Download Sermon for September 2, 2012 – “Mirror, Mirror”

Sermon for August 30, 2015 – “Mirror, Mirror”
22nd Sunday in OT, Year B – Text: James 1:17-27
When I first read our text for this morning, verse 23 – the one about
looking a mirror – surprised me.
I guess I hadn’t realized that mirrors existed back then...
But in doing a bit of research – I learned that they first started showing
up in the 3rd century BC.
Originally highly polished bronze and silver – the first glass mirrors
were actually invented in first century AD by the Romans.
So, it seems they did have mirrors and I’d imagine that people looked
into them back then, just like we do now.
They saw what they saw – just as we do when we look into a mirror.
When was the last time we looked in the mirror?
Do we remember what we saw?
Do we remember who we saw?
There is a mirroring story in mythology – the story of Narcissus.
As the story begins, Echo – a beautiful wood nymph – was out
walking when she saw Narcissus.
Now, Narcissus was a beautiful young man from birth.
He had quite a reputation for rejecting many nymphs – but that didn’t
stop Echo, who immediately fell in love with him.
Narcissus heard her – but couldn’t see her.
He called out: “Who’s here?”
But the only thing that Echo – who’d been cursed by the goddess
Hera – could say in reply was “here.”
Coming out so Narcissus could see her and return her love – she was
shocked when Narcissus rejected her.
1
Scorned, Echo fled into the mountains, where she wasted away, until
she became only a voice.
Soon after, Narcissus was walking in the woods, when he came by a
pond that had water so clear it could have been crystal.
The water was free of debris and no one ever came by to disturb the
peaceful waters.
Narcissus bent down to take a drink from the pond and saw a beautiful
face looking back at him.
He instantly became mesmerized and sat for some time staring into it.
He tried to reach down and embrace the image that he saw in the water...
He also tried to bend down and kiss the image.
But as soon as he touched it – it was gone.
So, Narcissus became happy just to stare into the pool...
He had forgotten all need for food and drink as he sat beside the
pond, pining away at the beautiful image in its mirror-like surface.
The face he saw, was – of course – his own.
A reflection in the water.
And from then on he never loved anyone else, ever...
Because he could never move on from this obsession with his own self.
And he died a long and painful starving death of the self-absorbed
person looking in the mirror all by himself at himself in the deep,
lonely pool of the isolated.
That can happen to people who look too long in the mirror, can’t it?
We all know someone like that, don’t we?
And though we may not like to admit it – there’s a little Narcissus in
all of us, isn’t there?
2
And, then, in the reading for today from the letter of James, there’s
another kind of looking in the mirror.
Different from that of Narcissus – it’s that quick, little sideways glance
as we’re dashing out the door…
I’m sure that before leaving the house to go to work, run errands, school,
or wherever…everyone’s glanced at a mirror.
You looked – maybe groaned or winced at your reflection – depending
on what you saw…
But a quick flick of a comb or brush – maybe a bit of makeup for you
ladies – and the image is soon forgotten...
It quickly becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of the everyday world…
A world – as we all know – that will suck up everything like a giant
tornado including all the unique power and unique beauty that each of
us has been given by the God in whose image we were made.
So I ask you: What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Snow White’s evil stepmother – who turned out to be a witch – saw
herself as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.
Of course, she had to enchant the mirror to get it to tell her that.
Now, my mirror doesn’t talk to me – thank goodness...
But it does offer a remarkably high-definition rendering of my image,
albeit a bit reversed.
And that image – even if it weren’t reversed – isn’t the most beautiful
person in the world – no matter what I try and tell myself.
More than that – when I’m brave enough to look deeper – I see a
person I’m not always completely proud of.
I think lots of folks have the same experience and for that reason find
it difficult to look into a mirror – to look at themselves honestly.
3
It’s almost as if looking into a mirror forces us to face ourselves and
all those things we try so hard to conceal...
Compelling us confront all those things about ourselves that we’d just
as soon not have to see.
The problem is that all of this gets in the way of true self-knowledge
and awareness, and genuine self-love.
Whether through self-absorption or carelessness – I don’t think we can
see ourselves (let alone remember ourselves with much clarity) – if we
look in the mirror alone…
That is – by ourselves.
Frankly, that’s one of the biggest reasons I’m in a church.
