James 3:2-5a; 8-18

2 We all make mistakes often, but those who don’t make mistakes with
their words have reached full maturity. Like a bridled horse, they can
control themselves entirely. 3 When we bridle horses and put bits in their
mouths to lead them wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.
4 Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are needed to drive
them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder. 5
In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it
boasts wildly.

8 No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly
poison. 9 With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human
beings made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come from the
same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!
11 Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do
they? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a
grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a
saltwater spring either.

13 Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are
good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom. 14 However, if you
have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging
and living in ways that deny the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes
down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural and demonic. 16
Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and
everything that is evil. 17 What of the wisdom from above? First, it is pure,
and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine. 18 Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their
peaceful acts.

Message: “James Said: Watch Your Mouth” Rev Heather Riggs

This is the third sermon in our series on my favorite book of the Bible, the
Book of James.

Last week, we explored James chapter 2, where James clarified that in
order to be doers of the word we need to make a choice:

Are we going to practice God’s Way of neighbor-love

Or

Are we going to adopt the values of the Roman Empire and put the
rich and powerful first?

Today we are delving into Chapter 3 of the book of James.
I recommend that you keep the scripture handy because we are going to reference it a lot!

James is a challenging book of the bible, for a lot of us who grew up going
to church and being taught that being a Christian means being nice to
everyone, praying the Lord’s Prayer, going to church every week and
maybe inviting some people to go to church with you.

James is challenging because, James said that it’s not enough to just
believe in God and go to church. James firmly asserts that Jesus calls us
to follow Him in the Way of neighbor-love. And neighbor-love means caring
for those in need, and “resisting evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves,” as we vowed to do in our baptismal vows
at the top of page 34 in the hymnal, second paragraph.

But, often when we get to chapter 3, we relax a little, because chapter 3
feels a little more like church as we’ve always known it, because James is
talking about talking. How many of you have been taught that James chapter 3 is about gossip? Yeah, me too. Part of why we have been taught that James chapter 3 is
just about gossip, is because we so often read Bible passages in isolation,
without considering what came before and what comes after.

If you read James 3 without looking at it in the context of the whole Book of
James, it’s all about watching our mouth, right?
? The person who controls their tongue makes no mistakes in verse 2
? Bridle your tongue like a horse in verse 3
? The tongue is like the rudder of a ship in verse 4
? The tongue is a fire in verse 6, (I edited verse 6 & 7 out for length.)
? The tongue is untamable, a restless evil, and a deadly poison in
verse 8
? And the tongue is two-faced – spewing both blessings and curses
from the same mouth which shouldn’t be the case because that
seems to violate the laws of nature- and here James is referencing
Jesus in Matt 7:16-17 and Luke 6:43-44, where Jesus is quoted as
saying, “no good tree bears bad fruit.” …remember in the beginning
where I mentioned that James quotes more sayings of Jesus than
any other book in the Bible besides the gospels?

If you read James chapter 3 out of context, it really does sound like we
might all be better off taking a vow of silence!

But obviously, vows of silence aren’t very practical, especially since we
have a mandate to share the teachings of Jesus with others…. so we often interpret James chapter 3 as instructions to avoid gossip, or as one of my
little office decorations says, to, “make our words gentle and sweet, for
someday we may have to eat them.”

But here’s the thing. James is pretty dang plain spoken and if he wanted to
tell us not to gossip, or to tell us that if we can’t say something nice don’t
say anything at all. James would have said that directly!

Gossip and niceness were familiar concepts in the first century — the
apostle Paul wrote about them frequently!

I think the key to understanding James chapter 3, is contained in verses
13-18.

“Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good
with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom.”
Notice that James is still on the topic of showing our faith through our
actions. According to James, wisdom should be visible in how we live.
And how we live should be a “humble lifestyle.”
Showing your faith by living a humble lifestyle is very much in line with what
James was saying in chapter 2 about not being contaminated by the world.
14 However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart,
then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth. 15 This is not the
wisdom that comes down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural
and demonic. 16 Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is
disorder and everything that is evil.

Once again, James is echoing the language of chapter two where James
was echoing Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 6:24 that we can’t serve both
God and money. We can either be ambitious and jealous for money and
power and make a mess of the church or…

We can use our mouths to teach people Jesus’ Way of neighbor-love
and organize together to practice what we preach.
James is condensing a large volume of the teachings of Jesus into a
concentrated vision of what it means to *Be the Church,* not just go to
church.

