Two churchgoers

[AI translation] Today is Sunday, as is customary in our church life, Bible Sunday. Today in every church the sermon is about the Bible, the Word of God, or a related issue. That is why I would like to speak to you today about dealing with the Word, specifically about listening to the Word. The apostle James, who wrote this letter, was a man of great practicality. He does not spend his time in abstract discourses. He is well acquainted with the life of the church in Jerusalem, as its leader, its "pastor". He has keenly observed the people and the circumstances there. Obviously, he drew the conclusions he is writing about here from his observation of the specific situation in the church. So real and vivid are the types he presents in this text, as if they were one of us. We almost all feel that this James is aimed at me. There are two people the apostle speaks of in this Word. You might say, two churchgoers. People who are "hearers of the Word". So let's take a closer look at each of them separately.What does one do? He listens to the Word. Let's face it, it's a very good thing. It is commendable in his case. If he is an "oblivious" hearer of the Word, he is a hearer. He goes to church, and that is something. That could not be said of every church member in Pasaréti. If only we would all do at least that: listen to the Word! But how many are sleeping now, and how many are spending their time now - while worship is going on here - doing useless, worthless things. They don't even get to the point of coming to hear the Word! Well, the man James is writing about is leaving. This man is there in the church on Sunday, in his usual way, perhaps with his wife and children, listening to the Word. Just like you who are here now. The Word also tells us that he does not go to church out of habit. Nor does he do something for his wife's sake. This man is not the lazy type, who has to get out of bed on Sunday morning to get up because he is going to be late, and then dozes off in church until the service is over. He's not just waiting for the priest to say grace. No! That's not the way of this listener! He listens seriously to the Word. A great listener! He really listens to the Word. The apostle James aptly describes him as "like a man looking at his natural image in a mirror". So he does not just let the Word he hears pass by his ears. Nor does he dismiss it from himself. On the contrary! He takes it to heart. He feels as if he were looking in a mirror. But not in the way that you see the other person's face in it! I often hear someone say after the service: wow, that sermon would have been exactly for my sister-in-law or my mother-in-law, but it's a pity she wasn't here! Well, that's not how this person feels. He sees himself in the light of the Word. Not even by glimpsing it, but by "looking" at it. He studies himself carefully, in depth. As the Word shows him. Is not such a man a great hearer of the Word? I would be very glad if you all and always sat here in church and listened to the Word like this man. For this man is really only concerned with the Word he has heard, and he is not thinking about what is in store for Monday, or what new clothes this and that has on again.
Then there is something else that makes this listener very sympathetic. So we read: 'he looked at himself'. So this man not only delights in the beautiful sermon, not only is he interested in who is preaching, what he is talking about, but he sees himself in the Word. That is, the self who is behind the mask, who is covered by his good manners, his manners, his smile, his self-control. He sees his true self in the Word. This man honestly faces himself. It is not easy! It is not pleasant. It's not a good feeling. He feels found. While the Word is speaking, his conscience is speaking: man, this is about you! You see yourself, your natural image. Your marriage, your family life, your innermost, innermost self. You see into the depths of your own life, and your soul shudders at what you see. He sees that all is not well in there. Something is wrong! This is not how he should be living! This is not the way he should relate to people! It's all inside him! If only everyone could listen to the Word! Like this, with his heart open to the Word. Looking into the innermost depths of his own heart through the mirror of the Word.
And then the apostle continues the description, "He looked at himself and went away." The pastor said amen, the last hymn was sung, and the crowds poured out of the temple. Our man, too, is going home, quite overwhelmed by the sermon he has heard. That is beautiful, and it is good! To go home with the Word heard, to go home to the problems at home, perhaps to the sick woman, or to the unpleasant neighbours. Yes, that is where we go out of church, into daily life, to bear fruit. To live the Word we hear, to turn it into action. This great, ideal hearer of the Word, having looked at himself, having seen his own natural image, all the ugliness and depth of his life, went home. With a lamp full of oil, with a lighted cloth. - Gone!
And then comes the sad continuation of the sentence: 'and immediately forgot what it was like'. No sooner does he cross the threshold of the church, no sooner does he take a few steps, than he forgets everything. Word, his own natural image, preaching - everything! But how can this be? Imagine a person going to the doctor, having a check-up, and the doctor, with a troubled face, says to him, "Madam, there is no point in keeping secrets, I must tell you that it is very serious." And the patient goes home. Will she forget what the doctor said? Hardly! She talks to her husband, she lies down in a chair: "Yes, what I was always afraid of, the doctor told me." And from that moment on, she never forgets it for a minute. You couldn't get it out of your head. He always knows, he always remembers.
