8-30-24 - Walking the Talk

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.

If we wanted to update what James has to say in the passage we read this week, "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves," we could just go with, "If you’re going to talk the talk, walk the walk." Those who hear the Word of God and think they’re all set are kidding themselves, he claims. If we don't act on what we hear, there is no way to retain the Word.

Many a churchgoer faithfully attends worship, hears the Word read and preached, and then never thinks about it again till the following Sunday, living his or her life by the values of the world. That’s what it means to be a hearer only. But what does it mean to be a “doer” of the Word?

For James, it means keeping a good guard on your tongue and resisting religiosity that lacks heart. In fact, he labels as “worthless” the religion of those who “do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts.” Worthy religion involves personal integrity and active care for the poor and vulnerable: “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.”

These qualities, alas, are not always what people see when they look at churchgoers. Too often they see a love of prosperity, allegiance to old ways of being, and judgmental condemnation of people who look, speak or live differently. In many cases, observers do not see the Good News that Jesus Christ proclaimed and demonstrated being lived out, and so they turn away. James' word includes us!

What if we were to spend much more time and energy and resources dealing with poverty and justice, and much less on worrying about numbers and does everybody like the hymns? What if we were less inwardly focused on our own congregations, and more aware of our status as outposts in a worldwide enterprise with the strategic goal of reclaiming, restoring and renewing all of creation to wholeness? What if we put transformation before comfort?

There is a promise for us, when we focus on the law of liberty instead of legalism, when we proclaim God’s freedom for all those held captive by any person, institution or condition: "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." May we be blessed in our doing and in our being.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.