Perfect/Impossible
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 fulfilment 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.
So there’s this series of Biblical Commentaries called Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching—I always consult them, they’re often helpful in contextualizing these ancient texts for me so that I can properly exegete, or interpret in a way that best honors and respects the sacred word while also understanding the history and the translation issues and applying it to our modern world today. Each book in the series is on a different book of the Bible, or when it comes to the shorter books, like James, on several different books. The theologian Pheme Perkins wrote the Interpretation commentary I used for this one, on the books of James, First and Second Peter, and the book of Jude. Of James she wrote, “…most Christians find the assumptions of an ancient economy structured on the hierarchical authority of a wealthy, landowning elite far removed from their own experience.” Umm… what? What rock has Dr. Perkins been living under? What utopian bubble has Dr. Perkins been living in that has shielded her the unjust hierarchies of our world, from the growing chasm between the rich and the poor, from the ever-growing influence of the ultra-wealthy over our politics and our laws? I was flabbergasted when I read that quote.
But let’s back up a little—we’re going to be reading the book of James for the next few weeks, so let’s get some background. James was, in fact, as slightly controversial book. In fact, the father of the Reformation himself, Martin Luther, despised the book of James, famously calling it “an epistle of straw.” He insulted it this way for a couple reasons—one is that James doesn’t actually mention Jesus by name much. Seems kind of odd, sure, but ultimately what James preaches is exactly in line with Christ’s teaching. The main reason was though, that James makes it very clear that faith alone isn’t enough. “But be doers of the world,” he writes, “and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” See, Luther was much more a believer in the apostle Paul, who advocated for salvation by “faith alone,” and he believed that James totally contradicted this ideology. And this is a tough one, because on the surface it does seem that way, but I don’t think it’s a full-on contradiction—rather, what James is saying is that the perfect unification of good works and faith is what we need to be saved, and in turn, what we need to save this world. Now, we’re going to get into that perfect unity of good works and faith much deeper next week, so we won’t get ahead of ourselves here…
Our scripture for today is very much an introduction on how to be the best Christian one can be in the world. As was often the case in these early days of this Jesus movement, there was infighting; there were temptations to give it all up and just go back and join the unjust hierarchy of the outside world just because it was easier, it was what they knew; there was just a lot of anxiety and confusion brewing, and James was here to quell that. He was there to encourage and comfort, but he was also there to set some things straight.
Now, in that Bible commentary, after Perkins makes that egregious assumption about “most” Christians, she even goes onto say, James’ advice on how to live “…is difficult to translate into modern experience.” Now honestly, at this point I’m not convinced Dr. Perkins and I are even reading the same Bible. I personally find James pretty easy to apply to our modern times. He writes of injustice and how to fight against it; he writes of not just talking the talk, but also walking the walk; he writes of being sure to listen to one another before flapping our own lips and saying something we might regret. And mostly, the book of James is encouragement to be the best Christian, the person you can be, in a world that makes that almost impossible.
My God, if there were ever a time for the book of James, it is now.
I’ve been at this church for almost four years now, which is wild. I started here during this country’s last contentious general election season, and four years later, I find myself, unfortunately, preparing to preach on the same subjects— of comfort and encouragement during times of high anxiety; on respect and civility amidst anger and fear; on hope and faith in times of worry and despair. Thankfully, we have texts like this to help to guide us through these times. And thankfully, we have each other.
Everyone handles these anxious and uncertain times differently. Some of us (me) like to try to maintain some semblance of certainty or of control over things we just have no capabilities of controlling, only to inevitably be disappointed and despairing. Some of us may become totally hopeless and just give in to the ways of the cruel world and let it do what it wants with us. But we can find freedom from these two extremes. In verse 25, James says, “…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.” So this perfect law, this law of liberty that he writes about, it’s really interesting because it sets this sort of contradiction, this paradox. It’s called the law of liberty, but it requires an obedience to what God calls us to do— and that is, to live for God, and therefore to live for others— to act towards others with compassion and love; and with our submission to this command from God, we are freed from the pressures of the world. Because really—what is more radical in today’s world than living for other people over our own selves? What is more radical in today’s world than putting our own needs and wants on hold in order to lift up those around us? And isn’t there a freedom in forgetting about ourselves for a moment and thinking about what kind of world is possible when every person takes others into account. Isn’t there a freedom in imagining and working for a world in which every human life in considered precious— from our elderly and homebound neighbors to the Palestinian children in war-torn Gaza? It’s a freedom from the evils of this world. It’s a freedom from injustice and greed. From submission to the law of compassion comes an ultimate freedom.
