What Good Are You?

​16th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 18)                                                 LSB #’s 848, 782, 852
Text – James 2:14
 
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him? 
 
WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?
 
 
Reinhold Biberdorf – it sounds like a name straight out of the Harry Potter books.  However, he spent his entire life farming on the plains of North Dakota.  I knew him during his years of retirement & by then he was unable to work.  He told me one day that he was good for nothing anymore, because he was no longer able to work like he was used to doing. 
Already at that point,  mostly what Reinhold could do  was to receive the care of his friends, his wife & his children.  There was very little that he could do for them.    Sometime after I met him, he fell,  hit his head  & developed a brain bleed.  Hospitalized & in a coma,  all he could do  was lie there in bed. 
But he did have one last gift to share, one last thing he would do for his wife & daughter.  I was visiting him at the hospital.  His wife & daughter were there & they were terribly worried for him.  It had been a week or more  & His condition was not improving. 
The daughter had not been attending church regularly so she was not receiving the blessings that God provides there – peace, strength of faith, courage & understanding.  She didn’t know if dad could hear her  because he never responded when she spoke to him.  At the end of my visit, I offered to pray with them. 
After finishing that extemporaneous prayer, I began to say the Lord’s Prayer.   At that point it became obvious that Reinhold was hearing us  because his lips began to move right in sync with ours.  His prayer was not audible  but it was visible.   Whether he was aware of it or not, what comfort that simple act provided to his wife & daughter.   Not many days after that, he was called home by the heavenly Father.   Yet,  almost to his dying day,  while in a coma for all that anyone on earth could tell,  the Holy Spirit,  through Reinhold,  was able to give his family one last & very precious gift.  His praying the Lord’s prayer  was the gift of comfort & peace & hope  all rolled up into one. 
Reinhold thought, that because he could no longer work, he was good for nothing.   What good  are you?     All of us do end up measuring the worth of other people.   It’s the nature of life in a broken world.  There never seems to be enough time, or enough money or … so we do have to manage our resources.   In Christian circles we call that stewardship. 
When hiring a roofing contractor,  we want to hire one that does good work.   When seeing a doctor for an illness,  you want a doctor that does good work.   We measure & evaluate how effective they are,  & we seek out the opinions of others, regarding their work.   We do it so often  that we easily conflate the value & worth of human beings  with the work they do. 
What good  are you?      Odd as it may seem,  the answer to that question does not depend upon you  at all.   First off, in Mark 10, Jesus tells us, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good  except God  alone.”  (10:18 ESV)  
So,  one answer to the question, “What good are you?” or “What good am I?” is that none of us  are good.  That is not the answer  our sinful nature wants to hear.   We want to believe  that we are good,  & we want other people  to know it.   Often, we’re tempted to base that upon the good work that we do, how useful & productive we are.   However, sin eradicates  any of that. 
Secondly, in answer to the question, “What Good Are You?” God wants you to know that in His sight you are holy  because of what Jesus has done for you.  Like the first, the answer to that question  also does not depend upon you  at all.  On our own, none of us can even be good, let alone  holy.  But Jesus earned it for us  & grants that status to us  as a gift.  Don’t get me wrong,  we are still sinful,  by what we have done  & by what we have left undone,  but God chooses not to see that  because He sees the blood of Jesus covering your sins instead.  It’s a precarious position to be in,  but far better than the alternative – which is the road to hell.  When it comes to getting into heaven on our own,  anymore  each of us is good for nothing. 
For decades now, Christians in the US have not been making faith in Christ  part of their public life.  There’s been a sort of  assumption that family & friends are all going to heaven.  The result has been that we don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable with religious talk.  All that is supported by the underlying cultural opinion  that everyone is basically good. 
Facing reality, we recognize that even strong Christians have sinful natures.  That aspect of who we are  will always feel awkward or uncomfortable with a lot of Jesus talk.  The fact that so many Christians have been sleep walking through their life of faith  has quietly put Jesus in the closet.  That’s where the warning from James is pointed:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  (James 2:14 ESV)      Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves  is difficult work.  It is often emotionally draining & frustrating  because everyone involved is corrupted by sin.   To love our neighbor requires taking Jesus out of our closet. 
If we have faith, our saintly nature wants to live that out, but it needs help because our sinful nature, & the devil, want to shut it down.  So where do you find that help?  In hearing the Word of God, in remembering what God did for us in Baptism, & in receiving Holy Communion.  Through those means, the heavenly Father promises to sustain & strengthen a faith that works. 
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  (James 2:14 ESV)    James strongly encourages us to turn from that kind of faith because in reality it is no faith at all.  It is dead & unable to save if it cannot even do works.  And that’s the point of this text from James.  Some people, for some reason, like to think of themselves as Christians, when in fact they are not.  Or maybe they still are children of God, but they’ve been resisting God’s desire to love their neighbor for so long that their faith is now in a coma & ready to expire.  James wants to rouse us out of that spiritual coma. 
James calls his reader to look at the evidence of Scripture, of history, of experience,  & realize that faith is no mere acceptance of certain facts, but, rather, reception of gifts.   It is a receiving which changes everything about how we think, speak, & act.  God has given us a great gift through Christ Jesus.  He has forgiven us while declaring us righteous & holy. 
In that forgiveness,  & only there,  is strength to love our neighbor as ourselves.  And we love our neighbor by doing things for them,  & with them.  God’s Spirit blesses us by calling us to serve Him in the lives of the people around us.  A living faith leads us gladly  to share with others  what we have freely received ourselves,  in Christ. 
Have you been putting Jesus in your closet?  Have you been lulled into a spiritual coma by resisting God’s call to love your neighbor as yourself?   Because of declining health do you think you’re good for nothing anymore?  God does not conflate the value & worth of human beings   with the work they do.  Even unborn children are of infinite worth to God. 
Even when our mind or body fail to the point  that you & I are good for nothing anymore, we can still provide opportunities for others  to do good to us.  Reinhold could still say the Lord’s Prayer.   As for God, He never shows partiality as our sinful nature tempts us to do.  God the Father offers His Son  to the whole world,  even while we are sinners. 
One of the prayers we use after Holy Communion puts it this way: “Strengthen us through the same in faith toward You  & in fervent love toward one another.”  Amen. 
 
By Your Word You formed creation  filled with creatures great & small;  as we tend that endless treasure  may our care encircle all.     In His earthly life,  our Savior knew the care of faithful friends;  may our deeds of dedication offer love that never ends.      Heavenly Father,  may our caring bear the imprint of Your grace;  with the Son & Holy Spirit,  praise be yours in every place!  Lord, we pray that we,  Your people  who Your gifts unnumbered claim,  through the sharing of Your blessings  may bring glory to Your name.  Amen.  LSB 782:2-4.