James 1:19-27 “Spotted”

I thought that we would start today with a little listening quiz to see how fast we can hear English. I will say a word or phrase at regular spoken-English speed and you all can slow it down for me and tell me what it is. Are you ready?

1) “Wheredee” = “Where did he. . .” as in “Where did he come from?”

2) “Skimow” = “Ask him how” as in “I wanna ask him how.”

3) “Gunnaplay” = “I’m going to go play”

While I was an English professor teaching English as a Second Language at Cypress College in California, I learned truly how difficult it is to listen to English at high speed because many of the words seem to just disappear completely. As students learned words one-by-one in English, they could not or would not hear these same words spoken by native speakers as parts of the words were erased or thrown into other words in a phrase.

To learn another language, you have to learn to listen quickly. James in the first verse of our Scripture this morning tells us to listen quickly. That is exactly what the Greek word means: Swiftly, fast, immediately. I do not think that James’ point is that some people speak too quickly for us to hear. I think James is telling us that we must really get up to speed with our listening abilities.

I need to put this into context: James the brother of Jesus is sending out this letter in Greek to the Twelve Tribes of Israel in the new diaspora. The native tongue of those people would have been Aramaic or Hebrew. Greek is going to be the second language for trade and commerce. To be sure, Greek was and is today still a very fast language for delivery. One must really learn to listen quickly to hear it! Spoken Greek has 7.5 syllables per second. Normal spoken English is 3.3 syllables per second. So, Greek is twice as fast. Hebrew and English are similar in the rate of syllables per second by the way.

I think that we could all use some help with our listening skills. There was a politician who went out on the campaign trail doing what is commonly called today a “listening tour.” That is when politicians go out specifically to listen to their constituents. This politician, however, was not so keen on listening as much as speaking when he came to his first stop. He rambled on for hours as the people who had real concerns that they wanted to raise to the politician sat quietly waiting for their turn to speak. As the time to end the affair drew closer, the politician’s aid whispered in his ear that the people needed a little time to make a special presentation. The politician finally stopped talking.

A local baker stood up on behalf of the people there and announced that at his bakery he had named a special meat pie after the politician. The politician was presented a piece of the pie and was pleased to try a bite of it. He smiled in appreciation of the good taste. He asked what was in his namesake food.

“It is full of bologna,” the baker replied.

Don’t get upset when people do not seem to be listening to you when you speak. That is the natural state of things! Advertisers will tell us that we will have to hear something seventy times before we will actually remember it or act on it. Doesn’t that number seventy sound familiar? Isn’t that the number times seven that we must ask for forgiveness from our brothers and sisters when we offend? Let’s quickly look at Matthew 18:21-22: “Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not as many as seven times, but, I tell you, seven times seventy times.’” When you apologize to somebody, they may not hear that apology the first one hundred times! You have got to make sure they hear it.

Yet, as we read from James, it is not just about “hearing the Word of God,” it is also about “doing God’s Word.” I am not sure we can all appreciate this example: We are all on a football team. We have read the playbook. We know the moves. We gather for the huddle. We listen to the quarterback. We see that there are only a few minutes left in the game. We go up to the scrimmage line. And, we just freeze and do nothing while the clock runs out. Or, as I think happens a lot is that we never really get out of the huddle even.

I think religious denominations are most noted for having planning meetings to plan more meetings. I recall last year’s Statewide Aha Pae Aina that took place in Kapaa. The planning meetings met for six months to plan the meeting.

Being a Christian is not just about “talking the talk.” Being a Christian means that we actually go out into the world and “Walk the walk.” The word “to do” in Greek here is ποιέω; it means “to make something creatively.” We get the English word “poetry’ from this word.

This word ποιέω is contrasted with another word in this scripture. That word is “religion,” or “to do religion,” θρησκεΰω. Do you realize that this word only appears here in the entire Bible? Only James ever speaks of religion! In Four Gospels, Jesus never brings up the idea of his bringing a religion to the world! Jesus never asks us to “do religion.” WE just finished a sermon series on the commands in the bible from God and Jesus. We are never commanded to do religion! In fact, the Fourth Commandment says that we are supposed to rest on the Sabbath. So, I should give it a rest! Yet, Jesus commands us to pick up our cross and follow. He commands us to love our neighbor. He commands us to make disciples. We are to do things, but not just idle religious stuff.

James uses an interesting image in his writings. He talks about our looking into a mirror and seeing one kind of self-image that is not remembered when we cannot see our own visage anymore. We must be able to act in this world as if we always have a clear picture of ourselves as Christians before our own eyes. Can you imagine how hard that would be?

As an aside, mirrors were precious and rare back then. If you had a mirror, and the requisite free time to gaze into it, then you were well off.

Now, when James was writing this, there was no such thing as television and video. I think he might have said “selfie video” if it had been available then: “Act as a Christian as if somebody were video taping everything you said and did and showing it back to you at the same time.” I tell you that that would be really embarrassing! It is hard living as a Christian. It is the hardest thing in the world to do.

Fortunately there is no video watching everything we do, except this sermon is being video recorded. For everything else we have just those angels in heaven writing everything into the Book of Life!

James tells us for our own good that the best that we can do is to “bridle our tongues” (verse 26). The word here is the same word as what is used to control a beast of burden. You might imagine a physical bit fitting onto your tongue stopping you from speaking on your own but allowing God to control your tongue! This is stated so eloquently in Psalm 119:

Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently, O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed to all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous ordinances. I will observe your statutes.; do not utterly forsake me. How can young people keep their ways pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you, do not let me stray from your commandments. I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you. . . .”

Let God control your tongue. God reins. Let God control your actions! And, remember how God created you in the first place. You have two ears. You have two hands. You have only one tongue. God gave you twice as many ears and hands for a good reason! Be ready to hear and respond with actions to God’s Holy Word. Amen.