A man was hired to paint the lines on the highway that divide the lanes. Now the company didn’t have a lot of resources so he had to do his painting on foot. After the first day at work his supervisor was very impressed when he learned that this new employee had painted three miles’ worth of lines.
Unfortunately, the next day his results were not quite as impressive. He was only able to extend the lines for two miles. The third day he only painted less than one mile of lines.
The supervisor went from being impressed to being concerned. He called him into him into his office and said, "I’m going to have to let you go." The employee dropped his head and got up to leave. As he was going out the door he turned and said, "I’ve never worked so hard in all my life! Its just that the paint bucket keeps getting further and further away!"
We laugh at this man’s problem. His problem was that his paint bucket was too far from where he was doing his work! His supply source was too far from where the brush hit the road! What he needed to do was to take the bucket with him! How is it that things can be so glaringly obvious in a story like this and, yet, they can be so hard to see in our own spiritual lives? When we find ourselves reading the bible handed out in S.S. or reading the bible provided in the pew and then not opening our own bibles during the week, are we not working too far from our buckets?
Our passage from this letter from James challenges us this morning. In 1:22 he writes, "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like."
As I read this text I couldn’t help but think of friends and relatives that slowly lost the connection between the "real world" and their memory and consciousness. There is a very pleasant man who sits on the porch at a nursing home where Janet and I have visited. We often take Samson, our Yorkie terrier, with us. As we walk to the porch with Samson on the leash, the man will say these precise words: "Cute little dog. What’s his name?" We’ll tell him and he’ll repeat it and say, "Cute little dog." When we come back out, he will say again, "Cute little dog. What’s his name?" His brain malfunctions. He can no longer connect one moment to the next!
Perhaps, each of us have our own stories about loved ones that we smile about, but we also know the pain of loving someone who no longer remembers us or many of the special memories that we have shared together. It is a sad thing to lose our history, all the many memories of relationships and shared moments. Sometimes, we may malfunction as we live our lives spiritually disconnected. Apparently, that was true for some of the people to whom James was writing.
There were people in James’ day who were claiming to be followers of Jesus. But, something was lacking that James was addressing in his letter. There was a critical "disconnect," a malfunction, that nullified their claims to be a disciple. What was this "disconnect"? They were hearers of the word and not doers! That’s when the "tilt" buzzer went off for James. This is not being a follower of Jesus. This is not discipleship. This is a serious malfunction! He was saying to himself and to us, "What’s wrong with this picture?" What was wrong is that there was no action!
For believers and followers of Jesus, it is natural, normal and healthy for us to grow in our spiritual lives, which includes both our knowledge and understanding and the way we live and minister to others. James forces us to ask ourselves, Am I growing in Christ, or not? I must ask myself, Do I just blend in and go along with the values of the culture in which I live, or do I make conscious choices about my time and what I do based my Christian faith? James asks us, What difference does your faith make in what you do every day?
James said that to hear the Word of God and not do it was like people who looked in a mirror and looked away and immediately forgot what they were like. We know the sadness of living with someone with Alzheimer’s. What James is describing is like someone trying to be a growing disciple in the Alzheimer’s wing. They look in the mirror. They hear the word of God come to them in worship, preaching, music, scripture, and, then they leave and forget everything they heard, and they live there lives disconnected from what God has shown them.
For James the problem is not a mental disability, but a spiritual malfunction that is traced to disobedience and a lack of commitment. The Word of God is sharper than a two edged sword. It penetrates our self-induced satisfaction, and it burns our hearts with the illuminating and purifying presence of God. We have the choice of turning away or of being changed. The old preacher was right when he said, "First, you gotta believe it. Then, you gotta behave it. Enough of that gatherin’ at the churchhouse and talkin’ the talk! Now, get on out there where people are hurtin’ and are all messed up and walk the walk!"
James is a straight talker, a truth-teller. He is not mean-spirited. He is direct. He gives us a picture of someone who is content to hear and do nothing! It is tragic enough for a person to be deceived by others, but there is something especially pathetic about a person who is guilty of self-deception. And, this is precisely what we do to ourselves when we hear the Word of God taught or preached, give assent to its truth, and all the while our lives are unchanged.
