He decided to
change things up one day. As those
smiling, non-listening people filed through he shook each hand, and said: Welcome
to the White House, folks, we’re glad you’re hear, even if I did murder my
grandmother last night. True to
his suspicion, all the diplomats smiled widely and simply uttered their thank
you, Mr. President…glad to be here…and they’d move-on down the line.
That is, until
he greeted a diplomat near the end of the line with his test line, Welcome
to the White House, we’re glad you’re hear, even if I did murder my grandmother
last night. Without skipping a
beat the one diplomat, who was indeed apparently listening, replied, well,
sir, I’m certain she deserved it.
The story may
be just an apocryphal, second-hand fable, but the truth it tells of people not
listening, but skipping-over what another says, while thinking about what they
want to say, is a dyed-in-the-wool surety; we’ve all done it.
Perhaps the
reason we find it increasingly hard to get along with each other in this world
is due, at least in part, to not hearing others. I want to hold up the mirror that James
suggests today, aimed at helping us remember that the only way to have a
conversation is for both talking AND listening to take place.
We can get so
used to the furniture in our house we don’t even notice it anymore. Or the road signs. If you’ve lived here for awhile you may have
passed our church sign thousands of times.
You probably don’t even know what the sign says, because it hasn’t
changed a bit since I came here 9 years ago.
The sign says:
The first
time I saw it I wondered if having Russell Brownworth as pastor was why we had
to pray for the USA. (But that’s just
me).
Andras Tamas wondered
about his own life. He also wondered if
Andras Tamas was his name. It was the
name officials gave to him decades ago in a Russian psychiatric hospital. He'd been drafted into the army, but the
authorities had mistaken his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a
lunatic and had him committed. Then they
forgot about him...for 53 years.
In the late
1990’s a psychiatrist at the hospital began to realize what had happened and
helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from. After being released from a psychiatric
hospital, this sane man returned home to Budapest as a war hero, "the last
prisoner of World War II."
Not only had
this man forgotten his real name, he hadn't even seen his own face in five
decades. So, according to one news
account: For hours, the old man
studies the face in a mirror. The
deep-set eyes. The gray stubble on the
chin. The furrows of the brow. It is his
face, but it is a startling revelation.[1]
It’s easy, if
we don’t hold the mirror up daily, to lose sight of what we are, and Whose we
are. As a pastor, I have often worn
myself to the ragged edge chasing down new programs, practices, and activities
for helping the church get healthy and grow.
It’s usually only after I am run down and played out that I remember the
mirror.
And when I look
in that mirror, I don’t like what I see.
I was informed in seminary that programs, practices, and activities are
what the people in a church need to grow up in Christ, and it’s my job to put
those plates on the end of long sticks and start them
turning…and keep them turning. And when those programs, meetings, and
activities flop I feel like Andras Tamas, a prisoner speaking gibberish that
nobody understands, locked away for half-a-century in a place of forgotten
people, who can’t remember their own names, or who they were created to be.
If you’ve
ever felt that way, most likely you’ve also been tempted to smash the mirror
and never look at it again. We do that
because being honest with what’s going on in life is too painful.
God’s Word is
that mirror. If we just glance at it
occasionally, such as being regular in worship and Sunday School, where it’s
read, talked-over, and then put on a shelf until next week, we can forget what we
read and heard with the best of them!
But when we take it as seriously, as God meant for us to, the pain of
not obeying with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength[2] is painful,
even unbearable.
Why is it so
painful to look in that self-mirror and see the truth about why we don’t do
God’s will like He tells us? It’s
because, deep-down, we know it means giving up our will, and becoming His
servant. And we all prefer our own way
rather than letting anyone else make decisions.
But that’s
what Lordship is…becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ, for
the glory of God our Creator. And what
most of us opted for at the altar call was Savior, not Lord. We want to go to heaven; but we want to live
this life until that time in just whatever way we want.
Now, pastor,
that is a harsh thought for the church, isn’t it? Well, I suppose you would have to ask the
author, James, the half-brother of our Lord.
He’s the one who wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
But if you
have just another moment or two, let’s go a bit further into what James said
about holding up the mirror every day, and not forgetting what the Lordship of
Jesus Christ is like for those who profess to be His disciples, children of
God.
Hear verse 25
again:
But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. James 1: 25
God will
bless you for being honest, by looking into His Word, His mirror of your life
and obedience.
Ladies and Gentlemen, church, the question is, do you want to be fan of Jesus, or do you want to be a follower of Jesus? A fan may come to church, give, sing, attend Bible Study, and even put a Thank You Jesus bumper sticker on his car. But a follower will put Jesus first in everything he does. It’s called commitment to the Lord, not just leaning on the Savior to take you to Heaven.
Our Prayer
Lord, your fans abound along with the
bumper stickers, yard signs, and Facebook pages. We are pretty sure those aren’t horrible
heresies, but we’re also certain those are not what your death on the cross for
our sins are all about.
Your death, burial, resurrection, and
ascension to the Father, were all the prelude to gathering a family under your
Lordship…disciples who would place Your will above their own.
Save us from repeating phrases in
church services like, hallowed be Thy name – Thy kingdom come, thy will be done without
following through, and submitting to Your will in every moment of our lives.
Title Image: via Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation
