Memorial United Methodist Church

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James 1:17-27 -- Hearing and Doing the Word

17 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.
18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
25But 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.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep one self unstained by the world.

No one asked me to speak a eulogy at the many events for Senator Ted Kennedy. I decided to do so anyway. The purpose of this kind of a speech in a memorial service is to match up a life with a scripture passage and let the passage illuminate the life and the life illuminate the scripture. This morning I match up the life of Senator Ted Kennedy and James 1:17-27. First, some honesty is in order. I really loved Senator Bobby Kennedy. On the day he died I received a letter from his campaign asking a friend and me to be the DuPage County, Illinois chairs of his campaign for president. DuPage County, at that time, would have elected any Republican, even Elmer Fudd, if Elmer was a Republican then. The Kennedy campaign took little risk in choosing us as co-chairs.
 It took a while to warm to Senator Ted Kennedy, but warm I did. I want to tell you why and I hope this story helps all of us understand the first chapter of James. Ted Kennedy found a way to a “doer” of the word and “be love” and not just a “hearer” the word, “God is love.” So can we.

Not a perfect man

First, I want to be honest about Ted Kennedy. He was not a perfect man. History marred him and he marred himself. His siblings died so publicly. So did his nephew. His children suffered much. He made some terrible mistakes about alcohol, woman and even caused the death of a person. His level of “sordidness and rank growth of wickedness,” (verse 21) had about it Biblical proportions. Here I am thinking of King David and Bathsheba and David sending her husband to die in war because he lusted after her. Many conservatives tried to organize and raise money against Ted Kennedy. It began to fail, if it ever worked very successfully. The people of the country, even those who opposed him, soon discovered that he was a complex man who worked across ideology while keeping his convictions. He stayed in the Senate almost 50 years and accomplished much legislation that really mattered in the lives of a lot of people.
Here is the message from James and the life of Senator Ted Kennedy – all of us have things about ourselves that would cause us to avoid any mirror (verses 23 and 24). Denial seems so easy sometimes yet it comes up so empty. It appears that Ted Kennedy staid in eye-contact with what he saw in the mirror long enough to make some changes in his life. He gave up his ambition to be president. He addressed the power of the addictions in his life. He found a life-partner who seemed to totally love him and had the capacity to express this love and receive his love. He assumed the mantle of leader in his family and in the Senate. A lot of us excuse ourselves from expressing the compassion God has planted in us (verse 17) because we can not move beyond the terror of having done some things that are terrible. Sometimes it is easier to point out the awfulness of public persons rather than face ourselves.

But a person of faith

Ted Kennedy was a man of faith, raised by a mother of faith. She went to Mass every morning (parenthetically, sometimes picking of Barbara Soliz, a former member of Memorial, on the way, when she was a child in Hyannis) and was a very pious Catholic. When Senator Kennedy’s daughter was so sick in the hospital in Boston, he went to Mass every morning at the church where his service was yesterday. I believe this kind of journey inward kept the markings on his soul from becoming the kind of stains that would keep him from living for the sake of others (verse 27).
Senator Kennedy gave care for the vulnerable just as James said that true religion cares for the widows and orphans. He was involved with almost every bit of legislation in the last few decades that addressed xenophobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism and classism. His legislative agenda represents the same inclusive commitments of the welcoming statement of Memorial UMC. In the time of Jesus the widows and the orphans were women and children unconnected to the protections of patriarchy. Along with the strangers they represented the most vulnerable people in the time of Jesus. Jesus ate, met with and aligned with the most vulnerable people. There is a story from early in Ted Kennedy’s life that tells of this same sensitivity in this young man. In 1946, he was 14 years old, and his brother, Jack, was just elected a member of the House of Representatives. The Kennedy men gathered for a toast. Patriarch Joseph Kennedy toasted the new Representative from the state of Massachusetts, his son. Jack. Bobby and Jack both gave toasts related to the political processes that had been successfully navigated – even mentioning the possibilities of their being a president from their family. Ted, 14 years old, went last, raised his glass to their brother who wasn’t there – Joe who had died in the war. “I would like to drink a toast to the brother who isn’t here,” he said. Ted was sensitive to those not at the table (verse 27). This was a sensitivity that served him especially well in his life.
Senator Kennedy’s legacy is marked with relationship with people “across the aisle.” He worked with Senators McCain and Hatch. The latter helped him to face his alcoholism. He could not have experienced what life gave to him and what he gave himself without having an extraordinary amount of anger. It appears he turned that anger inward rather than into an “ad hominem” political style. He focused on achieving outcomes not on destroying others in the process. In time, he even learned with the help of friends the pointlessness of turning the anger inside. It served him well to be slow to anger and quick to listen (verse 19).

A possibility for each of us

Senator Kennedy’s life offers us what we can do when we face honestly our own terrible mistakes and or own suffering. Sometimes these things keep us from the “generous lives of giving” that James speaks of in verse 17. The last verse of this passage holds up the possibilities of abundant life if we hold together personal integrity and social justice, or the journey inward and the journey outward. I think Ted Kennedy did this. So can we. We can be “hearers” of the word: “God is love.” We can be “doers” of the word, if we will just “be love” in our relationships.