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Living Lives of Service
James 2:14-18 / John 13:1-5,34

     James was a down-to-earth preacher; many people like his writing because he gets right to the point. This morning we heard James say that faith, if not accompanied by actions, is dead and useless.   I like the wording of this verse in the Message version of Scripture:  “God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense.”  James wanted the Christian believers he knew to behave like believers, to have real faith and a servant lifestyle.
    Probably one of the best ways to explain this faith-in-action lifestyle is to explain what it is not. Consider someone who talks like a Christian, but their faith is not evident in their lifestyle.  How many people do you suppose are affiliated with a church somewhere, but aren’t actively involved? There are even more people who profess a general belief in God, but don’t possess a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Both Jesus and James would agree that talk is cheap: show me instead by what you do in your everyday life.   Then I will be convinced you’re a true disciple of Jesus Christ.   This morning, can you affirm that your faith is real and visible, not vague and invisible?  
     Something that has spoken to my heart as I have read this James passage this week is this truth:  our faith cannot stop with just our feelings.  Let me unpack this a bit because I think this can be a common struggle.    How many times have you heard of a need, particularly here at your church?   Many times we understand why help is needed, and we can even be emotionally moved by the need.  We might feel sympathy or sorrow and want to do our part to encourage or bless someone in a concrete way.  But, to our disappointment, our initial rush of emotions doesn’t translate into action.  While we felt inspired to act, we didn’t follow through and meet anyone’s practical, emotional, or spiritual needs.   James is trying to get us to understand that when we are part of the family of God, we have some family responsibilities.  Have you ever thought of it that way before?  As part of the family of God, we have some family responsibilities. 
       As I transition from ¾ time to half time as your pastor, there are some emerging needs that will need to be met by members of our church.  Our Nominations Team will be meeting to look for servants for some of our ministry teams.   We were on hiatus during COVID but now we’re activating some of our ministries, often in hybrid ways.   We’ll meet more frequently by ZOOM, and still seek to focus on core items.  So if and when someone reaches out to you in the coming weeks, please be ready to say “Yes, I will serve.  I will be among those who step forward and help strengthen Jesus’ church.”   While there will be time and effort required, I can assure you that there will also be fellowship and satisfaction as you do your part. 
      I mentioned a bit ago that some people feel the urge to serve others, but their initial emotions don’t carry them to act on the impulse.   Another common stumbling block for some Christians is the opposite; their faith is largely intellectual.  There are people who thrive on studying, debating, and  reading about all aspects of the Christian faith.  You may admire and even envy these well-versed persons.  But James would come along and say: “Look at them closely; real faith is more than just something you think.”  Have you ever heard the expression, “Some people touch their Bibles more than they allow their Bibles to touch them”?  We sure don’t want that said about us!   We see in Jesus how he was among the people, drawing near to them to better understand their needs.   He stopped what he was doing, paused his busy itinerary to stooped down and listen and care.  He touched and healed.   He calmed fears and restored hope.  
     Have you ever heard someone say that they know someone whose faith needs to move down about 12 or 18 inches?   That’s one way of saying that Christians who have “head knowledge” also need their hearts to be warm.   James reminds us that that was how Jesus served: he was a man of words and deeds.   James said that one without the other would make our witness useless- he went so far as to say it would be dead!    
     Imagine if Jesus was silent all the days and years he ministered - if He healed and helped others but was mute about his purpose.  No one would understand why; they would be temporarily helped but never learn how to be in a loving, saving relationship with God!   Likewise, imagine Jesus teaching about God’s Kingdom but always remaining at a distance from people.  If he spoke with lofty, inspiring words but never revealed his love though smiles or touch,  sharing a meal or healing their brokenness, if he was distant – wouldn’t that absence of love and personal relationship give people so much less?   
       Let us thank God that Jesus came to share the Good News and to show it, to be our Savior in word and deed!  One of Jesus’ most extraordinary examples of servanthood happened on the evening he and his disciples were in an upper room for His last Passover meal.  A servant was always at the ready when guests came, prepared with a basin of water and a towel, to wash the feet of visitors.   But that night all else was prepared, the table set, the food and wine spread out, cushions for the men to recline on – but no servant.   (By the way, the pillows on the floor around the low table reminded them they were no longer slaves as they were in Egypt but were now free and able to have leisure.)  
      The 12 men and Jesus were using those pillows, leaning on their right elbow and extending their bodies out toward their next neighbor.  The Bible says Jesus “got up from the meal”; that phrase should catch our attention because it means they had started the ceremonial prayers and had been eating.   They were doing that while another man’s sweaty, stinking feet were near their nostrils.  
      Have you ever thought about the fact that any one of the disciples could have called the other men over to the doorway and done what the absent servant of the household failed to do?  They were physically capable of the simple, humbling act of foot-washing, but none did it.   It is also worth mentioning that not long before there had been a tense conversation with Jesus and two of his disciples, James and John.  They wanted to know  if one of them could sit beside Jesus in a place of honor in heaven; he told them that in His kingdom, “the first would be last and the last would be first.”
     This meal was the last time Jesus would gather around a table and see his disciples’ faces; it would be his last meal on earth, for soon he would be betrayed by Judas and arrested.  Rather than let those thoughts cloud his mind, he stayed fully present.   When he stood up and began to walk toward the basin and towel, I imagine all 12 sets of eyes watched him and whatever conversations were happening quieted to silence. 
       Jesus had already shared all of the words he possibly could for the last three years.   They had volumes of his teachings.   Now Jesus was walking a path of service with love, humility, and willingness.   He took off his outer cloak and was bare-chested like a servant would have been for this menial task.   He tied a servant’s towel around his waist and knelt down.   He beckoned each man and they came and sat before him as He washed their dirty, dusty, dung-touched feet.  He made them clean.   Then he said, “What I have done for you, washing your feet, sets for you an example.   I want you to do for others what I have done for you.”   He said they would be blessed if they served others as He had served them.  
      To be one of Jesus’ disciples means having a servant’s heart.   It means we are alert to the needs around us - we perceive them.   It may often mean we choose to interrupt our previous plans to meet someone else’s practical need.  And our service must always be done with love, humility, and willingness.    When we do this – we will be blessed!

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