Now, speaking of contradictions, I’m going to contradict my past-self here. I’ve preached in the past using the late Rev. Peter Gomes quote that instead of asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” we ask ourselves “What would Jesus have us do?” This takes into consideration that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, and is therefore fully perfect, something we cannot possibly think to achieve. But it seems that James may think differently. James seems to believe that if we follow this perfect law, we can, indeed be perfect. We can be like Christ. Now, I always found comfort in the fact that perfection is an impossibility for us deeply flawed humans, and I still do… but what if we’re selling ourselves short? What if we really should strive towards perfection? What if we’re actually called to become perfect, and in turn to perfect this deeply imperfect world?
But isn’t it arrogant to strive to perfection? To attempted to be god-like? Maybe, if we don’t do it the right way. But think of the way Jesus was perfect. Jesus was humble, the ultimate definition of humility; he lived, and ultimately died, fully for others. If we accept the call to strive for perfection the way Jesus does, there’s nothing arrogant about that.
“…welcome with meekness,” James writes, “the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.” What a strange phrase, to welcome with meekness. It’s not inherently contradictory, but when we talk about welcome in this church, and how appropriate, on Welcome Sunday, we talk about in term so of extravagant welcome, there’s enthusiasm behind it, and that’s great, there’s nothing wrong with that kind of welcome—but this just feels very different. Welcome with meekness. Welcome the word humbly, quietly, with a reverent awe—to really listen for it and take it in, and sit with it as we discern what it’s calling us to do—as we discern in what way we are called to be “doers” of the word.
I confess, as I now have a baby in daycare, in the trustworthy hands of those wonderful teachers at 4 Corners, the news of the Georgia school shooting, at this very beginning of the school year, hit a little harder than news of school shootings in the past. More thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers—no action, no change. Some are cheering the charges against the shooter’s father, as some cheered the charges against the parents another young mass school shooter in Michigan last year. In an op-ed from a couple days ago, author Megan K. Stack writes, “These prosecutions satisfy the public desire to blame somebody. If you don’t like guns, shaming and punishing the parents feels like landing a righteous blow against gun culture.” She goes on to say, “Going after the parents in the absence of adequate gun laws is…a kind of scapegoating—displaying a head on a stake to satisfy the rage of a desperate crowd.”[i] I’m inclined to agree.
James writes of perfection—the perfect law, the perfect gift. The perfect law is that we must live with love and compassion for and to others; the perfect gift is receiving that unconditional love and compassion from God. We don’t achieve any of this by punishing more people. We achieve it by being doers. We achieve it by forcing those in power to be doers, to make changes that will actually result in something as simple as less lives lost instead of more lives destroyed.
Stack writes so poignantly about satisfying “the rage of a desperate crowd,” and I think this misguided rage is what happens when we’re unable to welcome the word with meekness. I think this is what happens when we can’t quiet the noise of fear and dread around us. We jump to what we know—and in this world, sadly, we know crime and we know punishment.
Jesus, via James, is calling us to do the impossible— to be a good Christian in a world that does everything in its power to keep the ideals and principles of what Christ taught at bay, and it does this by overwhelming us—by filling us with anxiety and fear and anger. James using this epistle to encourage his listeners not to give into that anger, not to give into that fear and anxiety that can turn malicious, “for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” What will produce that righteousness is welcoming Christ’s call with meekness. It’s only then that we’ll be able to imagine something as radical as a world in which we meet crime with compassion towards the victims, instead of simply bloodthirstiness towards the perpetrators, and we can work, we can be doers in order to change the laws so that this violence never has to happen again.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God…is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” This is how James ends his introduction. This is what he wants us to really hold on to. To be a true follower of Jesus, we have to live for the oppressed, and we have to do everything in our power to not let this world get us down.
So on this Welcome Sunday, as we start our new church year, as the days get shorter and the election season gets rowdier, let’s support one another during these fraught times. Let’s think of the act of welcoming a little differently— by calming that righteous anger that this world stirs because that is not God’s righteousness. And then we can welcome the Word with a humble, quiet, meekness, unencumbered by this violent world; and then, together, we can do the impossible. Amen.
[i] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/opinion/school-shooting-georgia-dad-arrested.html
