Came home to a quiet house. Well, as quiet as it can be with the crazy dogs and the senile cat. But once the yelling was satisfied with another dish of food and the wagging and barking and jumping was satisfied with a little attention and a quick walk to the mailbox, it got quiet.
Quiet can be good. I like quiet. There are days when I long for quiet and days when I go and seek quiet. Be still and know that I am God is one of my favorite verses. (Psalm 46:10 for those who have to go look it up!) La Donna is off at the UMW Annual meeting. The kids are off in school. I just came back from a rather intense retreat that I was leading. You’d think I wanted quiet. You’d think quiet would be first on the agenda. But it wasn’t.
I had a quiet drive home. Quieter than I wanted. And came home to a quiet house. And I felt a little lost. Yeah, there was no one to tell me what to do. No one to make me perform a task I didn’t want to perform, No one demanding anything from me. No one. Just me. No one to boss me. No one to greet me. No one to ask me questions I didn’t want to answer. No one to hear the stories I wanted to tell.
Like I said, sometimes I love that. Sometimes the quiet is just perfect for me. So, don’t feel sorry for me. That isn’t the point of this reflection. Besides there are those out there, some reading this letter for whom that is their daily existence. And I’m sure there are days they are glad of that, but there are also days when the quiet weighs heavy upon them.
Reflecting is one of those things that happens in the quiet. Reflecting is also one of those good things, most of the time. Sometimes all that is reflected is the emptiness. Sometimes all that is reflected is the lack of answers, the lack of direction, the lack of hope. Sometimes reflection doesn’t help. Because it doesn’t stick.
At least that’s what James thinks. That’s what it seems like he is saying, at least in part. Reflections only bounce back what is in front of them. And they don’t stick. They don’t provide enough just in themselves. Not enough direction and hope. Not enough Presence.
James 1:19-27 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. 21 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. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 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. 26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 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.
Like those who look in a mirror. James is an odd duck, don’t you think? Well, Martin Luther sure did. He thought James was dangerous stuff. He thought that James was an “epistle of straw” because of all this hearing and doing stuff. See, Luther was afraid that we would read the Letter of James and come away with the feeling that it was all about doing. That our faith consisted of acts like caring for widows and orphans in their distress. That our calling was to keep ourselves unstained from the world, meaning that we lived purely, that we kept our promises, that we respected one another, that we learned to live in community, that we guarded our emotions and that we turned away from that which would deceive us. Luther thought that was bad.
Well, no, to be honest Luther didn’t think that was bad. Forgive me those who might have strains of Lutheran history in their bloodstream. Of course I know that Luther was all for any and all those acts of faith. Did them himself on a regular basis. No, it wasn’t the acts that worried Luther, it was the belief that those acts were what saved you.
Which, frankly, made me wonder if he read the Letter in the first place. I mean, this is just chapter one and here we have it in black and white: The implanted word that has the power to save your souls. The implanted Word? What in the world? Or beyond the world?
James, tradition has it, was the brother of Jesus. There is some considerable doubt as to whether that James ever sat down and wrote this letter, but in the book of Acts we see James stepping up to be a leader - some say The Leader - of the fledgling church. So, I like to imagine that this letter is the result of being the brother of Jesus. Of listening to all that he was saying who whole life, not just the three years of ministry the Gospels tell us about. His whole life, well, James’ whole life anyway, since he was the younger brother. For James whole life he lived in that shadow. Maybe there was a time when James idolized his big brother Jesus, as is the habit of younger brothers. Maybe there was a time when James began to resent Jesus and the special treatment he received from his mother who treated him as though he was a special gift from God, from his father who seemed strangely in awe of his eldest son. Maybe James grumbled about the things Jesus would say, and how his sisters and all the neighborhood kids would flock to listen to every word he said, as though he was some prophet or teacher, for heaven’s sake! There was that scene in three of the gospels where it says Jesus mother and his brothers came to “see him.” You know James was leading the pack. Telling them that Jesus had gone crazy and they needed to go get him help, take him someplace where he wouldn’t be an embarrassment to the whole family.
James was a doer. James was faithful. In Jesus’ story, James got to be the elder brother, but he didn’t come off very well (see Lk 15). Now it had all changed. James took a look in the mirror and didn’t like what he saw. So when the resurrected Jesus showed up and said “I need you, bud,” James the doer stepped up. If you asked him he probably couldn’t have told you why. He just did. He just did what he always did. He was the helpful one, the calm one, the good one, the pure one. But now there was something else inside of him. Something took root, some word that made sense, some Word that made life. And he was still a doer. But now he was a doer because. He was still a servant, but now he was a servant because. He was still pure and good and faithful, but now he was pure and good and faithful because.
Because? Because of the Word that took root in him. He looked into the mirror and didn’t like what he saw. Because what he saw was emptiness. What he saw was the duty of faithfulness, the burden of purity, the task of service. What he saw was a void where his motivation, where is soul ought to be. But when he looked into those eyes, the eyes he knew from his own birth, the eyes that managed to love him even when he didn’t want them to, those eyes that seemed to call for more and now seemed to give more. When he looked into those eyes it was as if something took root in him, something was planted. A reason, a purpose, a new beginning, a new soul. And all that he did he did because of that implanted Word, that hope revived, that soul restored. It has the power to save your soul. That’s what he wrote. Not the works, Luther, the Word implanted. The works grew out of the salvation, they didn’t earn it. He needed that Word implanted.
He didn’t earn it, but he had to welcome it. Welcome it with meekness, with gentleness. The eighth fruit of the Spirit. The very essence of God. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Welcome the Word with gentleness, not because of our weakness but because of His strength.
Sometimes quietness is healing and restoring. Sometimes it is troubling, reflecting the emptiness of a soul. Sometimes it is a waiting for a Word, needing a hope and a reminder. Come, Lord Jesus.
Shalom,
Derek
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