Devoted: Distraction
God Will Have All of Us
James 1:17-27
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. August 29th, 2021
Modern life gives us ample opportunity for distraction. Drive down the highway and there are all sorts of billboards and signs begging for your attention. TV programs are cut up into chunks so that we can fit the adverts in-between. But even those programs can suck us in, and distract us from life for awhile. If you’re like me, a well done TV show or movie can absorb you into its world, so that you can’t stop thinking about it. Some of you are listening to this sermon online through a radio app. The internet itself is full of distractions. They don’t even need to pop up, you just think of something you want to search and it’s so easy to find.
And I haven’t even begun to talk about those distraction making machines we call smartphones. Devices so adept at making distractions that they don’t even need to vibrate, you sense the phantom vibrations.
Every once in awhile there’s a study purporting to show what our attention span truly is. Microsoft sponsored a study half a decade ago that said our attention span is likely 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds the last time the study was done. Others try to figure out what the optimum length for a speech or sermon would be, before people really begin to lose interest or ability to focus. Some say 20 minutes, others say 9 or 10 minutes. The average TED Talk runs 13 minutes.
But when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass famously traveled Illinois debating politics, they talked for three hours. The first candidate got an hour, the second a ninety minute rebuttal, and then the first candidate got another thirty minutes. And these debates were events, held outdoors, with hootin’ and hollerin’ and music and festivities. Methodist camp meetings, in the same era, would meet for weeks at a time with sermons spanning hours. We are certainly capable of greater focus and attention than we have now. Our society is built to distract.
Our capacity for diversion, amusement, and distraction can be a problem. It can be a spiritual problem. Because as James reminds us this morning we are called to a new life by the word of truth. And when we are distracted we falter.
James tells us “In 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.” That word of truth is the gospel that was preached to us. God gives us new birth through the preaching of the gospel. When we hear the gospel: that God loves us, sent Jesus Christ his son to die for our sake, and that he lives and reigns forevermore offering forgiveness and calling us all to himself we may find ourselves transformed. When we are confronted by that news, truly confronted, when we know in the words of John Wesley that “he died for me, even me” we may experience that new birth that sets us on a new life.
Jesus talks about that gospel, the word of truth, in a parable. He says there was a sower who went out to sow, and he cast his seed all over his land. Some fell on the path and is snatched away before it can fall into the soil. I think that’s what we’re most afraid of when it comes to sharing the gospel, that the word will get picked off before it can truly be heard. The other seeds fall into shallow soil, and have no roots to survive when the storms come. They are joyful for awhile, but don’t stick to it. But then others fall into the thorny soil. And James is warning us about the thorny soil. The seed hits the ground and grows, but as it grows it is choked out by thorns and weeds. Those thorns and weeds are distractions. Worries. desire of wealth, glory. These things can snuff out a faith before it grows into full leaf. But the word that hits good soil, in a good environment, gives much fruit.
We are those who have heard the word. That word sinks into our hearts. It proves us to be called to a new life, and a new purpose. To be the people of God in a world that is estranged from God, that needs to know God. To be part of God’s work in this world to make his love known. To be beacons of his grace.
But it is not enough to simply hear the word. The gospel is not God’s afterlife insurance. You hear the pitch, say the prayer to buy it, and keep it in your back pocket just in case. But “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
We can’t simply hear, and be distracted. The Gospel is not insurance. It’s not some interesting ideas. It’s not a theory. It’s not a philosophy. It’s not a fact. It is news. It is proclamation. It is glad tidings. It is a calling, it’s our calling, to lead a life of love, joy, peace, and thanksgiving. It is a calling to live in the aftermath of our Lord’s resurrection, joyously awaiting his return.
If the gospel is a calling, a summons, a proclamation, it invites a response. We can’t simply be hearers who might be distracted. We must be doers. That’s why James says, “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.” How silly it is to look into a mirror and forget what you are like! We must never forget who we are in Christ, we can’t let ourselves be distracted from our calling and purpose. But we must be singlemindedly focused on Christ and Christ alone. Knowing ourselves to have been born again, a new person.
Being a disciple encompasses our whole life. The distractions of this world would tell us otherwise. When we allow ourselves to be distracted we separate our lives into different departments, we may find ourselves imagining different world. But we can’t allow ourselves to forget who we are in Christ, we can’t be distracted from that. God will have all of us, not just some of us. Jesus didn’t die to have you for a Sunday morning. He died for you, all of you, that you might have life. That you might know his life. That you might be his, and he yours. And that we might show the world his peace.