Proper 17

Sunday, August 30, 2009

St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY

The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector

“Grounded”

 

James 1:17-27

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. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 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. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Our second reading is from the Letter of James - a letter I have come more and more to appreciate over the years.

 

The letter throughout is an exhortation. The writer exhorts and urges Christians to certain patterns of behavior.  Be doers of the word, he writes, and not just hearers.

 

In this part of his letter, he grounds all exhortations in what God is. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, he writes, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

 

The God we know as Christians, the God we worship, adore, love, and serve is the giving God, the generous God, the loving God.  Not the man upstairs, not the unmoved mover, but the one who is the ground and source of generosity and giving.

 

This generous, giving God, whom Luther called a hot fiery furnace of love has awakened us to this love through a second birth.  In our first and biological birth, we came into this world craving, craving to have our needs met and ours alone.  And we cried and screamed to make sure they were met.  But by the grace of God, through the language of love, care shown us, and the message of the cross, planted in our hearts, we experienced a second birth.  We have come to understand life not as possession but as gift and wonder. We have learned to say grace for daily bread.  We have learned to thank the Lord and sing God’s praise.  We have learned to give thanks for Jesus who is the face of God’s generosity to the world. We have eaten at his table, feasted on his life. We have prayed for his life to be our life – for us to be his generous body in the world.

 

Grounded in the generosity of God, nurtured by word and sacrament, we have learned to cling less, to let go more; to crave less, to give more; to be less turned in on ourselves and more turned out toward others. 

 

The letter writer, having so grounded our life in the generosity and giving of God, goes on to urge and exhort his readers to live their life in God in certain patterns of behavior.

 

The first is this. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak.”  “Be quick to listen, slow to speak.”   I think of this careful listening as an expression of generosity – the generosity that gives another time and space to speak, time and space to be heard.

 

It is a great gift to give someone undivided attention and ears that listen with care. Someone said, “God gave us two ears but only one mouth for a reason.”

 

The generosity granted to others by our withholding speech through careful listening is one of the deep ways we give expression to the generosity of God.

 

Moreover, it’s only when we are slow to speak and quick to listen that God can change our mind for it to be more in line with God’s mind.

 

Our Vestry is currently on an exploration.  It is on a journey of discovery – seeking, praying, searching to understand more deeply radical hospitality – that radical generosity of spirit that welcomes others as Christ welcomes us. Our eyes and ears are being opened in ways they were not before.  But it is a struggle.  It’s a struggle to understand as od understands.

 

At our Adult Forum between services on Sunday, September 13th, we’ll be talking about radical hospitality, how our eyes and ears are beginning to be opened to it and what we’ve been slowly learning. Please come at 9:15 a.m. to our parish hall and be part of our conversation.

 

The author of the letter will go on to write further exhortations, which we have no time to explore today.  But we have more than enough to chew on as we reflect on how the generosity and givingness of God might show up in our words and deeds, together as a parish and in our individual lives.