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Text: James 1:17-27 W 16th Sunday after Pentecost The Sharper
Image In
the name of him who does all things well, dear friends in Christ: Though I have never asked for it, about once
a quarter I receive a catalog from a mail order outfit that calls itself “The
Sharper Image”. Maybe some of you
receive it too. If you’re not familiar
with it, the kind of merchandise you find inside this catalog consists mostly of
various accessories and high-tech gadgets – overpriced accessories and gadgets,
I might add – that promise to put you on the cutting edge of style and
fashion. There’s
all kinds of stuff: hats, watches,
sunglasses, binoculars, briefcases, even air filters. And there’s a certain “James Bond” quality about
a lot of the products. No, nothing’s
lethal, no fountain pens that emit toxic gas or death rays hidden in digital cameras,
nothing like that; still, some of the items suggest a piece of equipment that Q
might provide agent 007 before some particularly dangerous mission. They’re the sort of things that are supposed
make you appear “cool”. Hence the name:
“The Sharper Image”. The idea is that if
you buy their stuff you too will instantly begin to elicit that response that
James Bond gets when he confidently strolls into a Anyway,
on a bit more serious note, whether the products in that catalog (or any
catalog) are able to deliver the promised improvement in image—which is highly
doubtful, there is something to be said for wanting to make a favorable
impression on people. Presenting a sharp
image – making an effort to put forth your best possible appearance – is a good
thing. And if we agree it’s important
for mere outward appearances, which are, as they say, only skin deep, then let me suggest that it’s even more important in a
spiritual sense. We as followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, those who have been redeemed by him from sin and death by
his sacrifice on our behalf, should naturally want to project the results of
his saving and sanctifying work in us to the world. And that is what James (not James Bond but Saint
James) is saying in his letter to the church – a portion of which we heard
earlier. You might say that his little
book is the New Testament version of “the sharper image” for the Christian
person. Having been saved by grace
through faith in Christ, James encourages us to strive to reflect more sharply
the image of Christ who redeemed us. And
this often misunderstood by Christians who read the Epistle of James. Lifted out of context, it is sometimes
mistakenly assumed that much of what James says runs contrary to the Gospel
because he writes so much about the good works and behavior of Christians rather
than about their trust in Christ’s saving work for them. But the thing to see is that James is
consciously writing to people who have already been delivered from their lives
of ignorance and sin by God’s mighty work upon them. Through the power of his Word, they’ve come
to trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the salvation he earned for us on the
cross. This is made abundantly clear
when James writes, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.” James gives all the credit to God when it
comes to our salvation – God, who he tells us, is the source of every good and
perfect gift from above. And chief among
these gifts is God’s own Son sent as a sacrifice for our sins. So James doesn’t deny the Gospel. What he wants us to do is build our lives
upon it. His concern is that we not
simply stop and say, “Okay, I trust in Jesus.
I’ve been forgiven. I guess
that’s all there is to it. I’m
saved. I’m done.” No, he wants us to take very seriously the
ongoing process by which we are transformed in the here and now, by degrees, to
reveal ever more clearly Christ-like attitudes and behaviors. He wants us to be in a readily apparent way
the first-fruits of the new creation. He
wants us to project a sharper image of Christ. How
is this done? Well, if you want to
improve your appearance, the place you start is at the mirror. You
have to take a good look at yourself.
You can’t go with what you think you look like or what you imagine you’d
like to look like; that would be self deceptive. You need the objective truth. And that’s the good thing about mirrors: they don’t lie. They reveal every blemish, every wrinkle,
every extra pound, flabby muscle, and wayward hair. They tell it like it is even when we don’t
want to hear it, or rather, see it.
But that’s where you’ve got to start if you want to improve your
image. You need to know what’s wrong so
that you can do what’s possible to make yourself more presentable. The same thing is true in a spiritual sense. You have to start by looking in the
mirror. And according to James that’s
exactly what we have in God’s Word. It’s
a mirror that we can look into to see deeper than skin level. In God’s Word we can see right into our
souls. Reflected in the mirror of God’s
holy law we can see how our souls appear through his eyes. And like the mirror in your bathroom, it’s
brutally honest – it holds nothing back.
