| 1) Introduction
Hi, my name is Lee. I am not a preacher – just a engineering university professor. So I take heart in the words of a 19th century Baptist preacher from the Deep South name A.T. Robertson made this statement: “The greatest proof that the Bible is inspired is that it has stood so much bad preaching.” This theory might be validated this weekend. No worries, it is the word of God we want to hear this morning and I am confident we will.
Gloria provided an excellent introduction to the book of James. Let’s return to this book and read together the portion we want to study together. James 1:19
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.
Gloria described something new we are doing at Lakeview this weekend. ‘All church’ teaching in which we study God’s word not just in this service but as part of Power Hour, the Mix, Mosiac, and Zoo - all ages, individuals and small groups.
My prayer is that as we engage, individually and as a community in the study of scripture we will discover, in the words of Marshall McLuhan, that the media is the message.
2 ) 3 Words
I read and re-read this passage a number of times, flipping back and forth between the New International Version and a Greek parallel study guide. There were 3 phrases that stood out for me: ‘the word’, ‘looking’ or ‘looks intently’, and ‘doing’. The last word is given as ‘doers of the word’ in New American Standard:
My goal this morning is not to teach you James, but to deepen your understanding of just 3 words so that as you study James you will catch a glimpse of the great depth offered to you in scripture.
a) The Word - Logos
The Greek word for ‘the Word’ is familiar to some of you. It is the word ‘Logos’. It is not a trivial word to unpack. It carries with it a number of possible images or ideas. It is in fact a word that describes ideas themselves. It captures the image of a conversation between people, a topic for discourse, which engages reasoning, and leads to the motivation to discover new ways of behavior. Simply stated, it is a relational dialogue and interaction which leads to truth.
The Greeks introduced this type of dialogue – they called it Rhetoric which is derived from the Greek word for teacher. It is a mode of discourse dating back before Socrates. We have a Chair of Rhetoric in the College of engineering who specializes in studying and teaching the art of persuasive communication. She teaches that every talk or discourse has 3 key elements: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.
- Ethos speaks to the credibility and character of the speaker – should I listen to this person, and are they trustworthy?
- Pathos is the nature of the listener – do I understand the one listening, do I have a connection or relationship with them that enables me to communicate.
- Logos is the subject of the discourse, it is the truth I am trying to communicate and persuade the listener to accept in a way that changes behavior. In fact, a change in behavior is the mark of effective rhetoric.
You see it is essential to understand that Logos is not about knowledge, rather it depicts the complexity of entering into new understandings of truth through interpersonal engagement and relationship so that new ways of living out truth are discovered.
This fits so well with two very two familiar passages from the book of John which also contain the word, Logos.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is described by John as ‘Logos’, the word, full of grace and truth. How did Jesus personify truth? Was it by downloading a new set of religious teachings? No, the word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was the ultimate rhetorician, the teacher, whose goal wasn’t to pass on knowledge but to invite his followers into a transforming discourse, a dialogue with God himself.
He is the ultimate Ethos, a speaker who’s credibility is defined by a cross. Who’s pathos was lived out by sacrifice and his own human experience. To who else would you turn to understand truth?
Rob Bell in his book ‘The Velvet Elvis’ explains that when Jesus said; ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,’(Matt 11:29), the yoke he was referring to was the yoke of a Rabbi. A Rabbi’s yoke was the commitment a disciple made to not only engage in a ongoing discourse on truth, but to take up the Rabbi’s pattern of living.
Truth is not about blindly accepting rules or direction, it is engaging, in a shared life-long journey and conversation that leads to truth and a new way of living. This was what Jesus was offering to his disciples when he said:
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Part of our difficulty is that we live in a culture that has made knowledge of higher value that truth. In fact many of you right now may be asking the same question Pilate asked of Jesus: ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:38)
So-let’s digress for a minute to give you useful way of addressing this question. How do you discover truth? There is a relatively simple paradigm I use in truth seeking. Although, I’m sure it didn’t start with John Wesley, my ‘Wesleyan’ bent keeps me referring to it as the ‘Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
Imagine a ball diamond in this auditorium. Let’s say this is home plate, first is somewhere near that exit, second at the back, and 3rd base over near the wall on your right. Now imagine the following words written over each of these bases: Reason, Experience, Scripture, and Tradition. I didn’t pick this order to suggest importance; it simply makes for a simple acronym, REST.
