This is my first Sunday back from our vacation, during which I spent some days in Canada fishing for salmon with some members of this church. In previous trips no one from the church had been with me, so I was not inhibited in reporting my success when I got back. This year the truth squad is sitting out there, the Richeys are over here, the Coutts are back there, so I have to be honest with you and tell you that the fishing just wasn't very good this year, except for one exception. Your humble pastor caught a fifty-two pound salmon. Someone asked me, "Did you throw it back?" I said, "No, I clutched it to my chest and danced."

The following week I joined Jean and our youngest daughter, Amy, at our cabin in Northern California. One day Amy and I hiked up a fork of the river where no one goes to find some respectable trout. As we were fishing down stream, I came around a corner of the canyon and seventy-five feet ahead of me I saw a mountain lion drinking from the river. It must have been six feet long, and a tail that looked equally as long. I ducked back behind the wall and started waving to Amy to inform her of this. She didn't see me. So I stepped out and looked again. He was now turned and staring right at me. I stared back at him.

I'd like to say that those three things that you are supposed to do when you meet a mountain lion came to my mind, but nothing came to my mind. I just froze there, and we stared at each other. The only thing I could think of was Ogden Nash's funny little two-line poem:

If called by a panther
Don't anther

The lion obviously remembered the things that a lion is supposed to do when it meets a human being, because it bounded up the cliff and into the woods. That ended the fishing for that day.

Later on I did remember the rules that you are supposed to follow if you meet a mountain lion. They have to do with body language. First it says, make yourself as big as you can. I have no problem doing that. You are supposed to extend yourself and wave your arms. That is body language and it says something to a lion. The second rule is, don't run, because that says something to a lion as well. Running from a mountain lion says, "I'm prey. Try and catch me." It's body language.

That is also the title of this sermon. We communicate with our bodies, not only to animals, but also to other human beings. For instance, if you sit with your arms folded tightly across your chest, your legs crossed, trying to become as small and inconspicuous as you can, you are saying something with your body. You are saying, "I don't want to be here." On the other hand, if you are sprawled all over the place, your shoes kicked off, laid back, scratching yourself, you are saying, "This is home. I'm comfortable here."

That's called body language. We say something with our bodies. We say something with our posture, the way we stand. We say something with the gestures that we make. Edward Hall wrote a book back some years ago entitled, The Silent Language. He delineated the non-verbal language we use to communicate with each other.

He said not only is there body language, but there is also time language. We say something with the way that we regard time. He gave the illustration of an American diplomat going to an Arab country. He made an appointment with an important official for three o'clock the next day. Now the American custom of courtesy dictates that you should always be on time. He wanted to be especially courteous and make a good impression, so he got there early, about ten minutes before three. He was told he had to wait. Three o'clock passed. He was still waiting. Three fifteen, he was beginning to get a little restless. Three thirty came, he was now insulted. Three forty-five came, he stormed out of there angry. The problem was that the diplomat did not understand silent language. In America to be on time is considered thoughtful. But in Arab countries, to be on time is thought to be pushy and impudent.

Hall wrote that book back in 1959, just when America woke up to discover that it inherited an empire after the second World War. American military presence was all over the world, and American tourists were traveling in numbers unlike any other time in our history. It was a time when Americans were being called "Ugly Americans," because they were perceived as being rude and arrogant. Which was a shock to Americans, because we had always thought of ourselves as being generous, kind and thoughtful. Hall said the problem was that Americans don't understand silent language.

There is body language. There is the language of time. And there is the language of space. How do you feel when you come to church and find somebody sitting in your pew? In another church I served, a man always sat in the back row, back in the corner, always in the same place every Sunday. One Sunday I looked back there and noticed a couple sitting in the man's place. The man who always sat in the back was a few rows up, sitting there with the kind of body language that let everybody know how he felt about it. The next Sunday, the couple was still there in the man's pew again. After church that Sunday, the man came up to me and said, "You tell those people to get out of there, or I'm not coming back!"