Every dark stain of sin, each evil thought and action, it all comes into
perfect view when reflected by the mirror of the Word. And just as a person carefully studies his or
her face in the mirror to find little flaws and imperfections that need to be
corrected, so we should look into the mirror that reflects the blemishes on our
souls so we can take the appropriate action. But could you imagine looking in the mirror, discovering
something horribly wrong that you could easily correct with a toothbrush or
piece of tissue, and thinking to yourself, “Ugh! Gotta fix that!” and then
stepping away from the mirror, forgetting all about it, and walking out the
door to face the day? Does that
sound like something you would want to do?
Of course not! And that’s exactly
the point But that doesn’t always stop us like it should. Why not?
Simply stated, we engage in self-deception. There are times when we know exactly what we
are going to see when we look into the mirror of God’s Word – so we don’t
look. We stay away from our devotions,
Bible reading, Sunday worship, and so forth, because
we know the reflection we will see will be unpleasant. It’s the “if I don’t look, there can’t be
anything wrong” approach. You’re only
fooling yourself. If you are a parent,
you may remember teaching your children that that method was an unacceptable
way to get ready for school. “You can’t
go out like that! Did you even look in
the mirror this morning?” And yet, there
are times we try it ourselves in the spiritual sense. Or we may look in the mirror of the Word and
pretend the problems we see are not noticeable.
“After all”, we think, “no one else can see into my soul.” But this is a two-fold deception. First, while it’s true that other people
can’t see the stains on your soul as clearly as you, it doesn’t follow that
they are completely blind to them. Can
you say that you’ve never noticed someone else’s “thought to be hidden”
sin? It doesn’t take X-ray eyes, does
it? Yet we deceive ourselves when it
comes to our own “hidden” sins. And
then, even if they are truly hidden from others, there’s no deceiving God. He sees everything, and it is to him that we
must ultimately answer for our spiritual appearance. Better to stop deceiving ourselves, and work
on correcting the problems we see staring back at us. St. James goes on to give us a couple examples of the
disfiguring faults we are likely to see when we take the time to study
ourselves in God’s mirror. The first is
anger. He writes, “Man’s anger does
not bring about the righteous life God desires.” It should be stated that anger has its proper
place. Even God gets angry. In the face of injustice and cruelty,
especially when directed toward the weak and helpless, God’s anger burns hot
and sure. But God’s anger has three
characteristics that human anger often lacks.
First, it’s always righteous anger in response to evil. It is never motivated by evil itself. It does not come from envy, pride, or
selfishness. Second, it is slow to
awaken. God does not fly off in rage at
the first minor offense. If he did, we’d
all be in deep trouble. Instead, God
patiently endures our almost constant provocation, choosing to bear with us in
our weaknesses. Finally, God’s anger is
quick to dissipate. When he acts in
judgment, or when we seek his forgiveness, his anger is gone. He holds no grudges. When human anger is like God’s, it’s entirely appropriate. Unfortunately, it rarely is. Instead, we get angry immediately over the
tiniest of things, and then we brood over our little fire of anger like a troop
of boy scouts on a cold, wet camp out, feeding and fanning it to make sure it
keeps burning. Any one of you can name
people you know whose lives seem to be consumed with such anger: people who are just mad at the world, and who
seem to go out of their way to find other things to get mad about. You’ve got to admit that it’s an ugly way to
live. And when we look in the mirror and
see the same symptoms in ourselves, we should be horrified. The second blemish James mentions that we are likely to see
is what he calls an “unbridled tongue.”
We often underestimate the enormous power of that little muscle. But it can with very little effort destroy
careers, ruin lives, break up marriages, and deceive souls straight into
hell. Words spoken in anger cannot be
retracted. They continue to wound their
targets long after they are released.
