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Practical Ministry James 2: 12 – 19 |
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If Christianity were merely about believing the right things, it would be as useless as a brain in a jar. Interesting to view, but of no practical use. Christianity must be practical! The faith Jesus taught and illustrated with his own life is a faith constantly put into practical effect. Even his enemies grudgingly admitted that he did good, though they claimed the devil gave him his power. Do we aim to be true Christians, effectively ministering in our community? Then do good and don’t just believe the right things. Someone gave me a leaflet from a nearby Church. It was named, How to pick the right church. It was about finding a fundamentalist church: Bible preaching, inerrancy doctrines, virgin birth, bodily resurrection — all good in themselves. But where was loving God? Where was loving each other, or reaching out in love to a needy world? This church, in effect, was saying, “We are the kind of church you should be attending. We don’t consider it important to love God, to love each other or to love our world, but we have pretty good ideas about the Bible.” There’s something wrong there. If you believe the Bible, you follow what it says about practical, caring ministry. If we don’t love like the Bible says, we are sounding brass and clanging cymbals. If we don’t do good as the Bible says, we are no better than the devil, who believes and trembles. If we don’t care like the Bible says, we are worse than pagans, who at least care for each other. Even the pagan Roman emperors complained that Christians cared for pagans in trouble, and not the other way around. They said that, if the pagans didn’t want to be swamped by Christians, they had better learn to care for the sick and take in orphans. This morning, I want to look at the very simple instructions that James gives us all. You can sum them up as,
One of the biggest traps that Christians fall into is that of judgment without mercy. James says, JAS 2:12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! Recently, the NSW Parliament was ready to vote on using embryonic stem cell for research. They aimed to bring NSW law into line with Commonwealth law. Archbishop George Pell threatened Catholic Parliamentarians with consequences if they voted for the Bill. The Bill isn’t perfect. Foetal stem cells are a special kind of cell found in unborn and in newborn babies. They show promise for treating Parkinsonism, childhood diabetes, spinal injuries and many other problems. There is no plan to breed babies and kill them for body parts. They use an unfertilised egg and a skin cell. There is no living baby. But the controls should be stronger. We all understand why Dr Pell spoke up. The problem was that there was no sense of mercy, only justice. What does James say? Mercy triumphs over justice! The world is full of suffering people. Actual, real, live, suffering people. If we can produce healing stem cells, and no lives are lost in the process, surely that’s a good thing! Dr Pell seemed to be worried about the thin end of the wedge, and that is a valid warning. But is he worried about the crippled, about sufferers of nerve damage, about people with incurable genetic damage? I’m sure he was, but he didn’t show it. Mercy recognises suffering. It feels for others, and it acts for their good. Micah wrote What does Yahweh, your God, require of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? Paul reminds the Corinthians that gifts of healings and the gift of the ability to help others are two gifts that sit right alongside each other. Helping is a manifestation of mercy. There was an enormous backlash against Dr Pell and against the Catholic Church — and against Christians in general. We had better pray for all Christian leaders and churches, because, when one shows mercy, it is as though we all show mercy, and when one fails to show mercy, the whole church seems merciless and legalistic. What are we doing to be people of mercy? Jesus sent out the 72 and told them, LK 10:8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, `The kingdom of God is near you.’ These were very basic instructions, Receive as well as give; heal as well as preach; declare the nearness of the Kingdom. Too often we fail to be heard because we don’t recognise those principles. When I was a student pastor, my supervisor asked me to visit a man. He said, “I have never been invited in — don’t feel bad if you don’t get in, either.” What would I face? I felt anxious. The man met me at the door. We talked for a while, and he said, “I suppose I should invite you in.” It seemed he meant, “I don’t really want you to come in, but I’ll say it to be polite.” I thanked him and went inside. The place was a bit messy. His wife was away visiting her sister or something, but I suspect housework wasn’t her first piority. Who cares? I wasn’t there to check the housework. I was there to visit him. We talked in the loungeroom for 45 minutes. He never asked me to sit, so I didn’t. For the rest of my stay, he was my greatest supporter. I think it was because I accepted his hospitality, let him give to me. That’s part of mercy, too — accepting people as they are. My supervisor was astonished but also amused. Perhaps he was a little too sensitive to implied messages! Receiving gives us a right to give. Otherwise, it is about power, not about love. There’s an Dutch comedy movie, De Flodders, about a family from hell placed in a snobbish upper class suburb. It is very funny, but you could learn a lot of stuff about sex, drugs and how to swear in Dutch if you watch it! There are two kinds of welfare workers in the story, The man who placed the family really cares for them as people. But most others do good for them so as to make them nicer people and more acceptable to the neighbours. One cares, the others control. If we want to do true works of mercy, we care before we think of controlling.
