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AUGUST 15, 2021 10:00 A.M.

12TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRELUDE

GREETINGS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, JOYS & CONCERNS

CALL TO WORSHIP In deep gratitude we come to worship God. We recognize God as the source of all goodness. All good gifts come from the Spirit of God: Love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness are all of God. We come with grateful hearts, NOT for things, but for WHO God is. We gather to show our gratitude in song and prayer.

PRAYER OF THE DAY & THE LORD’S PRAYER O God from whom every gift comes, we gather to worship You this day. You are an awesome God, greater than we can comprehend or imagine. You are beyond any word we could ever use to describe You. And yet, through Jesus, we know the intimacy of Your vast love. We have come to You in thanksgiving and praise, to know that You are God and to place our lives anew into Your perspective. Enlarge our vision this morning with Your Word. Instill in us, again, Your hope in place of our despair, Your peace where our hatred threatens, Your joy amidst our depression, Your love overwhelming our apathy. May Your Holy Spirit surround and indwell this congregation now, and forevermore. In Jesus’ name we pray as he taught his disciples to say.

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

*HYMN 793 "For the Beauty of the Earth"

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CONFESSING OUR SINS & ASSURANCE OF OUR FORGIVENESS The busyness of our lives often erodes the intentions of our hearts. Our personal agendas can become more important than reaching out to others. When we keep putting off being more active “doers of the word,” we need to approach the Throne of Grace with our sins. Let us pray. Gracious and merciful God, forgive us for past faults and help us in the present and future to make ourselves more available to the hurting world that surrounds us, the world that begins on our doorsteps. Equip us to be patient and compassionate listeners, proclaiming the gospel NOT in overbearing ways but with sensitivity and love. Strengthen us with the Holy Spirit to be fruitful and active witnesses to Jesus in all we do and say. Amen. As we become doers of the word and not merely hearers, we discover that it is “in forgiving that we are forgiven, in giving of ourselves that we receive”—which is surely evidence of “the Word that has grown in our hearts and has the power to save our souls” That Word which forgives, and saves is Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior. Thanks be to God!

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TIME FOR YOUNG DISCIPLES Scripture

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

I have quite a few cookbooks at my house. I have brought just a few of them to show you this morning. We have cookbooks on how to make just about anything you can imagine. I like to look through these cookbooks and read the recipes and think about all of the delicious foods that I could prepare. The recipes in these books tell me step by step exactly what I need to do to prepare these wonderful foods. Some of them even have a picture of what it will look like. It makes me hungry just to look at the pictures.

You might think that with all of these cookbooks that I must be a great cook, but I'm not. You see, I don't cook at all! I just read the cookbooks and look at the pictures. I can read all of the cookbooks in the world, but that won't make me a cook. To be a cook, I not only have to read the recipe, I have to actually do what it says.

The Bible is like a cookbook. The Bible has God's recipe for becoming a Christian and living a life that is pleasing to Him. A lot of people read the Bible every day. Many of them even go to Sunday School and study the Bible. But it isn't enough just to read the recipe. Reading the Bible won't make you a Christian any more than reading a cookbook will make you a cook. We must follow the recipe in our daily life.

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Holy Spirit, prepare us to hear from the Scriptures. Sometimes it can be easy to dismiss a passage that seems familiar. We have heard it before and so we disengage. Yet we know that your word is powerful and that it is calling us to live like Jesus. Do not let us turn off our ears so quickly. Help us to listen well and respond with obedience. Let us see what it is you are doing through the Scriptures we hear today. Amen.

SCRIPTURE IINTRODUCTION & READING Written to Jewish Christians who find themselves outside of Israel. James obviously felt that the followers of Jesus understood that Jesus was the Messiah. However, they were having difficulty living out in their everyday lives the expectations Jesus placed on his disciples. Familiar Passage and because it is brief, I am sharing it from 2 different translations/interpretations.

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First, the New Revised Standard Version which is a translation by many Biblical scholars from the oldest manuscripts available in Hebrew and Greek James 1:22 – 25 (New Revised Standard Version) 22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But 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. The Second, The Message which is an interpretation by one man, Rev. Eugene Peterson. Being a Presbyterian, he may have referred to the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, but he would have primarily depended on commentaries and English translations. James 1:22-25 The Message 22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. 25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. This is the Word of the Lord. (Thanks be to God.)

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I like the Epistle of James for several reasons.

First, because it is a book of action.

Be doers of the word.

Be a believer who acts.

