Scriptures: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 Psalm
15
James 1:17-27 Mark
7:1-8, 14-23
I’ll start
off with an old Sunday School song:
If you’re happy and you know it,
clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it,
clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it,
then your life will surely show it
If you’re happy and you know it,
clap your hands
“If you’re
happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it.” This song, and this line, may give us an
opening into the letter of James, which we’ll be reading this month. James was one of the brothers of Jesus, and he
eventually became leader of the early church in Jerusalem. While the letter of James covers a number of
topics, the main theme is that faith leads to action – that if we’re followers
of Jesus, then our lives will surely show it.
This letter
that we’ll be reading over the course of the next month is the only writing we
have from James – but we have many letters of Paul in the New Testament. And I think there’s a tendency to give the
letter of James a little bit of side-eye, a little bit of suspicion, because it
seems to conflict with Paul’s teaching that salvation comes through faith, and
not through works. And this apparent
conflict may reflect some differences that Paul and James themselves
experienced. James was the Lord’s
brother, and like Jesus himself and most of the early disciples was a Jew. The church he led in Jerusalem was composed
mostly of Jewish converts to the way of Jesus, and many of them still held to
the Jewish ceremonial law – rules around eating and sacrifices and such. Paul was called to faith in Jesus in a vision. While he was also a Jew, he found his calling
in bringing the Gospel to Gentile believers, and did not impose the Jewish
ceremonial law on these Gentile converts.
This was a cause for controversy, and at one point Paul and Barnabas,
along with Titus, a gentile convert, met with James and some of the other
apostles, Peter and John among them, in Jerusalem. Among Biblical scholars, this is referred to
as the Jerusalem council, and was a turning point in the life of the early
church. At this council, it was agreed
that the Gentile converts did not have to follow the Jewish ceremonial law in
its entirety, though they did impose a few requirements. This council is described in Acts chapter 15,
as well as the 2nd chapter of Galatians. It’s interesting to read both of these
accounts, because they are very different – Acts chapter 15 sounds like minutes
from a church meeting, with peace and harmony prevailing, while Paul’s account
in Galatians is edgier, with Paul sounding defensive and even a little
adversarial. And so Paul and James
represented different constituencies – Paul was apostle to the Gentiles, while
James’ place was among the Jewish believers.
While they held the same faith, they communicated their faith in
different ways to their respective congregations to whom they ministered.
While there are
differences between Paul’s and James’ writings, I don’t want to over-emphasize
them. James certainly lived by his faith
– he only insisted that a true and saving faith would inevitably result in
action. And Paul of all people had no
problems putting his faith into action, and instructing others to do so – after
all, he traveled most of the known world of the time in preaching the Gospel,
encountering hardship and persecution at every step of the way. In fact, as Paul traveled, he took up a
collection to support the church in Jerusalem that James led! So while they had their differences and their
followers sometimes clashed, Paul and James fully respected and supported one
another. And both Paul and James were
martyred for the faith in Christ that they shared.
I think part
of the reason that the letter of James is undervalued, at least in the
Protestant denominations, is because Martin Luther felt that the letter of
James undermined his interpretation of Paul’s writings on justification by
faith through grace. The Roman Catholic
church of Luther’s time taught that by purchasing indulgences, believers could
reduce their time in purgatory – indulgences were sort of a get of out of jail
card, though they surely weren’t free.
In preaching against this teaching, Luther taught that justification,
rightness with God, came through faith in Jesus Christ, as a free gift. The letter of James sounded to Luther a bit
like trying to earn salvation, and so he looked down on the letter, famously
calling it “a right strawy epistle.” Now,
the faith that both Paul and Luther wrote about was a total reliance, total
trust, in Jesus, totally throwing oneself on the mercy of Jesus. And James would agree, only insisting that if
we truly trust Jesus, our actions will reflect that trust. But over the centuries, Protestants in
particular have watered down Luther’s teaching to the point of saying that
merely holding correct ideas about Jesus in one’s head, merely being able to
memorize and recite a creed, was enough to be saved, no matter how one lived –
and lots of churches teach this today.
It’s likely
that even some of Paul’s converts were circulating similar notions, centuries before
Luther’s reformation. In fact, some of
these notions – that so long as we “believe in Jesus”, it doesn’t matter how we
live - show up in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians – and Paul wrote to oppose
them. It’s exactly this notion – faith
as head knowledge and nothing more, faith as being able to memorize a creed and
nothing more – that James was writing against.
