Dear
Emanuel Members and Friends –
“My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really
believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and
in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes
also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and
say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand
there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves,
and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of
the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored
the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into
court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over
you?
You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the
scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality,
you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps
the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For
the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not
murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a
transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by
the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown
no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
What good is it, my
brothers and sisters, 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.” James 2:1-17
“Come now,
you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your
riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have
rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh
like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of
the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and
the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You
have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your
hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous
one, who does not resist you.” James
5:1-5
Our Epistle readings for September come from the
letter of James. James was one of the
brothers of Jesus, and head of the church at Jerusalem. Unlike Paul, whose primary outreach and
ministry was to far-flung Gentile converts, James “kept the home fires burning”
by keeping the light of the Gospel alive in Jerusalem. His letter bears the unique perspective and
witness of the original Jewish followers of Jesus and of the earliest
Christians as described in opening chapters of the book of Acts.
The book of James is among the more controversial
books in the Bible, contrasting as it does with the perspectives of Paul. Martin Luther, whose understanding of Paul’s
letters (especially Romans) led him to a theology of justification by faith
alone, famously called the book of James “a right strawy epistle”. In contrast, other
reformers, including Zwingli, one of the fathers of our German Reformed
tradition, held the letter of James in high esteem. Zwingli wrote, “Christ will not let his
people be idle” and “Those who have rightly understood the mystery of the
Gospel will exert themselves to live rightly.”[1]
Those who see Paul’s and James’ writings as being
in conflict often hold oversimplified interpretations of these apostles,
believing that Paul taught that holding certain beliefs about Jesus in one’s
mind is all we need to be saved, while believing that James taught that we have
to work to earn our salvation. Both of
these are misrepresentations of Paul’s and James’ writings. Paul’s wrote a great deal about how Christian
faith leads to action – in fact, as he traveled, he asked his listeners to put
their faith into action by contributing to a collection he was taking up for
the church at Jerusalem that James had led! (I Corinthians 16:1-4, 2
Corinthians 8:1-9:15, Romans 15:14-32).
Likewise, James upheld the importance of faith, insisting only that a
saving faith in Christ will inevitably show itself in Christlike words and
actions. But Paul and James wrote to
different audiences, and they wrote in ways that made sense to their original
audiences. Our perspective toward Paul’s and James’
writings should be “both-and”, not “either/or”.
We should see them as complementing, even completing one another, not
conflicting with one another. Perhaps we,
who read from a distance of nearly 2000 years, can look at their writings as
two blades of a scissors; while they are indeed distinct, both Paul’s and
James’ perspectives on faith are necessary for a full understanding of the
Gospel.
In the quotes from James’ letter that begin this
newsletter, James taught that Christians need to show honor and care for the
poor just as much as they would for the wealthy, that a saving faith is
demonstrated by action, and that laborers are to be treated justly. These words, especially about treating
workers justly, are especially relevant as we celebrate Labor Day. Dating back to the 1880’s, Labor Day
recognizes the dignity of workers and the achievements of the labor
movement. (The United States is unique
in recognizing workers in September; most countries celebrate worker solidarity
on May 1.) Labor practices that for
years were taken for granted – prohibitions on child labor, the weekend, the 8-hour
work day, paid vacation, employee benefits – are hard-won victories of the
labor movement, literally paid for in blood.
And now, as labor unions have weakened, many of
these victories are being nibbled away and undermined. In today’s so-called “gig economy”, annual
wage increases, paid vacations, and generous employee benefit packages are
rapidly becoming relics of the past. In
our day of wage theft and of vast divides between the fantastically wealthy and
the abysmally destitute, the words of James 5:1-5 are as relevant as they were
the day they were written.
Organized labor recognized it is extremely
difficult for one individual to overcome a corrupt system, that workers had to
band together and support one another and even sacrifice for one another in
order to improve their conditions.
Slogans such as “an injury to one is an injury to all” illustrate the
solidarity, the mutual support that drove the labor movement at its height. And perhaps we in the church can learn from
this history. In many churches, faith is
an individual, nearly solitary “Jesus-and-me” experience – while people may
gather in one place, there’s little interaction among worshippers beyond a
perfunctory handshake or wave at the passing of the peace. In many churches, worshippers are very much
“alone in the crowd”. Now, it’s true
that on Sunday mornings at Emanuel, we can’t be alone in the crowd because
there’s no crowd. But beyond that
unfortunate reality, among those who are present in worship and active in the
life of the congregation, I believe we are developing an Emanuel solidarity and
mutual support network of sorts among our members, as we look out for one
another, check in on one another, and if need be, support and advocate for one
another through difficult times. And we are casting a wider net in welcoming
all sorts and conditions of men, women, and children. We may not welcome perfectly, but we welcome
faithfully. I believe the Apostle James would be pleased.
See you in church! –
Pastor Dave
Note: The first image is a slogan and illustration from the "Eight Hour Movement": https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/eight-hour-day-movement The other two images are from the Catholic Worker movement.
[1]
Timothy George, “’A Right Strawy Epistle”: Reformation Perspectives on James”
http://d3pi8hptl0qhh4.cloudfront.net/media/publications/sbjt/sbjt_2000fall3.pdf
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