The Rev. Frank Logue
St. Athanasius Episcopal Church
Brunswick, Georgia
September 10, 2000

What are you going to do about it?
James 1:17-27

A young priest was assigned to a small town Episcopal church. Having served as an assistant for a few years, the priest 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 priest’s daily walks. But, each day he passed by, the priest saw no one out in the yard. Finally, after more than a week of walking by the yard, the priest finally saw a man weeding the flower beds. The priest 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. Three years back, 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.”

Isn’t it that way a lot of the time? God gives us great gifts, but there is a lot of human work involved too. That’s where we get the oft used saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” Praying for a solution to your problems is something I highly recommend. But you should work toward an answer while you wait on God’s answer. Because there is a connection between God’s gifts and work. Like that gardener in the story. He and the priest were both right. The young priest 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. But the gardener worked as a co-creator, making order out of the chaos of weeds. His work grew out of the gift which God gave in creation.

The epistle reading this morning comes from the Book of James. In it, we learn about the connection between God’s gifts and our work. James tells us that every generous act of giving, every perfect gift comes from God. All that is beautiful in the world. All that is right with the world is a gift from God. God’s gifts come first. We give to others only after God has first given to us.

The first gift we receive from God is grace. Grace is unearned, undeserved favor. We are in God’s good graces even when we don’t deserve it. We are in God’s good graces even when we are the most undeserving. 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. Grace is a gift. By grace we know of God’s existence and that God loves us.

Paul wrote to the Romans that, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Paul was making it clear that Jesus did not die for us because we are a bunch of perfect people that deserve someone paying the ultimate price. No, Jesus knew that we were undeserving and loved us anyway. Jesus loved even the people who crucified him. He would not give up on his love for us even when that love cost him his own life. We did not earn that love. 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 to respond. After we come to know God’s love, we are supposed to act like it. I don’t mean that we are to go around with a holier than thou attitude. James wouldn’t have us prancing around like we deserve God’s love. What James is telling us is, now that we know God’s infinite love and care, we should act like it. Don’t just sit there with your faith, James tells us, do something about it.

James describes it this way. He writes that if we don’t do anything about 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. Like when you check your watch. Then right after you look at your watch someone ask you what time it is. What is the first thing you are going to do? 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 you 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 just 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 come here to St. Athanasius week after week and hear the Bible read and listen to sermon after sermon. You might think, “Father Amuzie is right, I really do need to do… whatever.” Whatever it is that he is preaching about. Something that really hits home for you in the sermon. 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 the Word. If you can’t remember what it was, there is no chance you are going to do anything about it.

James says the solution is to start doing something about it 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. An active faith leads to a more active Christian life. 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 become a doer of the Word and not just a hearer.

Being a doer of the Word is not something you do for God. Being a doer of the Word is something you do for others and for yourself. Leading a more Christ-like life doesn’t have to be boring or a burden. God wants you to have life and to have it more abundantly.

Sometimes we Christians act as if sinners have all the fun. People who know the Truth of God and God’s Word sometimes avoid committing their lives to Christ because they are afraid they won’t be able to have fun anymore. Well, if your idea of fun is going out to clubs night after night and drinking so much that you friends have to carry out to the car and drive you home, then you might be right. I believe that God would show you how that lifestyle is down right unhealthy.

But that’s not the whole story. We act as if the only reason to be a Christian is to take out a fire insurance policy against Hell. But eternal damnation is not the problem, not here, not now. Hell on earth is the problem many people are facing right now, here in Brunswick. We can make life on earth into a living Hell. You know what I am talking about. People try to fulfill themselves with all kind of junk that only offers a few minutes or hours of pleasure. But it never lasts. You just look in the mirror and see a person you can’t respect and then when you walk away you try to forget what you’ve seen. God offers us a way out of that right now. You don’t have to wait for Heaven if you want to get out of the Hell you are in. You can get out of Hell on earth now. It starts with becoming a doer of the Word. Instead of just hearing what God has for you in your life and then forgetting, latch hold of it. Hold fast to God’s Word and God’s promises with an active faith.

There is a story from Africa of what it means to have active faith. Vincent Donovan was a Roman Catholic missionary among the Masai people of Africa.[1] He tells of the challenges of translating the Gospel into the Masai language. He did his best to learn the Masai language and to tell the Masai people of Christ in their own words. One Masai elder listened to missionary each week for many months and came to except the Christian faith. Then he challenged the missionary on the word faith itself. He told Donovan that the word he used in Masai for faith means literally, “to agree to.” The Masai elder explained that faith does not just mean to agree to something. It is much more demanding, much more personal than that.

The elder explained that faith that only means “to agree to” something is like a white hunter who comes and kills a lion with a gun. The man stands a great distance from the lion and pulls a trigger. Only his eyes and his finger take part in killing the lion. The man is in little danger and is hardly involved in the kill. The Masai elder said, “This is not faith.” For one to really have faith, to truly believe” he said, “is like a lion hunting its prey. The lion’s nose, ears and eyes all search out the Savannah for the prey. The lion’s legs give him the speed to catch the prey. The lion throws all of his body into terrible death leap and the killing blow from her front paw. As the prey falls, the lion wraps her front legs around the prey and pulls it to her and makes the prey part of her as she devours it.” The elder finished, “This is the way a lion kills. This is the way people are to believe. This is what faith is.”

 The Masai elder is right. We will become doers of the Word when our faith is not just something in our head. Not just, “Oh yeah, I know all about that God stuff.” It has to be something that is part of every part of you. To have that kind of faith can’t help but change how you act. You will go out and do something about your faith.

James ends our epistle reading for today by giving us a quick test on whether we are doers of the Word. James wrote that, “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.” You can do a self check right now to see if you are a doer of the Word. How are you helping out people in need? In first century Jerusalem, widows and orphans were the ones that had no standing in the system. There was no one to look out for them. Are you looking out for the people that no one else cares for? Are you keeping yourself unstained by the world? If not, today is the day to start doing something about it. Because the question is not whether God has given you great gifts. The question is not whether God loves you? The question is not whether God wants what’s best for you? God has assured you of all those things through his Word. The question is, What are you going to do about it?

Amen.