It is too easy to listen so long as nothing is required. It doesn’t cost anything to listen. However, Jesus never called anyone merely to be a listener. He challenged the fishermen: "Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men" (Mk 1:17). He commissioned his followers: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). Jesus’ call is always to follow and to go, never simply to sit and to listen.
When we find ourselves going through the motions, just sitting and listening, we are missing out on what God has to offer. When the scripture or the sermon never penetrates beneath our skin, no matter what is said, nothing happens. There is no conviction of sin, no realization of doing wrong. There is no deepening of love for God and for one another, and there is no compassion for those who do not know God through Jesus. There is no encouragement to service and ministry, and we are numb to the guilt that God expects more than is being done.
Sometimes, we say that we want to grow in our spiritual lives. What I have learned is that obedience is the door-way to growth. We don’t grow because we don’t do what we already know to do! God has more things for us, but we are not prepared to learn more until we do what he has already shown us to do. So, when we start doing what we now know to do, then God will start teaching and revealing new things to us.
When we are sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives, instead of hearing God’s word for us and going away and forgetting everything about it, we begin to think about how God wants us to clean up or straighten up our lives and wants us to minister to others in need. Sometimes, we minister by sharing with others how God is leading us to grow through some of the rough spots we have gone through. By sharing a mini-faith story we give another person some insight into how God is working in us so that they can learn to sense God’s direction in their lives, too.
Dr. Brooks Ramsey, a writer, a professional counselor, and a prior pastor of a church I served,(1) was one of the ministers that accompanied Martin Luther King, Jr. on the symbolic march supporting the Sanitation workers just before King was killed. Brooks tells the story of the queen of Sheba who came to visit Solomon, and how, one day, she put him to the test. She brought artificial flowers so perfectly formed that no human eye could detect them from real flowers. She put them in a vase on Solomon’s table, in his throne room next to his flowers. As he came in, the queen of Sheba is reported to have said, "Solomon, you are the wisest man in the world. Tell me without touching these flowers, which are real and which are artificial." It is said that Solomon studied the flowers for a long time and spoke nothing, until finally he said, "Open the windows and let the bees come in."
There are ways to tell the artificial from the real--let the bees come in; they will know where the real is. If we live with the authentic Jesus long enough, we will recognize the artificial when we see it.(2)
When we hear what God wants us to be and what he wants us to do in our worship, and when nothing changes in our lives in what we do, when we feel no tension between where we are and where God is calling us to be, this says that there is a critical "disconnect" in our lives. It is the difference between the artificial and the real. It is hearing the right things and then flushing them out of our minds on our way across the parking lot to our cars. It is a sad thing. It is something that Christ will help us to overcome. But, unless we make the commitments to real change, our spiritual malfunction of inaction shuts off the spiritual circuits that cause us to grow.
A certain downtown businessman became fond of the little boy who shined his shoes every day. He did such a good job that one day the businessman asked him, "Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?" The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, "Mister, I’m a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."
The businessman saw something genuine in the shoeshine boy. Soon after that, he began reading his Bible. When he decided to be a Christian himself, he credited his decision to the little boy who shined every pair of shoes "as if Jesus Christ were wearing them."(3)
There’s a "connection" between faith and reality, between what we hear and what we do. But, as James wrote, "For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like." That kind of malfunction, or "disconnect," is sickness and weakness.
When we, as followers of Jesus, make a strong connection between our hearing and doing, then others are attracted to us like bees to fresh flowers. They know the real from the artificial. And they are attracted to us because we shine every pair of shoes, we do every kind deed and act of charity like we are doing it for Jesus. When we make that kind of "connection" between hearing and doing, there is no doubt that Christ lives in and through us! Amen.
Century Christian Church, September 3, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
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1. Dr. Brooks Ramsey was the first pastor of Second Baptist Church, Memphis, TN. Dr. James W. Hatley followed Dr. Ramsey, and I served as Associate Pastor with Dr. Hatley from 1976-1981. Dr. Ramsey had become a counselor and still spoke at Second Baptist from time to time as a supply preacher.
2. Dr. Brooks Ramsey, When Religion Becomes Real, a professional counselor and former pastor of Second Baptist Church in Memphis, TN.
3. Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1990.