This James, whoever he was, was writing around the time when most, if
not all, of the people who had actually met Jesus were dead. So this
James, had witnessed both the growth of the church, and the problems that
come with growth.

Problems that stem from the challenge of trying to live the very counter-
cultural Way of Jesus, when we are surrounded by the “might and wealth
make right,” values of the Roman Empire.

So James reminds us that we need to focus on God’s wisdom.

17 What of the wisdom from above? First, it is pure, and then peaceful,
gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine. 18
Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.

Notice that James is talking about the kind of peace that sows the seeds of
justice.

? Gentleness leads us to listening instead of judging people in need
? Mercy leads us to put others needs before our wants

? Good actions improve the lives of the most vulnerable
? Fairness is the opposite of favoritism that so often favors the rich
? Obedience to the teachings of Jesus, calls us to question whether we
are trying to take a seat at a table that Jesus would have flipped, like
he flipped the tables of the money changers at the Temple.

So, James chapter 3 isn’t about gossip, or being nice with our words. It’s
about making our words obedient to the Way of Jesus. Using our words, to teach people the Way of Jesus, which is the practice of neighbor-love, and to organize together to be doers of the Way, not just hearers of the way.

James 2:1-9 & 14-20 & 26
My brothers and sisters, when you show favoritism you deny the
faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in glory. 2
Imagine two people coming into your meeting. One has a gold ring and fine
clothes, while the other is poor, dressed in filthy rags. 3 Then suppose that
you were to take special notice of the one wearing fine clothes, saying,
“Here’s an excellent place. Sit here.” But to the poor person you say,
“Stand over there”; or, “Here, sit at my feet.” 4 Wouldn’t you have shown
favoritism among yourselves and become evil-minded judges?
5 My dear brothers and sisters, listen! Hasn’t God chosen those who are
poor by worldly standards to be rich in terms of faith? Hasn’t God chosen
the poor as heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him? 6
But you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the wealthy make life difficult for
you? Aren’t they the ones who drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones
who insult the good name spoken over you at your baptism?
8 You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love
your neighbor as yourself. 9 But when you show favoritism, you are
committing a sin, and by that same law you are exposed as a lawbreaker.
My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do
nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? 15
Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat.
16 What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”?
What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? 17 In
the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.
18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I
see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. 19 It’s good that you believe that
God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear.
20 Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions
has no value at all?
26 As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead.

Message: “James Said: Show Me The Works” Rev Heather Riggs
This is the second sermon in our series on my favorite book of the Bible,
the book of James.

Just a little review to catch us up.

The Book of James was probably not written by the apostle James, the
brother of Jesus, but by another James. The Book of James is also not a
letter to a specific community of Jesus followers. There’s no greeting to
specific people at the beginning or farewells at the end. Marcus Borg
suggests that James was written for a Christian Jewish community
because in chapter 2 verse 2, the word used to describe the local church is
the Greek word from which we derive the word, “synagogue.” (Evolution of the
Word, p194) Borg thinks the Book of James was written in the 70’s or 80’s (of
the first century), so it was written after the Gospel of Mark, but before the
Gospel of Matthew, because James seems to have a fresher take on some
of the stories that are included in Matthew and Luke.

The Book of James is not about orthodoxy, which means right belief.
James isn’t trying to make meaning of the resurrection or connect the
prophecies of the Hebrew Bible with the stories of Jesus.
James is about orthopraxis — that’s a big word for doing the right thing.
Ortho – means right
Praxis – means practice, or actions.

James is a practical guide for following Jesus.
And yet, James references more sayings of Jesus than any other New
Testament book besides the gospels (Evolution of the Word, p196)

James is my favorite book of the bible because James challenged me to
ask:

What does it mean to be a Christian?
Last week we explored chapter 1 where James said that we are to, “be
doers of the word not only hearers.” (James 1:22)
But what exactly are we, as Christians, supposed to do?

James begins to answer that question in chapter 1 verse 27:
“True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is
this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the
world from contaminating us.”

