March 9, 2025, First Sunday of Lent
First Congregational Church of Brimfield MA
Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.
James 1: 19-27 19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Do you remember, was it last week?, when Elon Musk asked all government employees to email his office with a list of five things they’d done in the past week? Well, it led to a lot of us making similar lists, and I want to share one such list with you, written by a fellow pastor.
Has everyone composed their “what I did last week” report?
- I helped offer warmth and safety to 48 people who otherwise would have been out in the bitter cold. Someone who didn’t come in froze to death. This ministry is the most important thing we do.
- Helped feed a couple hundred meals. Our good partners do most of the work; I’m just there to offer an ear or a prayer or a coat or wool blanket or warm socks, a bag of shelf-stable food for the homeless, or a quart of frozen leftovers to the housed.
- Taught a Bible study. We’re beginning Thessalonians: Paul is telling them to persevere, even when the world around you values different things than you do. My favorite part so far is when he tells them they used to be imitators of their teachers, but now they’re a shining example for others to imitate: the gospel is echoing throughout their region because of their faithfulness.
- Preached a sermon on the sermon on the plain, in which Jesus finds blessings in the darndest places, in poverty and in hunger and in shed tears, before telling us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.
- Talked to so many people who were scared or hurt or angry or grieving. I don’t know if a single one is less scared or hurt or angry or grief-stricken now, but hopefully at least they know they’re loved.
Jamie Spriggs 2/26/25
That list didn’t go to Elon Musk; it was shared among friends on Facebook, by the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fall River. Fall River is one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts, just a step or two healthier than Springfield. In some lists it #3, with New Bedford #2, and Springfield as #1, the poorest city in this commonwealth..
Now, later on in Lent, we’ll do some conversation about poverty, but today what I want to look at with you is a more foundational question. Just why did Pastor Jamie Spriggs spend her week preaching, teaching the Bible, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless at a very cold time of the year?
Her church is one of the big, old, beautiful buildings in downtown Fall River. It has a gorgeous interior, but when you look it up on Google, what you see is notice after notice of free meals, clothing ministry and so on.
Why do they do it? There aren’t a lot of people there any more; it’s no longer THE prominent church in the city. You don’t go there to be seen. Why do people, and not just the Baptists, but people from churches in the surrounding communities, come into First Baptist to serve the struggling population of Fall River?
Why do we do what we do?
Because, you know, what we do here is not all that different from the good folks of Fall River. We don’t have the poor population they do, so we’re more like the outlying churches that come into the city to run a dinner, but we’re feeding people. And if we knew of a need for warm clothes, we’d answer that call.
But why? I think it’s really important for us to be clear about our motivations, to talk together from time to time about why we do what we do.
There are all kinds of special reasons that people do these kinds of things – it’s a way of maybe honoring a parent or grandparent, maybe a way of saying thanks for help received, maybe you need community service hours for high school, or you’re going for Eagle Scout? That’s why someone might do this, but why does the church sponsor the program in the first place? Why does doing those good things honor someone, or please them?
And now we’ve gotten to why you heard a reading from Proverbs, that said Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will be repaid in full.
We do good because it pleases God.
That’s all there is to it. God has given us life, community, purpose – and all we have to offer in return, in gratitude, in love, is our ability to be people of love, generosity, compassion, in God’s name, for the glory of God.
We do good because it pleases God.
I’ve been reading the new autobiography of the Christian teacher, Tony Campolo, who died earlier this year. Campolo, who was an American Baptist teacher, pastor, church leader, wrote that God extends to us the gift of salvation, and then we reach out, hoping to help our world grow closer to God’s intention for us. Being a Christian is not just about being baptized, or being saved, but about growing into people who build better communities.
We do good because it pleases God.
During Lent this year, we’re going to be looking at some of the pressures in our world that make it hard to do good. . . not just things like a short temper, but the way our society is organized, how our world nurtures hate. Each week, starting today, we will have some intentional time after the service, right here in this room, to talk about what I’ve said. The forces which drive us apart are subtle, hard to see, and it is in our conversation that we can begin to see more clearly.
I hope you’ll grab a cup of coffee and a cookie (or 2 or 3), and stay to talk together. Let’s talk together about why we do good, and what kinds of good might best help Brimfield and surroundings be healthy and thriving.
For our final words today, let me read James again, verse 22: …be doers of the word and merely hearers who deceive themselves… Don’t just say yes, yes, and then crickets.
Love God, serve your world, be Christian.
Amen.
© 2025, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 