Saint James addressed a danger that afflicts the Church in every century. I think the best name for the condition is "spiritual laziness."
In the early Church, there were some people who believed but did not do anything about it. They heard the most blessed Gospel of peace that says that they are saved by grace, without works. So they figured that they did not have to do anything at all. For awhile, they might have drifted along in the Church, going through the motions but not really changing their life in any real way. The Gospel did not seem to have much, if any, impact upon them.
Eventually, these people would begin to attend worship less and less. Although they still considered themselves believers, in time they would stop attending altogether.
People like this do not usually leave the Church all at once, as a result of a conflict or an argument. Instead, they slowly drift away.
James warns us, "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves." Do not be like a man who looks in a mirror but instantly forgets what he looks like. The Word is a mirror. God's Law reveals what we are really like by showing us our sinfulness. Let us look intently at what the Word says about us, take it to heart, and let it affect our lives.
"Do not only listen to the Word, but also do what it says." James adds later in his letter that the kind of faith that is not active in doing good works is surely a dead faith that cannot save. This is a serious warning for us. If we have such a dead faith, then it will not matter whether we physically remove ourselves from the Church. Spiritually, we will already be gone.
So we must carefully guard against spiritual laziness. If we find ourselves becoming unresponsive or uncaring about what the Word says, we are in danger.
When the Mirror of God's Law reveals our sinfulness, we should be sorrowful over our condition. To ignore the Word on this point is to not care about our sins. When we see our sins, we must not look the other way, or just shrug our shoulders as if it does not matter. Our trespasses are very serious, even horrifying. How could we act as if they are unimportant?
The Word also says that we should produce fruits of repentance. They include acts of charity, and obedience to the Commandments, and resisting temptation.
The Word says that we should "receive the Word with meekness." It is the goal of spiritual laziness to separate you from the Word of Truth. Instead, cling all the more tightly to the Word.
So how are you doing? Are you sorrowful over your sins? Are you producing fruits of repentance? Are you resisting moral wrongs in your life? Are you quick to anger? Do you try to keep a tight leash on your tongue, to control it against the many sins it commits? Lies, hateful words, gossip and slander, filthy language, and so on, leap so easily from the tongue. Are you resisting these, or just letting them happen?
More than that, do you continue to receive the Word? Do you hold it sacred in your heart, because it is the pure Word of God, not men? Or do you think it is good only if it satisfies your individual desires and feelings? Do you seek preachers and teachers for your itching ears? Or do you listen meekly at the feet of Jesus?
More specifically, are you attending Bible Study so that your faith may be strong? Are you striving to hear more of the Voice of Jesus?
If you have a Sunday morning religion, merely going through the motions, then you are limiting the roots of your faith. A plant with weak roots is easily pulled up, or killed by sun or drought. You should be tough and immovable in the faith. That comes only through the Word.
But laziness creeps in so easily. We make good promises, but do not follow through. On Sunday morning, we are eager and willing. But all too soon, we are tired and burdened by the distractions of life.
Too often, we are like the Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Their spirit was willing, but their flesh was weak. Those disciples could not stay awake even for one hour with their Lord.
Your flesh is just as weak as the disciples'. It does not matter who you are. It does not matter if you are the most moral, upright person that Lincoln County has ever seen. All of us have been spiritually lazy. None of us has been diligent as we should be.
If your religion consisted in what you do, then you would quickly fail. But your religion is built upon Jesus Christ, the Great Cornerstone, and upon His Word.
This Word tells you that God the Father gave birth to you through water. The greatest gift of all was given to you in the Sacrament of Baptism, when the Father adopted you. You are His child, a son in the image of Christ. Your family name was written upon you in dripping letters: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Since He has claimed you as His own, He will not change His mind. He does not change like shifting shadows.
For God is a patient and merciful Lord. He is not quick to anger, not quick to speak judgment, and not quick to cast anyone from His presence. He patiently waited many centuries while the world pursued its own wickedness. When He at last struck out in wrath against the moral filth and evil of the world, His anger fell not on you or me, who deserve it, but upon His own pure and faultless Son, Jesus Christ.
In Christ, you have been given birth. In the Son of God, true and perfect religion was established and completed. For Christ made you perfect long ago, when He said from the Cross, "It is finished!"
Because of Christ and the Cross, your religion does not depend on what you do. If it did, then the spiritual laziness in your sinful flesh would wreck it every time. But God has done it all, from start to finish, so that you are safe in Him.
Now when you look into the Word, you see Christ covering up your own sinfulness. The Word is now like a trick mirror that makes everyone see Christ instead of their own reflection. But far from being a cheap trick, this replacement image is the true and final judgment of God for you.
So the Father accepts you as pure and faultless as His Son. He accepts you as if you had fulfilled every commandment, with immaculate thoughts and perfect faith. He does not see the spiritual laziness that is in you. Instead He sees only righteousness in you.
In this way, you have been raised to life out of the death of sin. You were not only spiritually lazy, but actually cold and stiff as only a corpse can be. You were spiritually decaying.
But Christ the Lord who said "Lazarus, come forth!" and who told the daughter of Jairus, "Arise, little girl!" - He, the Lord of life who conquered the grave by His Resurrection, has said to you, "Come forth! Arise! Live, and never die!" And by His mighty Word, it is so. He has surely raised you out of death into life.
In this new life, the Gospel of Christ is grafted in you like a living plant grafted onto a dead stump. The Gospel is life, through the death and life of Christ.
Now God is dynamically active to feed and nourish new life in you. He knows that according to the sinful nature in each person, there is weakness and laziness to neglect and starve the new life. So He makes His heavenly light shine upon you in different ways, so that His grace may overflow and overwhelm your spiritual laziness. He gives Word and Sacrament, Body and Blood, Font and Pulpit, Bible Study and Divine Liturgy, as well as private study and Private Absolution. In all these ways, God shines His light of grace upon you.
May you be strengthened in His Gospel against every lazy impulse of the flesh. And Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless and preserve you forever. Amen.
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