James 2:14-18, Matthew 7:7-11

March 4, 2018

James 2:14-18

14 My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? 15 Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. 16 What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? 17 In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. 18 Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action.

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened. 9 Who among you will give your children a stone when they ask for bread? 10 Or give them a snake when they ask for fish? 11 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

When we had our confirmation-led worship service a few weeks ago, our current confirmands – Katie, Miles, Nico, Sarah, and Natalie – stood up before our congregation before the service began, and asked us to pray in a moment of silence for those who had been effected by the mass killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  After the prayer, Miles continued sharing the prepared statement in which they called on our government officials to take some action to make our schools and country safer. Right after the call to action in that moment of silence and solidarity was written, which was a few minutes before the service began, Miles looked up at me, and asked quizzically asked if the statement wasn’t political, this call for our political leaders to do something about the problem of mass killings in our culture.  And I looked at him and said, yes, it was, and though I didn’t say it to him or the other confirmands at the time, I was thinking that there are times when politics and religion do mix, when your faith calls you and I to seek solutions through the means of the body politic which is our right as citizens of this great and imperfect country.  Prayers for those students and persons damaged by gun violence, including the gun violence found right here in Chicago on almost daily basis, prayers are needed but they aren’t the end point of anything, at least most of the time – that is why the students ended that time of silence with a call to action.  And yet recently many of you have seen a flurry of controversy on the internet over the tepid reaction that some politicians have had to the constant drumbeat of murder and violence in this country – thoughts and prayers are offered by some politicians for those effected by these shootings, but they don’t or won’t use their political power to do something about it.  It’s inevitable, it seems to them, that people will kill each other with guns, and it’s the price all of us must pay for the supposed Second Amendment right to buy assault weapons at our local Bass Pro Shop.  And so prayers are offered to God, concern is expressed by words spoken and posted on social media and nothing is ever done, and the cycle continues, with many of these politicians telling us that any kind of talk about solutions to this problem so near a particular mass killing is somehow an