Evening Service, 16 August 2009
You’ve just been accused of sin – and in particular of a sin that strikes at the very heart of the precedent and practice of your Lord Jesus Christ. How do you react?
Is not the immediate human reaction one of defending yourself?
James is a student of human nature and knows that this defence often takes the form of either an evasion of that part of the law of God you have offended, or to attack the accuser as being legalistic. James seems to anticipate the defence of those whom he accuses of partiality in the treatment of people as saying, ‘We have done no wrong. We have sought no favour from the rich man. Our love for him caused us to act as we did.’ It is a hard thing to convince people of their sin. But James as a pastor slowly and carefully helps [...]

Startle us, O God, with your truth
and open our hearts and our minds to your wondrous love.
Speak your word to us;silence in us any voice but your ownand be with us now as we turn our attention,our minds and our hearts, to you,
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This is the weekly Prayer for Illumination by the Rev. John Buchanan at Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. In a sermon, he explained:
For many years I have begun my sermons with a little prayer: “Startle us, O God.” Some of you like that prayer and tell me you miss it when I change it. Some have told me that they’ve been startled quite enough all week long, thank you very much, and the last thing they need on Sunday morning is to be startled again. I use that prayer for myself, if truth were told, because it is my experience that the [...]