Lectionary 22.09                                                          Christ Church , York

I can see her now, all 4’ 10” of her, built like a small tank, her starched wimple tucked tight around her face, her black robes flowing and flapping around her looking, as she descended upon me, like some avenging bird of prey. Sister Zita! Sister Zita! Even now the name inspires fear in me! That was Sister Zita. Sister was the nun in charge of my dormitory in the Catholic orphanage where I spent a good part of my childhood but she was also the person responsible for assigning chores around the building and seeing that they were done. And, this was the 1950’s when nuns were still real nuns who ran everything with an iron fist, you cannot doubt but that Sister Zita was passionate about her work and scrupulous in seeing that every detail was attended to. Lining up the 32 boys in my dormitory, Sister Zita would issue her orders and, in the best tradition of a drill sergeant at boot camp, expect that such orders would be carried out immediately if not sooner. But not content to simply issue orders, Sister Zita would assume that bird of prey role, flitting from job to job, seeming to appear and disappear at will and above all descending upon us at the least expected time and place. With her small tight spectacles she would peer intently at the work we were doing, wordless for the longest time, even her face showing little emotion, until she would utter one of her favorite phrases such as “Young man if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well.” Or “Have you never heard of elbow grease.” Or her most common saying, the one that has stuck with me for these many years, the saying which, when combined with her tone counted as noting less than a reprimand, words which summed it all up for her “Young man,” she would say, “don’t just listen to my words but do something about it.”

I thought of Sister Zita as I read this second lesson from the Epistle of James where he says, “but be doers of the word and not merely hearers.” I didn’t know at the time that Sister Zita was quoting Scripture but she probably did and I’m sure she believed that the book of James contained some sound advice for how all of us should live our lives. But we Lutherans have something of a problem with this letter of James; indeed Martin Luther didn’t like it one little bit. He called it a “straw epistle” which, he said, contained nothing of substance, nothing worth reflecting on and nothing of value for our salvation. Indeed for those of us in the Lutheran understanding who cling to faith in Christ Jesus alone, the very idea of being called to do something, to be doers and not merely hearers, seems to run contrary to our most fundamental belief that we are saved by faith alone and grace alone in Christ alone. Luther was concerned because he believed that people of  good conscience were trying hard to be that good fruit to which Christ had called them. But the harder they tried the more frustrated they felt. Luther himself, caught up in his own sense of unworthiness, needed to hear a word of pure and free grace, that Christ Jesus died on the cross to that which we creatures simply cannot do of our own merit and that is save ourselves. Any emphasis therefore, any talk of works was for Luther inconsistent with the Gospel. And that’s what makes the Epistle of James so suspect for Luther, leading him to call this a straw epistle.

But there is something that we are asked to do today, something that is not contrary to the Gospel and that is to be hearers of the Word. It always interests me to watch the lector come up here on a Sunday morning and immediately the vast majority of the congregation puts their heads down in their bulletins to read the lesson that is being proclaimed. Yet the Word of God is meant to be heard and not read. Time and again in Scripture we read of how God speaks and the people listen. Through His prophets God says “hear the Word of the Lord” Even Jesus in our Gospel today tells His disciples to listen. To be a hearer of the Word is to listen for the voice of God. To be a hearer of the Word is to listen for God speaking to us. Perhaps it would be better if we took the lessons out of the bulletins so that you would have no choice but to listen, to listen to God’s Word.

And we should be eager to hear the Word, or quick to listen as James says this morning. This Word is nothing less than the God’s Word and we need to hear what God is saying. But such hearing is harder when we are busy reading the text in front of us. If you are able then, listen to the Word proclaimed and see if the hearing takes on a new meaning as you hear it spoken in the voice of your sister or brother who proclaims that Word to you.

And in this hearing of the Word, something else, also Gospel centered, is asked of us and that is to receive it, believing that it is God’s work within us. Or, as James puts it we “welcome with meekness the implanted Word that has the power to save your souls.” We welcome God’s Word implanted in us, for it is nothing less than the Gospel, the Good News of our salvation. But that Word implanted within us is not a dead seed, an inert thing with no life. Rather it is the Word of Life itself and so living it produces good fruit. And such fruit is seen in what we do, how we live, what models we are of the godly life we are called into through our baptisms. In essence we are called to do something, to be something, to live something. Our lives should reflect that which is within us and if what is within us is the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ and His life giving love, then our lives should reflect precisely that same life and love.

Which brings me back to Sister Zita who fully intended that her instructions would produce some results, some action, some accomplishment on our part. And yes she may have wanted to see our actions match her words, simply because they were her words. But deep down Sister also wanted us to know that if we were to get on in life, if our lives were to be seen as producing fruit for those around us, then we had to learn that our actions should match our words, that there was consistency between word and deed and that falsehood in living apart from that which we spoke would, in the end, come to no good.

It is some of that same understanding that James seems intent on imparting this morning. You have heard the Word, he says and you know that it is implanted within you. This Word is God’s Word come to bring you life. Or as James himself says, “In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the Word of truth so that we would become a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” The result of hearing this Word and having it implanted within us then is that it will produce fruits. And so we are called to be doers of the Word and not merely hearers.

Indeed this notion does seem to run counter to that which we Lutherans believe. But our position as Lutherans, trusting in the free gift of grace from God, does not preclude good works. Indeed Luther himself made it clear that in being given the gift of faith we are called to live out that faith in tangible ways, what Luther called “faith active in love.” It is such faith that Jesus is speaking about in this morning’s Gospel. The Pharisees talk about the law of God but they reduce that law to a mere shell of its meaning by insisting that the action is more important than the reason behind it. In response Jesus maintains that the actions should follow the intent of their hearts that is to seek the will of God and to respond as a result of the love of God. In short they are to match their deeds with their words.

The great German theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer said that if we do not match our deeds with our words then we are deceiving ourselves. That’s what James is telling us this morning and that is exactly what Jesus is telling the Pharisees. You think that you observe the law and keep the commandments and outwardly you do. But if your heart is filled with anger, pride, folly or any manner of things, then you are deceiving yourselves. If you speak the Word but do not truly live out that which you preach, then you are wasting your time.

It is the Word we have heard, the same Word that has been implanted in our hearts which calls us to produce good fruit by our actions, by our lives, by our faithfulness. In our baptism, when that Word of life was first implanted in us, we know what we are called to do, called to be and how we are called to live. In our hearts we know that when our actions do not match our words then we live a lie, a falsehood, an untruth. Having heard the Word of God and having had the Word of Life implanted in us, we are called to be models of the godly life and to reflect that life to world.

Sister Zita used to scare the living daylights out of me, as she descended like that bird of prey to speak her words of wisdom. But now, all these years later, I know that she was right for we, who have been redeemed by grace through faith, we who have been saved by love alone, we who have heard the Word of Life and love, we are called to respond to that love by living lives which are godly, wholesome, loving, kind and generous. In short we are to be doers of the Word and not merely hearers, not for our sake, our merit or our glory but rather in that doing, God grace, God’s work and God’s love can be seen in the world. Amen