(James 1:19-25)
How many times have you had the experience of being misled by what you have seen, or have heard, or have read? It can be something as simple as a question, such as: What’s the difference between unlawful and illegal [ill eagle]? Can anyone give me an answer? Will anyone give me an answer?
This is an old joke. I first got caught by it in 1961. It’s a play on words to deliberately miscue you into not really hearing what is said. The answer is: Unlawful is against or contrary to the law; ill eagle is a sick bird.
Magicians use the same kind of trick to deceive your vision, making you see one thing and not what is really occurring. By talking to you and telling you what he “thinks” will happen is one way used to convince you that “Seeing is believing.” Palming of an object in one had while actually keeping it in the other and disposing of it by reaching into a pocket in the pretense of needing another object is another means of deception used. Or the passing of a solid metal ring around a levitated lady – have you ever noticed – it’s always a lady? That’s for a distraction – women will be checking out the outfit, and men are busy checking out the subject. The ring is held out in front at the start of the trick, and against the end; during the actual proceedings, you see the ring behind the subject, or half of the ring as it is passed over the subject. There is a reason for that: and some of you may know the solution to the trick. But the way the trick is performed is specifically meant to cause you to believe the lady is floating in the air.
The same kind of thing happens when we read. Sometimes we inadvertently think we see the letters of words arranged differently, so that we see a word that makes the sentence mean something totally different from what is actually written down. At the time I prepared this message for this morning, I could not remember a single one of the hundreds of times I have misread something because this happened to me. And I still cannot, at least not one that I can repeat, even though it’s happened many times this past week. But I am sure you know what I mean. What you thing you’ve read makes you do a double-take; and when you re-read the sentence or passage, you quickly realize you hadn’t read what you had seen.
Sometimes, though, we don’t see, hear or read what is in front of us because we don’t want to – because of disinterest, out of fear, or some other distraction – perhaps because the event or subject depicted by what we see, hear, or read causes pain or discomfort.
I’ve been asked many times, since I retired, how I could work for a funeral home. Didn’t it bother me to be around those dead bodies all the time? My reply was usually the same: “Why should it? The dead can’t hurt me. It’s the survivors that frighten me.” The reason I could say that was that I don’t see death as some dark, foreboding, fearful occurrence. I see death as the passage from this one side of life – the human existence – to the other side of life – the spiritual existence. But there are people for whom death is unbearable. I know a gentleman who has said many times that he is going to miss his own funeral because he’s afraid to be around dead people.
I always hated school. It wasn’t the learning about things that bothered me – reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, these were O.K. – what I disliked was the testing – being made to “prove” I had learned what the teacher was teaching me. I particularly disliked those oral quizzes - those questions the teachers, and later, the college professors, always asked, not when you understood the homework assignment, but when you were at a total loss as to what the question meant, much less had any idea of what the answer might be. I spent 22 years doing something I really disliked doing. But in the long run I did learn a thing or two, especially how to answer those questions I didn’t know the answers to by responding with my own series of questions.
But the heart of my subject this morning deals more with our failure to fully understand what we see, hear or read. This became clear to me during the past two weeks.
First, I got mentally hung up on one of the skits performed by the Covenant Players when they were here two weeks ago. I found myself going over the skit done by Megan – the one in which she played the harried working parent. I knew there was something in that skit for us to see, at least for me to se, than was actually being seen.
Likewise, I started remembering the first line of an old hymn I hadn’t heard in years. But the only part of that hymn I could remember was the first line – “Take time to be holy, speak oft with the Lord.” I’d hear those words in my head quite often when I was doing something else that needed my undivided attention. The problem was, I was missing something, and I didn’t know just what it was until just a few days ago.
And to top off my dilemma,, I piked the passage of scripture from the Letter of James which was read this morning, only again, I got hung up on the words of a single verse, and not even the whole verse at that. Those words that added to my confusion were these: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only. . . ,” leaving out the last two words of that verse which are, “. . . deceiving yourself.”
That was what I was doing to myself – I was deceiving myself because I was not seeing the whole picture painted by Megan’s skit – I was not hearing the whole verse of the old hymn – I was not reading the whole passage of scripture – and therefore I was not getting the whole idea.