Caring for widows and orphans, in the first century context, meant to care
for the people who could not care for themselves. Widows and orphans
often had no source of income in the first century, so that part seems pretty
clear to interpret for today. Christians are supposed to care for the people
who need help. This is why we are supporting the Montavilla Community
Pod Village, and Family Promise, and Our Daily Bread Express, and
Rahab’s Sisters. By organizing to support the pod village and partnering
with these organizations we are being doers of the word all week long, not
just being hearers of the word on Sunday.

But what does it mean to, “keep the world from contaminating us?”

James is so glad you asked!
James presents us with a story example of what contamination by the
world looks like in chapter 2 verses 1-4:

My brothers and sisters, when you show favoritism you deny the
faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in
glory. 2 Imagine two people coming into your meeting. One has a gold
ring and fine clothes, while the other is poor, dressed in filthy rags. 3
Then suppose that you were to take special notice of the one wearing
fine clothes, saying, “Here’s an excellent place. Sit here.” But to the
poor person you say, “Stand over there”; or, “Here, sit at my feet.” 4
Wouldn’t you have shown favoritism among yourselves and become
evil-minded judges?)

I’m going to update this story to 2024.
Church, when you show favoritism you deny the faithfulness of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected in glory.
Imagine with me, that on some random Sunday morning, two different
people – new people, whom you’ve never met before show up for worship.
We love new visitors, right!
These new visitors are obviously not together, because one of them is
dressed in a really nicely tailored suit, and when he shakes your hand at
the door, a gold watch peeks out from his cuff.
The other person looks, and smells, like they’re homeless.
? Would you treat these 2 people differently if they showed up for
worship here?
? Have we treated people like these 2, differently when they showed up
for worship here?

If we’re honest with ourselves, we can admit that it’s almost a knee-jerk
reaction to treat the rich person better, isn’t it?
That passage always makes me feel kinda called out.
Take a deep breath. Remember that Jesus loves you all the time…
especially when we get it wrong. That’s what Grace is!

That’s what James means when he talks about being contaminated by the
world.

Our culture, Western Culture, is heavily influenced by the values of the
Roman Empire because the Roman Empire conquered Europe and the
European Empires colonized America. This is why something James wrote
about 2000 years ago is still so very relevant!
The values of Empire are:
? Might makes right, and
? Wealth makes right
? Therefore the powerful and the wealthy are more important than
everyone else.
? And we should work hard to please them
But the Values of Empire ARE NOT THE WAY OF JESUS!

By reflex – we react according to the values of Empire, because we have
been enculturated, from childhood, with the values of Empire. This
enculturation is what James calls contamination. James even goes so far
as to call this kind of giving in to the values of Empire
– denying the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ
– denying the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ
Ouch! James!

— which, by the way, was a very political statement in the First Century.
To call Jesus Lord, or Lord and Savior, was to take the title of Caesar – the
title of the original Roman Emperor – and give it to Jesus.
James is drawing a line in the sand.
Either you are a follower of Jesus or you are a follower of Caesar…and the
litmus test for determining who is your Lord, is how we treat the poor.

And James goes on to make it crystal clear in verses 5 -7

5 My dear brothers and sisters, listen! Hasn’t God chosen those who are
poor by worldly standards to be rich in terms of faith? Hasn’t God chosen
the poor as heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him? 6
But you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the wealthy make life difficult for
you? Aren’t they the ones who drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones
who insult the good name spoken over you at your baptism?
First of all, I want to point out that James is paraphrasing the sayings of
Jesus here. James is referencing the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, the
Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6 and the story of the sheep and the goats in
Matthew 25. Remember in the introduction when I referenced Marcus
Borg’s claim that James quotes Jesus more than any other book of the
Bible beside the gospels? James isn’t being woke, James is quoting
Jesus.
I also want to point out how relevant verses 6 and 7 still are!

One could argue that it’s time to shut up about Bob, is a pretty accurate
paraphrase of James 2:6

“But you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the wealthy make life difficult for
you?”
One of the biggest Con jobs of the modern world is the idea that caring for
the poor is bankrupting our economy when it’s the very, very, very wealthy
who are keeping wages flat, slurping up Trillions in government subsidies,
buying up family homes to turn them into overpriced rentals and letting
luxury apartments sit empty because they get more from the tax write off
for claiming they can’t rent them out at a fair market price, than if they
lowered the rent to what people can afford!

