-

A LETTER FROM JAMES
Chapter 1 – part 4

By David Woodbury

26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. (James 1:26-27 – NLT)

James has already touched on the use of the tongue in verse 19 and he will go on later in his letter to explore the subject in more detail. However, here he is making the point that unrestrained use of the tongue demonstrates a religious profession that is of no value. We fool ourselves if we think that careless use of words will not give us away.

What James is focussing on here is not so much religion in itself, but rather how the image of faith is perceived by those outside. Perhaps no other age in history has been as obsessed with image as the era in which we live, and whole industries have grown up around us with no other purpose than to enable people to project a good image. The reality is that many parts of the church have been caught up in this obsession with whole sections of the church dedicated to presenting a good appearance to the outside world.

James is more concerned with what the church does, rather than what the church may look like. There needs to be for every church and religious organisation a continual and intentional refocusing on that which Jesus told us was the greatest commandment: Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 - NLT)

Down through the centuries, Christians have striven to build great cathedrals and impressive building, written great liturgies and composed great music. No doubt all this has been helpful in enabling Christians to worship. It may well be that at times Christianity has endeavoured to make buildings, ritual and liturgy a substitute for sacrifice and service. The reality is that Jesus never uttered a word about buildings, ritual and liturgy. His focus on the purpose of the church was to sincerely love God and your neighbour, and James sums it up in the closing verse of this chapter: genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress.

The final phrase of this verse (refusing to let the world corrupt you.) may seem unrelated to the previous, but perhaps it is not. It may well be that Christianity has allowed itself to be corrupted in this age of image projection and word-spin, with an over-emphasis on image, buildings, ritual,  programs and liturgy; on the tools, rather than its primary call to save an serve lost humanity.

Prayer
Father, help us to be genuine and authentic, both in our faith and our actions. Keep us from the temptation of this age to project a correct but unauthentic image. May we more than mere hearers of the Word and in reality, be doers of the Word. We pray that we may reject the artificial values of the society that surrounds us and base our lives and our Christian community on Jesus and his Word.

Help us to be aware and sensitive to the needs of others, especially those to whom life seems unfair and harsh. May we, in a very real sense, be aware and feel their pain and suffering.

Hear our prayer in Jesus name – Amen.

Meditation video: Rescue the perishing
https://youtu.be/syxKUsW1jaw

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
THE FANATICISM OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE By David Woodbury I have listened with a great deal of anxiety recently to the strident and loud voices of the climate debate and noted with alarm the number of children, some quite young, being involved in rallies and protests. Perhaps it came home more forcibly when we shared an evening meal a highly intelligent 19-year old young woman who is a high achieving academic. During our dinner-time discussion, she shared how scared she was of the future and whether there would be a world left for her children, After she left I found myself quite saddened and perplexed that 19-year-old should feel this degree of anxiety and despair. I reflected back to my time as a 19-year-old and to how I felt. The cold war was raging and a small group of vocal commentators were predicting the doom and gloom of a nuclear holocaust that would eliminate human civilisation. Some individuals were constructing nuclear fallout shelters in their back...
Read more
-
Image
LEST WE FORGET By David Woodbury After a long and sometimes painful process, we have arrived at the vision of a national territory. Although I was unable to be present in Melbourne, images and video streaming from the event branded it as an impressive spectacular, with its camels, donkeys and top-line performers. Such celebrations are important and beneficial for they enable us to celebrate our faith and encourage the community of faith. However, they are not indicators of success, growth, or, for that matter, divine approval. I found myself reflecting back on similar spectaculars at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral . His TV ministry, The Hour of Power , along with his opulent Crystal Cathedral marked out his philosophy with all the hallmarks of American excesses and consumerism. However, it is worth noting that his whole empire crumbled amidst bitter family squabbling and his church filed for bankruptcy in 2010. His Crystal Cathedral was sold off to the Roman Cat...
Read more
-
Image
Vale Bexley North By David Woodbury Having just attended the final closing ceremony at The Salvation Army School for Officer Training at Bexley North in Sydney, I found myself coming away with a disturbing sense of disquiet and uneasiness, and have spent some time reflecting on the decision to move training for officers nationally, to Melbourne. Among much of the paraphernalia circulating around the merger of the two territories was a logo entitled; Inclusive Australia . My understanding is that it refers to The Salvation Army’s Multicultural Department which is focussed on making migrants and refugees welcome among us and part of our mission and ministry; a ministry, that I personally know, is highly beneficial and effective in some parts of Sydney. I would commend those participating in such ministry for their dedication, love and understanding. However, if we were to apply the same logo to recent amalgamations and the merger of the two Australian territorie...
Read more