Even after I turned in the sermon title to Pastor Tim for today’s bulletin, I wasn’t sure what the connection was between these three things. And then on Thursday morning, getting ready to head down to work at the funeral home, I happened to say the words of the sermon title - The Message and the Messenger – and I realized I had written it down wrong. When I said it to myself – The Messenger and the Message – I realized immediately the connection between the skit, the old hymn, and this passage of Scripture.
Over an over again in the New Testament, and even in the Old, we read of individuals called to be Messengers of God. In the Old Testament these were called the Prophets, individuals who went before the Israelites and told them what God had planned for them. In the New Testament these Messengers were called Apostles – the very disciples who traveled with Jesus and then carried his message on after his death and resurrection.
We have heard many times that as Christians we are the present-day disciples of Jesus – we are those now being called to be his Messengers. If anyone here hasn’t heard this – I have to say this in jest, and yet seriously, clean out your ears! The call to be God’s Messengers has been in every sermon given by every person preaching the Gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. So we know we are called to be Messengers.
But what is the Message? Here is where I discovered something old – yet something thaat seems so fresh and new. The Message is not just the story of God, aand of his son Jesus who came to live among mankind. It’s not just about the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide and protect all who believe. It is much more.
We are the Messengers – AND we are also the Message. You, me, our fellow brothers and sisters in the church down the street, and in all the other churches here in Middletown, and everywhere else – WE are also the Message. We are to be imitators of Christ in our lives. We not only tell the story of Jesus – we are to live the story of Jesus – we are to talk to each other, to act toward each other, to help each other, to support and comfort each other, to rejoice with each other I word, and in deed. God has given us all certain talents and abilities, and unless we use all of those skills to proclaim God’s word, and the love of Jesus Christ, we fail to be either the Messenger or the Message.
To conclude this morning’s message, and hopefully leave you with something to think about over the next few days, let me read to you three things. First, the words of the first verse of that hymn:
Take time to be holy, speak of with thy Lord;
Abide in him always, and feed on his word.
Make friends of God’s children; help those who are weak;
Forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek.
The second are those three verses which were read from the Letter of James, only this time from the Good News Bible, today’s English Version:
22 - Do not deceive yourselves by just klistening to his word; instead, put it into practice.
25 - But whoever looks closely into the perfect law that sets people free, who keeps on paying attention to it and does not simply listen and then forget it, but puts it into practice -- that person will be blessed by God in whqt he does
27 - What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religionis this: to take care oforpans and widows in their suffering and to to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.
The third is a paraphrase as best as my poor memory will allow, of the final line from the “letter” which was read aloud in Megan’s skit: “If I were to spend the rest of my days doing good, I could never repay God for what he has done for me.”
May my humble words help lead you to be true doers as well as hearers, to be the Messenger and the Message.
Amen.
Several years ago, when games shows were broadcast live, there was a show called, “To Tell the Truth.” In this show there would be three individuals on the stage all claiming to be the same individual who had a particular situation for which he or she had received some kind of recognition. The object was for a panel composed of three celebrities, to determine by questioning the contestants, which of the claimants was the true individual. The two imposters were allowed to continue their masquerade throughout the questioning, so it would do no good for any member of the panel to try to get the imposters to identify themselves by giving out their real names. After a period of questioning, the host of the show would allow a final question from each panelist, who would then have to indicate which of the three contestants he or she thought was the real person. For each panelist incorrect in their choice, the contestants received a set amount. If all three panelists were fooled, then a special grand prize was also earned.
When the questioning was complete, the host would then turn to the contestants and say: “Will the real John Smith please stand up.” After a few seconds, and after several false movements, the real individual would stand up and receive the accolades of the studio audience, if there indeed was one.
I wonder. Is there ever a time when God looks out upon his creation, and calls out to the creatures whom he created in the image of the Holy One, and says, “Will the real image of me please stand up?
I think so. I believe that God asks of us daily to look within ourselves and declare whether or not we have lived up to the expectations of the one in whose name we are created. Have we changed that bad or annoying habit that we know causes our friend to be upset? Have we carried out the deed that we promised we would do? Are we truly being repentant for the wrongs that we did yesterday, and striving not to be so again? Or are we still being the same person, unchanged, uncommitted, un concerned?
Let us look at the story of the man who was born blind. As Jesus and the disciples are walking along the streets, he spots a blind man, one who has been blind since birth. And immediately the disciples turn to Jesus and ask him whose sin was it that cause the man’s blindness. Was it the parent’s, or the man’s?
