Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Will you pray with me?
Oh God our Father, will you open our hearts and enlighten us in our minds by your Holy Spirit, so that your Word, this Word might transform us from the inside out?
In Jesus name, we pray this together.
Amen.
Our scripture reading this morning is from the Book of James, chapter 1, 1727.
Now hear God's Word.
Every generous act of giving with every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change, in fulfillment of his own purpose, he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God's righteousness.
Therefore, rid yourself of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted Word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the Word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
For if any are hearers of the Word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror. For they look at themselves and on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget, but doers who act, they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues, but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: So I was doing the math just this past month and realized it's been 18 years that I've been with you all, and that's quite a few sermons that I've had the opportunity to preach over those 18 years. A number of you have even been around for most, if not all of those 18 years.
And if you have been, you've noticed that often around this time of year, I'll preach on the New Testament epistles, taking one and focusing on it. And in fact, there are a whole host of sermons. I noticed that I preached over the years on books of the Bible like First Corinthians, almost 30 sermons on just that book.
But then I noticed there was a particular book of the Bible that I have been neglecting. In fact, I've only preached once on this book of the Bible in the past 18 years. It was back in December of 2010, and that is the Book of James.
So I was wondering to myself, why the neglect of James? Why have I looked to other epistles and not James for sermonic material? Has James offended me in some way? Way?
I can still remember a time in college that I was blessed to take a mission trip with some other people from college and support a mission endeavor of a Guatemalan congregation in Guatemala City. And I remember talking to a recent convert to Christianity and they asking me at the time for recommendations for scripture to start with which books of the Bible. And I remember acutely now recommending Mark as a good introduction to Gospels, the story of Jesus. And I recommended as one of the epistles for sort of practically living the Christian life, the Book of James.
And now that I've been with you, what's the deal with me avoiding James? And I thought back and I wondered if perhaps some of Martin Luther's opinions on the Book of James might have seeped into my own consciousness. Have you read some of what the great reformer has written about James? He's clear to say this is just his opinion. But when you read that opinion, he makes these kinds of observations. He says it looks to him like the Book of James is full of, quote, some sayings of the apostles, disciples that James threw on paper.
He says that the Book of James is lacking in direct reference to the Passion, the resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ. And after Luther praises the Gospel of John, the epistles of John and the Pauline epistles for so clearly proclaiming Jesus Christ and all he's done for us, he finds in comparison with those hefty works that the Epistle of James is an epistle, as he puts it, of straw.
It lacks the weight, the weight of the Gospel, of how we're saved, not by works, but by the free gift of Jesus Christ, the gift we know his grace and receive through faith. The emphasis in James on works, on doing just never sat well with Martin Luther.
And yet in the centuries since Luther penned his famous opinions about James, there's been a growing recognition that this epistle plays a vital role in the Christian canon. It offers a powerful corrective to an understanding of faith bifurcated from the fruit of that faith. It challenges a faith that hears the word but does not act on it, be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. We read in James religion that is pure and undefiled before God. Is this to actually care for widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself uncorrupted by the world.
Now, one could certainly read a kind of works righteousness in those statements, right?
But one can also read in those exhortations the very teachings of Jesus as they're recorded in the Gospels. You recall how in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
One can hear in James echoes of our Savior's critique of the Pharisees.
In much of James, Jesus so often challenged the Pharisees and the Gospel accounts not for what was the source behind their faith, not for the content of the law, the prophets and the writings that made up the Jewish canon of Scripture. Jesus challenged them for failing to follow those teachings, even as they instructed others to do so. Taught others be doers of the word, Jesus says, and not just hearers. We read that in James, and don't those words sound a bit like Jesus call Matthew and don't they also comprise a timely word for the church for us today? The Book of James, it gets really specific. And I think that's what I liked about it. From years back we read this true religion is this to care for widows and orphans in their distress and be uncorrupted by the world, and to give the Book of James its due. If people hear us professing that we are Christians, that we're people of faith, yet they see us failing to care for the widow or the orphan or that other category of people that Scripture so often adds as well, the gare or the stranger or the immigrant. If people don't see that kind of care embodied in us, then are they seeing our faith?
Might faith not have taken root in us as much as we might have wished? If our faith is not bearing fruit in terms of its care for those who are most vulnerable is something we wrong. It's a timely challenge the Book of James gives to us.
But in revisiting the Book of James in 2025, I find there's more to celebrate in this book than merely its correctives. There's more than in this epistle than simply challenging the bifurcations that it does. Word divorced from deed, faith divorced from works. We can also find in the Book of James a message that I might dare call gospel.
If by gospel we mean the good news of God's saving work, it's there.
