On September 10th I had an opportunity to preach the 9:00 service at TPUMC. Below is the outline for the sermon.
The Royal Law
James 2:8-13
· Intro. yourself
· Tell where John and Karen are
· Pray
ME
· I would imagine that some of you are like me: to put it mildly, I’m a bit of a news/politics/current events junkie!
· If you were to spend a day with me you’d find that I tend to check CNN at home before coming to the church, I listen to it in the car on SIRUIS radio and I’ll check CNN.com one or two times during the course of the day, just to make I didn’t miss anything. Mostly it’s a harmless addiction that carries only two real consequences 1. The 24 hour news cycle gets a bit repetitive
2. I have to hear that terrible Head-On commercial.
· In case you’re not like me, pretty much the main thing that has been on CNN this weekend has been various stories relating to 9/11, which of course is tomorrow.
· On Monday, at 8:30 eastern time, CNN is going to rebroadcast their entire coverage of 9/11 ‘in real-time, as it happened’.
· ABC is about to run a fictionalized account about the events leading up to 9/11 called, The Path to 9/11.
· If there was ever an event in recent human history that we shouldn’t be fictionalizing, I’ve got to believe that it’s 9/11.
· 9/11 is all over the papers, the net, the cable news, magazines, and talk shows, it is everywhere.
· It’s been five years. Where are you with all of this?
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· As I think back to that day, so many images and emotions come running back at me, fresh as if they were yesterday.
· I remember being confused, afraid for friends who lived in New York and D.C., I remember participating in one of the most meaningful and beautiful services I have ever participated in that was held at Perkins, I remember reading passages out of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and having the epiphany that for the first time in my generations life, we had something that we could see and that was tangible that we would lament.
· I also remember going to a service that night at the church I was serving in and being disgusted by the service. I don’t think we actually sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” but we might have well has. That was a moment for me that confirmed that theology does matter! It was a hurtful service to me because I just wasn’t in that place; I wasn’t ready to be triumphant.
· I was ready to be sad, but frankly, I was also angry. And I mean really angry.
· Perhaps the memory that stands out the most was a conversation I had with one of my classmates about the whole thing.
· I remember leaning on my car at seminary and talking about how there was an aircraft carrier being dispatched to be stationed outside of New York harbor and we both agreed that, while we wanted to be pacifists, in the face of this kind of evil act, someone had to pay for this, and pay for it in a way that would keep them from ever doing it again.
· Then I remember the next day reading an internet response by an incredible musician named Victor Wooten that this was the time for Christians and all religious people in the country to stand up, to respond with acts of love, acts of questions and with mercy, and to turn the other cheek and I remember feeling ashamed that I was training to be a Christian minister and my first thoughts were of retaliation through violence.
· I recently went to see Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and all of those emotions came flooding back: lament, anger that people could perpetrate such senseless violence on others, anger our leadership who seemed to disappear in the face of an attack while I felt incredible pride and admiration for the first responders who didn’t disappear but rushed head-long into those places of death, and destruction to help people they didn’t even know.
WE
· Are you experiencing these same kinds of emotions this week?
· I imagined that you experienced the same kind of tension in the days following September 11th, 2001 that I did: we had been wronged and we have the power to crush the people who did this and, in a worldly sense, we would be right to.
· We had the power to seek more than justice but to seek vengeance.
· But the tension that many faithful Christians experienced (and continue to experience) is that, somewhere deep inside of us we know that violence won’t solve the problem. Jesus says to turn the other cheek, not in a passive way, but to invite shame on our attacker.
· Are you with me? Have you experienced this tension?
· The raw craving for more than justice but for vengeance in the face of an overwhelming wrong all the while knowing that violence really wouldn’t change a thing?
· I know I am not alone in this because a recent poll has shown that 84% of Americans still feel strong to very strong feelings of sadness about 9/11 and 74% still feel strong to very strong feelings of anger about that day.
· It is important for us to acknowledge these feelings, even from half a decade ago. The Psalms teach us that we are to carry to God the whole range of our emotions, from love, to fear, to hate, and for some of us, for shame in the way our country has conducted itself: God can handle all of these emotions.