But when the supreme Physician scans a man and tells him flatly that there is trouble, big trouble, when he holds up the mirror in front of him, that he himself sees the dark spots in his life, he himself knows how terminally ill he is - because he has looked at his own natural image - he can forget it the very next moment! You can go on living as if nothing were wrong. He simply gets on with it. He lives on as if he had seen nothing of himself in the mirror of the Word.
But thank God, there are not only such hearers! There are other kinds of churchgoers. The apostle James describes it as "a follower of works". He is a hearer of the Word just as much as the former, but he is not only a hearer, but also a doer, that is, a doer. He hears the same Word, in the same church, at the same service as the other, but something else is going on with it. Let us see! The apostle James observed the two men very accurately. Both of them are listening to the Word, both of them are immersed in it. They both hold it up to themselves like a mirror. They both see themselves in the mirror. They both recognize their own natural image. But - and here is the great difference between the two temple-goers - the latter, when he sees himself in the mirror, does not put down the mirror and leave. James says, "he looks into it". Like someone leaning over a microscope or looking at something with a magnifying glass, this is how he examines himself in the Word. And when he sees in it his own ugliness, his own great trouble, he does not immediately put aside that mirror, so as not to disturb his peace of mind, but just then he looks at it, examines it with all his intensity. And then he begins to see something else. It's as if his eyes are beginning to open. Behind the ugly, twisted, messed up, naturalistic image of himself, he begins to see another face. A bloody, suffering face. As he listens to the Word, suddenly the figure of the Saviour hanging on the cross begins to appear before his spiritual eyes. The Word that he hears or reads reveals not only himself, his own condemnation, but also the Saviour dying for sinners. For that, after all, is what all preaching is about! Jesus Christ, the Saviour who pays for us, is proclaimed in every Bible Word! The whole of Scripture can be summed up in this one name: Jesus! It is the other churchgoer who meets Him when he listens to the Word.
This is what the apostle expresses as "looking into the perfect law of liberty". This rather cumbersome expression could be said in one word: Jesus! So this man sees Jesus as the end of the law of bondage. Jesus, who fulfilled the law for him and in his place. Jesus as the beginning of the law of freedom. Because for Jesus Christ nothing is impossible. Nor is it impossible for a believer in Him to live according to the law of God, according to the will of God. Seeing Jesus, seeing His atoning death, awakens in the soul the desire for the law of God. The desire, out of gratitude for the salvation he has received, to order his life now entirely according to God's will. That is how he rises from his seat and goes home.
James says, "he shall stand by it". Of course he will! For he who has seen that face in the hearing of the Word, who has seen the suffering, bloody face of his Saviour in the Word, who has entered into the deep mystery of His atoning death, cannot but "abide". That cannot be so easily forgotten! One cannot shake it off, and one cannot get on with the day! One may shake off the good advice, the commandments of the law, but the suffering Saviour looks on him even when the preaching is over. As we used to sing, His gentle eye, His gaze, accompanies Him home, Monday to work, out into the world. And the new week begins, in which the hearer of the Word becomes a "follower of action"! A doer of the Word, for that doing is, in essence, nothing other than the Word becoming deeds. The fruit of the Word heard on Sunday, or the practical consequence of the Word read in the morning. Oh, how many different kinds of action are generated by the Word that one hears from Jesus! But other works than those which we do ourselves!
Be a follower, then, of the works of the Word! Do that one thing, perhaps the one thing that God has been warning you about for so long, that will stall your whole life of faith. Write that letter or break that relationship! Give that man the right of peace. Or throw out of your soul the memory of the hurt you've carried for years. Get rid of that passion you're ashamed of.
Brothers! Church of Jesus Christ! Hearers of the Word of God! Let us be doers of the Word! Why else would we listen to the Word in the first place? For beauty? That is a very dangerous thing! Let us not delay to take the first step of obedience to the Word! It is a beginning that breaks through the barrier that has held back the abundance of the waters of life. If you don't act right away, it will come to nothing later! Do quickly what you must do! Turn the Word of God into action immediately! Do not sleep on it!
And everything has a wonderful consequence! The apostle James says: "a follower of the work will be happy in his work". He will be happy! True listening to the Word has blessings to the very depths of our hearts, so that we become happy people. We get a zest for life. We will go back to our work with joy. We dare to face the difficulties of life with confidence. We are empowered for the whole week. We will be happy! Do you know what a powerful statement that is? And what a huge promise for miserable, miserable people like us! Oh, if we could all be happy this week! Happy people! Doing the Word, putting God's Word into action, does make a man happy. Try it!
Brothers and sisters! You have been going to church for so long. You have been hearers of the Word for so many years. Be doers of the Word at last! Keepers! Our days are passing, time is short. "Show your faith by your deeds". So it will be what it should always be, again: a blessed Sunday followed by a happy week! A happy life from the Word heard!
Amen
Date: 8 September 1963.