James writes about God’s grace, saying “Every generous act of giving,
with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his
own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a
kind of first fruits of his creatures.”
These beautiful words are all about God’s grace. But then James goes on: “You must understand this, my beloved: let
everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does
not produce God’s righteousness.
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. But be doers of the
word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” Be doers, not just hearers. Anyone can come to church and hear the
word. But it takes a true believer to
act on that word, to take the word outside the church and live it out in our
lives.
Lest we
think James is leading us astray, Jesus says much the same in our Gospel
reading today. Jesus’ disciples were
eating food with unwashed hands, and the Pharisees were scolding them because
that went against their tradition. Of
course, washing our hands before we eat is healthy, and we were al taught as
children to wash our hands before we eat…but the Pharisees attached a religious
meaning to the washing of hands and utensils beyond whatever health benefits it
brought. While it sounds a bit arcane
and archaic to us today, in our context we might think of foodies who chastise
others for eating food that’s not organically grown, or that’s not vegan or such….while
eating healthy is in itself commendable and good for us, we get into trouble
spiritually when we look down on others who eat differently. And Jesus came right back at them,
questioning some of their own traditions that contradicted the plain word of
the commandment to honor one’s father and mother. But then Jesus went on to tell them a parable
that was a sort of riddle: It’s not what
goes into a person that defiles him, but what comes out of a person. The disciples didn’t understand him, and so
Jesus told them – what goes into you – what you eat – can’t defile you – it
just goes in one end and out the other.
But it is what comes out of a person – not referring to what goes into
the toilet, but the evil actions that come out of an evil person’s heart and
mind that defile a person, that drag a person down and make them less than what
God intended, and Jesus gives us quite a list – fornication, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride,
foolishness. And so Jesus was very
concerned, not only with belief, but with actions – because our actions reveal
our true beliefs.
“Be doers of
the word, and not hearers only.” In
connection with this passage, I read a story this week about heaven. A person died and went to the pearly gates,
and St Peter let the person in, and one of the angels gave the person a
tour. As the person was checking out the
sights, the angel led him to an enormous chest of drawers. The angel pulled out one of the drawers, and
inside the drawer were a multitude of ears.
Understandably, the man was puzzled and a little taken back. The angel explained, these are the ears of
people who went to church every week and listened to the sermon, but never
acted on anything they heard – and so when they died, only their ears went to
heaven.
Bottom line,
for James and for Jesus: we can’t
separate our faith from our actions, because our actions reveal what we truly
believe in and who or what we truly trust.
I’ve said before and will say now – if you want to know what you truly
believe in, look at your checkbook, your credit card statement, and your
calendar – because how we spend our money and our time reveals our true
priorities. A person who has built up
an enormous investment portfolio but does nothing to help those less fortunate
has faith in gold, not in God, no matter how often they attend church. A person who steals from other people, who
lies and gossips about other people, who attacks other people verbally or
physically, who uses other people and then throws them away, who feels a need
to put themselves first in every situation, trusts only in their own ability to
get over on other persons – and thus has no real trust in God, because a person
who trusts in God doesn’t feel the need to get over on other people.
There are
two theological words that might help us to put Paul and James in
perspective: justification and
sanctification. Justification is being
made right with God, which comes through the saving work of Jesus Christ on the
cross. But sanctification is being set
apart for God, being made holy, being made more Christ-like, which also comes
through the saving work of God – and is the work of a lifetime. And what I’m about to say is an
oversimplification, but it may help us remember: Put simply, justification says that through
the work of Jesus Christ, God loves us, just as we are. But sanctification says that, through the
saving work of Jesus Christ, God loves us too much to let us stay that
way. Let me repeat that again: God loves us, just the way we are. But God loves us too much to let us stay that
way. God loves us, just the way we are. God loves us too much to let us stay that
way. For me, that’s the bottom line of
the letter of James.
“Be doers of
the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves,” James wrote. At the beginning of this sermon, I saing, “If
you’re happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it.” And the message of James is like that – ‘If
we’re faithful and we know it, then our lives will surely show it.” May our lives reflect our faith in
Christ. In the words of the old campfire
song, may they know we are Christians by our love. Amen.
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