I say that because if you put us in front of the Christ mirror with
others who’re trying to love themselves and each other and God…
Well, then, maybe we’ve got something to see...
Maybe we’ve got something that will change the world…
This happens when people look in the Christ mirror together and see
themselves living in what James calls the “perfect law,” the “law of
liberty.”
Because looking into the Christ mirror – we begin to gain insight into
our true selves.
Okay, maybe it does shows us what’s ugly and less than desirable…
But the longer we stand in front of that mirror...
And the deeper we look into it...
...the more we’ll begin to see that there’s One who sees us radically
differently from the way we see ourselves...
Or the way others see us.
4
Paul refers to that in his first letter to the Corinthians, when he says:
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.
Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been
fully known.”
Paul’s telling us that what we see in the mirror isn’t what we really are...
We see only a poor reflection of the real us.
But the day is coming when we will see ourselves as we really are.
Now we know in part – we have only an inkling of what we really are...
But the day is coming when we will know ourselves as God has made
us to be in Jesus Christ.
Which is how God knows us already.
This is why we need to keep looking – along side others who are
willing to look with us...
...Those who are willing to make the attempt to look beyond the
surface and try to see others as God sees them.
And I believe with all my heart – and betting everything on this – that
mirroring and reflecting Christ together works...
But only in a church that will take the risk to do such work…
In a church that will risk looking in the mirror together and coming
together to be a place where love is shared and truth is told…
In a church where people feel welcome and cared for, and subsequently
feel led to extend a welcoming invitation to others, showing them that
same care.
In a church where the beauty of becoming – becoming what God has
created, calls and intends for us to be – is the reason for its very existence
and the focus of its mission.
In lots of churches – this isn’t the case...
5
And this is why I think lots of people don’t go to lots of churches…
As I see it people don’t need another place to hide from themselves…
Nor do they need a place where others will reject them on the sole basis
of their appearances or what’s on the surface – refusing to look deeper.
We live in a world where so many struggle with identity…
Where people look in the mirror – if and when they’re able to do so
at all – and either hate the face they see, or find it unrecognizable.
They cannot – or will not – see themselves as God sees them.
It’s for this reason that we must.
It’s for this reason that we must not simply hear God’s word and say
we believe – calling ourselves Christians and patting ourselves on the
back for all our piety and good intentions…
It’s for this reason that we must go beyond merely hearing God’s
word – and actually be out in the world doing God’s word, living out
that faith.
This theme runs throughout James’ letter.
He writes something in chapter two that might sound familiar…
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have
faith but do not have works? “Can that kind of faith save you?
“Faith by itself – if it has no works – is dead.
Now some might say “wait a minute” – Paul tell us that we’re saved
by grace through faith...
And they’d be right...
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul does indeed say that “by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing...
“It is the gift of God,” he says, “not the result of works, so that no
one may boast.”
6
But in the very next verse he says this “For we are what he has
made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Let me repeat that...
“We are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Brothers and sisters – here’s the thing...
There are times and places for hearing God’s Word...
A time for committing ourselves, praying for others and so forth.
Sunday morning – here, during worship – is such a time and place.
Likewise, our personal devotional time at home…
But there are times and places when concrete acts are needed rather
than pious benedictions.
Because our actions show our commitment to God is genuine.
They show to the world that we take the commandments to love God
and neighbor seriously.
What’s more – deeds of loving service are a verification of our faith...
They are our response to what God has done for us in the person of
Jesus Christ.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself says that we are “the salt
of the earth” and the “light of the world.
Not that we can be – or will be – but that we are...
He then says that “a city built on a hill cannot be hidden.
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but
on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
7
Similarly in Luke’s gospel, Jesus says to his followers:
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?
“I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my
words, and acts on them.
“That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid
the foundation on rock…
“When a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could
not shake it, because it had been well built.
He then goes on to say this: “But the one who hears and does not act
is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
What Jesus is trying to teach us is that doing is an integral part of
who and what we are...
And that acting on our faith is foundational…
So, more than just listening to Bible readings (or sermons for that
matter) – we must put its words into practice in daily life.
We must be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.
And as we do that – we will experience the freedom and kind of life
that God intends for us.
As we live out our faith – we will find affirmation and joy…
We will – says James – be blessed in our doing.
Thanks be to God – now and forever.
Amen and amen.
8