediate experience of them is thrilling. This story is here to remind us that our relationship to God is not one of emptiness. Our relationship to God is one of truth-telling backed up by action. Every time a false statement was made…a statement that was a lie, no matter what the current appearances were, Jesus had another statement to lean upon. One that reflected his honest truth in his experience of God. His experience and teaching said we only worship one true God. It mattered not what promises of power or personal gain he could have in the kingdoms of this world…Celebrating God’s glory was all he was interested in and for that he only had to go to God, he needed no interpreter, or rival, or better deal. He knew his truth. And, he backed his truth up with his actions of calling out empty promises for what they were and challenged the emptiness with his own truth.
Another term from our rolodex of terror is the word stain. It has been used to slander many people across the ages. It has been used in anti Semitic ways. It has been used to promote racism as coming from God. But today, when we are talking about the God of telling honest truths about our created selves. The God who wishes to see us live out our truths and speak words of action. This God sees one stain…and it is the stain on our hands of the blood of the poor. It’s the stain our money leaves on our hands when it costs $80 to end hunger for one child in Africa but $177 million a day to fund the occupation in Iraq. It’s this way of speaking about loving the poor but not backing it up with actions that feed them, school them, allow them to develop and share their gifts. When we deny people these things we become the slanderer. We become the evil we despise. James reminds us today that to embody the Creator and the Word is also to live it in our actions. We can not say we are Always Open and Open All Ways and have admission standards or fees. We must walk our talk or we’re worse than hot air, we’ve slandered the gospel.
The other beautiful part of these two passages and the intersection where they meet is surrounding the struggle between Jesus and the slanderer. Jesus is struggling with his call. He’s struggling with choosing whose he will be, what he will worship. And, in order for this to be an actual human experience it has to be an actual struggle. This means that each of these options held desirable outcomes for Jesus. He could actually see himself going either way. He considers equally the pros and cons of each opportunity.
How many Harry Potter fans in the room? A new book just came out so my Harry Potter world has been opened again. For those of you not familiar with the books they are written for older children Mattea and Gabi’s age. However, they have each spent many weeks on the NY Times best seller list and are read by all ages and types of people including me. It’s a wonderful fantasy world where daily struggles between good and evil occur. The main characters in the story are magical people involved with the students of Hogwarts. When people become students at Hogwarts they are sorted out into the house by which they will be identified for the rest of their time at the school, and by which methodology they will be raised within, by the sorting hat. This enchanted hat is placed on the head of each new student. And this hat can hear and read your thoughts and desires. As it is placed on each student’s head it determines which house the new student belongs within. Harry Potter desperately wanted to be in Gryffindor. But, he realized he also could be sorted into Slytherin. Both houses have the same qualities of leadership, intellect and courage. But Gryffindor fights for the greater good while Slytherin is more interested in personal gain. Even though both were an option for Harry he had to struggle to desire the house of Gryffindor more. And, it’s this kind of validated struggle that is honored by our tradition today. The truth that we can often choose differently than we have. And, that frequently choosing is very difficult because our gifts, our outcomes, our living will be different depending on our choices. It’s an internal battle to define our own truths of who we are and who we are growing to become. As people of faith God reminds we are growing to become in God’s image, to be embodiments of the word and to be inspired by the Spirit to be the Word in Action.
So today we end our proverbial lessons by saying that we must serve our God with a single-heartedness that is focused on God. Not the gods of money, talent, privilege, academics. But, the God who only speaks truths to honor the poor and then serve them and to judge a moral Christian is to look to those standing with the persecuted and dispossessed. To say anything else is slander. Let us pray.