Give Feet to Faith

• Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

with James 2:14-26

www.FirstChurchBville.com  FirstChurchBville@gmail.com  @FirstUMCBville  @kerrfunk

This sermon will be on youtube at https://youtu.be/EFfc8TNFO54

• Heartbreaking week in news,
and so much media focus on the wrong things.

Which should motivate people more:

people dying after disasters

or football players kneeling?

Visiting preachers at Marshall University this past week, shouting through megaphones that people are going to hell because of a variety of things.

My friend’s church which was vandalized
after it put up a rainbow flag.

These and other events lead me to ask:

• What is my job? What is our job?
To share the love of God with people in a hurting world.
To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Be witnesses in every aspect. Make disciples (be one first).

Be imitators of God, and walk in love, as Christ first loved us and gave himself up as a sacrifice for us. – Eph 5:1-2

• In a section in James on treating other people well, with dignity and humankindness, you do what you can  to demonstrate your love  by how you treat people.

And how I treat people depends not on their worthiness
OR whether I think they’re doing a good job or not.

How I treat people depends on my view of their humanity,

And my prayer is that my vision is like that of Jesus (be imitators…)

• And that my actions be motivated by my God….

and that when I see suffering, I act for relief.

And when I see injustice, I act for justice. 

And oppression, righteousness.

And abuse of power, I speak truth to it.

• The man asked God Why is there so much suffering in the world?
And God replied I was just going to ask you the same thing.

• Jesus is WYSIWYG.
God demonstrates his love for us in this way,
that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).

Jesus gave of himself completely for us,
became one of us, becomes part of us.

• Hymn  618 Let Us Break Bread Together

James 2:14-26 (CEB)

¹⁴ My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? ¹⁵ Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. ¹⁶ What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. ¹⁹ It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. ²⁰ Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? ²¹ What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. ²³ So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. ^{[Gen 15:6]}
What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. ²⁴ So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? ²⁶ As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. ò