Christ Memorial Lutheran Church - Houston TX
CMLC 2024-09-08 Sermon (Traditional)
Howdy. Now when looking at our readings for today, I was looking at the letter by James, one of the disciples that had been following Jesus but wasn't one of the original twelve. And one of the things that I noticed about it was that it seemed to remind me of a childhood character. Now, whenever I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of the cartoons that had come out in the 60s and 70s and the like. And what always fascinated me was the idea of reusing some of the characters between them. And I always kept noticing that between Jungle Book and Robin Hood, that they had a bunch of the same characters, they had what Baloo and what looked like Shere Khan and Khan and everything else. So in my mind, I imagine that they were actual actors that were like having coffee together and they just happened to decide, "Oh yeah, we'll go ahead and try out for a new part." And it took a while for my childhood brain to realize that maybe the artist just got a little bit lazy and used the same drawings. But one of the things with Robin Hood is this story of this character that would rob from the rich and give to the poor. And the story has been in existence in one way or another since like 1400 A.D., all right. So while he was supposed to be a contemporary of Richard the Lionheart, which was like in the 13th century, the character has ended up shifting and changing over the years. And every five to ten years, we see another Robin Hood movie that's kind of reinventing the character. So Robin Hood at one point was a fox with a bear for his buddy. And then later down the line, you know, Kevin Costner shooting flaming arrows off to the side and Brian Adams has like a hit song. And then later down the line, something to do with Russell Crowe, but at that point I stopped caring. So, because you know, once you see a fox portraying Robin Hood and carrying Eloise with everybody else in tights, nothing else really is going to live up to that. But the thing with the story is that this idea of that we love the rogue, the rebel, the outlaw, and this idea that Robin Hood takes from the rich and gives to the poor this idea of trying to make the world just a little bit more equal. The thing with it though is that the story of Robin Hood did not always have giving from the rich. Take you from the rich and giving to the poor. And the thing is that it begs this question is that if we really root for Robin Hood because he's trying to level the playing field for people, then why is there as much inequality in the world today as what we see? Because in the reality is that the story of Robin Hood isn't as much based on trying to give to the poor as much as people just love the idea of the outlaw, the rebel, the rogue, who does whatever they want. Because that's the part that we really resonate with more than anything, is the idea of someone who does what they want and no one can tell them what to do. You see, Lutherans, we really don't do well with the epistle of James. We never have. And Luther himself had issues with it time and time again, is this constant part in here of telling Christians how to be and what to do. You see, with it is that we are constantly finding reasons for why we do what we do. That our decisions, what we choose is somehow more practical, more moral, more professional and in our opinion, more just. You see, this idea of showing partiality time and time again, that somehow we are partial to some people and not to others, we balk at that. We don't like to hear that idea that we could possibly be people who ignore some people rather than others because of their appearance, because of their status, because we want to impress the wealthy. We don't like to hear that idea. I see everybody the same. I treat everybody the same. How often do we say or do that time and time again? And yet, how often is it that someone may change the name on the top of the exact same resume for a job and that a name may sound like someone may look a little bit different from somebody else and it ends up giving one person more job interviews than the other. Same resume, different name or the times whenever we automatically see somebody as wealthy and we assume that that means that they're good, smart, probably right in some way, rather than potentially manipulative, and of course, don't dare disagree with them. Or how often is it that we ask what we can or have to pay people for their work instead of asking what we should be paying people for the work that they do. Or the times when we make deals with some knowing that it's going to eliminate any opportunity for competition for mothers. The times whenever we want to listen to the pretty people with the good smiles who can pay for things because somehow being more attractive is what draws us to them. Or the times whenever we're looking for some easy way to gain more income, rather than realizing how many people are just struggling to exist, who don't have a home, who don't have a car, who don't have food on their table of any sort. And instead of asking how is it that we can make sure that they have gainful employment is instead all we really want to make sure is that we can get that extra little bit because we want to make sure that we can redo the guest room. Time and time again is that we end up seeing in our world what it's like to be partial for one group of people more than for others. When James talks about showing partiality and favor to the people who are better looking or wealthier, we do the same. But we can justify it because we want to make sure that, well, if we impress the wealthy then maybe they'll end up buying something from us or giving of their money to something that we want them to, or maybe those who are somehow better in appearance or better in their status, they must deserve that, right? They must have somehow earned it. Time and time again we fall into the same traps that the people of James's time did. But are we willing to admit that we do all this all the time? How many people even right now are in their minds thinking through, well, maybe it looks like I did that but I had a good reason for it, or maybe some that might even be saying wait a minute, but this is the same James who said faith without your works is dead and maybe we fall into the same pattern that Luther would sometimes do, and to say how dare you question my faith because of your social issues. Because faith is free, faith is free without works. Faith is freely given by God. It's not based on how it is that we behave and that's true. It is freely given to us. We are saved by God without having to work in any way for it. But maybe then we would want to ask a different question. Is that if we really do believe that we are saved by God, that it is love, that God has loved us enough that God has seen us, those of us who were sinful and ugly and undeserving and had nothing to give, and still God is saying I love you and I'm going to save you, then why not love others in the same way? Why not make that extra effort to do whatever we can to show love and hope and to sacrifice for other people? But frankly, we're going to go back to our lives later today and we're going to go back into our world tomorrow and frankly, we're just going to get back into our regular routines and we're just going to be like you know what, why do anything at all? Why even worry about it? It was a really nice idea. I'm really glad