Wesley taught that truth is found in the middle where these 4 overlap.
- Truth discovery requires sound rationale reasoning (likely appropriate that this base is near me). Christ said we should "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matt 22:37);
- Truth surprises us through life experience guided by the work of the Spirit. It is appropriate to put this base near children’s ministry given a child’s capacity for experiential learners. Jesus promised: ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth; (John 16:13)
- Truth is resourced through Scripture (I think the book store anchors that back base). 2 Tim 3:16 reminds us that ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness:
- And Truth builds on Tradition. You could read about the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 to remind you of this one. Not sure why I put 3rd base over there, could be all those people who always sit in the same seats each week.
Now there is a subtle lesson in my analogy of the ball diamond. What is it that occupies the diamond of R.E.S.T. in this room? It is you, this faith community.
Rob Bell goes on to explain a teaching of Christ’s I have always found quite confusing. It is found in Matthew 16:19 (and Matthew 18:18) ‘
‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven"
Bell notes that ‘binding and loosing’ was a common rabbinic practice by which teachers interpret scripture and the directed their followers as to the appropriate prohibitions and permissions. What was radical in what Jesus said, was that he hands the ‘keys’ for binding and loosing to the disciples, to us.
Jesus intended that the discourse on truth, Logos, was to be carried not just between you and him, but between me and you and you and you and him. Can you imagine, the coffee full of people after each service, their bibles out, arguments and laughter rising to the roof as we bind and loose truth in this place. That was how it was supposed to be done, folks.
Bell writes this about just our 2nd base of truth: ‘The Bible is a communal book. It came from people writing in communities and is often written to communities. Remember that the printing press wasn’t invented until the 1400s. Prior to that, very view if any people had their own copies of the Bible. In Jesus’ day, an entire village could probably afford only one copy of the Scriptures, if that. Reading the bible alone was unheard of, if people could even read. For most of church history, people heard the Bible read aloud in a room full of people. You heard it, discussed it, studied it, argued about it, and made decisions about it as a group, a community. Most of the ‘yous’ in the bible are plural. Groups of people receiving these words. So if one person went off the deep end with an interpretation or opinion, the others were right there to keep that person in check. In a synagogue, most of the people knew the text by heart. When someone got up to teach or share insight, chances are everybody knew the text that person was talking on and already had their own opinions about it. You saw yourself and those around as taking part in a huge discussion that has gone one for thousands of years’
Bell goes on to bemoan the fact that live in a culture where we expect to study the bible alone, if at all, and also expect some pastor to study alone all week and then download truth to us.
This is likely why James encourages his readers in v 19 to be ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry’ and in v 22 ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.’ Don’t just sit there waiting for truth to be downloaded or try to do all the binding and loosening yourself. Engage constructively in this community dialogue.
Truth will not be downloaded to you from some divine website. It will only be discovered through Logos, ‘the Word’, the eternal conversation to which Christ invited us, a conversation with Christ and his church.
Some of you may know that Twila and I are going to be grandparents. It is amazing to watch as the family gathers how practical truths about pregnancy and child rearing grow out of family discussion. There are reference books, for sure, but there is sharing of common experiences, and references to past generations, and lots of debate and discussion. This is what it means to seek truth in loving community.
b) Look Intently – Parakupto (par-ak-oop'-to)
Our next key phrase is ‘look’ or ‘look intently’ or Parakupto in Greek. This word has a beautiful yet simple image associated with it. It draws its meaning from the combination of two Greek words; one suggests moving to a very close proximity, and the other the physical posture of stooping or bending down.
I was describing this to Twila and she immediately suggested the image of little boys (she clearly has grandchildren on her brain) who when they see something interesting don’t simply glance at it with intellectual aloofness. No, they engage in Parakupto, they call their friends and get right down on their knees or stomachs and lay elbow to elbow peering into this great new mystery.
