In James' opinion, being a Christian is not enough. Professions of faith are meaningless unless that faith is reflected in the way we live our lives. He points a finger at the church of his day, accusing members of showing favoritism toward the rich and of treating the poor with disrespect. He accuses the church of seeking to make distinctions which set apart rather than seeking to foster unity and harmony. He criticizes the judgmental attitudes and evil thoughts of some Christians.

The heart of this morning's epistle lesson lies in verse 8: "You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" James tells us that we have to buy that notion fully, not just partially. We cannot love only the rich, or only other Christians, or only those from our denomination, or only those who share our ethnic heritage or social class. We are called by Christ to love all our brothers and sisters. Anything less, and we fail to fulfill Christ's most basic mandate.

The writer of James, sometimes thought to be Jesus' brother, but more often agreed to be a teacher of a later date, says to his audience: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?.....If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and if one of you says, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?" The attempt here is not to diminish the importance of faith, but to point out that our lives must be lived in a manner consistent with the faith which we profess. Faith which is never put into practice is not really faith at all.

The Gospel message is for all people, and its teachings are to be applied to everyone. In our passage from Mark, we find Jesus visiting in a Gentile community. He has withdrawn from His usual stomping ground to seek some peace and privacy. He needs to recharge His batteries, because it is exhausting to always be giving of yourself to others. All who give regularly of themselves risk burnout if they do not take time for self-care and renewal. [If your browser supports MPEG files you may click here to see a brief video extract from this point in the sermon. Download may take over ten minutes at 28.8 Kb ] Perhaps Jesus was in such a state. He had been on this preaching, teaching and healing circuit for months. Perhaps He was bone-weary, and both physically and emotionally drained when He entered a house and didn't want anyone to know He was there. He was seeking solitude, some time and space for private prayer and reflection.

Imagine, then, His dismay when a woman comes to Him shortly after His arrival and requests that He cast out a demon from her daughter. Hear Jesus groan inwardly. Feel His spirit sag. We've all been in that place where we just didn't have any more to give, and we've turned away a request for help because we simply couldn't muster the energy to give any more. Jesus' reply to the woman seems harsh and unfeeling unless we can identify with His emotional state. He says to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." This is presumed to be a reference to the fact that Jesus' mission was primarily to be to the Jews and this woman was Syrophoenician, a Gentile. The implication is that Jesus' first duty is to the Jews, and that He must tend first to their needs. This speech seems to us uncharacteristically harsh and unfeeling, not at all like the Jesus we know. But I know I've been there, been at a point where I just couldn't make a phone call or a visit which I knew I ought to make, because I had nothing to give at that moment in time. Jesus was, after all, human as well as divine.

The Syrophoenician woman's response to Jesus is well worth noting. She does not draw herself up and in a self-righteous or accusing tone to challenge His refusal. She quietly and simply demonstrates her faith by reminding Jesus that all God's children are entitled to be fed. She says, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." National or ethnic origin does not determine some kind of pecking order when it comes to sharing God's love. This quiet and humble woman came to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter, nothing more and nothing less. She would not be turned away, because she cared deeply about her daughter and because she believed that Jesus held the key to her daughter’s cure. Confronted by her wisdom and humility, Jesus said to her, "For saying that, you may go -- the demon has left your daughter."

Jesus also demonstrated enormous compassion for those with physical handicaps. He knew that being rejected by society added a spiritual and emotional burden to an already heavy physical burden for those who were deaf, or blind or lame. Time and again, Jesus reached out and touched and healed. While few of us have sufficient faith to believe that we could heal an infirmity by simply touching someone, we can put our faith to work in our attitudes and in our actions. Consider this amazing story:

In Brooklyn, New York, there is a school named Chush that caters to learning-disabled children. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a student delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by those who attended.

"Where is the perfection in my son Shaya?" he asked. "Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?" At first, the audience was shocked by the father's question. "I believe," the father went on, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child."