· It’s also important for us to acknowledge those emotions because, if we are not careful and thoughtful, those emotions lead us to places God would not have us to go.
· So we are stuck in the middle of this tension: we have been wronged and we want to do something about it but we know that our natural response, our natural inclination to violence and reprisal isn’t right. So what do we do?
GOD
· The good news in this is that fortunately, for us, we are not the first people in history to struggle with this.
· The lectionary has placed before us today the Letter of James, (the authorship of which most scholars agree was probably the brother of Jesus)
· James is often called the “how-to” book of the Bible.
· James primary concern in the section of the letter we will look at is the integration of the Christian life, the intersection of faith and works. What does it mean to have a useful faith, to lead a Christian life?
· I would invite you to turn to page 1059 in your pew Bible and follow along as we look at James 2:8-13. Read passage….
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· Now, as you look at and hear this text, we’ve obviously jumped into somebody else’s sermon!
· Honestly, James is of course not addressing 9/11 but rather he is addressing new Christian communities that are composed of primarily Jewish people.
· These communities have been showing partiality to the rich over the poor, these communities would often show preference to rich because they were frequently their patrons and would do benefical things for them because of the deference paid to them.
· James was letting the community know that that kind of behavior was (and remains) unacceptable in Christians.
· Certainly, we know James is right on this point but there are many things in this passage that are of importance for us at this moment.
· James tells us in verse 8 that we will do well if we really fulfill the “royal law.” The royal law that James speaks of is the law that Jesus elevated and is found in all four of the gospels, to love your neighbor as yourself.
· James is reminding us that the law of the kingdom of God that Jesus preached about, is a law of love.
· In verses 9-11 James preaches to us a scary word: if you break even one part of the law, than you are guilty of breaking all of it. Some scholars suggest that, because James cites only the Ten Commandments that he does not expect Christians to keep the entire Jewish law, but even still, think of the Ten Commandments, if you covet your neighbor’s car, you are just as guilty as if you killed her! Ouch!!!!!!!!! Just think about that for a moment. (pause)
· So when we get to verses 12 and 13, we are instructed to act as “those who are to be judged by the law of liberty,” or the law of the kingdom.
· We will be judged by how we followed the royal law, how did we love our neighbor?
· In verse 13 James echoes the Lord’s Prayer: judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
· We will be forgiven as we have forgiven others.
· Mercy triumphs over judgment….mercy triumphs over judgment…
· We will be given mercy when God judges us if we give mercy to others…
· It’s a tough truth for us to swallow, especially as we apply it to the events that we will remember tomorrow.
· So, how do we wrestle with this tension of wanting vengeance over the wrong that was done to us but all the while know our natural response is wrong?
· The answer that I believe God gives us is this: you must obey the law of the kingdom, in all times, and in all places. You must always love your neighbor as yourself.
· You must remember and you must live the truth that mercy triumphs over judgment.
· That is how the tension is resolved: we must change our field of vision from that of the world, to that of God.
· We must learn to view the world and consequently our neighbors as God views them.
· How do we do this? This answer is simple and direct: we do it first through prayer.
YOU
· So I’d like to issue you a challenge for the rest of the week.
· When you feel that someone has wronged you and whenever you begin to feel the need for vengeance, or for retaliation, or even when you feel the need to be sarcastic, or caustic, or hurtful, or spiteful, take a moment to pray.
· This prayer is a an ancient Eastern Orthodox prayer dating from the 6th century that can be prayed in a variety of ways. We will try the breath method of the Jesus prayer.
· The prayer is very simple: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” You say the first half of the prayer as you inhale the second half as you exhale.
· Try it with me (obviously you say it in your mind, it’s pretty tough to inhale and speak at the same time!).
· This prayer will remind us that, because we are all sinners, we are guilty of breaking the law of the kingdom. It will also remind us that we need mercy and we need to give mercy.
· After you’ve breathed that prayer, then decide how to act.
· If you are uncomfortable saying that Jesus is Lord than trying coming up with a prayer of your own that is short and easy to say.WE
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