Reflection on James 1:17-27

Love looks like something.  Love is not just an uplifting notion captured by an artist on a card, though it can be.  Love is not just a concept that we try to understand in some philosophical way, dividing it into familial love, friendship, romantic love, or unconditional love, though we can talk about love in such an intellectual way.  Love looks like something.  More than that; love looks like someone.

The scriptures teach us that “God is love” (NRSV, 1 John 4:8).  So, if God is love, then whenever we look at God, who came down to us in the flesh, to walk and talk with us…whenever we look at Jesus Christ, we are looking at love.  Love looks like someone: Jesus Christ.  And, love also looks like something, like all the things that Jesus did.  Whether it be healing blindness, or listening to the unclean, unwanted women, or teaching the unreachable, or calming seas, or feeding the hungry, or welcoming the little children when others pushed them away; love looks like something.

When she looked in the mirror, she did not see anything that resembled God.  She was told by her pastor to look into the mirror in order to see a gift from God.  But, all she saw when she looked in the mirror were hips that were too narrow, arms that were too boney, hair that was too frizzled, a jaw that was too angled, and a face that was too tired.  The pastor reassured her that God would not have created trash.  She should look into the mirror again.  Maybe she should look at what everyone else looks at when they look at her.

She tried it again, uncomfortably looking at herself once again.  She was not a person who was often stared at.  What did others look at when they looked at her?  Well, they looked at her eyes.  In fact, people did stare at her, not at her lips or curves, she had none, but they did stare at her eyes.

She had those big eyes accented by a bright blue that stuck out in a crowd.  She realized that she held people’s attention with her eyes.  They would gaze into her attentive eyes and she would see them immediately relax their shoulders and open up their arms and open up their lives.  She thought hard and realized that when she was younger she would use her eyes to her advantage, to get candy, and to get away with behaviors, to get the dance with the guy over the other girls, to steal the kiss.

But, Jesus was not about using his gifts to manipulate.  Rather, Jesus was about using his gifts to love. The pastor was certain that she was a gift.  How has God been using her gift of attentive eyes to love?

The suggestion to look in the mirror and see the gift that God had given changed her daily life.  Formerly, she would get up in the morning, look briefly at how her hair and makeup was fairing, and move on.  But, she never saw anything.  She never saw who she was.  As James says, she was one of those who come to a mirror, “look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”  She did not see who she was.  She did not see that she was the handwork of God, shaped and molded out of love.  She did not see the love that had been put into her.  She did not know who she was.

But, when she looked in the mirror and saw the power that God had given her through those eyes, through those captivating, beautifully attentive, blue eyes, she finally saw for herself God’s gift of love in her. 

It all starts with gifts after-all.  God created us, as a gift.  God gave us companionship, as a gift.  God gave us laws to order our lives together, so that we could live in peace, as a gift.  God gave us forgiveness, and new life, all as a gift from Jesus Christ, through the power of the cross and resurrection.  It all starts with gifts.

That is where James starts with us today.  “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  So, every act that is generous and loving toward us, and coming from us, all comes from the same source of love and light: God the Father.  It all starts with gift, and that is what the pastor wanted the woman to see.  She has been given gifts from God.  She is a gift from God.  It all starts with gifts.

But, the pastor also saw that the gift was being stopped.  God’s gift of light and love is no good if it cannot shine.  And, what can keep it from shining?

Well, James has some ideas.  Anger is at the top of James’ list.  “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;” James encourages, “for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.”  God’s goodness, God’s just ways, God’s loving character cannot be seen through a face of anger. 

We know this to be true.  This is nothing new.  How many times have you changed another person’s mind about anything after screaming at each other, either metaphorically on the keyboard, or literally in their faces for hours on end?  This is not how anything productive gets done.  Am I right?  

There is something about slowing down the anger, slowing down the rate of words spewing out, and simply listening to one another that can result in righteousness…that can result in things being right and good in the end.  “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;” James says.  “Rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness.” 

God has given us gifts.  God has made us a gift.  Clear away anything that obscures that truth.

Do you want to know what also obscures that truth?  Forgetting.

I know, I know, between those of us who are getting up there in age, those of us who are run ragged by children, or jobs, or both, and those like me who were never able to remember anything from the time we popped out of the womb, we have enough forgetfulness to fill the room, if only we remember to do it.  But, what James is talking about here is a certain type of forgetfulness. 

It is the forgetfulness that outsiders of the church see each all the time and rightly criticize.  It is the forgetfulness that causes us to come to church, sing about the forgiving love of Jesus, and then promptly leave spewing hateful and harmful words about others and to others throughout the week.  Sometimes we sing about love that saves the sinner and the needy, and then we leave to promptly ignore the sinner and ignore the needy.

You see, love looks like something.  And, when the love that we profess does not show in what we do, there must be a major problem.  James says, “they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.” 

This was the young woman’s struggle; she looked in the mirror, but did not see herself.  She did not know who she was.  She did not see that she was a child of God.  She only saw the flaws, but did not see the love.  She did not see the perfect law of love from Christ, the law that brings liberty in life.  She just did not know who she was.

But, once she realized the gift that she had in those eyes, and she saw that gift every morning for what it was, she knew what kind of person God was leading her to be. 

She was the nurse, with the eyes that could calm anyone with growing fear, despite the mask and gown.  She was the nurse, with the eyes of acceptance.  She was the nurse who was ready to listen carefully to anything…to their fears…to their hopes…to their wants.  She was the nurse who knew what it was to love; and that love actually looked like something.  It was a reflection of Jesus who stopped and listened to the cries for help.  It was a reflection of Jesus who healed with love and acceptance just as much as he healed with his hands.  Her eyes were a gift that could shine God’s love.

She finally understood that love looks like something.  James puts it this way: “doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.”

It is not that anyone is loved any more or any less because of their doing.  This phrase from the reformation still rings true today: “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.”  You are not saved by the love that you show, but because you are saved and loved, you will show love to others.  And, that love that you show is a gift from God to your neighbor.  Love looks like something.

Look in the mirror and see the gift that the Lord has given.