Incidentally, he sat there, in the back row, in the corner, because he thought he could go to sleep back there and I wouldn't see him. He had an ingenious way of using the hymnal to prevent his head from nodding. He would place the hymnal in his lap, then he would put his elbow on the hymnal, and then place his chin on his hand. That prevented him from nodding, but it didn't prevent him from swaying. I would see him back there listing to the starboard, or to the port.

Non-verbal communication, the silent language, body language. We say something with our actions. Now to the lesson for this morning from the Letter of James, the first chapter.

Be doers of the word, not hearers only, lest you deceive yourselves.

The problem was that Paul had done his job. Paul came preaching, "You are saved by faith, not by works." You are not saved by doing something. You are saved by what God has already done for you in Jesus Christ.

With that preaching, Paul brought about a tremendous revolution in religious thinking. "We are saved by God's grace alone." Up to that time, and even today, many people think that we have to do something in order to earn God's love. Paul was overwhelmed with the thought that God was in Christ. Which meant, God came to us. We could not bridge the gap between us and God, but God took the initiative out of love for us, and came to us. Paul said that is what grace means. Grace means unmerited, undeserved, forgiving love.

Paul experienced that grace in his own life with such a dramatic power that it turned his life around, literally, and impelled him to go around the world preaching grace. He was really preaching his own experience of grace. "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!" That was Paul's experience.

Other people heard Paul preach. They called it the "gospel," which means the "good news" that God loves you. God has sent his Son into the world not to condemn you, but to save you.

People experienced that same grace in their lives, Jews and Gentiles, all over the world. They came into the church. It was amazing. People who had nothing to do with one another, nothing in common with one another, all of a sudden formed a new family, a new community, because they had all experienced grace in their lives.

Paul did his job, and he did it well. But maybe he did it too well, because there were come Christians who interpreted Paul's preaching about having faith alone and not works, as meaning, I don't have to do anything. It's a pretty good deal. Being a Christian means you just sit in church. In fact, the less I do, the more I rely on faith. So if we are saved by our faith in God's grace alone and not in our works, then the best policy is simply to do nothing. Just rely on grace. That was their thinking. The more religious you are, the less you should do, lest you rely on works and not on faith in God.

It is that attitude that James is addressing when he says, "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers only, deceiving yourselves." James is a corrective to Paul. Paul was right. We are saved by grace, what God has done for us, not by our works. But you can't stop there. If you have been saved by grace, then you ought to live by grace. If you have been touched by God's love in your life, then you ought to share that love with other people. If you have been transformed by grace, then you ought to be gracious to other people.

"Don't deceive yourselves," James says. It is almost there in the form of a warning. Don't deceive yourselves, as if you think being saved by grace means that the life that you live now isn't going to make any difference in your ultimate salvation. Think again. Don't be deceived!

From what I can see there is a popular form of Christianity today that needs a correction from the Letter of James, a Jacobean correction. There are those who reduce Christianity simply to believing. In fact, they love to use terms of diminishment: All you do is "just." Just do this. All you need to do.... All you need to do is believe. All you need to do is to bow your head now and repeat after me.

Do you know what that is? That's Paul run amok. It is based on the assumption that all we need to do to be saved is just to believe. What James is saying is, that may be all you need to be converted, but that's not all you need to be a Christian. To be converted is to join the army. To be a Christian is to enter the battle. To be converted is to get a uniform and look real sharp. To be a Christian is to get some scars, some battle ribbons.

Paul himself had to make this correction to his own churches. He said to the Ephesians, "You've experienced this grace. That's wonderful. Now put on the armor of God." You notice he used a military metaphor. "Put on the armor of God because we are battling against the principalities and the powers." To be a Christian is to be involved in fighting evil and injustice in this world, to make this world a better place. So don't deceive yourselves, James says. To become a Christian is like joining an army, and you are supposed to do something to change this world. "Be doers of the word."