And then the father told this story: one day he and his son, Shaya, were walking through the park when they saw a group of boys playing baseball. Shaya wanted very much to join them, but his father hesitated. Would the other boys let Shaya play, or would they laugh at him and reject him? Surprisingly, the other boys did allow him to play. But it was obvious that Shaya had no athletic skills, so he stayed on the bench most of the time.

In the ninth inning, the two teams were tied, and Shaya's team had men on base. To everyone's surprise, the captain of the team allowed Shaya to bat. The pitcher, sensing Shaya's nervousness, stepped forward a few feet and pitched the ball softly at Shaya. He swung and missed it. Then one of Shaya's teammates stepped up behind him and placed his hands over Shaya's. Together, they hit the next ball. It rolled to the feet of the pitcher, but the pitcher seemed not to notice it at first. "Run to first, Shaya! Run to first!" the father called, and little Shaya ran with all his might to first base. The pitcher finally picked up the ball and threw it over the head of the first baseman. "Run to second, Shaya! Run to second!" By the time he turned the corner at first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag Shaya out when he got to second. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the second baseman's head. Now the whole team was screaming, "Run to third, Shaya! Run to third!" Shaya made it to third just in time to see the second baseman throw the ball way over the third baseman's head. Now everyone on the field was shouting as one, "Run home, Shaya! Run home!" And little Shaya made it to home plate, where his team lifted him onto their shoulders and carried him around like a conquering hero.

"That day," said the father softly, with tears now rolling down his cheeks, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection." Those 18 boys exemplified God’s love in action. They demonstrated how we can put our faith and our beliefs to work.

Jesus did not just talk the talk; He walked the walk. He did not just teach and preach love and compassion, He exemplified those qualities in His daily life. He did not just talk about God's love, He demonstrated it through His healing touch. Perhaps there is no better example of this idea of putting our faith to work than we find in the life of Mother Theresa. She was a simple woman, a woman of incredible faith, a woman of unbounded and unconditional love often abundantly given to the poorest and the least of God's children, a woman who made service to others a way of life. In her book, A Simple Path, Mother Theresa laid out five simple principles for living a faithful life. She wrote: "The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace."

I'd like to focus for a moment on two of those principles. First: "The fruit of faith is love." We who have faith, who know and love God, and who understand God's great love for us as expressed in God's gift of Jesus Christ and as demonstrated through His life and teachings, we who have this faith, necessarily also have love. We have God's love to support and sustain us, and we have love for others in our hearts.

If we have this faith, which translates as love, then we must also put love into action through service. "The fruit of love is service." Mother Theresa also wrote, "The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy (or AIDS); it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for." Mother Theresa knew of what she spoke, for she chose to do ministry to the unwanted, unloved and uncared for of our world. Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you." He also said, "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do also to me." Jesus could not separate love and action. They must go hand-in-hand. Mother Theresa affirmed this notion saying, "Love in action is service." One of the Sisters of Charity explained it this way. She wrote: "We never ask people why they are on the street: we don't need to know their history. We don't judge them for whatever situation they are in, because all they want is some love and care and they are satisfied. We just look after the person who is brought to us and God does the rest through us." That is another part of faith. When we have faith, we allow God to be at work in and through us.

Mother Theresa's fifth principle was: "The fruit of service is peace." She closes her book, A Simple Path, with these words: "Finally, I have only one message of peace and that is to love one another as God loves each one of you. Jesus came to give us the Good News that God loves us and that He wants us to love one another. And when the time comes to die and go home to God again, we will hear Him say, ‘Come and possess the Kingdom prepared for you, because I was hungry and you gave me food, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me. Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.’"

Putting faith to work is what Christianity is all about. Christianity is incompatible with complacency. Christianity is incompatible with apathy. Christianity is incompatible with indifference. Because Christianity is love. Christianity is love in action. Christianity is love in action serving others. God calls us through faith to cross the boundaries which divide and to build bridges to harmony and understanding. God calls us to love and to serve one another in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.