Sermon for 5/14/23: Sixth Sunday of Easter

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Law and Liberty

James 1:22-27

 

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

 

James writes, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” This is a call to deliberate Christianity. It suggests that there are at least two kinds of people who fill the pews in our churches. There are those who come as spectators, and there are those who come as participants in the faith.

Spectators merely hear the Word. They may even believe it, in the sense that they consider it to be accurate or true. But because they do not take it into themselves and live by the light of it, they merely “hear” the Word of God. They hear it as one hears a song. It is pleasant to the ear, even familiar, but life is unchanged by the Word they have heard week after week. They hear about sin but do not repent. They hear about temptation but not resist it. Many hear the Word about the forgiveness of sins, but they do not take it to heart. They hear about the great of love of God, but they still approach life with fear and worry and despair.

Participants in the faith take to heart what they hear. They find comfort in their troubles, and they find peace and joy in the love of God for them. They are the ones who “look into the perfect law law of liberty.” Of course, we hear the word “law”, and we assume it means some sort of rules. Happily, it doesn’t mean that here. Here, it means something more like a guide or a principle. The law of liberty is not code of behavior to which one must conform. The law of liberty describes our freedom in Christ.

The problem with being a mere spectator in the Church is that you end up deluding yourself into thinking that you don’t need what God offers, that it doesn’t apply to you—that you are forgiven, so nothing else from the Word of God matters for you. You end up thinking that all that talk about forgiveness and salvation doesn’t affect how you live your life. But if the Gospel doesn’t change anything for you or in you or about you… Think about what that means. If the Gospel hasn’t changed anything, it means that you are still stuck where you were before you heard the Gospel. If it hasn’t changed anything, then you are still lost and condemned.

The truth is that the law of liberty changes everything. The Gospel is not merely about forgiveness, although that is the heart of it. The Gospel is about how much God loves us and how far He is willing to go on our behalf and for our blessing. Most of us understand how the love of our parents—or the lack of that love—has affected us. That honest and warm love of our parents for us as little children is a mere shadow, a tiny taste of God’s love for us. We have a loving heavenly Father who looks out for us, who watches over us, who protects us and blesses us. He proved that love by sending His Son to become one of us, to endure all that Jesus Christ endured on our behalf in order to redeem us and rescue us from sin and death and hell.

We can live in the light of our Father’s love toward us, in the light of forgiveness and eternal life. If we hear and believe the Word of God, if we place our trust in the One whom our Father has sent to win our salvation, we will live in the light of that Word. That’s what James means when he says to be a “doer.” One who lives in the light of the Gospel “will be blessed in what he does.” True faith is marked by love, compassion, and holiness. We have abundant opportunities to do works of compassion, and we often have abundant resources to do them. True faith will drive the Christian to doing the compassionate thing, to follow in the example of our Lord.

Let me emphasize this one thing for you: one thing the Gospel should work in you is trust toward God. Even though you do not live up to the standards you know are right, even though you do not perfectly love God, even though you do not perfectly love and serve your neighbor, our Lord Jesus Christ has died for you; your sins are forgiven. The Law works fear, because the Law condemns you of your imperfect love. But the Gospel answers and says to you, “Do not be afraid. Your sins are forgiven in Christ. Your Father loves you. In Holy Baptism, He now counts you as His own.”

As you believe and take hold of the Gospel, the love of God in Christ becomes the reason you live your life under His grace. It becomes the reason for confessing Christ boldly, the reason for your stewardship of all that God has given you to use for this life. In short, as one “who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work,” then you are a participant in the faith and not merely a spectator. As James tells us, being a participant also carries a great promise with it: you shall be blessed in what you do. What a gift that is, both to you and to your neighbor. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.