And not just a listener who listens.

Not just a thinker who thinks.

Not just a talker who talks.

Not just a believer who believes.

Not just a prayer who prays.

But be a believer in Christ who gets things DONE for the kingdom of God.

I like that.

So, when James says in our Scripture reading for this morning, “Do not be hearers who look into a mirror and forget; but be doers who act. They will be blessed by their doing.”

I like that in James because it fits with my Presbyterian theology that we are “Saved FOR Service.”

Several years ago, I took a group of young people from WV on a mission trip to the Presbyterian Conference Center in Stony Point, NY. The Director was leading worship for us one morning and said that we have NOT truly HEARD God’s Word until we have DONE God’s word.

That was quite condemning for me.

It is easy to sit and listen and nod in agreement but DOING what Scripture tells me is much more difficult.

In our reading for this morning, the apostle James makes an interesting and perceptive comparison.

The points of reference are two types of people – those who hear, but do not respond with action and those who hear AND ACT.

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Those who only hear, are like those who GLANCE in a mirror and walk away and immediately forget what they have seen.

But those who investigate 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” (vv. 23-25).

For me, the operative word in this reading is “mirror.” And since James seems to pin his point on this word, hoping we will understand the metaphor, let’s start there.

Did you know that studies show that people check the mirror upwards of 40 times a day?

To this end, we can always find a mirror, and perhaps that’s why we take mirrors for granted.

We use them for practical purposes and for décor.

When driving, good drivers check their side mirrors and rearview mirrors for safety reasons.

Mirrors come in all shapes and sizes from hand-held to full length, from ornate to plain.

And since they are everywhere, we do not think much about the technology of mirrors.

But what about the mirror that the apostle James used 2,000 years ago?

It certainly was NOT a piece of glass coated with silver nitrate.

His mirror was probably a piece of polished bronze or copper and there is no doubt that his readers knew what a mirror was.

Mirrors were not new.

They had been around long before James wrote his letter.

Artifacts dating back to 6,000 B.C. tell us that those early communities used polished stones as mirrors

James is not the only Biblical writer who uses the metaphor of a mirror

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In the book of Job we hear, “Can you, like God, spread out the skies, unyielding as a cast mirror?” (Job 37:18).

And the apostle Paul refers to a mirror in his famous essay on love in 1st Corinthians 13, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” In other words, we will not completely understand God until we are face to face with God at the end of times.

The simplest mirror is water.

Nature lovers are thrilled when, in the early morning hours, they come across a woodland pond or alpine lake that is as still as glass, reflecting the pines and mountains above the clear water.

The largest natural mirror is Salar de Uyuni.

At 4,000 square miles, it is the world’s largest salt flat,

And when water from the mountains floods this plain, the sky seems to join the earth in an impression of infinity.

It’s one of the most remarkable scenes in the world.

“The Salar de Uyuni is spectacular, no doubt.

(Take a look. For me hard to believe there is NOT A GOD when I look at this amazing God made mirror… perfect reflection down to the person walking along the salt flats)

But the mirror described in today’s reading is even more amazing.

The most amazing mirror is the Word of God.

But why is the Word of God so incredible?

The apostle James calls the Word of God “perfect” and according to the 20th-century Scottish scholar, William Barclay, it is perfect in at least three ways:

1. It is God’s law. Humans can and have passed bad laws, This amazing “mirror,” however, is the “perfect law” because it comes from a perfect God.

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2. It cannot be made better. This law comes from God! This is as good as it gets, and it cannot get better. In fact, the Word of God is the law of “liberty” or freedom. Following this law, one is truly free. And we Americans are always talking about our freedom. I wonder if we understand what that means in relationship to the Word of God?

3. God’s word is directed towards a specific end. God’s law is perfect because its goal, end or purpose is to fashion us sinful humans into what we were designed to be made in God’s image and who DO what WE are designed to do, reflect the glory of God.

But if you simply glance into this amazing mirror that James speaks about and walk away, becoming whom God wants us to be will not happen, will it?

This mirror of James’ is amazing because we must “lean into it” to see better.

As the late, great Yogi Berra, catcher and then manager of the New York Yankees, used to say: “You can see a lot by looking.”

Yes, you can. That is why we often lean toward the mirror to get a better look at ourselves.

Look at verse 25 – the NRSV

The meaning of “look into” in this verse is similar.

25But 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.

The Greek word for “look into” does not refer to a casual glance.

