Do we dare to look in the mirror?

Note:One of my various jobs is serving as a worship leader -- either in a 7-point charge in Paige county or as fill-in for vacationing or ailing pastors. Following is my sermon for Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012.

When preparing for this morning’s message, I was struck by the epistle reading from James, which included this illustration using a mirror:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Mirrors are fascinating objects. They bend and reflect light. We look into them to see ourselves, seeking truth. But as this passage notes, we may forget what we see. We should also ask if we see clearly what’s reflected.

This mirror illustration brought to mind a number of stories, including the old familiar tale of Snow White. As we know, Snow White’s mother died shortly after her birth. Soon after that, her father, the king, married another woman who was beautiful, proud and cruel. The stepmother had studied dark magic and owned a magic mirror, of which she would daily ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?”

For many years, each time this question was asked, the mirror would answer, "Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all." Of course, this answer pleased the queen as she knew her mirror could speak nothing but the truth.

So it came as a shock when one morning after asking, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" it answered: You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But Snow White is even fairer than you.

That’s when things became really difficult for Snow White. Most of us know the rest of the story – how the queen sent Snow White into the woods with the huntsman, who was charged with killing the girl. How she escaped, begging for mercy, and fled until she found refuge with the seven dwarves. How the queen discovered her via the mirror and disguised herself as the old woman selling apples. How Snow White was deceived and took a bite of the poisoned fruit. How she lay as dead until her final rescue.

Throughout this tale, the mirror reflected beauty and evil; its truth was complicated and perilous for both the queen and Snow White.

Likewise, I think the Pharisees in our passage from Mark this morning had similar trouble with what they saw in the mirror of the law. Although they question Jesus about the practices of the Jewish law and tradition among his disciples, Jesus holds that same mirror up and asks them to take a longer look, saying, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And Jesus clarifies further, saying, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Later in Jesus’ ministry, the rich young ruler said, “I have done everything the law has asked. I am one who can look in the mirror and see a perfect reflection of the law.” Then Jesus said, “look through the looking glass -- through the mirror, and give all you have to the poor and come, follow me.”

But the man replied, “I just can’t see myself doing that. That is not a reflection of what I do.” So he walked away for it was more mirror than he cared to see. And let’s be honest, how many of us in his shoes would have done the same?

And so we should ask: “Do we dare to look in the mirror?”

The writer of James makes that question personal and the encounter with the rich young ruler a matter for you and me: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

In the Iowa Methodist Church’s weekly Memo to Preachers, Rev. Bill Cotton asks how one goes about staying “unstained” in the face of service to world. And to wrestle with that question, he writes that he consulted his old friend Tex Sample, who touched a nerve by citing the example of America’s wealthy, who want low taxes while demanding high military spending. Tex shared with Bill that the Society of Friends or Quakers, who are pacifists, track American military spending at 59% of our national budget.

Tex continued noting that it’s not wealthy kids who serve in the military, but poor and working class young people. And they end up fighting not to defend their families, but the assets of transnational corporations that send jobs abroad and hide profits to avoid taxes.

And Tex concluded: “This is not only wealthfare, it is also the sacrifice of poor and working young people on the altar of supply-side economics. For anyone who is formed by the biblical prophets and by Jesus, such wickedness will finally bring judgment.”

All this led Rev. Cotton to write:

“I can’t say it better. To remain silent in the face of such evil is to give the appearance of consent. Evil does have a way of rubbing off onto us. I think we need to heed the Book of James and become doers of the word—speak up!”

And so . . . the echo of this day is, “Do we see clearly in the mirror? Do we dare? Do we recognize that to much of the world, WE are the 1 percent?”

Remember that James uses the mirror as an illustration of the law. Do we see God’s law of love clearly in all aspects of our life? Are we living it?

As our United Methodist Church worship planning resources note: “. . . in James and in early Christianity generally, to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27) did not mean seeking to live entirely apart from the world in some kind of ascetic withdrawal. Rather, it meant not allowing the way the world treats others -- especially the poor, the widow, the orphans, and the marginalized -- to mar the way we treat all people as disciples of Jesus. The world's way keeps them stuck or channels them off to one side. The way of Jesus and his disciples is to come alongside as advocates with the vulnerable and voiceless. . . .”

The Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners also wrote this week about advocacy and justice in a weekly blog post entitled, “Caring for the Poor is Government’s Biblical Role.” Drawing from the texts of Paul, as well as the prophets, Wallis lays out the Bible’s mandates for the role and purpose of government:

“So the purpose of government, according to Paul, is to protect and promote. Protect from the evil and promote the good, and we are even instructed to pay taxes for those purposes. So to disparage government per se — to see government as the central problem in society — is simply not a biblical position.”

Wallis describes how throughout Biblical history the prophets spoke up about injustice to the poor and forgotten, and that God held both church and government leaders accountable. For even before Jesus, James and Paul, God’s law required the care of the least in society. And I think for both Rev. Cotton and Rev. Wallis, this election season has them looking in the collective mirror to ask if we are living out God’s law.

I would also note that James states clearly that when we act to help others; to live out love, we are the ones who receive the grace of God.

I receive it on Wednesday afternoons when one of the children in Grant’s after-school program asks, “Can I sit on your lap?” Or, “Will your read me a book?” Or when I simply listen to their stories about their day, letting them share the disappointments, laughs, frustrations and surprises they’ve experienced. And I am learning to speak up and share their stories and their needs -- for education, health care and even food, using my voice with my representatives in government as well as with my vote.

My friend, the Rev. Jim Campbell, writes about the blessings of faith in action in his Wonder unto Beauty blog post, “Lost in Wonder:”

“We are not called to simply love those who are in need,
but dare to believe that those we serve
are the face of Christ coming to us
in how WE are to grow.
It is the Benedictines who greet each stranger at the door
with the words, “We have been expecting you.”
Faith into action is a riddle.
It is knowing that in serving God that we find God,
that in caring for others that they help us touch
our own hidden brokenness and fears.

"It is in the face of the least of these our brothers and sisters
that we discover the face of Christ in the street,
the glory of the Lord,
the necessary wonder unto beauty of the goodness of God.
Here, the jazz of God pulses into a freedom dance
in the alley mud for all concerned,
that the imprisoned, the thirsty, the naked and the hungry
include ourselves
yearning for our own re-conversion
beyond the limits of faith in action in a box,
to the lost-ness of WONDER, love and praise set free.”

So look in the mirror, remember to do, and be blessed.

Amen.