“Hearers and Doers?” 
Song of Solomon 2: 8-13 and James 1: 17-27

 Sometimes events unexpectedly intrude into our lives and demand our attention. The death of Senator Edward Kennedy this week has been one of those events. It has lingered in my consciousness not simply because of the massive media coverage, but because for me it signaled the end of an era. I am one of those people who can close their eyes and see with vivid clarity where I was when I learned of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. The presidential election of 1968 was the first I voted in and so Robert Kennedy’s death – coming on the heels of Martin Luther King’s killing -- was especially shocking to those of us thinking about our first presidential vote and the future of our nation.  Whatever one’s politics -- the Kennedy brothers’ eloquent and passionate words calling on us individually and as nation to be and to do our best -- to live up to our ideals and founding aspirations –touched us then and still do. With Senator Edward Kennedy’s passing a political family of immense influence has moved from our center stage. An era – sometimes called the age of Camelot -- has ended.

In this age we and our media are often guilty of either demonizing our public figures or canonizing them. In truth though often  flawed, they are yet able human beings -- neither demons nor saints.   Certainly, by all objective measures that was true of Senator Edward Kennedy.  His flaws are well chronicled. But   even more his substantial talents and gifts are also reflected in the legislation he achieved, the lives he helped and in the tributes for his personal friendship from both sides of the political aisle. I spent a number of years on the board of a national non-profit founded by one of Senator Kennedy’s sisters. I served with several of the next generation of Kennedy children, including one of Ted’s son. I believe you can often learn much about a person from the character of their children. Measured this way the Senator, who I did not know, was a decent man and loving parent -- for his son was a thoughtful, decent and caring human being. Though he had lost a leg to cancer, he focused on helping others with disabilities and those less fortunate.

I mention Senator Kennedy this morning because I think his life relates to the lesson of our New Testament scripture. The author of the book of James implores us to be “doers of the word, not merely hearers.” It is a simple, perhaps even obvious, lesson. Get out there – take action –don’t sit on your hands. And, of course, that’s true. We go to school – yes, to learn but not simply to learn but also to use that learning – to live guided by that acquired  knowledge. We are trained -- as accountants, as business men and women and as teachers  -- and then we go out into to the world to act and to do. I sometimes feel sad for those  professional students who move from one degree program to another – never taking what they have learned out into life to apply it or to teach to someone else.

The early church to whom James was writing struggled with the relationship between faith – that is listening and hearing the “Word of God” -- and works -- the doing. Wasn’t it enough to hear and accept the Word?  Wasn’t salvation a matter of grace that one simply received for accepting the Word? In response James suggests that to simply hear the Word is to treat faith as a matter for oneself alone -- ignoring the world outside – “for if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”  Confucius said “I hear and I forget … I do and I understand.”

How are hearing and doing related? It seems obvious that one should precede the other. You hear the word and then you act. True enough but it is not so straight forward in practice as it seems.   In matters of faith we often decouple listening to God’s word and acting upon it. On the one hand there is the Sunday morning phenomenon.  I used to go to church on Sunday morning to hear an interesting, even provocative sermon and to slow down from the busyness of my life. Worship helped me get my mind off my worries  at work and at home. At the end of the hour I was refreshed, often stimulated and challenged by a new insight. I went home with renewed energy and got ready for the weekly grind. If you had called me at 3 that afternoon and asked me about the sermon -- at best, I would have hemmed and hawed until I dredged it up.  At worst I would have had total brain cramp. To be sure that time in the morning in worship was good for my soul.   I felt closer to God at least for awhile. Hearing the word and having it seep into our core is important – indeed, it is essential. There is no faith without that true hearing of the word. But I was not so good at taking up the Word’s challenges and doing something about them. Seldom did I let the Word inform the way I lived. Yes, sometimes I was a doer -- feeding the homeless, loving my neighbors even when they weren’t very loveable, and taking care of the widow. But to be honest I was a better hearer than a doer.

On the other hand some of us are better doers than hearers. We all know people who are always busy doing. They seem to go from planning one event  to running another. The danger for them is that they get so busy – there are so many things to do -- that they no longer stop to listen to the word. In our world we celebrate being busy. Multi-tasking is an enviable attribute. The most noteworthy inventions of our age are new hi tech gadgets that let us do more and to do it more quickly. We can schedule that doctor’s appointment while we wait to tee off so long as we whisper. No car trip is complete without a few cell phone calls. One day in DC while I was commuting in heavy traffic on Massachusetts Avenue, I got behind a guy who was going slowly and adding to the traffic delay. I noticed his cell phone at his ear and decide  his distracted driving was due to an important conversation that could not wait the 10 minutes until he go to his office. And then I saw him reach over and pull a page from his car fax and slow down even more as he tried to read it. Now that was multi-tasking! 

But in this busy world how often do we ask the question why are we doing this? Why are we in such a hurry?  Even in the church we sometimes get so busy that we don’t take the time to hear the Word. The press of business keeps us in the office or in a meeting and not in worship. So why are we here?

As I said, Senator Kennedy was not a saint. Nevertheless, whether you share his politics and ideology or not, we all can admire him for reflecting in his public life his own faith by both listening and acting. He had an animating liberal political ideology to be sure but he also understood that it was nothing if not lived – if not achieved even in small steps. He had a strong faith that undergirded his political life. Personally, I think his greatest gift was in understanding the connection between hearing and doing. In his ability to compromise and to build consensus with others of all stripes, he saw that his political ideals were incomplete it if not lived and achieved even in small, incomplete steps. That I think is what the book of James is saying to us about faith. 

The relationship between hearing and doing is a dynamic and reciprocal one. Don’t we understand what we have read or heard in a new light when we actually attempt to translate those words into action? I was reminded of that this summer when I pulled out my chain saw to cut down some trees blocking my view. I went to my instruction manual and read up on chainsaw operation and the dos and don’ts of felling trees. It had been quite  a long time since I had had it out. And then I went out to the hillside where the trees where and started the saw. No sooner did I get started then the words of the instruction book about notching and not getting the saw caught in the tree when cutting  took on new and fuller meaning as I struggled to get my saw unstuck  and to extract the downed tree from the other trees  in which it appeared hopelessly snagged. Quite simply one can hear the Word – God’s instructions -- but in doing it – the essence of the Word is more fully revealed. What we do in furtherance of our faith is important -- when we house the homeless, feed the hungry, comfort the anxious and grieving, we are acting out our faith. But equally it is in the doing of these faithful actions that we truly hear the Word. To serve a meal to a homeless man and to talk with him on a winter night in the Parish Hall here is to truly understand more powerfully than any scripture or sermon can convey that we are all God’s children.  

But equally we need to go back and listen to the Word again and again. If all we do is act, we risk forgetting the why behind our actions. Hearing and doing are reinforcing and mutually revealing. A life of faith requires both. Our life in the church is not simply about Sunday morning worship – it is about living our faith. But equally without engaging the Word in worship and in prayer our doing can become detached from faith.  It is quite simple really -- faith requires hearing the Word and doing it.  It is a process -- a life long journey that never ends but always enriches. Travel that road   stop at the intersection where God’s love and God’s work   meet. Stop, listen and then go out into the world and do what needs doing. Isn’t that faith in a nutshell? Amen