Have You Heard What You Sound Like?

James 1:17-27 Mark7:1-8,14-15, 21-23

As most of you know, the Vicarage garden overlooks the main London to Brighton railway line. During the summer months the trees grow so high and are so full of leaf that you can no longer see the trains as they make their way in and out of Redhill Station or go thundering off into the tunnel on the Quarry Line. But you can still hear the trains, each and every one of them, and because I am an enthusiast about such things, or some would say (sad old man) I can tell you just by the sound what sort of train it is.

The galloping speed of the Gatwick Express, the whistling breaks of the Southern Service laboriously tugging it’s twelve carriage burden to Victoria,  the dreadful roar of First Great Western (surely it’ll never make it all the way to Reading) and the rattling tremor of Capital Connect on the verge of breaking into a hundred pieces like a badly made MFI wardrobe and every so often, only a few times a year, a whistle, a rumble and that unique clackety clack  – and steam comes pouring over the tree tops – a proper train is out there and it sets your heart racing and you stand on tip toe – hoping to see.

All your religion is all very well, Jesus seems to be saying to us this morning, but will anyone be able to tell that you’re  a follower of mine – by what you sound like on the outside – coming from what you are on the inside. Or is it all in the end, just a front.

Jesus can tell the difference between the noise of  Pharisees – all their superior knowledge and spiritual posture – and his own followers – in their innocent joy yet anxious questions. He could tell the difference between those who stood nervously on the edge of crowds and cried out for healing with those who just wanted to trap him in their talk.

Jesus calls for consistency between the person you portray on the outside and that which motivates you on the inside. You can only start to know wholeness when all you are is turned over to Him.

 Listen to the sound you are all making, do you honour God with your lips only  or with your heart too,  can you be honest about the struggle to be “of God” or “of the world” which goes on inside each and every one of us.

Tough as it may seem we are called to a life of holiness which has to touch every part of our existence. The good news is that God doesn’t need us to be the finished article as we turn to him – he takes us as we are and gradually, by the invasion of His Holy Spirit we are molded into the body of His Son, and this body is a curiously shaped thing from which we might, from time to time, prefer to recoil.

It is a funny feeling when you start wearing a dog collar. I used to find it quite hard to do ordinary things dressed as a brand new Vicar. Queuing up for fish and chips, taking a video back to the shop, and there used to be one of those greasy spoon burger vans – the ones you find in a lay by – where used to feel really incongruous – queuing  up with the lorry drivers for my double cheeseburger.

Have you listened to  what you sound like – what is the impression you leave on people – do they know, can they tell that you are a follower?

None of this that we might make exhibitions of ourselves or appear holier than thou – God forbid, but because James has hit upon something in our Epistle reading.

He says that we are to be first fruits. A sign to others of what is to come. What is best. What is possible. That we have been chosen and called to set an example to everyone else, to show by the way we act, what life with God is like. Now this is uncomfortable for those who prefer  to see their faith as a private thing  but there is no way out – in an increasingly secular world – we stand out like a sore thumb.

James gives us some good ideas about how we should stand out.

 To be ready to listen before we are ready to speak,  not to..never be angry..(it may have its place) but to be slow to anger, realising that most of the time bad temper pushes away the righteousness of God. To be brave enough to  identify that within us that which is not of God,  to know that it is there in some form or another  because we are just human– and knowing that  simply to open your life to be touched by His word – which is implanted right in the very place in your life where you know, it needs to do some work.

The restraint of ourselves that is not restriction or denial – but opens up a freedom of loving which unleashes God’s Spirit into the world through us.

At one level, I hate the National Railway Museum in York. I hate to see all those trains caged up in there –all gleaming and bright and beautiful on the outside – but dead on the inside, coal never stoked, fire never lit, boiler never racing – fit only for the occasional move round on the turntable so school parties can see how they work. Looking a  million dollars better than the First Great Western Service to Tonbridge – but going nowhere and doing nothing.

Heaven forbid us ever being a church like that or Christians satisfied with that.

We may not be pretty. We may not be comfortable…but we’re out on the rails..and we have some idea of where we’re bound.

RH 30.8.09