Instead, it implies bending over, or stooping, to get a better, perhaps the best look.

And did you know the same word James uses is used in the resurrection.

“But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened” (Luke 24:12).

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He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in” (John 20:5).

In other words, Peter had to be willing to “stoop, bend – humble himself, risk” AND make a LONG, INTENTIONAL STUDY in order to learn. If we are to UNDERSTAND God’s Word and then ACT according to what see and learn we much spend time in study.

Rant …. Calvinist Guilt. - Practice - Homework - Confirmation Class – 35 years - Calvinist Guilt

Before we leave this verse, I do believe that Rev. Peterson’s interpretation can be read incorrectly.

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

He is NOT saying that we need to simply glance at God’s Word.

Peterson is saying that our finite, human, sinful minds will only catch glimpses of the ENTIRE meaning of God’s Word. But even “catching a glimpse out of the corner of our eyes and then sticking to that truth and acting will be blessed.”

Finally, James’ “amazing mirror” is a two-way mirror, and God is on the other side!

And whom do we have that is the human image of God?

Jesus and his life reflect all those qualities God wants us to put in to action!

Forgiveness – Why is it so difficult to forgive? Instead, we seek revenge or hold onto grudges.

Kindness – Why can’t we be kind? Instead, we label and call people horrible names

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if they disagree with us, especially on social media.

Love – Do we truly desire to love as God loves us? It means sacrificing NOT JUST for family, BUT FOR EVERYONE even if we feel they do not deserve it.

Humility – Can we be humble in a world that defines success is being number one and stepping on anyone who gets in your way as you climb that ladder? When humility means understanding all you do and all you have is a gift from God and God should be given the credit?

The word of God is perfect because when we stand before the “perfect law” of God, we are really standing before God himself, who sees us as through a two-way mirror, and God sees all.

To look in the mirror is a good thing, but only if we then TAKE ACTION according to the data the mirror has furnished.

Otherwise, looking in the mirror is a waste of time.

A Christian who avoids the mirror of God’s word is not a pretty sight, either.

In fact, it’s rather ugly.

We become better versions of ourselves, and the world becomes a better place when we look into God’s mirror — the perfect law — and act on what we see.

This is our call to action: let us look into (lean into) the mirror and let us act on what we see. Sources for Sermon Timothy Merrill and Carl Wilton Homiletics Online Barclay, William. “The true law (James 1:25).” studylight.org. Retrieved January 30, 2021. Gough, Cody. “Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest natural mirror.” discovery.com, March 4, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2021. “Origins of mirrors and mirror history.” Mirrorhistory.com (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2021. Otieno, Sophy Owuor. “Where can you see the “world’s largest mirror”? worldatlas.com, April 24, 2019. Retrieved January 31, 2021. Scott, Jordan. “The many uses of mirrors.” info.glass.com, March 9, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2021. “Sin at the 30th magnitude.” Homiletics, homileticsonline.com, September 16, 2001. Retrieved January 31, 2021. Singh, Kiran. “How often do you look in the mirror at yourself everyday?” Quora, quora.com, n.d. Retrieved February 2, 2021. Charge & Benediction ~ Copyright © 2000 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net Opening Prayer/Invocation ~ posted on My Redeemer Lives website. http://www.myredeemerlives.com/prayers.html CALL TO WORSHIP posted on The Presbyterian Church in Canada website. http://presbyterian.ca/ PRAYER OF CALL, CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE ~ written by Moira Laidlaw, and posted on Liturgies Online. http://www.liturgiesonline.com.au/

MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION

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OFFERING & PRAYER OF DEDICATION On my own, what I have to offer does not amount to much in the face of so much need. Put together as a congregation, what we can offer to God in love is multiplied. Bless these gifts and multiply their usefulness. (Let us receive our tithes and offerings.)

Let us give thanks for what has been given today. Let us pray. Wise & Generous God, accept and bless our offerings, the fruit of our labor and lives, in obedience to our faith, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

*APOSTLES’ CREED (Inside Back Cover of Hymnal)

*HYMN 237 "Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing"

*CHARGE & BENEDICTION Go out, and be doers of the Word. Cleanse your hearts of all pollution, be quick to listen and learn, welcome the Word that God implants in you, and bring it to birth in acts of righteousness and compassion. And may God pour grace upon you and bless you forever; May Christ Jesus reveal to you the truth of God’s ways; and may the Holy Spirit fill your life with passion and love. Amen.

*POSTLUDE * Please stand, as you are able.

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