Charles Spurgeon, a British pastor from the late 1800s said: “Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart! -
A US survey by the Barna Group asked Christians to rank their spiritual development in 7 areas. The spiritual dimensions for which people were least likely to rank themselves above average were in sharing their faith (23% above average, 53% average, 24% below average) and knowing the Bible. (22% above average, 53% average, 26% below average).
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=200)
Thomas Paine, an intellectual and writer at the founding of the US wrote: The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.
If we are betting our eternity on the ‘Word’, then why are we unable to ‘look intently’ into the word. R. C. Sproul, a contemporary Calvinist theologian in Florida (keep in mind Calvinist are always a bit tougher than Wesleyans) put it this way:
Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.
Last year Jacqueline helped arrange a class which a few of you may have attended entitled: ’66 Books you never knew’. In that class the pre-eminence of scripture in understanding world history and civilization as well as our own spiritual journey was reviewed, and a few the myths about studying the bible were debunked.
For example, many people say that they don’t study the bible because it is so huge. It is large, but it is important to understand that it isn’t one book which must be read from cover to cover in one sitting. It is 66 books, written by an amazing group of real people, living in real places, at real times, with real problems and real encounters with God. It has more than 40 authors, writing over thousands of years of history but with one overarching storyline – the Story of God’s Love – asking us to enter into an eternal discourse with him, full of truth and grace.
The authors came from a range of cultures/ times /genders /social class – all human conditions. They were Kings, princes, poets, philosophers, prophets, statesmen, learned, fisherman, and shepherds. And the genre of literature encompasses narrative history, genealogies, chronicles, laws, poetry of all kinds, proverbs, prophetic oracles, riddles, drama, biography, parables, letters, speeches, sermons, and apocalypses.
Wow – doesn’t this fascinate you? If you were required to choose only one book to study in order to understand human society, this would be the one.
And in fact it isn’t that long to read. The longest book would take you about 6 hours to read in one sitting (Psalms). The shortest in about 6 minutes (Obadiah, Jude, 2nd, 3rd John, etc). In fact the entire book could be read out loud in approximately 80 hours.
Another common reason for not studying the bible is that it is hard to understand. This reminds me of a favourite saying I have used with students – complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong solutions. Life is complex, and complex things are hard to understand. You wouldn’t want your doctor to have taken simple anatomy would you? Yet you demand that your spiritual journey be simple.
G.K. Chesterton quipped: The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. You word planted in you is calling you into a great mystery, a marvelous adventure, filled with intellectual simulation and growth. Don’t run from it – embrace it.
J. McCosh, a president of Princeton in the late 1800s wrote: The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.
Let me tell you the two essential questions you need to guide your study of the bible. These have great fancy names you can use at parties and sound very clever.
The first is ‘Exegesis’. This simple means, ‘What did it mean then and there’? The second is ‘Hermeneutics’ which simply means ‘What does it mean here and now’? And the trick is this – you must understand the answer to the first question before you try to address the second’. Jacqueline and other staff can help you with resources to do proper exegesis and hermeneutics, be sure to ask them.
Bart couldn’t remember these fancy words after last nights sermon. So Bart, think X-Jesus, like X-treme sports. And Herman the cartoon. Pictures into living. Does that help?
You should also be encouraged by Paul’s words to Timothy (2 Tim 3:16): ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’. It still is. Every time you humble yourself, and bend way down to peer into this mystery, the magic of God’s whisper to the original writers, can still be heard.
So what really is your problem? Is it just laziness as Sproul suggests? Maybe you never realized you could read and understand the bible. Or maybe you have lost the wonder of a little child. Practical James gives some simple advice in v 21. ‘Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you’. Maybe it is time to get down on your knees, even better, lay down elbow to elbow with those around you, and engage in a little Parakupto.
c) Doer – Poietes (poy-ay-tace')
The final word is the one that I think they really wanted me to teach (sorry Bart and Gloria). It comes from the v 22: ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says’ , or in the more archaic language, ‘be doers of the word’.