Please understand that having a nice house or a comfortable retirement is
not the definition of wealthy! I’m talking about nesting doll yachts wealthy.
Gifting cars and vacations to Supreme Court Justices in order to buy their
decisions, wealthy.
James said:

8 You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love
your neighbor as yourself. 9 But when you show favoritism, you are
committing a sin, and by that same law you are exposed as a lawbreaker.
I don’t think that needs explaining.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough to make us all wonder if we really are
Christians at all… at least that’s what happened to me. James shattered
my comfortable, Church-going faith. James took all these nice, “blessed
are the poor,” sayings of Jesus and condensed them into some sort of
gospel concentrate. The first time I read James, I felt like I was drinking the
concentrated sludge from 1000 keurig cups from a fire hose!
Because Sunday school taught me to be obedient to my parents, be nice to
everyone, pray the Lord’s Prayer, and go to church every week.
James said, I can either follow the Way of Jesus and practice neighbor-love
for the neighbors who are most in need of love…
Or I can follow the Way of Empire and love the rich and the powerful.
Or as Jesus put it in Matthew 6:24, you can’t serve both God and Money.

Then James, in a very Jesus like story telling style, gives us one more
example of what it means to really be a Christian in verses 14b-17

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do
nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? 15
Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat.
16 What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”?
What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs?
Ugghhhhh!
James! James! How on earth am I supposed to do that???!!!
Every single day, I see sooooo many houseless people. So many people
contact the church because they are short on their rent. So many people
are refugees from pointless wars and local conflicts between monied
interests. James! Sometimes all I *can* offer is the dignity of being polite
to my houseless neighbors. Because the problem is bigger, so much
bigger than just me.
The problems are so much bigger than I can solve all by myself.

The Church exists to teach people the Way of Jesus, which is the
practice of neighbor-love, and to organize together to be doers of the
Way and not just hearers of the way.
This is why I am still a part of the Church.
Because I can’t do it all.
Our little local church can’t do it all.
But, if we invite our neighbors to come join us in caring for those in need
and working to advocate for systemic changes by fulfilling our Baptismal
Vows to resist evil and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves
(p35 UMH), then there will be enough of us to make a difference.
That’s why I am still a Christian. Because the Church exists to teach
people the Way of Jesus, which is the practice of neighbor-love, and to
organize together to be doers of the Way and not just hearers of the way.

I’m going to let James have the last word.

18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I
see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by
putting it into practice in faithful action. 19 It’s good that you believe that
God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear.
20 Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions
has no value at all?
26 As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead.

James 1:19-27

 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. 20 This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.

22 You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. 23 Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. 24 They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. 25 But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do.

26 If those who claim devotion to God don’t control what they say, they mislead themselves. Their devotion is worthless. 27 True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.

Message: “James Said: Be a Doer” Rev Heather Riggs

What does it mean to be a Christian?

When I was 18 years old I was attending an evangelical youth group with a friend from highschool where, every week, they invited students to dedicate their lives to Jesus.  We were all asked to close our eyes and put our heads down and if we wanted to invite Jesus into our hearts we could raise our hands and nobody but the youth pastor would know.  Of course, *everybody knew* if you had put your hand up, because the youth pastor would take you aside and lead you in a statement of faith.  The statement of faith was something vaguely related to the book of Romans, where we were invited to profess our faith that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and we were willing to live as followers of Jesus.  The youth pastor would add your name to the list of newly “saved” youth and connect you with a mentor if your parents didn’t attend the church.

I know this because one warm, spring afternoon, I raised my hand and professed my faith, but the truth is that I already believed in God.

• I had believed in God since Kindergarten, when Mrs. Valentine first showed me the stories of Jesus with the magical flannelgraph.  
• When I learned how to read, I tried to read the King James Bible from beginning to end, but I got stuck in Leviticus. 
• I learned to pray at the age of 8 in remedial Catechism, when my father married a Roman Catholic, and I requested the story of the Good Samaritan, when the Priest asked what scripture we would like for the homily for our first communion.

So clearly, I already *believed* in God, before I raised my hand in Youth Group.  And since I already believed that Jesus was my Lord and Savior, I was already “saved,” long before I raised my hand.  But what the youth pastor didn’t know, was that God and I were involved in a different conversation.