I hope you will watch what is being done in this church as we mobilize this fall to do something about the poverty in this city. We are a strong institution with people of means, who have been blessed by God. We are being called to reach out, as Christ would have reached out, to those who need a helping hand. "Be doers of the word."

It is also the lesson that is given to us in the Gospel lesson from Mark. The scene that was read to you this morning is a strange one. Jesus is in a controversy with the Pharisees over the holiness laws. Holiness laws determined for the Jew what they could eat, when they could eat, and with whom they could eat. They are ancient laws, rooted way deep into the past, so probably nobody knew why they were there in the first place. They were just there. Orthodox Jews obeyed them nevertheless. Even today Orthodox Jews obey these ancient laws, because they make the Jew a distinct people. It is what Jews do in common. It is what they do in community. Nobody else does this. It is what it means to be a Jew.

Ancient customs have tremendous power. You see them not only in Judaism, you see them in all religions of the world, customs that people of my ethnic group, or my race, or my religion do. This is what constitutes us as a people, gives us an identity.

I have read of secular Jews in America who haven't been to a synagogue for years, going back, in fact, going into Orthodox Judaism, because it provides for them what they don't understand, but what they know they need; a sense of belonging, a sense of identity. That's what these holy laws were all about. It is what gave the Jews identity.

So that is what this passage is about. If kosher laws, what you eat, are what distinguishes the Jew, Jesus then asks, what distinguishes the Christian. Here is the point. What distinguishes the Christian is not the food you eat, but the deeds you do. That's why Jesus says, what goes into a person doesn't defile them. That means the dietary laws. The Jews watch what goes inside of us. That's not what is important. What's important, he said, is what comes out of the heart, because the heart is the essence of the person. So what comes out of the heart is the real you. That's what is important.

Every religion has a distinctive way of life, a distinctive pattern of dress, or something that identifies them. We ought to be identified as Christians, Jesus says, by our behavior. That is why James says, "Be doers of the word, not hearers only, lest you deceive yourselves."

James is a corrective to Paul. It's a Jacobean correction. He is saying, Paul is right, for starters, Paul's right for beginners, but the mature Christian is a follower of Jesus. In fact, that is the easiest way to identify a Christian. He or she looks like Jesus.

He told a parable once, one of his simplest, and yet one of his most profound and challenging. He said, "What do you think? A man had two sons. He sent them both into the field to work. The first one said, `I'll go,' but he didn't go. The second one said, `I won't go,' but he ended up going." Jesus then asked, "Which one did the will of the father?"

At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount--which means this is the most important point, the summary statement--he talks about who gets in the Kingdom and who doesn't. He said, "Not those who say, `Lord, Lord,' not those who say, `I'll go,' not those who sing, `Here am I Lord, I will go,' but those who do the will of my heavenly father."

It is as if he were saying, the language that I want to hear from Christians is the language of love, the silent language. I want to see some body language. I want to see Christians get up and start doing something. As St. Francis said to his monks, "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." The primary mode of communication for Christians, what ought to distinguish us as Christians, is not our words, but our deeds. "Be doers of the word."

Lin Yutang died a few years ago. He taught philosophy at Columbia University in New York City for many years. He wrote books. I remember when I was in college I read his textbooks on eastern religions. He was raised a Christian in China. His parents were Christians. When he came to America as a student, he put behind him his childhood religion and became an atheist.

In mid-life he came back to the Church. He said it happened while attending church with his wife. His wife remained a Christian and was a member of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Lin Yutang said that it was a quality of life on the part of the members of that church, and the preaching of David H. C. Reed, that brought him back to Christ. In his autobiography he talks about his spiritual journey.

What prevents people from knowing Jesus is exactly those doctrinaire busybodies--their confessions of creed--their dogmas--that kept me from Christianity for thirty years. Their five and ten cent theology prevented me from seeing Jesus. But in actual fact, Christianity in China never made converts by doctrine. But it did make converts whenever a Chinese came into contact with a Christian who followed Jesus command, "Love one another."

"Be doers of the word, not hearers only, lest you deceive yourselves."