This morning’s message is the second in a series of readings from the New Testament book of James. During our ‘Singsperation’ last week we took a little peek at James and his take on Christianity and today we’ll look a little deeper.
This little epistle has been called a book with something to offend everyone. Martin Luther disliked it so much he wanted it thrown out of the canon of scripture.
Luther was all about grace and if you rush through the book of James, it seems to be saying that faith is not grace at all but all about works – like I said, something to offend everyone. But the book of James does remind us that having faith and not doing something about it is the same as having no faith at all.
But to really understand what James is telling us, we need to take a closer look at the world in which he lived and the way people of faith lives their lives in 1st century
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If church folk from the 1st century were to come into town today, they would not recognize what communities of faith have become. In his book, ‘The Church Before Christianity’, Wes Howard-Brook describes the early church as one where people turned their backs not just on their old gods and on their old ways of dealing with people – they actually turned their backs on an entire society that had become corrupt – one that took advantage of the less fortunate, one that praised the strong and turned its back on the weak, one that gave them bread and circuses to they wouldn’t upset the status quo.
In the 1st century, the world was separated into the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ – and there was no way to cross from one group to the other. There was no safety net either. The old and the sick had nothing to rely on. Widows and orphans went hungry and homeless or sold themselves into slavery for the promise of a crust of bread and a safe place to sleep.
Howard-Brook continues by saying that the poor people of a town would try to attach themselves to a rich person in something that was called ‘patronage’. One of the things they would do is that the poorer person would stand at the door of a rich person’s house and sing their praises as they left to go somewhere – sometimes even following them all the way – proclaiming the high esteem they had for the rich person. Why? So if they ever needed a favor, the rich person would think kindly about them and perhaps help them out.
In country settings, help usually came from a member of one’s extended family or a next door neighbor – much like it does today, but as people moved into the cities, they left those relationships behind and found themselves alone with no one to rely on. Providing a safety net was one of the reasons for starting societies, or guilds, made up of people with similar interests. Paul spoke against one such guild, the silversmiths, while he was in
The early Christian community tried to leave all this behind by starting their own version of a guild. In an age when people looked to the Emperor of Rome for safety and security – salvation – the early Christians looked to an unseen God for their safety and for their salvation, they looked to a convicted felon, an itinerant preacher whom many said rose from the dead. They turned their lives away from a corrupt society and toward a lifestyle that more closely emulated what they believed the Christ wanted them to have. The best modern day example I can think of is the religious commune, the Shakers and other such – definitely a radical lifestyle – but one that allows its members to leave the corruption of the world behind.
We have all heard the words; ‘Sell what you have and give it to the poor – then come and follow me.’ In the first centuries of Christianity, people really did it. They sold their possessions so that the poor could have enough to eat, and clothing on their backs and roofs over their heads. They tried to become each other’s safety nets and each other’s community.
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And yet --- even in a society that tried to hard to separate itself from the culture that surrounded it, James tells us that the church was still showing partiality to the ones with the nice clothes. Imagine, going through all the trouble it took to declare yourself as a follower of Jesus, becoming part of a body of believers, agreeing to share all your earthly possessions, and then showing partiality to those who show up well dressed. What an enormous contradiction – it means that in all their great attempts to leave the world behind to find new life in Christ and to treat everyone as a sister or brother, they have brought all the world’s prejudices along with them. They continue to honor the very ones who oppress them.
Paul addressed the same kind of partiality in his letters to the Corinthian church. The Agape feast – which used to be a full meal – a pot luck - eventually became nothing more than the bread and wine we now share as communion. Why? - because some were gorging themselves on the best foods while others came away hungry.
You have to wonder what happened to the church over the centuries. It seems that now, being a Christian is just another way to say someone is ‘nice’ – it used to be a way to call someone a radical non-conformist who dared to live apart from a corrupt society.
Which leads us to the question: How can we show our faith? How can we minister to a world in need? – Or more pointedly, If they were ever to arrest you for being a Christian, how much evidence would they have?
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The second part of this morning’s scripture tells us what we need to do to give people all the evidence they need to convict us:
If you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (NRSV)
We show our love for God by showing our love for God’s creation - The churches that are growing – the ones who are best able to share the love of God with a lost and dying world, are the ones who treat one another as part of a community – a friendship circle of friends – friends with a common purpose and a common goal – giving glory to God - and not just as people we see for an hour each week as we pay our dues to the God we try to worship.
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The eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurs on Friday. Thousands of families lost loved ones – and many of those families waited years to receive the government and charitable monies that were appropriated for them – why – because no one can decide how much each person’s life is worth. Instead of simply dividing up the money into equal amounts based on the number of persons killed, they were trying to place a value of the life of each person –Why, they reason, should the family of the file clerk get as much money as the family of an Executive Vice President? I guess you know where James stood – why shouldn’t they get as much? They were all precious people in the sight of a loving God.
In God’s eyes, each of us is a wonderful and special creation. Each of us deserves the best that life on this earth has to give us – and if in God’s grace we have more to share with others, this is a blessing – that we can show God’s love in sharing all that we have as well as all that we are.
If we have less to share, let us share the little we have willingly and joyfully - and if need be, let us accept those things that are shared with us – because God calls us into community and mutuality, to share everything in common – not just sharing when it’s time to share our joys and concerns for prayer – but sharing when it’s time to live.
In just a few minutes, we will celebrate for sacrament of Communion. We will pray together as family and than all who are able will come down the aisle together – rich and not-so-rich, young and not-so-young, healthy and not so healthy – together in the same aisle to receive the same meal of grace. Those of us who cannot come down the aisle will not be left out or ignored. Rather we will come to them directly to share our communal meal – not treating them as lesser persons but rather showing them honor just as Christ showed honor to those who needed just a little more help.
This is how we should share everything we have – without partiality – without favoritism – without bias towards those honored by the world and without bias against those distained by the world.
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Oh yeah – I almost forgot – this morning’s scripture stops just short of one of my favorite verses in James – 2:19; ‘You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder.’
Even the demons believe – and they shudder when they think about the consequences of their choices – but they still won’t change and follow the One true God.
Let us not make those same mistakes. Let us honor one another without partiality. Let us do the work of God as we are able. If we are ever arrested for being Christians, let’s give them lots of evidence against us. Amen.
