Givers and takers
Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, year B
Bible reading: James 1:17-27
In the brilliant novel: The Kite Runner, Baba says to his son, Amir:
There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. When you kill a man you steal a life – you steal a husband, you steal a father. When you tell a lie, you steal – you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal – you steal the right to fairness.
No wonder when Jesus calls himself The Good Shepherd; He contrasts himself with the thief, who comes to steal, kill and destroy
, whereas I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly
. Jesus came to give, and to give abundant, fulfilling life, whereas, the devil and those who follow the devil are in the business of stealing life, diminishing life, destroying life.
We see the life stealers at work in the Gospel reading today. They are in the business of fault finding, inventing petty rules and then catching people out, dealing with superficial things, and not going to the heart of the matter. Jesus says of them and to them: this people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They spent their lives diminishing people, stealing their reputations, and above all stealing the reputation of Jesus until they stole his life in the murder of the cross.
Because the devil and those under his influence seek to steal, kill and destroy
, many of us live in terror. Somebody told me this week that they have spent their life living in fear of what people thought of them, in other words in fear of people stealing their reputation.
Older people, like my mother, sometimes hide their purses in fear that somebody will steal them, only to forget where they have put them, and then believe that somebody has stolen them. The business of stealing and the fear it leads to is the direct opposite of the ways of God, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ, who comes to give abundant life.
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
God is a giver, a generous giver. Creation is his gift. Not just vegetables, but also flowers. Not just coal and steel, but gold and diamonds. Not just water, but also wine. Not just stuff for us to use and survive, but so many gifts to for us to enjoy and celebrate. Not just the earth, but the sun, the moon, the stars.
God is the Father of lights
, which bring the light and the warmth, and the life to our world. God does not change. The world around us changes. There is winter and summer. There is cold and warmth. There is darkness and light. There is cloud and sunshine. I sit in the winter sun to read a book. Not long and cloud appears and I’m sitting in the shade and the cool. But God is light and in him there is no darkness at all … no variation … no shadow … no change
.
Change and decay in all around I see,
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
God is a giver. God is a lover. God is a life giver, and he gives nothing but fullness of life. Even as the life stealer roams around seeking for people to devour, people to accuse, people to destroy, people to nitpick with one another, and fight with one another, and destroy one another – so God keeps giving life in the midst of the theft and destruction of life. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created.
God’s great gift is that he has given us new life, in this world of death. You’ve been born again, given eternal life as a free gift … saved by grace, through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.
When you walk through the mall, or sit in the crowd at Aami Stadium for the finals, or attend the opera, remember that you’ve been given the gift of new life, in the midst of a crowd of people who mostly have not received it, have rejected it, who still live as part of a fallen creation that has had eternal life stolen from it.
And more, you and I are placed in this dying world that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all God created
. We are a sign to all the other people that God is in the business of giving life, and there is hope for them, if they will but turn to the God who never turns from his one desire that all people be saved and come to know God
.
Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.
Be quick to listen to the pains of the people around you, whose lives have been stolen away and diminished by the evil one. Listen to their sorrows and show your love for them by sharing their pains, until the time is right to share the way out of sin and sorrow and death, through the life giving work of Jesus Christ, who gave his life, so all people can have life in this world of death. Bonhoeffer said that: the first duty of love is to listen. So this is your gift to those around you. Listen to their cries for help, until the time is right to tell them of God, the giver of all good gifts.
But above all, use the gift of every day to listen to the gift of God’s Word to you – the word of truth – which gave you new life, and humbly welcome the word planted in you, which can save you
. As you listen to God’s Word you will be saved from living like the fallen world around you. Begin each day guided by the Word of God which gives life, or you will be guided by the words of the world around you which steal and destroy the life of God in you.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.
Just hearing sermons won’t help.
Just having devotions won’t help. Just reading a chapter a day won’t keep the devil away. It is in doing the word that you show you believe it, and grow in believing it. It is in doing the Word you hear, that you remember who you are – that you are a child of God, living like Jesus, looking like Jesus in the world.
As you look in the mirror of God’s Word, you see Jesus there, and then you can go out to live like Jesus. Then when others see you during the day, they’ll see Jesus. And they will be blessed, and so will you, for all who see Jesus and believe in him, have life for evermore.
What does it mean to do the Word of God you hear? To look after orphans and widows and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
In other words, to do the word of God is to live a life of giving to others, like Jesus, not trying to get everything for yourself, like the world around us. True religion, or true worship, is not just pious words, but loving actions, caring for and giving to the needs of the most vulnerable in society. Today is refugee Sunday. True religion is welcoming the refugee, the alien, as the Bible so often says.
Stealing, taking, greed, which is idolatry, is the one great sin fanned along by the devil. Giving, loving, caring for the most needy, is the way of God, to which we have been called. Loving and giving is God’s one and only way of saving the whole world. Amen.