Care for physical needs So often we care for spiritual needs and forget about the physical. It is easy to pray that someone will be warm and well–fed, and yet do nothing about it. Elaine from the Christian Unity Action Group, said, “We are always asking God to do things for us. But Jesus prayed for unity among his people, and what do we do to answer his prayer?” Let’s take this further. We pray for some need. Why do we do it? Don’t we pray because we believe that what we are asking is God’s will? We ask for healing, because we know that God does not will sickness, we ask for peace, because God is a God of peace. These things are his will. In this imperfect world, we don’t always get these things perfectly, but we ask. So, when we pray for these things, we add our prayers, in effect, to God’s prayer. These prayers come from the God who loved before we ever loved. So, when we pray something, what are we doing to ensure that God’s prayers are answered? Jesus warned, MT 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ There is nothing about praying for anyone. Where is preaching well, or working miracles? They are meaningless by comparison. Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome strangers, clothe people needing clothes, care for the sick and the imprisoned. There is nothing there about whether people deserve it or not. After all, who deserves mercy? If there is a need, deal with it as people beloved by God and sharing that love in the name of Jesus. One of the great errors of life is to give according to our view of who deserves. A Christian lady came to Anglicare once with food from a Church stall -— jams, preserves and such. They were the left-overs that didn’t sell because they were overcooked or too runny. Nothing unsafe, but nothing you’d eat. The lady didn’t see that she was sorting people into the deserving and the undeserving. She would have given the coat off her back for someone in the church who was sick or had an accident, but she only gave spoiled stuff to people who got welfare. They didn’t deserve the best. I wish she knew things I’ve heard. Like a man whose papers were lost by a Government Department for years. He couldn’t prove that he was an Australian citizen. He lived on food parcels from welfare offices. Staff even paid his medical expenses from their own pockets. They couldn't give welfare money, because you can’t give Government funds to a non–person. When the papers were finally sorted out, he still couldn’t get benefits because his papers were out of date. Was he undeserving? St Vincent de Paul, Anglicare, any agency can tell you about people put on the scrapheap through sickness, accident, mistreatment by those they trusted. Are they undeserving? Yes, there are rip–off merchants. But I'll be a rip–off merchant if ever any of us thinks that we can toss our scraps to the poor, because they don’t deserve better, I'll rip your ears off, maybe even an arm or two. Jesus says, If you did it for anyone who lack power or rights, you did it for me. When we meet people’s physical needs, we serve the Lord Jesus himself!
Put faith into action. Finally, just to drive the point home, we have to put our faith into action. That’s what I’ve been saying all morning, of course, but sometimes we remember a point better if it is put one way rather than another. James says, JAS 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. Critics of Christianity sometimes say that we think we just have to believe, and it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not saved by good deeds, but we are saved for good deeds. If we don’t do good deeds, we are either imprisoned in solitary confinement or unsaved. We are saved to serve. Never forget it! When James says that the demons believe and tremble, he is saying in effect that an inactive belief is a demonic belief. Is our belief demonic? Is it like the faith the Devil holds? Jesus went around doing good — so must we. And, when we fail in the midst of our efforts, then we come back for forgiveness and cleansing. That’s what real faith is like.
Conclusion You might be feeling by now that I am hinting at something, I am. We have to begin doing good as hard as we can do it, because that is what being a Christian is about. Jesus spent three days in the tomb, completing our salvation. He spent three years going around doing good. What do we do? Some people knit clothes for babies in families that have nothing. Or doll–sized clothes for still–born babies, so their parents have something to clothe them in for the funeral. Some churches support other churches in areas where there are problems, like drought, poverty, natural disasters. Some churches raise money for a local charity, or buy food vouchers that can be handed out by local charities to help people in a food crisis. Some churches run support groups for people with mental illnesses, or organise materials to help schoolkids avoid drugs. When we are a church which is truly reaching out through deeds of faith, we will be a growing church, because people are attracted to doing good in the world. There was some research recently by Jewish researcher who is not religious. He set out to show that Churches in the US shouldn’t get the tax breaks that they do get in that country, because he was sure it was just a scam. He discovered that Christians in the US put more into the community through the programs they run and the way they use their buildings than they ever take out. He was amazed, because he found that Christians serve in the community, that they rarely use their service in order to evangelise, that they see giving to the community as a way to live out their faith. It’s wonderful news, but we have to keep looking at ourselves, and see what good we are doing, and why we are doing it. I urge every one of us to think about your own little area, in Marrickville, in Parramatta of Rockdale, in Fairfield or Concord, and imagine what could be done to meet one need in that area. Think it over, picture it in your head, and share with us what you see as possible. God will use and build your faith and your vision, and we will grow into a strong, healthy church. Mercy triumphs over justice. Let’s do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, and he will do marvellous things in our midst. AMEN |
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© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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