If by gospel we mean the proclamation of what God has done, especially in and through Jesus Christ, and how that action invites our response of gratitude. If by gospel we mean God's free gift of grace that we receive by faith and shows forth in the fruit of good works. As God's work takes hold on us, then there is indeed the weight of gospel in this so called epistle of straw.
If you don't believe me, listen again to these words that Nancy read this morning and that Josiah focused on as well.
Every generous act of giving with every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change, in fulfillment of his own purpose. God gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God's creatures.
Now, I don't know about you, but I find so much gospel in that statement.
There's so much emphasis on God's action and initiative. We read of a God who gives us not only good gifts, but a new birth, a birth into a life of faith from which good deeds emerge as fruit does, from a vibrant evil and living tree.
Something about my experience of the past year makes me savor this statement especially every generous act of giving with every perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the Father of Lights.
I'm sure the reason I'm drawn to it is that I've been the recipient of so much generosity this past year, and it's all often pointed my imagination heavenward up to the Father of Lights.
After losing my house and belongings to the Eaton fire, I've received more gifts in 2025, frankly, than I've ever received in a single year in my entire life.
I've lost so much, but I've received so much, and it's made me reflect a lot on generosity. We as a church have received so much. Almost a third of our annual budget was given dedicated just to fire victims and to fire response. That's unprecedented. I've never known something like that. And such gifts have sometimes pointed my eyes heavenward to the source of all things, to the one Jesus describes in Matthew's Gospel as a father who simply delights in giving good gifts to God's children, or that the book of Deuteronomy defines as a mother, like a mother eagle, who cares so deeply for her children that she watches over them and grants them refuge in the shadow of her wing. Now, I'll admit not every gift that came to me, that came to us, has pointed my imagination heavenward. For example, there was a Sunday where I came to worship, came to church before you all did, and I found sitting in front of the glass doors a Big black trap bag. This was soon after the Eaton fires. And I wondered what is somebody making a statement, you know, leaving trash in front of the church? And I looked in here and it looked and smelled like old clothing and footwear and much of it looked like it had been falling apart. And I wondered is what is this about? And then I realized, oh, this is a gift.
Somebody has deposited this trash bag thinking, well, maybe this clothing will be helpful to people like me who were victims of the eat and fire. Now I like to look at that with as generous a spirit as I can. Maybe that was exactly what they were thinking.
Or maybe they were thinking, man, I've got all this stuff I need to unload and maybe I'll just leave it at a church and that will make me feel better and they'll have to deal with it. I won't, I don't know, I can't talk to whoever left it there. And if it was one of you, talk to me after the service and I'll thank you, by the way, for that gracious gift.
But it didn't necessarily point my imagination heavenward, you know what I mean? It didn't speak to me necessarily of the giver of all good and perfect gifts, but I have been the recipients, the recipient together with Jill and Lucy, of remarkable gifts. Two days after our house and possessions were destroyed in the Eaton fire and just one day after I had taken lodging with a family from this congregation, Patrick Connor, Carolyn Wilson and their family, I got this text from Terry McGonigal. This is at 8:34 in the morning, two days after my house burned down.
Looks like unit A32 at Monte Vista Grove Homes is available for you and Jill.
Six thousand families had lost homes to the Eaton fire. I had no idea where I was going to go next, what was going to be home for the next week, month, year.
And suddenly I see that text and it's like a gift come down from the father of lights.
Many of you know the history of Monte Vista Grove Homes. This church has been a long time mission partner with them and after the fires they chose to open their doors to pastors and their families. Who homes? Megan Katersian, the executive director of Door of Hope, who shared last Sunday, was one of those pastors. The Grove has been not only a longtime mission partner of this church, but they've provided housing and retirement for Presbyterian pastors and mission co workers who have worked 20 years or more in the church. Now many of those folks, like Dan Newhall, who some of you remember he pastored this church before I came. He lived in a manse all his life. And so he have housing equity built up. And I heard him every time I would visit him or talk with him. Thank God, the giver of all good things, that Monte Vista Grove had opened up a unit for him and Dottie and their family that they could stay in in retirement. I got to be a recipient of the historic mission of Monte Vista Grove Homes in a new way as their doors were opened to fire victories.
And so many of you are from the Grove, will be celebrating the life of Kathy Bruner on Monday at 2pm at the Grove.
And you know that there's community that they provide as well, which was a huge gift to us.
As many of you know. Two weeks ago we finally moved into a new place up in Altadena. It's just blocks away from our former house on Norwich Place. And it will be a great place to be and to oversee the rebuilding efforts and to reconnect with Altadena. But it's led me to reflect so often on that gift I've known for six months of something so core, shelter, housing, community, and a kind of gift that reflected the faith of those who extended it to me.