While everybody’s heads were down, the voice in my head thought at me, “follow me.”

And I thought, “if you heal me, I will follow you.”

The voice said, “yes.”

I thought back, “No, I mean really heal me, not just, I learn how to deal with my abusive parents. I want a better life.  I want to not be depressed and hurting all the time.  I want to be completely healed.”

The voice said, “yes, healing.”

So I thought back, “I will follow you,” and I raised my hand.

Then I committed myself to following Jesus.

• I went to church twice a week, Sundays and Wednesday nights.
• I went on a mission trip where I went door to door inviting people to pray the sinner’s prayer and come to church…which is probably the least effective form of evangelism known to humans!
• I joined the Praise Team.
• And I skipped my senior prom because dancing wasn’t considered moral in this evangelical church.

But the more I studied the Bible, the more I began to realize that Jesus didn’t say anything about dancing being immoral.

Jesus actually said quite a lot about caring for widows and orphans, and Jesus had some not nice things to say about rich people, especially about rich religious leaders, who are concerned about things that aren’t really sins.

All of these thoughts happened over the course of several years in which my life kept getting better and better, until I found myself working as a Music Director in a Lutheran Church and reading the book of James.

The book of James is my favorite book of the Bible because James showed me how to be a follower of Jesus and not merely a believer.

The Book of James was probably not written by the apostle James, the brother of Jesus, but by another James.  The Book of James is also not a letter to a specific community of Jesus followers.  There’s no greeting to specific people at the beginning or farewells at the end.  Marcus Borg suggests that James was written for a Christian Jewish community because in chapter 2 verse 2, the word used to describe the local church is the Greek word from which we derive the word, “synagogue.” (Evolution of the Word, p194) Borg thinks the Book of James was written in the 70’s or 80’s (of the first century, not in the age of disco!), so after the Gospel of Mark, but before the Gospel of Matthew, because James seems to have a fresher take on some of the stories that are included in Matthew and Luke.

The Book of James is not about orthodoxy, which means right belief.  James isn’t trying to make meaning of the resurrection or connect the Hebrew Bible with the stories of Jesus.

James is about orthopraxis — that’s a big word for doing the right thing.

Ortho – means right

Praxis – means practice, or actions.

James is a practical guide for following Jesus. 

And yet, James references more sayings of Jesus than any other New Testament book besides the gospels (Evolution of the Word, p196)

And James does not waste time in getting right down to it!

After a brief reminder to be in prayer, James echos Mary’s song at the beginning of the gospel of Luke in verse 9, and Isaiah 40’s poem about fading flowers in verse 10.

“Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field.”

The rich will be brought low and will disappear like a flower withering in the desert heat???!!!

James does not respect the rich!

Next James takes on the terrible excuse of, “the devil made me do it,” and insists on personal responsibility for our choices, in verses 13 and 14.

“No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.  But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it”

Then James encourages generosity in verses 17-18.

James says A LOT in very few words and he is pretty blunt about it!

Then we come to today’s reading.

In verses 19-21 James tells us to listen more than we speak and to be in control of our anger, because our anger doesn’t lead us to God’s righteousness.

But what I really wanted to talk about today is verse 22.

This is the verse that cracked my faith open like an egg.

Here I was, trying to follow Jesus with my whole heart.

• Working in a church as the music director.
• Leading worship, writing liturgy and music.
• Teaching young people how to lead worship.
• Spending hours every week at the church.
• Annoying the heck out of my friends and family, trying to convert them to Christianity, because Matthew 28:19-20 told me to, make disciples of all nations, baptize them and teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded us.

But, what had Jesus commanded us?

What are Christians supposed to do?

I had been taught that Christians are supposed to make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples…and here’s James saying that we ought to be doers of the word not just hearers.

And here I was spending all my time crafting worship so that people could hear the word, which is good, but then what are we supposed to do?

And if we’re supposed to be doers of the word and not just hearers, then does that mean that being a Christian is about more than just believing and going to church to hear the word?

James cracked my faith open like an egg, and I felt like I was left holding the shell of a faith in my hands and the substance of my faith, the real doing part of following Jesus had landed sunny side up on the floor.  I began to wonder if following Jesus was messier than just going to church.

