“Where Do You Worship?”

James 2:1-17

A sermon preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

September 7, 2003

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            Here we are in this beautiful setting, on this beautiful day.  And we are here to worship the God who made it all.  You know, you don’t need to be in a church building in order to worship.  You don’t need to be reciting some rote prayer in order to worship.  The mark of a mature person of faith is the ability to worship in different settings.  I want you to think for a moment about where you worship.  What do you need in order to worship?  Is it a person?  It is a relationship—do you need to be with someone or can you be alone?  Are there barriers to your worship? 

            I love my church building, but it is in the outdooors that I experience God the most profoundly.  Give me a fresh mountain stream or even the Mississippi when the water is a bit higher and I see God.  Put me on a mountaintop standing against the wind and I see and feel God.  I guess I get this from my family.  Growing up we had a farm outside of Cleveland.  It was there that the family gathered.  It was there that us cousins played in the tall grass while the adults talked into the summer dusk. 

Today, my mom will spend some time in the garden back in Cleveland.  She has told me that it is there that she talks to God.  She pulls weeds and argues with God and also gives thanks for the creative wonders that are at her fingertips.  When I need to regroup, I will go to my garden these days and pick some tomatoes or even pull some weeds.  It is one of the places where I see God.  It is one of many places where I get renewed. 

I want to offer you an opportunity this morning to talk with one another.  This is a picnic Sunday and a bit out of the ordinary.  Find someone and talk about where you see God.  I know this might be hard for people, so get into groups of four or five and talk real briefly about where you see God.  (People then talked with each other)

 

People who knew God in the first century and in this century needed each other to get through the life of faith.  Being a Christina in the first century was a tough task.  It meant more than simply coming to church on Sundays, getting your spiritual fix, and then going out to turn on the football game.  Making a decision for Christ meant more than joining a group of people who made you feel good all of the time.  There were no church buildings in the early church.

            What there was was a vital community of people who were united by a common mission and a common call.  These people had heard the message of Jesus and were clear that they would commit their whole lives to the calling of God.

            We need to remember, first of all, that the early church was persecuted.  We feel persecuted as religious people.  Our beliefs at times make us outsiders.  Before the name Christian became popular, the people were simply known as people of the Way.  The religious people of Judaism did not like what this new “way” stood for.  People of the way followed that rabble rouser named Jesus of Nazareth who blasphemed against God and openly defied the words of Torah.  He was put to death for these things.  But the people of the way found something appealing in the words and actions of Jesus and they sought a way to carry on his ministry.  That also meant that they would be liable to the same kind of persecution and even death which Jesus suffered.  But it wasn’t only followers of Judaism, it was also the political system of the Roman Empire which p[persecuted the church.  Revelation speaks of people keeping the faithful witness.  That meant saying Jesus is Lord, not Caesar is Lord. 

            It is true that most of the disciples and many of the followers of the early church were killed for what they believed and for what they did.  Being a part of the church was a life and death decision.  Churches often had to meet in secret and often met in people’s homes.  The Baptized believers among them depended upon their families which they found in the people of the way,  They depended upon them for food, shelter, safety, and all of those practical things.

            But they also depended upon each other for hope.  They needed to garner strength from each other, for they needed to be continually reminded of why they were putting their lives on the line.  It was so easy to get discouraged and so easy to fall in to the safe patterns of life.  But that is not who Jesus ways. That is not who the early church was.  That is not who we are.  We are doers of the word and builders of faith and hope.

            The book of James was written in this context to people needing a dose of Jesus medicine.  The people needed to get back to the basics of what it meant to be a Christian and how to survive in the midst of a world which is opposed to you.

            One more thing about the early church.  It was diverse.  There were people who emphasized different aspects of the church and church life, Not all churches agreed with each other.  The Apostle Paul, for instance, had a very different point of view than did the disciples and the churches he founded reflected that.  First of all, he never met Jesus while Jesus was alive.  Second of all, he had persecuted the Christians.  Third of all he spent most of his ministry preaching the good news to the people who did not grow up Jewish.  The cornerstone of his ministry was the line from his letter to Romans: “By grace you are save, through faith, not by works, lest anyone should boast.”

            Lots of people loved Paul and what he taught.  He built up the churches and preached to people the disciples ignored.  But let’s face it, he did not quite teach what Jesus taught to his disciples.  People then, as now, quoted Paul by saying, ”By grace you are saved through faith, not by works.”  This was and is used to let people off the hook to the radical teachings of Jesus on behalf of the oppressed and the outcast.

            James, Jesus’ brother, had a different view than Paul.  He was in charge of the church in Jerusalem.  It seems that his letter, in part, was written to oppose the notion that Christianity is simply a spiritual religion with no teeth, Perhaps against Paul, the cornerstone of James’ theology was: “Faith without works is dead.”

            If faith is believing in Jesus or knowing where God is, the question then comes, How do you live your faith?

            James says that faith without works is dead.  That can be such a stumbling block for people.  Maybe a better way to say this is that faith without evidence of faith is dead.

            How do you live out your faith?

            Remember, this is not an exercise to say “my faith stronger than your faith”.  It’s an opportunity to hear from each other how we move from the abstract to the concrete.  It'’ how we make our implicit faith explicit.  It's how we work at our faith.

            Talk about that for a few minutes, if you will.  I believe that when we enter into this kind of dialogue, we find out ways for us to live out our faith in a practical and powerful way.