A faith in Jesus Christ.
Every generous act and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, we read. And those words for generous and perfect are rich words theologically.
The word for generous is the Greek word agathos, and that word can also be translated as good or honorable or excellent. It's precisely that word that a rich man, according to Mark's Gospel, once called Jesus when he said, good teacher. And Jesus said, why do you call me good? Only God is good. The word for good that Jesus uses there is agathos, the very word here that is. This word for generous or good points in itself theologically, to God, to this generous giver, this good giver. The word for perfect in today's passage is teleos, a word that can mean complete or finished or fulfilled. It's the word Jesus uses when he says in Matthew's Gospel, be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Both Agathos and Teleios, they speak of God's nature and how that nature is somehow revealed here on earth in things as simple as one generous act, a gift that evokes the very giver of life itself.
And then in the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 11, we actually see both of these words show up together in the same verse. Agathos and teleos, they're used to describe the work of Jesus Christ in his ministry as our great high priest, when the author of Hebrews is trying to express what exactly Jesus does for us in his work as our high priest, our representative before God. The writer of Hebrews describes it as, on one hand, presenting to us good things, that is these generous things, but also uses the word perfect to describe the kind of tabernacle that Christ provides for us. Good and perfect. Agathos and Teleos is what, according to Hebrews, Christ provides in his ministry as high priest, in his sacrifice and offering on our behalf. In reading today's passage from James, while Luther is right, he might not name Jesus Christ, and speaking of the generous giver of all good gifts, still don't you hear the echoes of other passages like Hebrews in that of how this perfect and good offering was given by God to us through Christ?
Don't you even hear echoes of John's Gospel when we read of how the source of the all light and all truth came to be with us in Christ, how the light shines in the darkness, how God's glory was visible in Christ, full of grace and truth.
And reading James, mindful of those as well. Can't you see that imagery as well, of how God, as described here, the Father of Light, sends light and truth and goodness to us and it shows up in generosity and every good gift.
That phrase father of lights might have caught your ear. It's a powerful phrase that we find in scripture in many ways. Only here, father of lights and commentators are divided. Some imagine that phrase father of lights refers to God's role as sort of parent over even the stars of the sky.
And others focus instead on God's creation and how God rules over even the lights, how in creation God even separated the light from darkness, day from night, and that it points to that. But either way, it's this rich imagery of the author or source of light from whom all good things come, bestowing good things to God's children, that those good things that we find especially pronounced revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
There's something to generous actions, good actions that point heavenward up to that reality beyond us, yet at work in us. The Father of Light, whose light comes to us in Christ and shines in our world today. We're not saved by our generosity. Please don't misunderstand me. We're not saved by our good works. But how they can show forth the light that has come to us in Christ, a light that shines in the darkness.
I was moved long before 2025 when the McGonagalls and Karen Burns and others from Monte Vista Grove Homes had so fervently sought to find hospitality for a family that was not my family.
Some of you will remember there was a family from Ukraine that visited Knox, and a number of us got to know them after the worship Service. And the McGonagalls, together with others and our immigration ministry team in particular, sought to try to take this on, to see if there was some way to find housing and work and some kind of hospitality to this family.
I remember being so moved by that, especially when we gathered for lunch after worship one Sunday to celebrate Knox's connection with this family, to celebrate what God had been up to in this family. It took place at Marwick Place, where we'll be celebrating the life of Kathy Bruner and the promise of resurrection on Monday. It was at Marwick Place and we gathered around tables. We got to hear from members of this family, surround them with our prayers and support, look to that connection and how God had brought us together. And it seemed like a little bit of the glory of God was shining in the generosity I saw extended to others. We got just a glimpse of that great banquet Jesus showed when he fed thousands with loaves and fishes and gave thanks to God, the giver of all good things.
Well, friends, as you come forward to receive communion this morning, may you have eyes to see the source behind all good and generous, all perfect and fulfilling gifts. May we have eyes to. To see in something as simple as someone giving you a piece of bread and a cup, the one who is the source behind all things and yearns for God's children to know God's graciousness and love. May we see spiritual nourishment that we get daily from God's love poured out for us in Christ. But may these gifts we receive remind us too of yet other gifts that come down from the Father of Light.
Wisdom, forgiveness, strength to meet whatever challenges the day has for us. Faith, hope, love. For these are also gifts from God.
May the gifts of bread and cup remind us of so many tangible gifts we receive each day from others. Food, shelter, clothing, gifts that also have their ultimate source in the Creator and Ruler of all things. And may we then go out with generous hearts and hands that others may see our good deeds and glorify not us, but our Father in heaven.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen.