Leaving me asking, What does it really mean to be a Christian?

All that time I thought that being a Christian meant going to church and talking other people into going to church.  Christianity as Churchianity.

And here’s James reminding me that following Jesus means more than just believing in Jesus.  Following Jesus means doing the things that Jesus did and Jesus taught.

Or as James put it, in verse 27:

“True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.”

Next week we’ll explore James chapter 2.  Where James challenges us to show him our faith.

Scripture: Mark 16:1-8 CEB
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James,
and Salome bought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ dead
body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came
to the tomb. 3 They were saying to each other, “Who’s going to roll the
stone away from the entrance for us?” 4 When they looked up, they saw
that the stone had been rolled away. (And it was a very large stone!) 5
Going into the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the
right side; and they were startled. 6 But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed!
You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been
raised. He isn’t here. Look, here’s the place where they laid him. 7 Go, tell
his disciples, especially Peter, that he is going ahead of you into Galilee.
You will see him there, just as he told you.” 8 Overcome with terror and
dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they
were afraid.

Message: “Impossible Things” Rev Heather Riggs

Sometimes I don’t always know why I’ve said something until after I’ve said it. It’s that, “what just came out of my mouth?” feeling. Do you know what I mean?
Sometimes, I’m just really tired, and mis-speaking.
Or not thinking before I speak and that’s usually not a good thing…
But other times, I think Spirit has something to say and my mouth was
conveniently located.

This isn’t a Pastor thing.
I’ve only been a Pastor for about 8 years, I went to seminary for my mid-life
crisis! A sports car would have been cheaper!
It’s more of a, being open to God, kind of thing.
I don’t feel like God forces me to say things, or gives me some kind of
special wisdom.
I feel like sometimes Spirit gives me a prompt – like – say this and see what
happens!
And, as a Gen Xer, I am from the “*mess* around and find out,” generation,
so I usually go for it.
Often these things that Spirit has to say, seem impossible.
Like Spirit telling me to pop my head out and say hi to a bunch of
highschoolers smoking in the church parking lot, that led to the students
asking the church to throw them an end of the school year bonfire… I
guess they had me at hello!
Or doing something impossible like going to seminary and God providing a
way to do it without any student loan debt.
Or finding common cause with angry neighbors.
But, as Spirit prompted me to say to my new friends.
I’m a follower of Jesus.
I believe that God can do impossible things.

Impossible things are an uncomfortable topic for those of us who have
grown up in Western Culture and were taught that science gives us facts.
It gives us a tendency for black and white thinking:
Some things are true and others are false.

Some things are possible and other things are impossible.
But this Western dualism does both science and faith an injustice.
As the daughter of a science teacher, I can tell you that science does not
deal in facts. Science is a method of discovery. Science is not about
establishing unchangeable facts. Science is about testing assumptions.
And scientists are delighted when their assumptions are disproven!
Likewise, faith is not about certainty. Faith is an exercise in hope. Faith is
not about establishing unchangeable doctrines. Faith is about being open
to what Spirit might do next. And people of faith are delighted when God
surprises us!
The Easter story is all about being surprised by God, because Jesus rose
from the dead and that’s impossible, right?
I chose to use the Easter story from the gospel of Mark this year, because
Mark's gospel is the oldest gospel in our Bible, so it preserves the sense of
surprise experienced by those who were there.
The later gospels, Luke, Matthew and John, all try to explain what exactly
happened and who exactly everyone was in the story.
But Mark preserves the surprise… the impossibility of what happened.
They are expecting Jesus to be dead. Mary, Mary and Salome, go to do the
very ordinary work of preparing Jesus’ body for burial in the cool of the
early morning. They’re wondering how they will get in because the tomb
had been closed to prevent animals and grave robbers from getting in.
Then they encounter “a young man in a white robe,” who tells them that
Jesus is not here because he’s been raised and they should go tell
everybody that Jesus is coming to see you.
In the gospel of John there are two angels dressed in white and Jesus, also
in white, is sitting there.

