Ways and Habits

Ways and Habits

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, May 19, 2019

Haggai 1:5-7; James 2:14-20 ESV

As a bit of background to today’s sermon, my latest reading project is a brand new book by Barbara Brown Taylor titled Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others.  Taylor has been named one of the “twelve most effective preachers in the English language” and happens to be the only female on the list.  She is an ordained Episcopal priest, and for some years was rector of an Episcopal parish in Clarkesville, Georgia.  So popular was Taylor’s preaching, and so popular had she become  because of her writings, the little Episcopal Church she was serving had to go to several services each weekend, and it was working her to death.  So she resigned and retired from active parish ministry.  But Taylor had also started teaching at Piedmont College, a Congregational-related school in nearby Demorest, Georgia. 

I first heard Barbara Brown Taylor speak in the mid-1990s at the annual meeting of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches that met in Des Moines, Iowa.  Then in 2009, I heard Taylor speak again and actually got to meet and talk with her at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ that met in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Now, through her adjunct teaching, book sales, and lectures, Barbara is staying quite busy and doing quite well for herself.  Some years ago I contacted Taylor about coming here to the United Church to lecture and speak at our Sunday worship service, and her reply was she wasn’t accepting any speaking engagements at the time, as she was booked up two years out.  So when I learned that Taylor had released a new book, I was eager to get it. 

Holy Envy is an account of Taylor’s reflections and what she has learned from teaching World Religions at Piedmont College.  I am only half-way through the book to date, so there may be other sermon ideas forthcoming.  But the passage in the book that inspired today’s sermon is where Barbara summarizes a passage from the book Out of Africa by Danish author Karen Blixen.  The story is about a young boy who appeared at the author’s door one day and asked if he could work for her.  She hired him on the spot.  The young boy served Blixen’s household admirably for three months, and she was shocked when he asked for a letter of recommendation to go work for a Muslim.  Since Blixen did not want to lose the young boy, she offered to increase his pay, but he was firm in his desire to leave.

You see, the boy had decided that he was going to become either a Christian or a Muslim.  His whole purpose in coming to live with her and serve her had been to see the “ways and habits” of Christians up close.  Next he would go to live with the Muslim for three months to see how Muslims behaved, to observe their ways and habits.  Then he would make up his mind about becoming either a Christian or a Muslim, based upon the daily ways and habits of each (pp. 93-94).

Well, as I reflected upon this story, other similar stories I have encountered over the years came to mind.  For instance, there is the story about Mohandas Gandhi.  It is said that the great Indian leader Gandhi studied the New Testament and the way of Jesus.  And Gandhi admired Jesus and considered becoming a Christian.  But it is also said that one Sunday morning Gandhi decided that he would visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta, India. Upon seeking entrance to the church sanctuary, he was stopped at the door by the ushers.  He was told he was not welcome, nor would he be permitted to attend this particular church, as it was for high-caste Indians and whites only. He was neither high caste, nor was he white. Because of the rejection, it is written, the Mahatma turned his back on Christianity.  And Gandhi has been quoted as saying to Christian missionaries, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  Such a sad, sad story; that one of the greatest personalities the world has ever known – certainly in modern times – could have been such a positive voice for Christianity, had the ways and habits of Christians not disappointed him so.

Medical missionary Albert Schweitzer left us another true, but more light-hearted, story about a Christian family that tried for months to teach their parrot to say “Bon jour” (Good day).  Day after day they repeated the phrase over and over, trying to get the bird to repeat it.  But the parrot refused to say it.  Finally they got angry at the bird and screamed at him, telling him how stupid he was – “How idiotic you are!” they yelled.  But the parrot remained silent.  One day a high church dignitary came to their house for dinner.  When he saw the parrot, the dignitary walked over to the cage, stroked its neck, and said, “What a beautiful bird you are.”  The parrot looked up at the dignitary and squawked, “How idiotic you are!”

Ways and habits – too often we may be tempted to forget just how important to the life of faith and the demonstration of our faith to others our ways and habits really are. 

For many people, the most important thing when it comes to the religious life is what you believe.  For them, everything hinges upon right belief.  And if you don’t believe just the right things, then you are lost, in danger of eternal punishment.  And for some (certainly not for all, but for some), as long as you “believe the right doctrines,” then you can pretty much do as you please. 

Some years ago, there was a popular HBO series called “The Sopranos.”  Tony Soprano and his family constituted one of prominent mob families of New Jersey.  The series was about the underworld dealings and corruption of a number of mob families who controlled much of what went on as far as construction, contracts, bars, and a lot of other businesses and establishments were concerned.  Tony and his family would support the church and go to confession and services and participate in the rituals on the weekend, and then all through the week they felt free to extort and murder.  Their faith covered them.  That is the way of some: believe right beliefs, and do as you please.

But then others take little stock in right beliefs, focusing instead upon right actions.  To them it doesn’t matter one bit what one says he believes if his life tells a different story.  In my years of ministry, I have seen far too many “Christians” who tooted their right belief horns ever so loudly, but at the core of their being was deception and in some cases downright evil.  I have come to be suspicious and beware of those who toot their right belief horn the loudest, because in many cases their real faith proves to be the shallowest.  As Barbara Brown Taylor says in preaching on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, “right beliefs don’t change a thing, unless they lead to right actions.”

We have some friends whose sister and brother-in-law are of the very conservative Christian persuasion.  Everything, especially for the brother-in-law, has been black and white and of a very conservative belief system and based upon right beliefs.  Well, a few months ago, the sister, who is not yet 50 years old, was diagnosed with a terminal illness.  She is slowly fading away and losing her ability to communicate.  Her husband, instead of being loving, understanding, supportive, and compassionate (as one would think he would be) is harsh, hateful, and disrespecting to both his wife and kids, so much so that neither her parents nor his can stand to be around him.  It is such a sad, heart-breaking story; his ways and habits don’t match the beliefs he seeks to impose upon others.

Well, the Hebrew prophet Haggai issued the call some 2500 years ago to people who claim to have faith.  “Consider your ways,” Haggai thundered (Haggai 1:5,7).  To paraphrase, you say you have faith; then take stock of the ways and habits of your lives. 

And the New Testament writer James hit the nail on the head when he said that faith or belief is demonstrated by the works it produces.  Faith or right belief apart from works is useless, dead, non-existent! (James 2:20).

Now, I must confess to you that when I got serious about the Christian faith and first had ideas about pursuing Christian ministry, right belief was of utmost importance to me as well.  It was important to me that all the tenets of Christian beliefs and doctrines be right and fit together like a tidy jigsaw puzzle.  But the older I get, the less I worry about right beliefs and all the pieces of the belief puzzle fitting together and am more concerned about right actions – about daily ways and habits.

Because the bottom line is that when the world looks at us, what we do is much more important than what we believe.  When someone we know is in need in some way, what we believe won’t help them at all, but what we do will.  And in our daily lives with family and friends, the way we relate to and interact with them is a matter of ways and habits.  What the prophet Haggai says to one he says to all: You say you have faith; then consider your ways – and habits.  May it be so. Amen.