All you really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, can be learned from the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t some mystic knowledge only available to scholars with access to a copy of the Torah, together with the psalms and the Wisdom writings.
![[1] “Children Reading” by Pekka Halonen, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ff6591_352009625a0d40459e2465841ab47f0d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_316,h_240,al_c,q_80,enc_auto/ff6591_352009625a0d40459e2465841ab47f0d~mv2.jpg)
James 1:17-27
September 1, 2024
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Nearly 40 years ago Robert Fulghum became famous for a little essay published in a book of the same name. Maybe you remember it, because it was so simple and yet rang with a note of timeless truth. It began …
“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday school …
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup — they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned — the biggest word of all — LOOK.”[2]
It is a list that sounds a lot like today’s passage from James.
If he had used Fulghum’s format in writing to his followers gathered to listen, in cities and towns, in synagogues and homes, all around the Mediterranean basin, it might have sounded like this:
All you really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, can be learned from the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t some mystic knowledge only available to scholars with access to a copy of the Torah, together with the psalms and the Wisdom writings. It isn’t even limited to those who followed him across the countryside to Jerusalem, those who heard the words from his lips and saw his mighty deeds. It is as simple as living your life like he did.
Want examples? Then …
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slower still to rage with anger. Anger seldom burns with the light of God’s love.
Wash your heart the way you wash your hands, until all the dirt is gone.
Remember planting seeds in a Styrofoam cup and the way a green shoot shot up? Well plant God’s holiness in your soul. Weed and water it until it grows into something life-giving.
Listen carefully. Don’t let God’s wisdom go in one ear and out the other. Your actions will reveal whether you were really listening.
Look in the mirror and see your true reflection – you are a child of God – don’t forget it!
It is not enough to believe the gospel; you’ve got to live it out. That will bring blessings to you and everyone you encounter.
Watch your tongue, for your words will show who you really are and what you really believe.
It’s a fine thing to say you are a Christian, but people will notice if it’s all talk. And that will undermine the gospel.
Religion worthy of the name isn’t limited to studying God’s holy word or singing hymns or giving when the offering plate passes. In fact, you make a mockery of all those faithful acts if you fail to help the most vulnerable – the homeless and loveless in their desperate need.
Finally, remember playing with clay? How you could squeeze it into any shape you could dream up? And how it covered your fingers? Be molded by God the master potter into a pot that holds living water. Don’t let the world mold you into something worthless or mean.
I hope you heard the echoes of Fulghum’s list. Rapid-fire declarations. Simple language. Relatable imagery. Direct advice. Timeless wisdom.
But it leaves the reader with a question: Why did James feel the need to write such a list?
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote gospels to tell the stories of Jesus. James’ list makes no mention of Jesus.
Paul wrote a series of letters to variety of churches that taught the basics of faith and answered questions and gave advice, but he always emphasized grace. James doesn’t bring up grace.
Does he not know the stories of Jesus?
Does he not celebrate grace?
Tradition says James is the brother of Jesus and the one who led the Jerusalem church, so of course he knows the stories. Perhaps he doesn’t mention Jesus because his audience already believes in him as Savior and Lord.
Maybe the same is true for grace. Maybe the churches he is writing to already sing of God’s amazing grace; maybe they already pray for it in worship; maybe they already teach it to their children.
So instead, James writes a list that explains how to live after you profess Jesus as Lord, after you claim God’s gift of grace; after you have a working knowledge of orthodox theology.
Perhaps he shares this list because they are struggling to put faith into practice.
We send our kids to school to learn and apply the basics, right?
They may have learned their colors and numbers and the alphabet at home, but we send them off to preschool and kindergarten so they can learn how to put that knowledge into practice – painting and sorting, adding and subtracting, reading and writing. We put them with other children so that they will learn how to be part of a community where they share and play fair, make and clean messes, flush and wash hands.
I suspect James is doing the same sort of thing with his congregations.
It is no good to be able to repeat the story of the good Samaritan, but not feel moved to help your neighbor, or the stranger with the cardboard sign at the intersection.
Or to say the Apostles’ Creed, but not see the face of Christ in your enemy.
Or to be able to sing “Morning Has Broken”, but not want to care for God’s creation.
These are lessons we want our children to learn; but they are valuable to believers of every age, because putting our faith into practice is always our biggest challenge.
So use James as a test. Or ask your neighbor. Do they see Christ in your actions? Amen
[1] “Children Reading” by Pekka Halonen, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
[2] From All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, page4-5
Comments