Like radioactive fallout, they can emit deadly rays for many years after
the initial blast. In fact, the pain
inflicting half life of some cruel words can last the whole life of a
person. Then there’s gossip and rumors,
both true and false, which are a plague in every community and organization
humankind has ever known. And we know
that from personal experience. But how
often are we ourselves the originator or carrier of the plague? How often have we failed to test what we say
by the so-called “three gates of gold”:
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If it doesn’t pass those gates, it shouldn’t
come out of the mouth – and yet we all know that sometimes it does anyway. Okay, so there it is:
you’ve looked into the mirror and you’ve seen it. There’s the festering sore of anger. There’s the gangrenous tongue dripping with
venom. There’s who-knows-what-else you
see. The question is now, “How do I fix
these problems?” These obviously aren’t
the sorts of things that a little make up will cure. That’ll only hide the problems. Nor can they be fixed by simply trying to do
better in the future. That won’t heal
anything. In fact, that can make the
problems worse. Let
me explain why. I just recently read
again a story called The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The setting is Victorian England. Dorian Gray is a particularly handsome and
stylish young man of the privileged class who is the favorite subject of a
certain artist. This artist paints an
especially fine portrait of Dorian, pouring every bit of his skill into the
project. The result is a stunning likeness
that captures the perfection of young Dorian’s innocent appearance. When Dorian first sees this painting he’s
delighted. But he soon comes to realize
that the painting is a sort of curse. He
understands that it will always remains the same but that he will change, and
as he does, as he gets older and his beauty fades, the perfection of the
painting will mock him. It
will only remind him of what he once was but now is not. With feelings of despair he utters a
heartfelt wish: “Oh that the painting
would change; but that I remain the same.” He
is granted his wish (hey, I didn’t say it was a true story). Anyway, as it turns out the painting changes
with more than just his age. It actually
becomes more of a mirror of his soul.
His sins show up on it in the form of deceitful eyes, greedy, clutching
fingers, and bloated, sagging cheeks. Blessed
as he is with perpetual youth and innocent looks, Dorian leads a life of vice
and reckless abandon. He treats other
people as his playthings. He uses women
and throws them away when he grows tired of them. He takes no care for their feelings or anything
else. He knows that nothing he does will
look bad on him. Meanwhile the portrait,
which he keeps hidden in his attic, becomes uglier and uglier. Now, of course, up to this point, the story is
just another way to look at what I’ve been talking about: about how we all present one face – our best
face – to the world, but how inside we are unclean and filled with sin. There comes a point in the story, however,
when Dorian is finally horrified himself at what he sees in the portrait. Just knowing what’s really inside him robs
him of all joy. He resolves to try to
make the painting look better by improving his behavior. He refrains from certain sins. And after he’s done this for a while, he
rushes back to the portrait hoping to see some sign of improvement. Instead, he finds the portrait is even worse
– far worse. At first he doesn’t
understand; but then it comes to him that on top on all the other sins he’s now
added the pride of self-righteousness. That’s
the problem with trying to improve our spiritual image on our own and by our
own efforts. We only make things worse
by adding the sin of pride to the sin that’s already there. And so, in the story, Dorian comes to this
inescapable conclusion: “If I sin the
portrait gets uglier. If I try to do
better, the same thing happens. There’s
only one thing left to do: destroy the
portrait.” He attempts to do this with a
knife, slashing it across the canvass; but in the process, he kills
himself: he is, after all attacking his
own soul. The next day they find his
body lying next to the torn painting.
Except for the knife slash, the painting is as beautiful as the day it
was painted. It’s Dorian’s dead body
that now bears all the marks of his sin.
This is what the Lord God has said:
“The soul that sins must die.”
Just as we did not create ourselves or save ourselves from death and
hell, so also we cannot improve ourselves in a spiritual sense. We can only die and let God raise us up again
in Christ. That will happen in an
absolute sense one day, and we look forward to it; but for the time being God
has given us another way. It is the
death of repentance and confession. What
made us Christians in the first place was God’s Word convicting us of our sins
and showing us that we were under his wrath and judgment. That’s what opened our hearts to receive the
good news that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, took that wrath and judgment upon
himself. In Baptism then we were united
with Christ. We died with him. We were buried with him. And we rose with him to live a new life. And
the way we live this new life is by everyday looking into the mirror of God’s
Law again; and seeing without self-deception what we are in God’s sight: sinners.
Filthy sinners. Ugly, blemished,
malformed sinners who cannot get better on our own. That’s what causes us to despair of ourselves
and die the death of repentance all over again.
At the same time, it opens up our hearts to turn to Christ who is our
righteousness before God. The more we
see of our sin, the more we see the need to rely on Christ – to hide ourselves
in him. That’s how we grow to trust in
him more. And as we do that, as we rely
more on him, more of him will be seen in us.
His image in our lives will become more distinct – and that is the
goal. So may God who sends all good
gifts from above give us the grace also to do this, that each of us may bear
the sharper image of Christ Jesus our Lord. In his holy name. Amen. Soli
Deo Gloria! |
