Doing the Word

A young minister was assigned to a small town church. Having served as an assistant for a few years, the preacher had lots of ideas about how he could grow the small congregation. He began by walking around town every day, trying to meet as many townspeople as he could.

Each day he passed by the most beautiful yard he had ever seen. A perfectly trimmed hedge surrounded the ideal garden filled with a breathtaking array of blooms. It was a perfectly ordered little world unto itself. A bright spot on the minister’s daily walks.

However, each day he passed by, the minister saw no one out in the yard. Finally, after more than a week of walking by the yard, the minister finally saw a man weeding the flowerbeds. The minister stopped, and called over the hedge, “Good afternoon sir.” The elderly gardener straightened himself and walked over to the hedge. “Well, howdy preacher,” the gardener said as he leaned on his hoe. “What can I do for you?”

“Everyday when I pass your yard, I marvel over the beauty of God’s creation. What a tremendous gift you have from God in this yard. It’s a wonder to behold the bounty of the world God has given us.”

The gardener stretched a bit and then leaning on his hoe again he said, “Well preacher, I’m mighty thankful for your words. I’m glad you like my garden an’ all. But, I find it a mite curious that you call it a gift from God. When I bought this place, it was the biggest tangle of weeds you ever saw. Best I can tell this yard was a mess when God had the place to himself.”

The gardener and the young preacher were both right. The minister was right in saying that the garden was a gift from God. God created the potential for the riot of colorful blooms that filled the yard and gave the gardener abilities in taking care of plants. The gardener worked as a co-creator, making order out of the chaos of weeds. God gives gifts and we are expected to do something in return with those gifts.

All of us have received the gift of God’s grace. Grace is unearned, undeserved favor. Through grace, we can experience God’s love for us even when we are the most unlovable. This comes first. Before we do anything, God loves us first. This is something we can’t earn. Not only did we not earn God’s love to start with, nothing we do next can cause God to love us more.

Even though we cannot cause God to love us more, we are supposed to respond to God’s love. I don’t mean that we are to go around with a holier than thou attitude as if God was lucky to have us around. Instead, we try to conform our lives to be more Christ like in thankful response to the love we’ve already been shown.

The New Testament book of James says that if we don’t do anything active with our faith, it’s like a person who looks in a mirror and then walks away forgetting what they look like. You know how quickly something like that can happen. Check the time on your watch and then have someone ask you what time it is. Most of us, 10 times out of 10, will look at the watch again. We just looked at the watch and checked the time and not 10 seconds later we don’t know what time it is.

The mirror James is writing about is God’s Word. We look at ourselves in God’s Word and see the image it reflects back. For example, when you read the Ten Commandments, do you see a person who honors his father and mother? Or, does reading the Ten Commandments remind you of your responsibility to your parents. That’s how God’s Word shows us a picture of ourselves. We see our own lives reflected in the Word and then we are called to respond and do something with the gifts God has given us.

Like the person who looks at his or her watch and can’t remember the time, we can see ourselves through God’s Word and forget all about it. You can go to church week after week and hear the Bible read and listen to sermon after sermon. You might think, “The preacher is right, I really do need to...” Then you can walk out of church and not even make it to the buffet line for lunch before you have forgotten all about it. Forget doing anything about what you just heard. If you can’t remember what it was, there is no chance you are going to do anything about it.

The Book of James says the solution is to start doing something about your faith first. Once you begin to actually do something about your faith, it’s easier to keep it in view. Then you will hold on to God’s Word better each time you encounter it.

To be a doer of the Word is to have an active faith. God doesn’t want us to just believe with our minds and then act as if nothing is changed. We are to believe with all that we are, our very being. Then the way we act will be transformed. You will use the gifts God has given you and become a doer of the Word, not just one who hears.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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