How We See Ourselves – June 23, 2024
Psalm 93, James 1:12-27
June 23, 2024
Today, we are concluding our foray into the letter of James. And we’re looking at the first chapter. So far, we’ve looked at the 4th chapter, where James says, “We are a mist that appears for a time and then vanishes.” Do you remember that? I suggested that day that James was mirroring the thoughts of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, where he wrote, “For everything there is a season.” (Turn, turn, turn…)
Then we looked at chapter 2, where James asked, “What does it profit if we have faith but not good works?” In other words, if we don’t have good works, what good does it do? I paraphrased his thoughts, saying, “How will they know we are God’s people if we don’t live as God’s people?” That’s the chapter where James issues his famous statement, (Or his infamous statement!) “Faith without works is dead.”
Then last week, we looked at the third chapter of James, which was all about how we use our words. Do you remember? That’s where he concluded that we are called to seek a “harvest of righteousness,” as we use our words to “sow peace in others.” Good stuff, huh?
Well, today we’re looking at the first chapter of James. (And yeah, I know we’re not doing this in numerical order. But as I like to say, “I was promised there’d be no Math involved!”) And this is the chapter where James gives us another one of his famous statements. Here he says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” As I’ve said all along, James is always a very practical guy. I think he’d be the engineer of the group!
Well, I was reading this week that part about being “doers of the word,” and I was drawn to this place where James says that a person who is only a “hearer” of the word and not a “doer,” he is like a man who observes himself in a mirror. “He sees himself,” James says, “but then goes away and forgets what he looks like.” And that made me think about the phrase I’ve used today as my sermon title. I’m wanting us to think about “How we see ourselves.”
Now, some would say, in our modern society, that we’re always seeing ourselves! We look at ourselves in mirrors, we take “selfies” with our phones. And the pictures are instant. Do you remember the days you had to take your film to be developed? I was such a bad photographer in those days! But now I’ve learned to frame pictures. And if it comes out bad, you retake!
Yes, we’re always very aware of how we look. And some have even suggested that we’ve become a narcissistic society. If you don’t know it, “Narcissism” is a word which refers to the Narcissus, who was a character in Greek mythology. And the “tragic flaw” of Narcissus was that he became so enamored with his own beauty, that he fell in love with the image of himself that he saw reflected in a pool of water.
Now, I don’t know if I would agree completely that we’re a narcissistic society. Yes, we are concerned with how we look. But just because you’re concerned with how you look, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re obsessed with how you look. Still, there’s no doubt that our society places a high value on appearance.
All you have to do is notice what’s being advertised all around us. There are a plethora of products out there that we can use to improve our appearance. In TV advertisements and info-mercials we’re told constantly about creams that will reduce wrinkles. We’re told about Botox, if you want to take that further. And we’re told about dyes for our hair and other products that will take out the gray. (Which I obviously use all the time!) And of course, there are any number of surgical procedures we can get to make us look younger. It seems we’re always fighting against Solomon’s observation that “For everything there is a season” – including a season in which we grow older.
But is that what we’re talking about here? Is this “mirror” reference only about our appearance? I think not. James is talking about “hearers of the word” being people who forget what they look like. But I think he’s referring more to us seeing, not so much what we look like, but the kind of people we are. He’s saying, “If you’re a hearer of the word only, you’ll listen to the word, but then you’ll soon forget the kind of person you are, and the kind of person you are called to be.” “If you neglect to use the word in your life, if you fail to be a “doer of the word,” you’ll not really know the kind of person you are.”
I think that’s a good analogy! As we said before, if we don’t have “good works,” how will people know that we have faith? Or as I put it, “How will they know we are God’s people unless we live as God’s people?” But, by using this analogy, I believe James asking us to take that one step further. He’s saying, “How will we know that we are God’s people unless we live as God’s people?”
Do you get that? The way our faith and our good works relate to each other has to do with how others will see us as God’s people. But, it also has to do with “how we see ourselves” as God’s people. “How will we know that we are God’s people unless we live as God’s people?”
James then takes that analogy of seeing ourselves in a mirror, and he says one more thing. He says that we truly become aware of the kind of people we are because we “look into the perfect law.” That’s the mirror we use! By seeing ourselves in that “perfect law,” see the kind of people we are. (Or the people we strive to be!) The mirror that we use as God’s people, is God’s mirror. And that, James says, is how we avoid being merely “hearers who forget,” and become “doers who act.”
I believe that’s what God wants for us. And I think you know that, too. But it never hurts to remind ourselves of these things, because it’s too easy to forget! God wants us to see ourselves. But he wants us to see beyond just our physical appearance! He wants us to see the kind of people we are. He wants us to see that we understand how important it is to be his people, people who are doers of his word.
And the thought I’d like to leave you with today is that, in thinking about “how we see ourselves,” what we really need to do is to strive to see ourselves as God sees us!
Prayer
Eternal God, we thank you once again that you have called us to be your people. Help us always to live as your people. As we put our faith into action, help us to have the vision to see ourselves as you see us. Help us to have the strength we need to live our faith every day, and the be the light of the world as you have called us to be. For this we pray in Jesus’ name, and for the sake of his kingdom, Amen.