Listen to the response of Jesus; pay close attention to the meaning conveyed by the words of each of the translations I will read for you: (NIV) “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (NRSV) “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.
Then, Jesus took mud, made with his own saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes and told him to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. And when the man did,he went home with his sight.
The remainder of this ninth chapter of John is a repetitious hounding of the religious authorities against the man who was healed of his blindness, against the man’s parents, and against Jesus.
First the authorities question as how he was healed and by whom, calling the man a liar by attacking the validity of the man’s response, and his blindness,when he tells them the truth; then the authorities question the man’s parents who, when they confirm his blindness from birth, are then questioned as to how the man was healed. Intimidated by the authorities, the parents give no clue of knowing how and by whom their son was healed, even though they have heard his story. The man is again questioned, challenged to “Give glory to God,” which simply means to speak truthfully, and when he again answers truthfully, he is accused of being a disciple of Jesus whom the authorities again claim is a sinner and not a man of God. Then Jesus meets the man and identifies himself to the man. Finally, Jesus speaks out against the blindness of the authorities.
I am almost certain that most of you have heard the comment: “My mind’s made up; don’t confuse me with the facts.” That was the attitude of the authorities of whom the Gospel Writer John tells us in this story. Even when they have witnessed the results of the miraculous act which Jesus has performed by giving this man his sight back, they can only see the “sinfulness” of Jesus’ performing this act on the Sabbath, thereby displaying disregard for the Law, and therefore being a sinner. They are unable to see the trees because of the forest. Their authority to be right makes them blind to what is.
In the game show, “To Tell the Truth,” the panelists were often blinded by their own “authority of rightness,” convinced that the tales of one of the imposters were more realistic and believable than the truth of the real person. But in the case of the game show, it was known that two of the contestants were imposters; their purpose was to trick the panelists into believing one of them was the real person. No harm was done, no one’s reputation was damaged, and in the end, all of the contestants revealed their true identities.
In this story from the Gospel of John: the authorities, themselves, deny the very thing that they repeatedly demand from the man, his parents, and Jesus. They deny the power of God in spite of seeing what it has done. They deny the identity of Jesus, even after they are made aware that he was the one through whom the man’s sight was returned. Blinded by their position of authoritative rightness, they cannot see the truth even when it stands right in front of them.
But the story does not end here. The story goes on, even to the present day. There are those who take the words which Jesus leaves his disciples just before he is elevated to heaven. Those words are not recorded in the Gospel of John; they can be found in the other three Gospels. Mark’s words are in the simplest form: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” That’s it.
Matthew’s words are somewhat more explicit: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Luke’s are more direct: “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”
No where, and in no way, do the words of Jesus in any of these three Gospels, ever say that Jesus’ followers are to go out and force nations to believe, or to follow after Jesus. No where does it say that Jesus’ followers are to harass, accuse, or condemn anyone in order to “convert” those individuals to Jesus’ way. All those words tell his followers to do is to preach his word, to tell his story, to pass on the good news.
But, after I made it clear in the first Link that went out after I became the Pastor up at Roscoe that I would welcome the invitation to visit anyone, but that I would not attempt to force anyone, or twist anyone’s arm, to convince them to believe, I have been accused of not doing what Jesus commanded of his disciples. Not by anyone here in this congregation; not by anyone who is a member of this fellowship; but by someone who claims to be a Christian and who follows Jesus, but who denies forgiveness to anyone whom he “knows” doesn’t know Jesus like he knows Jesus. This individual is blind to the meaning behind Jesus’ words: to be like Jesus, we have to live like Jesus did. We have to love, we have to forgive, we have to accept everyone we meet. And we have to do it equally. We cannot consider, ever, even for a single minute, that we are better, or more Christian, or more right, or more holy than any one we meet.
But that is exactly what was happening among those of the religious authority in John’s story. To them, their authority of rightness made them better, holier, cleaner. But in the end, their unforgiving “rightness” was their own worst fault – it was their sinfulness, and it made them blind to their spiritual weakness.
And in that light, we all have our personal “rightness” that keeps us from being truly sinless. It is but by the grace of God, by God’s willingness to let us hear and believe in the Son of Man. It is in our believing and trusting in Jesus as our savior, and the savior of all mankind, that we are cleansed of our blindness, and freed from our sin.
Amen.