In the gospel of Luke, there’s 2 men in dazzlingly white robes, these
descriptions always remind me of laundry detergent ads!
In the gospel of Matthew a man in “brilliant white” appears out of
nowhere,(see what I mean about laundry detergent ads!) and is called an
angel.
But in Mark there’s just a man dressed in white, sitting on a rock.
Because we live in an age where laundry products do promise brilliant
whites, we tend not to notice the impossibility of a man wearing all white in
first century Jerusalem.
Wool and linen, the 2 most common fabrics in use in the first century, aren’t
naturally bright white, they’re a soft cream color. It takes some chemical
processing to create bright white fabric. And in a time and place where the
roads were dusty, at least the bottom of your garments would be a little
dirty at all times. That’s why all the gospels comment on the bright white
color of the man’s clothes.
Being dressed in all white, and brilliant whites to boot, would seem
impossible in the first century.
Almost as impossible as someone rising from the dead.
As the daughter of a science teacher and a Pastor, I use the scientific
method, and I choose to have faith, and I don’t see them as incompatible.
Both science and faith hold the idea that things are only impossible until
they are proven possible.
People who get frustrated with the way scientists change their minds based
on new evidence, are often the same people who get frustrated when
theologians, those of us who study God, change our minds based on new
understandings of God.

And I get it! Life is complicated, and we all long for simplicity and clarity
sometimes. So we want truth to be unchanging and rules to be rules, so we
can keep up with it all!
But life is not simple.
And God seems to delight in doing impossible things.
I don’t know how exactly the resurrection worked. I mean, I don’t
understand the mechanics of it. What exactly happened and how did it
happen. And I don’t care. Sorry, I don’t.
I accept the resurrection as something that can neither be proved nor
disproved.
And moreover, I accept the resurrection as a symbol of hope.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the pattern of our faith.
The rhythm of life.
? Things end. Every ending is like a death.
? There is a season of letting go of the past, like a burial and a
mourning period.
? Then there is a new way of being. A resurrection into new life.

We like the new life part.
But we can’t get there without death. We can’t live into resurrection,
without allowing things to end and composting what was to give resources
to the new life.
Letting go of what is no longer working often seems impossible.
We know how to do what we’re already doing even when it isn’t working
very well, right?

We know how to keep on keeping on.
Even when keeping on is making us miserable.

We’ve been well trained by our culture to accept the unacceptable because
that’s just the way things are, right?
We’ve been taught that it’s impossible to change things.
But I believe that God wants a better life for all of us.
I believe that Jesus was willing to be crucified by the systems of Empire –
crucified by the systems of power and wealth – to prove them wrong.
The point of Jesus’ death and resurrection is that death dealing systems
are NOT impossible to overcome.
Rome tried to get rid of Jesus and instead the compassion of Jesus’
followers conquered Rome.
The death dealing systems of today like to tell us that it’s impossible to
house the houseless, or provide healthcare for all, or living wages for all
workers, or mental health care for all who need it.
They would say that this kind of compassion for all is impossible.
They would like us to believe that there is not enough in God’s creation for
everyone to have enough.
But Spirit keeps whispering to those who will listen…
…that if we die to our greed, there is enough for everyone’s need.
The death dealing systems of today like to tell us that some people are
sub-human. That it’s impossible to guard every person’s dignity, and treat
all people with respect.
But Spirit keeps whispering to those who will listen…

…that Black lives matter, and Queer lives matter, and disabled lives matter,
and neurodivergent lives matter, and women’s lives matter enough to be
the first to proclaim the resurrection. And I’m not going to say “all lives
matter” because clearly they don’t, not yet.

The death dealing systems of today like to tell us that it’s impossible to
change anything. So just keep your head down and work harder!
But Spirit keeps whispering to those who will listen…
That to God’s beloved, (that’s all of us by the way!) to God’s beloved, God
gives rest…and music, and dancing, and food, and love, and voices to
speak up and speak out. To do the work of “resisting evil, injustice and
oppression in whatever forms they present themselves!” as we vow to one
another with every baptism, as a part of our liturgy at the top of page 35 in
your hymnal.
Which does not mean that we need to do all the things!
It isn’t my job, or your job or any one person or one group’s job to do all the
impossible things.
We’re not Jesus, we just work for him!
Jesus took naps and so should we!
I think that all God is asking of us is to be willing to listen to Spirit.
Be willing to say, *OK God,* I’m willing to ““mess” around and find out” what
impossible thing you’re going to do next.