The Price Is Right

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

JAMES 1:19-27

#thepriceisright

INTRODUCTION

I should tell you that up front, the sermon that I will share with you this morning is NOT a sermon that I have written. I write all my own sermons each week, but this one is not mine. This one was written for Cold Spring and South Highland Methodist Church in Cold Spring, New York which the United Methodist Church currently says has attendance of 10 (umc.org/en/find-a-church/church?id= 001Um00000PFK4MIAX). It was originally preached at that church on October 18, 1959 and then five more times in 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1965 at various churches and a nursing home.

I did not write this sermon.

My grandfather did. My grandfather, Kermit F. Borst, was a lay minister in the United Methodist Church in New York and in Colorado. I looked up what that means.

CONTENT… umcdiscipleship.org/resources/certified-lay-minister

Certified Lay Minister: Laity have long been a part of ministry in Methodism. Lay preachers, exhorters, and class leaders have served the church since its earliest days. The certified lay minister is "called and equipped to conduct public worship, care for the congregation, assist in program leadership, develop new and existing faith communities, preach the word, lead small groups, or establish community outreach ministries as part of a ministry team with the supervision and support of a clergyperson.”

I have a small binder of his handwritten and type-writer produced sermons. This is one that I found that I would like to share with you. I most likely will do more reading this morning than normal, but I ask you to listen to this sermon which is about 66 years old. I found some parts of tit that moved my heart and I pray it does the same for you.

[I have edited it in some minor ways]

READ JAMES 1:19-27 (ESV)

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

As I begin my sermon this morning, I am going to ask you to keep a question in the front of your mind. When I have finished, the sermon, see if you are completely happy with your thoughts on the matter. The question is: “Does Christ ask too much of me?”

I wonder how many people today, who practice Christianity, whatever denomination, practice a Sunday religion. I have rather imagined if the facts were known, you and I would find that a goodly number of people who profess to be Christians, are in fact, what I would choose to call hot and cold Christians. By that, I mean they are all excited about Christianity and Christ when He fills a particular need for them, but when everything is running smoothly, they forget about Christianity and Christ. It is rather obvious to me, from the deplorable condition of the world today, that too many people are Sunday worshippers and not enough are daily worshippers. The Sunday worshippers either don’t expect anything at all from their meeting with Jesus, or expect very little, and get just that.

We have this group of people who feel pious on Sunday, and then for the next six days forget what it is to be honorable and just with their neighbors. They do not want… nor expect to get… enough from their religion to carry them from Sunday to Sunday to Sunday infinitum. It strikes me, that not enough people want to pay a little higher price for a better grade product where religion is concerned, but they want nothing but the best in a car, a house, or clothes. I am indeed saddened when I think of this calamitous condition. And when I stop and consider that God asks us for so little, such a small price for so immeasurable a gift of eternal life, I am disheartened even more.