Doers of the Word

Doers of the Word

“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1.22

Last century, when I was but a callow youth, I remember being taken aside by one of the elders after I had preached a particularly humorous sermon. He admonished me with words which have stuck with me throughout my ministry: “You were called to feed the sheep, not tickle the ears of the goats.”

Well I’ve done quite a bit of ear tickling during my 6 years here at St Mary’s. But I hope I have also given both the sheep and the goats something to chew on.

This will be my last sermon from this pulpit for some respectable length of time, and as I pondered on the readings today, I thought back over the years to see what the burden of my preaching has been.

I suppose it could be summed up in three words: love, enjoy, and, understand.

Hardly surprisingly, the commonest refrain has echoed the words of our Lord when asked what is the most important commandment: love God and love your neighbour.

It’s such a simple statement, yet takes a lifetime to work out.

We love God because he first loved us and gave himself for us. That is what we proclaim and rehearse in the mass, day after day.

And if we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only, then that love must be demonstrated by the inconvenience of loving those we would rather not.

We come to mass to celebrate the forgiveness of God in Christ, and whenever we do so we are reminded that we must be forgiving of others.

Part of the function of ‘the peace’ given and exchanged just before we come to receive the bread and wine, is to remind us that we must be living in peace and forgiveness with each other.

And this is not always easy. In the words I have often quoted of the neo-metaphysical poet:

To dwell above with those we love,
ah that will be glory.
But to live below with those we know
is quite another story.

Sometimes all we can manage is to say honestly to God: ‘Lord I want to forgive, help my unforgivingness.’

But if we are generous of spirit then we will, by practice, learn to forgive.

Living any other way is not only contrary to the Gospel and pattern of Christ, but it does deep damage to the psyche, and prevents us from fully entering into the other two imperatives: enjoy, and, understand.

No wonder then that love is Christ’s primary command to his disciples; the glue of the spiritual universe; the gravity of the Cosmos.

Gravity
The apple, unlike Adam, had no choice but to fall
Speeding to fulfil its creator’s call.
But what force drew him down to us?
He, with a starlit infinity to explore,
He, who could peer into a neutron’s core,
He, who had spoken a thousand million times
And know the sulphuric spit of our self-vaunting crimes
He, whom we had called murderer, liar, thief
And left for dead with enlightened relief.

What force drew him down from above
To reap the grim harvest of rebel pride,
Hammered with nails of truth denied?
What force drew him down from above?
What force but this: the gravity of love.
(Mark Green, November 1994)

And the second word and command with which I have often enjoined you is ‘enjoy!’ Preaching at St Mary’s is rarely of the kill-joy variety. We are not those who take the swing out of the budgie’s cage on a Sunday. Indeed we are more likely to add a drop of gin to its water bottle.

In the Westminster shorter catechism you will remember the answer to the question: “What is the chief end of man?” It is “to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.”

Today’s Gospel contains one of the many examples of our Lord’s express desire that our life should be lived to the full. “Ask, and ye shall receive,” says our Lord, “that your joy may be full.”

And listen to these words from Deuteronomy 14 talking of what to do with the tithe money on the festivals:

“And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household.”

And I’m glad that you have heeded the next verse regarding the priests:“And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.” (26f) I am a much bigger man after my sojourn with you!

However, this command to ‘enjoy’ God’s world has a caveat. We must always hold lightly to the world’s pleasures, or they will take a grip on us which draws us from God and fills our souls with unrequitable longing for more.

As Paul says to the Romans: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools... [and] changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.” (1.22,25)

The danger is always there that we will begin to love things and use people, instead of loving people and using things.

And this can be true of our peculiar worship here at St Mary’s. We enjoy it and take care to preserve it. But it must never become the object of our love. The liturgy must always serve as a channel for the love of God, in which he reveals his great love for us and we in return, pour out our hearts in wonder, love and praise.

And so the third word, ‘understand’.

Augustine reminds us that our reason should be applied as ‘faith seeking understanding’. God’s word helps us week by week to put the world in context, to understand the times - even postmodernity.

And of course the word helps us to understand God - never fully - but a little more intimately as we enter into the holy mysteries time and time again.

But as James reminds us in our epistle, it helps us to understand ourselves.

We are all prone to self-deception. So we mistake joining a gym for actually going to a gym. We keep half our wardrobe full of clothes that we will wear again when we’ve lost a little weight...

Or as James says here, we look in the mirror of God’s word when we come to church, and then go out to do exactly as we please with no reference to it. We have not learnt, in the words of the prophet, that ‘the heart is deceitful.’

We have to learn that our capacity to love and be loved is marred. We have to remember that our ability to enjoy without clinging on to that which we enjoy, is impaired.

And indeed we have to learn that our particular understanding of the way things are will never be perfect and Godlike. We are fallible and so should walk before God and one another with humility.

So love, enjoy, understand and then you will be

“... doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1.22