There is no question that living out the truth of the word will pay off. Listen to the views expressed by two great statesmen from our neighbours to the south.
I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book that you can by reason and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man. It is the best Book which God has given to man. --Abraham Lincoln
I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands. --Thomas Jefferson.
Martin Luther even tries a little reverse psychology on us when he wrote:
You may as well quit reading and hearing the Word of God, and give it to the devil, if you do not desire to live according to it. -- Martin Luther
You may be glad that I am running out of time, since you may be anticipating a good tongue lashing at this juncture as to why we are not ‘doers’ of the word.
Yet as I thought about this question in my own life, I came to a rather simple but interesting conclusion. If I have heard the word, and even tried to look intently at it, then why am I not a ‘doer’ of the word? Simply stated; it is because it isn’t truth in my life.
It is like knowing about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle and yet never changing your diet or exercising. You may know that to be true but it isn’t truth in your life.
I don’t think the answer however is to work harder, grit our teeth and just do it. Rather it is to commit ourselves as deeply and as honestly as we can to the advice given by James – invest deeply in Logos and Parakupto.
There is a lovely word for this process. It is a word you have likely used in a completely different context. It is the word ‘liturgy’. We think of liturgy as the formal parts of a rather stuffy service, but in fact the etymology of the word is quite beautiful. It is from the Greek words (I sort of feel like that father in the movie ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’), leito- which means "public" or “people” and the word “ergos” which means "that works" or "work". Liturgy is literally ‘the work of the people’. (www.etymonline.com)
Christ never came to give us an education or start a religion. He never came to give us rules to memorize and obey. He came to engage us in a conversation in the context of community that would create real truth in our lives. This is the work of the people. This is the work of this community.
You don’t have to believe to be part of liturgy. Certainty about all spiritual truth is a myth. Churches are not to be fortresses of solidified opinions, confidence and dogma. We are, as James described, those that have humbly accepted the word planted inside us. Something has been planted deep inside me, and although I don’t understand it, or believe all of what I think I am to believe, I am willing to commit myself to the conversation.
We are not to dumbly listen to the word, and deceive yourselves into thinking we really believe it when we obviously don’t. We are to humble ourselves before God and open ourselves up to an energetic, dynamic, spirit led, dialogue with his body the church, in a way that lives out the truth we do have in honest, real ways. This is the liturgy to which we are called.
You see the Greek word for ‘doing’ is poietes (poy-ay-tace') which is derived from the words for ‘performer’ or ‘actor’, or ‘poet’. Danish Theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, remarked that we tend to think of the preacher as the actor, and the congregation as the audience. Not so in the spiritual world, he says. There the preacher is really the prompter, the listeners are the actors and God is the audience. He wrote:
“There are no mere theatergoers present, for each listener will be looking into his own heart. The stage is eternity; … The speaker whispers the word to the listeners …that the listeners … in the silence before God, may speak with the help of this address. (Purity of Heart, pp. 180-181)
I say I believe in reaching out to the poor. But that truth is not truth for me. I don’t yet serve in the inner city. But I watch a young woman named Louise twirl with that truth before God and this community. I haven’t been in a small group in years, and yet I watch Elizabeth waltz through the atrium, engaging a new dance partner every few steps. I watch Dean, doing a 2 step of faith, with life crashing around him, and marvel at how he continues to hear the fiddlers call. And as I watch them dance, the word becomes flesh; it becomes real to me as well and truth grows in me.
My people, the God of the universe has invited you into an eternal discourse on truth. That word is planted deep into your souls. Humbly open your lives to looking intently into truth through reason, and experience, and study. It matters little what we know or believe, it matters most that we are committed to the conversation and that together we dance that truth out before our King and community, trusting that through this discourse we will grow in truth and grace.
Let us Pray:
Here this Benediction:
Deut 6:4-8 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
My friends, let me encourage you in the words of a lovely Irish ballad;
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
Go this week, look deeply into the word of God, and then dance! |
