Living in the Spirit
September 11, 2015

Scripture Reading: James 3:1-12

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. –James 3:10-12

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.* Could this “Thumperian principle” have been based on a reading of James? You remember, Thumper the little rabbit from the movie Bambi attempting to follow the instructions of his father. Try some time to go through a whole day without saying something negative about something. We move blithely through blessing and cursing every day. We may not perceive what we are doing as blessing or cursing but that in point of fact is the result of our words. James takes this idea even further. He is saying, if we are God’s people, we are as incapable of cursing another as an olive tree is of producing a fig. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

If everyone is made in the image of God, how can anyone be bad? Tough question to consider when we observe bad things happening all around us, isn’t it? We say, “Hate the sin but love the sinner,” but I don’t think it is possible. I do not believe any of us are capable of freeing ourselves from the clutches of sin unless we are loved totally for who we are at any moment in time. Unless we are touched by God’s grace. We are called to emulate Christ who is gracious always.

Freed from the ominous task of judging others, we have the holy opportunity to love each other toward wholeness. None of us has reached perfection. We are all on the same journey toward being one with Christ. The love that is God is more powerful than any evil. Our sharing such love among all of God’s children without regard to any of our behaviors can and will lead to peace and justice.

We also ignore evil’s presence at our own risk. Confronting the evil that is in our society is a part of doing justice. We will, however, never overthrow evil with more evil. Evil can only be defeated by love.

Prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

 O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.** Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumper_(Bambi)

**Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace by St. Francis of Assisi see at http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=134

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.