Doers not just hearers
St Paul is often thought of as a rather blunt, maybe even not particularly pleasant sort of character in some of his letters. Certainly he was fairly ruthless in terms of trying to maintain a discipline in the Church, and he was passionate about sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. But this morning we’ve heard part of the letter of James (1:19-27), and here we find some even more blunt comments – James argued that whilst good works wouldn’t save a person, good works are certainly the marks of a Christian person. In the eyes of James, talk without action was meaningless. ‘Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves’, wrote James. This remains one of the great challenges to the Church today – to not just listen and talk but to be doers of God’s word. As we look at some of the things we do in church, we find that many of them are man-made – the robes we wear, the way we conduct services, the way we organise the communion meal, the way we make up