James 1:19-27 NRSV
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves 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, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 1:19-27 The Message
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
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.
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.
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Since this reading is about listening and hearing I thought it would be instructive to hear today’s scripture from two different translations. The first, from the NRSV, is the way I would imagine most of us are used to hearing this spoken: be doers of the word, and not hearers only or be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. The meaning is clear – we know what the writer is trying to communicate to us, but is this how we really talk in our everyday conversations?
I don’t know if what I hear from the 2nd version, from The Message, is any clearer as to the meaning, but there is certainly a life, a vibrancy to the words here that I don’t get from the more traditional language. They reach more deeply into my spirit in the 2nd version. I take it in more intently if what I hear proclaimed says, not be doers of the word, and not hearers only but Act on what you hear!
And some part of me really responds more to Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear, than to the more prosaic, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger – even though the meaning of both is perfectly clear.
My point here is not that different translations are good – even though they are – my point is that how we speak and how we listen matters. The medium really does matter as much as the message. When I hear the NRSV version, I agree with it but then it sort of fades away quickly, because something in my brain says, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard all that so many times before. But there is something in Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear, that tickles my imagination and fits me – I can hear myself using those same words. My mind conjures up Disney character-like illustrations to go with the words – and so the words stick – they stay with me. How we hear the word presented can really matter – and that how can vary, time to time, place to place.
I know a lot of people who lead with their anger – ticked-off is always their first response. For Pete’s sake, I’ve been that person and I’m working hard at changing that about myself. If I can’t get rid of my anger entirely I would surely love to at least kick it back to the rear of the parade.
The message is clear: Listen first, then speak – and leave anger way back in a slow third place, if it has to be there at all. That image will remain with me and become a timely reminder when anger is trying to push to the front of the line.
Now, the writer of James has much more in this small bit of his letter than just how we hear the words – there’s the question of what words we are hearing. I don’t believe he was talking about biblical literalism - just hearing the words written down in scripture. There is a lot written in scripture that we should only remember in terms of what NOT to do. I think the Word we are supposed to be listening for is that word that speak directly to our hearts, our spirits. Those words we instinctively recognize as true and good – the words we recognize as the Word of God. These may be written down somewhere so we can read them – and maybe that somewhere is in scripture and maybe it’s in a recent issue of People magazine or in a sci-fi novel. When we hear them, we recognize their truth. Maybe they are words we heard while chatting with a friend or from a stranger sitting at the next table in a restaurant.
Maybe we find these words simply appearing in our thoughts as we are meditating before falling asleep at night or maybe we hear them while standing at the ocean, watching the sunset. Sometimes we may hear actual words spoken and sometimes it may just be a quiet certainty that God has just communicated something very important to us. God speaks to us in so many voices – and some of those voices use words, and some don’t. If we have opened our hearts and minds to God, we will hear them, and sometimes they may be words we pretty much expect to hear and sometimes they may be an ideal totally foreign to us.
If we are tuned to God’s voice, we will hear – and hearing, we will DO. How could we do else-wise? How could we hear the word of God and not be touched, not be moved, not be changed?
.....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. That person will reach out to the homeless and the loveless – just as God reaches out to us – in love and compassion and a vast desire for goodness.
May we all listen carefully. May we hear, and do God’s will. Amen.
I don’t know if what I hear from the 2nd version, from The Message, is any clearer as to the meaning, but there is certainly a life, a vibrancy to the words here that I don’t get from the more traditional language. They reach more deeply into my spirit in the 2nd version. I take it in more intently if what I hear proclaimed says, not be doers of the word, and not hearers only but Act on what you hear!
And some part of me really responds more to Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear, than to the more prosaic, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger – even though the meaning of both is perfectly clear.
My point here is not that different translations are good – even though they are – my point is that how we speak and how we listen matters. The medium really does matter as much as the message. When I hear the NRSV version, I agree with it but then it sort of fades away quickly, because something in my brain says, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard all that so many times before. But there is something in Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear, that tickles my imagination and fits me – I can hear myself using those same words. My mind conjures up Disney character-like illustrations to go with the words – and so the words stick – they stay with me. How we hear the word presented can really matter – and that how can vary, time to time, place to place.
I know a lot of people who lead with their anger – ticked-off is always their first response. For Pete’s sake, I’ve been that person and I’m working hard at changing that about myself. If I can’t get rid of my anger entirely I would surely love to at least kick it back to the rear of the parade.
The message is clear: Listen first, then speak – and leave anger way back in a slow third place, if it has to be there at all. That image will remain with me and become a timely reminder when anger is trying to push to the front of the line.
Now, the writer of James has much more in this small bit of his letter than just how we hear the words – there’s the question of what words we are hearing. I don’t believe he was talking about biblical literalism - just hearing the words written down in scripture. There is a lot written in scripture that we should only remember in terms of what NOT to do. I think the Word we are supposed to be listening for is that word that speak directly to our hearts, our spirits. Those words we instinctively recognize as true and good – the words we recognize as the Word of God. These may be written down somewhere so we can read them – and maybe that somewhere is in scripture and maybe it’s in a recent issue of People magazine or in a sci-fi novel. When we hear them, we recognize their truth. Maybe they are words we heard while chatting with a friend or from a stranger sitting at the next table in a restaurant.
Maybe we find these words simply appearing in our thoughts as we are meditating before falling asleep at night or maybe we hear them while standing at the ocean, watching the sunset. Sometimes we may hear actual words spoken and sometimes it may just be a quiet certainty that God has just communicated something very important to us. God speaks to us in so many voices – and some of those voices use words, and some don’t. If we have opened our hearts and minds to God, we will hear them, and sometimes they may be words we pretty much expect to hear and sometimes they may be an ideal totally foreign to us.
If we are tuned to God’s voice, we will hear – and hearing, we will DO. How could we do else-wise? How could we hear the word of God and not be touched, not be moved, not be changed?
.....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. That person will reach out to the homeless and the loveless – just as God reaches out to us – in love and compassion and a vast desire for goodness.
May we all listen carefully. May we hear, and do God’s will. Amen.
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