James 1:17-27
Proper 17 (22) - Year B
ABCC'B'A' - a wonderful pattern in verses 26-27.
A - think and use religion
B - unbridle tongue against others
C - worthless religion
C' - pure religion
B' - care for widows and orphans
A' - care for spiritual disciplines
Here we have an example of the great reversal ever needed.
Another way of looking at this is with the pattern of quick to listen, slow to speak, slower to anger. An implication is that our usual pattern of quickly angered, rapid to speak, slow to listen needs to be retrained, not retained (what a difference an "r" makes).
Set aside 5 uninterrupted minutes; listen to this passage as you read it aloud three times, slowly. How did it change from the first to the last reading? Did some words begin to echo? What interconnections became clearer? Interconnections not just internally, between the words, but with your life.
Were you able to actually do the above exercise or did you hear it only, and not act on it?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html
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James 1:17-27
Song of Songs 2:8-13 or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 45: 1-2, 6-9 or Psalm 15
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When we speak, ideas are to flower. Our tongue is the overflow of a goodly heart, spreading blessings wherever it is.
Our participation in a word of truth will reveal the image of all creation in our living as the first fruit of such a word that ends in the affirmation, "It is good!"
Meekness will be both the prepared soil and the resulting harvest of this creative word, implanted soul-word. So we are called to be not a hearer that forgets, but a speaker that acts their word. As such we move into an unbounded religion that takes seriously and joyously a word to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep steadfastly on with this task, no matter what.
- - -
so many fine words
have come my wayno changes of life
but plenty of complimentsto keep on with this pattern
is to keep change from happeningobviously I have gone awry
focused on words and not heartsand so my hypocrisy shines
as I glory in fine wordswhile mourning a lack of effect
is but vanity vanitylet us hear again
insides are to be joined with outsidesuntil fine words diminish
and heart deeds flourish
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
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How unfair that my anger is not the driving force for a god to righteously slay our common enemies! Well, at least, my enemies.
To compound the unfairness, I am expected to live contrary to my impulses.
- listen first
- speak second
- anger last
I am called to listen deeply enough to see a good work possible in the midst of this particular set of circumstances. I am called to listen well enough to recognize I really am my beloved's beloved. This deep listening rids us of the power-draining desire to be entitled to more than belovedness. Listening this well returns us to our right mind, our imaginative mind, our creative mind.
From Listening comes Action. As in days of yore when, day-by-day, creation was spoken forth, today brings clarity about letting our lives speak what we have heard. This is Freedom like unto G*D's freedom – a freedom to choose mercy, to choose fire this time, to choose blessing. This freedom is prophetic in nature.
When listening and action are in sync, anger is only a motivator to deeper listening and wider action – it is not a resultant behavior.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
An introduction of Mitt Romney by Grant Bennett at the 2012 Republican Convention included two scripture quotes.
The first from Matthew 25, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [emphasis in original] My ear was struck by the cadenced and tonal emphasis placed upon the word “one”. In the context of the focus on individualism throughout the convention, this confirmed a perspective that simple kindness to folks is only done in a context of one-on-one. In this setting it continues a denial of our working together to express simple kindness to a whole class of people. And so food stamps become an illegitimate expression of, “I was hungry and you fed me”?
The second was from the pericope from James we are dealing with this week. Grant reported: “In our early morning calls, Mitt didn’t discuss questions of theology. He found the definition of religion given by James in the New Testament to be a practical guide: ‘Pure religion … is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction....’”
This continues a theme of individual actors who are “doers” of “a perfect law, the law of liberty”. In current Republican parlance, liberty means my liberty. These individual actors claim “they built that” — their salvation. Here it is actors, one-by-one, who see themselves as modeling G*D that are key. these individual actors make up a “religion” only through their individual action.
If we back up a bit there is an image of seeing G*D as though looking in a mirror to see ourself and what we find is that G*D’s face becomes indistinguishable from our Neighbor’s face as well as our own. Everywhere we look we see G*D revealed, not just in any good deeds done.
What was left out of the quote was keeping “oneself unstained by the world”. The Republican convention seems to want to keep itself unstained by only dealing with individuals, never working in concert to see the original “us” in our main creation story [“let us make humanity in our image”]. This gets implemented here by never working together through our corporate decision-making processes of government to care for whole groups of people, orphans and widows and any others discriminated against. These would not be named if death and circumstance simply happened. It is that we have structured inequalities, based on any number of criteria, into our societies. This means we have to deal with structural matters structurally as well as individually. It is not that one is an orphan but that we have decided that such a happenstance defines one as less than blessed and someone who can be ignored.
We are all stained by our discriminatory mores. We don’t keep ourselves unstained but in lifting the stain of discrimination from others we find our own life less diminished. This happens in both individual and collective action. We are always discussing “questions of theology”. Let’s not avoid this — the water is fine, jump in and play.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/james-117-27.html