Be Love!

Sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN on August 30, 2009

Texts: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 and James 1:17-27

I didn’t get around to reading Friday’s Daily Journal until yesterday and I was struck by the editorial cartoon, which in this case wasn’t really a cartoon, but a tribute to the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

I don’t know if you all know what an Obamicon is or not, but they were very popular around the time of the Presidential election last fall. There’s a website called “ObamiconMe” where anyone can go and make a picture into an Obamicon in red, white and blue hues. The original idea came from one of the Obama campaign posters.

The cartoon in Friday’s Daily Journal was done by political cartoonist, RJ Matson. It is a whole collage of Ted Kennedy Obamicons. This is what it looks like in color:

In today’s reading from the letter of James we heard this: “…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 with their doing. ...Religion that is pure and unbridled before God…is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress…”

Of course Senator Kennedy’s life was not perfect, by any means—just as none of our lives is perfect—but Matson’s cartoon tribute to the much beloved senator reminds us of many of the things he did during his long career. I’ll read some of them to you: Hope, SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), Title IX, Work, Health Care, COBRA, Minimum Wage, Fair Housing, Immigration Reform, Mental Health Parity Act, Civil Rights, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), Voting Rights, Education, Change, FEC (Federal Election Commission), WIC (nutrition program for women, infants and children), Progress and Liberal.

Whether or not you liked Ted Kennedy, he was a liberal Democrat who cared about the American people. He could inspire members of both parties and the things he did in his Senate career made a difference to millions of Americans. He was a doer. His love and faith led him to action, and that, says James, is what faith is all about.

James also said, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God…is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Well, keeping oneself unstained by the world is a huge challenge, but caring for others may steer us in the right direction. Today the list of who we should care for is much longer. It would also include the poor, the unemployed, those who are abused, the homeless, people who are physically or mentally disabled and others who are marginalized by our society.

Unfortunately, not much has actually changed in regard to the marginalized since Jesus’ day. In earlier times in our nation’s history the Irish Catholics who came over here during the potato famine were called lazy, oversexed or criminals, just as the poor and various immigrant groups are described today! The same thing happened to Italian immigrants and each succeeding nationality that was “new” in our country. It’s the same old song, only in a different key. Why do we keep repeating the same prejudices, just applying them to different groups?[i] Why is it so hard for us to love or at least accept people who are different?

In today’s gospel reading the story is about Jesus’ disciples not following the Hebrew laws for cleanliness and purity, and not doing the “proper” ritual washing of hands and food before eating. They weren’t doing the “right” things according to the “right” religious traditions.

Have you heard anything like that in modern times? Is it any wonder that the words religion, religious and even Christian have come to have negative connotations for many people?

Jesus tells the picky Pharisees that it doesn’t matter what goes into the body—whether or not the proper rituals have been performed—but it’s what comes out that defiles a person and makes them unloving. He gives quite a list: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. How about our judgmental attitudes and comments and the hurtful things people say to one another? What about jealousy? Or revenge? Or one-upmanship?

In this story, as usual, Jesus is putting people ahead of the Law, and the Pharisees don’t like that one bit! The Pharisees think they have it all down-pat. Follow the rules; live your life by the law; don’t stray from the path, even to smell the roses! Jesus says there’s more to life than living piously. There’s more to life than following the Law so rigidly that you can’t hear God’s word, much less do it.

But how often do we hear the word of God and not do it? The still-speaking God calls us to love our neighbors—meaning everyone. Jesus always came down on the side of the oppressed, the poor, the outcast, the people with dread diseases, the prisoners, the unpopular, the unclean, the rejected, the inadequate…. We are called to follow Jesus—to be DO-ers and not just hear-ers of the Word.

In order to BE love, our faith should call and inspire us to do good works, not because we think that will “save” us (because it won’t—we’re already “saved” by God’s love and grace) but because in our faith we know God’s love and sense a responsibility to share God’s love in all that we do and all that we are. The good works we do are how we live out our faith.

Martin Luther didn’t like the book of James because he thought it was saying that one was saved through works and Luther knew that salvation comes through and by God’s grace—alone.

But "faith" and "works" are not opposed; they're not even disconnected. The truly wise, truly faithful individual is known not by what they SAY they believe, but in how they LIVE what they believe. Eugene Peterson says, "Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For what good is a truth if we don't know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can't sustain it?"[ii]

How can we BE Love? By not holding grudges, by not being judgmental, by letting go of our prejudices, by accepting others as they are, by caring for those who need our help, by seeking equality and justice for all God’s people, by walking the walk and not just talking the talk, by being doers of the Word instead of just hearers.

“…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.” And their “Obamicon” will look like this:

AMEN.

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[i] Susan Gabbard, Harrisburg, PA in “Lectionary Preachers Panel” on facebook.

[ii] Eugene Peterson, The Message, introduction to James, p. 1668.