September 3, 2000 - LESSON: James 1:17-27

SERMON TITLE: Action and Reaction

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. It is a well-known law of physics that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
    1. This idea was proposed by Sir Isaac Newton and is his Third Law Of Motion.
      1. This Law states that every action force and reaction force are equal and opposite. For example, if you press hard on a table with your elbow, the force that you apply to the table and the force that the table applies back to you are equal and opposite in direction. Answered by: Madhur Upman, High-School Student
      2. You are climbing a ladder. As you climb you put pressure on the ladder which presses back allowing you to climb.
      3. An illustration that is perhaps easier to understand comes from the Green Bay Packers.
        1. When the play is called the offensive lineman charges against the defensive lineman.
        2. Equal pressure leads to a standstill.
        3. We hope that our offense is able to overcome their defense.

MAIN BODY

  1. The same principle also works in the realm of God.
  2. God is the actor.
    1. Not like the actor on the stage.
      1. God is not learning lines
      2. God is not hitting a mark on the stage.
    2. Rather God is the one who acts.
    3. God is the source of the action

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  1. Human kind is often the one who, rather than acting, reacts.
    1. Humankind is the source of the reaction
    2. You can see this in the way we live.
      1. You can see this in the questions that we ask.
      2. You can see this in the way we think and act.

In "Disability, A Lived Theology", Helen R. Betenbaugh (1)

Why did God do this to me?" "What have I done to deserve this?" "Why is God punishing me this way?"

I begin with these questions, even though they were not my own, because they are almost universally the questions asked by persons newly experiencing permanent disability. They come from people who are unchurched; they are asked by people who have been lifelong members of a worshiping community. Worst of all, they are asked as well by clergy who would hasten to assure anyone they were counseling that their disabilities had nothing at all to do with God's wrath or God's need for vengeance. And yet, in pain and struggling to find the meaning of their condition, they ask the same terrible questions as the unchurched ask, unsure whether God's love, God's compassion, and God's grace are still with them.

    1. Henri Nouwen
      1. Henri Nouwen was a Priest and a psychologist. He spent 10 years of his life working with the disabled at a L'Arche community most of them at Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. It was out of this experience that he wrote,
      2. "Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives."

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    1. We have difficulties with the questions raised by the brokenness.
  1. To help the reader understand God's action amidst the brokenness, James writes in verse 17,
    1. 17 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.
    2. The Father of lights
      1. The one who spoke light into existence.
      2. The one who is given credit for creation.
      3. The One who is over all, in and through all.
    3. There is no variation or shadow due to change.
      1. God does not change.
      2. (Malachi 3:6 NRSV) For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.
      3. (Hebrews 13:8 NRSV) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
      4. There is no variation or shadow due to change.
      5. God is consistently the same.
  2. This is a marvelous promise.
    1. One that we accept theoretically.
      1. It must be more than an intellectual exercise.
      2. It is not something that can be understood through the cold logic of reason alone.
    2. It must also be accepted emotionally
      1. One must feel it in the gut.
      2. To allow the full impact to possess the individual.

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  1. This is the basis for my personal love of God.
    1. I can love this God.
    2. I can love this God unconditionally.
    3. This God will always treat one with love and respect.
    4. Taking into consideration all one's faults and foibles.
  2. This is the basis for all love directed towards all others.
    1. Whether they be friends or enemies
    2. Whether they are foreigners or strangers.
  3. But this love comes with an obligation.
    1. Practically, It is the practice of our Christianity.
    2. 18 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.
      1. We have a new birth by the word of truth.
        1. The word of truth is to be found in the Bible.
        2. The word of truth is to be found in the one the Bible reveals.
      2. The new birth is so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
    3. This assumes a second obligation.
      1. Hearing and Doing the Word
        1. 19 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.
        2. 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.
        3. 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
        4. 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.
        5. 26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
        6. 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.

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          1. This is a synopsis of all that is required by God of his children.

CONCLUSION:

  1. The Christian is to be an actor, not a reactor.
  2. Scott Russell Sanders is a prize-winning essayist and English professor at Indiana University.
    1. In his latest book, Writing From the Center (1996), he tells about a prominent builder in a small Ohio town who was asked to join the volunteer fire department. (2)
    2. He politely declined. After all, what could he get out of it? His home was brick, wired to code, and fire-resistant.
    3. But one day his house caught fire. The volunteer firemen showed up with the pumper truck.
      1. But before turning on the water, they playfully asked the contractor if he still saw no reason to join.
      2. Without hesitation, he said he would be glad to join right then and there, and the fire was extinguished.
    4. Sanders likes to tell this story because his dad was one of the volunteer firemen that day.
    5. He also likes to tell it because of what it says about being a part of a community.
      1. "We should not have to wait until our houses are burning before we see the wisdom of facing our local needs by joining in common work...
      2. We had better learn how to live well together, or we will live miserably apart."
  3. It is all based on action, not reaction.

1. DISABILITY, A Lived Theology, Helen R. Betenbaugh, Theology Today, July 2000, p. 203 (Helen R. Betenbaugh is Rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Wichita, KA).

2. Steve Wilson, "Cult of the Individual Weakens Sense of Community," The Arizona Republic, 15 September 1996, A2.Homiletics, August 31, 1997, James 1:17-27, "Had-To"

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