that we had a chance, a moment to be able to look at that in our church service today. But the love of God, it's a free gift. It's really given, you know what, that's my thing. I'm going to walk away with that today and we're okay, right? But the reality is that if our faith is truly in a God that has given everything to those of us who don't deserve it, how much is it that we truly believe in that when we don't do the same as well? Because there are actually very important reasons why it is that it is so important to look at passages like this. Instead of just glossing over it because we're ready to get to the gospel, why is it important? Because the thing is, is that if we really are saved by grace, is that God has said, I love you, that you do not deserve anything, I love you. And that's why I'm going to do this, are you grateful at all? Is there any gratitude in us? Is there any thankfulness whatsoever? Do we really get that the only hope that exists is for those who have nothing? And that whenever we see people that we know and we pity and we see how little they have and how undeserving they may see, do we genuinely see them with the same love that God would see for us or even more than that, are we really willing to realize our own poverty? How often is it that whenever something makes us uncomfortable or difficult and we realize that, oh man, you know what, I can't actually purchase this particular toy or TV or upgrade that I want because, man, I want to save up for vacation and then we somehow feel like we've been deprived and we're somehow poor. The times whenever we realize we can't upgrade to the vehicle that we wanted and then somehow we feel like we've been denied. But then we realize and pause that that's because in our hearts we feel poor. How often do we realize how empty we're feeling and that whenever we see that person in front of us that feels like they don't have much going for them and we pity them in some way, how much is it that we don't want that to come back on us and make us realize that we're pitying ourselves sometimes for the poorest of reasons, but then how often would we then see the people who are going through those times of poverty and that if somebody in our life may be actually struggling, they actually did lose their job. They actually did have the storm come through and find out that the insurance didn't actually cover something because of some loophole in the policy, whenever we find out that people have genuinely had someone abandon them or walk away and leave them with nothing or even sometimes if that could be us. Are we willing to show compassion for people before we or those closest to us get to that point or maybe if we realize that we keep trying to share the gospel with other people. We keep trying to tell others God loves you, God has given you everything, you are undeserving and yet God in his mercy is given to die for you, given his son to die for you and then they see us walking right past the people who are the most in need and we wonder why do they not listen to us with the gospel, even though those people hearing us share it don't see it in us and it feels and sounds so hollow. Don't we want our testimony to have meaning? Don't we wanted to have the backing that our faith is so real in our lives that we're willing to follow it ourselves? Oftentimes, somewhat the example comes up of do you believe that this chair will hold you up and you can say yes absolutely and then pause and say then sit in it because it's only whenever we have to actually live out the thing that we say we believe does it actually have any meaning to us or to others. Maybe something that stands out to me is this, the rest of the world acts like this. Why do you want to do what the world does? You can see it, how many times have we seen it in our workplaces, in our schools, in our governments, in our neighborhoods, just even in our friends and our family at times. The ways in which people will end up snubbing the ones who don't look the way they want them to look, who don't act a certain way or somehow have not been successful in some way that we were expecting. Why do we want to be the same type of people that they are? Why do we want to allow questions of compassion and care end up becoming political fodder for people to manipulate people for whatever gain they want? Why don't we want to be unique? Why don't we want to be different? Or even more than that, even here at this church, don't we want to be different from the other so-called Christians in the world who like to put down Christian under their name but have absolutely no difference in their lives? Don't we want to be different? Because that's the thing about this, is that our life belonging to God, it's not just that we belong to God for one hour on a Sunday morning, our whole life is God's. Because if we truly believe that God is the one who has saved us, then doesn't that also mean that he will take care of us when we take care of others? See, that's the thing about this, is that oftentimes we can spend so much time and energy justifying what we do. I need to act this way because if I don't, then am I really going to be able to take care of myself and the people around me? But if we truly trust that God is the one overall and that God is truly the one guiding our steps and taking care of us when we're the most in need, then don't we believe that he's also going to watch out for us when we sacrifice for others? If instead of trying to figure out which people we want to impress because they're the most influential, if instead we're willing to disagree whenever we should and just care about everybody, whenever we're willing to take the time away for those that we know have nothing to offer us, don't we actually believe that God is going to still continue to lead and guide our paths even whenever we're worried about whether we have enough to tip somebody? I still remember being at school and it was the last week of the school year and I remember that I realized I had spent all of the money that I had in my set-aside savings. And I was like, what am I even going to do this week? I didn't have any more meals in my meal plan at the school and didn't have any money in the bank account and I had one dollar in my hand. And I remember at one point I was thinking, do I need to call up my parents and beg for the money? And every single day, God kept providing some way, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, somebody had an extra meal, somebody was providing for everybody else, somebody had an extra 10 bucks or a gift card that they weren't using and every single day, something managed to feed me until I had shown everybody that dollar bill after church. And then we get to Sunday the following week and I pulled out that dollar bill again and everybody had a moment to pause and realize that we take for granted so much how often God has already taken care of us. Don't we want to do the same for the others that are around us? So my question to you is, do you trust that God will still take care of you even if you're willing to change, to admit that maybe we're not as fair to others as we should be and being willing to change in the way that you deal with other people because belief means trusting God with our whole life even when we need to change for it. So may God convict us this morning that grace is truly free for us and it's meant to be free for the rest of the world as well. Thanks be to God. [BLANK_AUDIO]