Believing and Doing

 

My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you? Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don't have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, "God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!" — if you don't give them the necessities of life? So it is with faith: if it is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead.       

 

The Twenty and The One

 

There was this $20 dollar bill and a $1 dollar bill on the conveyor belt at the downtown Federal Reserve Building. As they were lying there side by side the $1 dollar bill said to the $20 dollar bill, "Hey mannnnnn, where have you been. I haven't seen you in a long time?"

The $20 dollar bill replied, "Man I have been having a ball! I been traveling to distant countries, going to the finest restaurants, to the biggest and best casinos, numerous boutiques, the mall uptown, the mall downtown, the mall across town and even a mall that I just newly built. "In fact, just this week I've been to Europe, a professional Expo game, the all-day retreat spa, the top-notch hair salon and the new casino!  I have done it all!!!"

After describing his great travels, the $20 dollar bill asked the $1 dollar bill, "What have you up to?  Where have you been?" The $1 dollar replied, "Well, I've been to the Baptist church, the Methodist church, the Presbyterian church, the Anglican church, the Church of God in Christ, the Catholic church, the Lutheran church, the Mormon church, the church of the Latter Day Saints, the Disciple of Christ church, the..."

"WAIT A MINUTE!  WAIT A MINUTE!!" shouted the $20 dollar bill to the $1 dollar bill.

"What's a church?"

The past a week a half I was glue to the TV set as I watched athletes from around the world met recently in an International Track and Field competition for nine days in Paris. After months of preparation the stadiums, and all the other venues are now crowded with athletes and spectators.

Thousands of people are involved behind the scenes to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Paris’ transport and hospitality industries will be tested as thousands of people flock to the city.

The technology set up to beam pictures around the world as the events unfold is mind-boggling. And of course, the focus of attention is on all those who have come to  compete in the games. They have worked hard, trained hard, spending long hours sharpening their skills until they have reached peak performance. The Paris Track meet is a prelude to the Olympic games in Athens, Greece next Summer 2004.

Slouches don’t get places on their country’s Olympic team - only those who have worked hard at their sport. Likewise those who don’t have faith and confidence in their coach, in their own ability, in the ideal that they can be best, don’t get to compete at the games either.

We can say that those who have all the strength and skills but no faith will not win the prize. It can also be said that those who have all the confidence and faith imaginable but do not work to improve their skills and strength will not get to stand on the winners’ podium either.

We can see that faith and hard work, the building up of not only the body but also the mind, go hand in hand when it comes to competing in this games such as this. If either of these are lacking you can be sure that the athletes’ performance will be anything but the best.

Coaches and sports psychologists work side by side to ensure that the athlete’s mind and body work together to bring about a winning performance. One without the other will not win the race.

In today’s lesson, James is also telling us that the Christian faith is no easy ride. Very bluntly he says, "My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? … Faith without actions is dead" (James 2:14,26b). James invites us to be onlookers on the daily life of one of such ‘believer’ whose faith does not affect his / her life at all.

This religious person bumps into someone who is a member of his / her own church and notices that they are half naked on a cold day, and they haven’t had a wholesome meal for days. This believer says, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about this person’s needs" (v.16).

He/ she is supposed to be a Christian; the needy person is not even a stranger; someone from the same church and would you believe it, all he can offer are some feeble platitudes as he hurries on by – "God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!"

James is obviously providing an extravagant and exaggerated illustration here to make a point – well, I hope it is an exaggeration. He asks, "What good is this person’s faith?" The answer - nothing whatsoever.

He says he believes in Jesus. He says he trusts in the love of God for forgiveness and salvation and yet when it comes to the hard work of putting this faith into action, he / she fails miserably.

He knows about how generous God is toward him but he can’t offer the same generous love to the needy person. His faith has had no effect whatsoever on the way he meets the demands of everyday life.

I heard this story from a Moslem: the story goes like this; two Moslems who had fallen out and had become bitter enemies. The one had drawn a knife and was chasing the other down the city street, shouting all kinds of abuses at the other man claiming that when he caught up with him he would kill him.

During the chase, there came the call for prayer. Both stopped, rolled out their little prayer rugs, faced Mecca, knelt down and prayed. When the prayer was over both folded up their prayer rugs, and continued the chase down the street, shouting and waving around the knife. (It sounds kind of comish and funny, how true).

I have known people of Christian congregations to do the same (not with a knife, but with their tongue). They come to worship, pray and read their Bibles during the week, and at the same time holding a deep hatred for a fellow member of the congregation. What good has their faith been to them? None whatsoever! James says, "If faith is alone and includes no actions, then it is dead."

If our faith in God who has shown his love for us and sent his Son to die for us produces nothing in our lives except pious religious feelings then this is not true religion according to James.

Our faith in Jesus is a living, renewing faith, a strong powerful work of the Holy Spirit which changes our hearts, our attitudes, our relationships with others, the way we see those who are in need. Faith exists so that we don’t continue in our old ways, but it changes us so that we are happy to do what is pleasing to God.

True faith will not be happy to just talk about love – about God’s love for us and how we should love one another. True faith wants more than talk, it wants to do deeds of love. St John sums all this up quite simply by saying, "My children, our love should not be just words and talk, it must be true love, which shows itself in action"

(1 John 3:18).

Those of us who are honest about our faith and its effect on our lives will have to admit that we fail miserably when it comes to putting our faith into action. I’m sure you’ve heard people say that they don’t belong to a church because it’s full of hypocrites.

Well how right can they be! It is true that we hear about our faith, sing about our faith, state our faith in the creed, and that God strengthens our faith in Holy Communion, and yet when we get back into our everyday routine we mess up so terribly putting our faith into action.

Our faith in Jesus has so little impact on what we say and do. Yes, the church is full of hypocrites and that’s precisely why God has brought us into the church. In the church we hear about God’s love and especially his ever-so-generous forgiveness for all the times we say and believe one thing and do the opposite.

God has brought us into the church to remind us that we have a Saviour, Jesus, who died in our place and given us a fresh start in living out our faith everyday. He has to do this everyday and he will keep on doing this until the day we are taken from this life into eternal life where we will live the perfect life.

At 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. It was almost dark. The last of the marathon runners were stumbling across the finish line. Finally, the spectators heard the wail of sirens on police cars. As eyes turned to the gate, a lone runner wearing the colors of Tanzania staggered into the stadium. His name was John Stephen Akhwari.

He was the last contestant to finish the 26-mile marathon. His leg had been injured in a fall and was bloodied and crudely bandaged. He hobbled the final lap around the track. The spectators rose to their feet and applauded him as though he were the winner. He might not have won a medal but he was no slouch.

He had trained hard to get into the Tanzanian team; he was mentally ready for the grueling race; he put into practice everything he had learnt in training he didn’t quit; he finished. Later he was interviewed and asked why he did not quit when he got hurt his answer was “his country did not send to Mexico to quit.”

God guides us and encourages us with his Spirit to not only believe with our minds that Jesus is our Saviour but to put our Christianity into practice in our everyday lives.

Like running a marathon this is hard work. But when we fall. God picks us up and sends us out again to finish the race. May we say with St Paul when he talks about putting faith into action.

"I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance,

and I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).

Amen.