James: The Power of Community

James 5:13-20

If any of you are suffering, they should pray. If any of you are happy, they should sing. If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve. Elijah was a person just like us. When he earnestly prayed that it wouldn’t rain, no rain fell for three and a half years. He prayed again, God sent rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

After the past four weeks, which I am sure at times felt like one was getting beaten up by James, --- we come to the end of his little letter and suddenly the tone shifts.

If I were to try and sum up the overall message of James it is quite simple: That Christians should be easy to pick out of a crowd by how they live their lives.

Now the way that James does this, is often with a knife, rather than coddling us.

James likes to tell it how he sees it, and to be honest --- most of us are not too sure we really like his message --- or at least his method in telling it.

Throughout this letter, James mentions several specific ways we have opportunities to demonstrate our faith in the ways we live our lives.

We began by looking at how James believes that our faith must be exhibited in our works (in other words --- how we live our life).  And that plays out in whether or not we exhibit the fruits of the Spirit

Believing certain things is important --- But James would tell you it is not THE most important thing. 

What is most important? --- Do we demonstrate --- through our lives --- those same things we claim to believe

He continues to challenge us by asking: can people see we are a Jesus follower in

·         How we handle trials and difficulties in our lives

·         How we handle success

·         How we handle temptations

·         Recognizing that we have the power to heal or destroy with our words and are we seen as a uniter with them

·         Do we have concern for the widow and orphan

·         Do our prejudices effect our words and actions

·         Do we help those in need

·         How we approach the future --- do we seek God's kindom or do we seek one of our own creation?

·         And then last week --- with I am sure everyone's favorite sermon --- what we do with our wealth

If you have been reading along at home, you probably noticed that this change in one actually took place a little earlier in chapter 5.

Starting with the 7th verse, James begins to exhort us to patience

But then he shifts

James again affirms, what he has been saying all along --- that ALL OF YOUR LIFE --- every single part of it must flow out of the richness of our relationship with God.

·         If you’re in trouble pray to God about it

·         If you’re happy – praise God in your prayers

·         If you’re sick (on any level: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual) call the elders and have them pray over you and God will heal you, God will set you free.

And these practices that James is describing might best be summarized as elements or hallmarks of a caring community.

They include prayer, the singing of songs of praise, and the ministry of presence and touch in the laying on of hands and anointing, all while invoking the power and promise that belongs to the community in the “name of the Lord.”

All of these actions assume a community that surrounds and sustains each other in their individual and personal needs.

At the very beginning of the letter James encouraged us --- that if we don't understand this message (and the word he uses is wisdom) --- that if we don't understand --- we should turn to God in prayer.

anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask.

In these concluding words to the community of the followers of Jesus, James returns to this same theme, --- but now, James, notes that the power of prayer holds out some rather telling content and promise.

James speaks of its power to “save” the sick, to “raise them up,” and to occasion the “forgiveness of sins”.

James is saying that in the community’s exercise of prayer --- the very promise and power of the resurrection remain not just some future hope but now impinge on, recreate, and sustain a living and active community of faith.

And I want to reiterate, because it is easy for us to miss (and I will come back to this in a couple of weeks) that the exercise of prayer that James is referring to is neither by nor for persons in isolation.

Because what is the central theme from his brother Jesus’ life that James is constantly emphasizing --- that we are to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS.

It goes without me even saying it that we live in a very individualist oriented culture.

Self-help books proliferate on our bookshelves.

And even so-called “social media” is often structured or utilized primarily to focused on exalting individual identities and chalking up the greatest number of “friends” on our tally sheets (friends for whom the greatest insult might be that I might “unfriend” them at any moment).

For James --- this community that he is espousing is --- well --- it is communal, especially in its faithful exercise of prayer.

Twice he charges that confession should be “to one another,” and that we should pray “for one another,” if we have any expectation that the promised healing is to take place.

Such prayer exercised within and on behalf of the community has power -- James says it is “effective.”

It is effective because it is exercised within the context of a community endowed with God’s gifts in creation, and because it belongs to ones who have been forgiven and empowered by the implanted word of promise in Christ Jesus.

In James’ language it is the prayer of ones who are “righteous.”

What James really seems to be saying --- is we need to care for one another. 

We need to build a community.

Greg Jones, in an article in Interpretation wrote:

Each of the activities that James describes—singing, truthful speech, praying, anointing, confessing, and engaging in mutual admonition—is difficult to learn to do well, much less to learn to do in relation to the others. But part of the gift of Christian life is that we do not learn to do any of them alone. We learn them as we learn any craft, with the assistance of mentors—"saints"—who help us, over time, to discover the fullness of God's gracious and forgiving love by shaping us to become active recipients of that love.

The capacity to discover what it means to be forgiven and to forgive depends, in part, on the richness of one's communal habits, practices, and disciplines. If we want to be faithful in our witness to God, then we ought to focus more attention on cultivating and crafting communities whose practices are marked by the crucified and risen Christ and bear witness to the eschatological work of the Holy Spirit.

In other words --- it is all about community

James then wraps up this letter with this easily misquoted verse.

My brothers and sisters, if any of you wander from the truth and someone turns back the wanderer, recognize that whoever brings a sinner back from the wrong path will save them from death and will bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

Luke Timothy Johnson in The New Interpreters Bible remarks:

James concludes this section and the letter with an encouragement to mutual correction.  Such correction was a staple of ancient moral teaching, both in Hellenism and in Judaism. . . . Mutual correction is a form of edification that takes the construction of a community of character seriously.

We live today in a culture that says --- if I don't get my way I am going to take my stuff and go somewhere else.

I think James would be appalled.

Looking at the current fight in the UMC --- wow --- James would have a few things to say.

He would plead for us to put first things first

          And throughout this letter, he has tried to demonstrate what that is all about.

But in the end --- it all takes place within community

          Family Promise

          FreeWheelin’

          Habitat For Humanity

          MLK & School 43

          House Groups/Bible Studies/Ministry Teams

Community that cares for each other

          Community that prays for each other

          Community that shares with each other

Community that loves each other enough that they can work to seek forgiveness and not escape

James calls us to the radical lifestyle that Jesus proclaimed and that we have experience when we embrace the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to change us

To bring us together

Can we find this radical community that Jesus spoke of and James affirms?

James: The Emptiness of Riches

James 4:13-5:6   Common English Bible

Pay attention, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a town. We will stay there a year, buying and selling, and making a profit.” You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes. Here’s what you ought to say: “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But now you boast and brag, and all such boasting is evil. It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it. 

Pay attention, you wealthy people! Weep and moan over the miseries coming upon you. Your riches have rotted. Moths have destroyed your clothes. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you. It will eat your flesh like fire. Consider the treasure you have hoarded in the last days. Listen! Hear the cries of the wages of your field hands. These are the wages you stole from those who harvested your fields. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of heavenly forces. You have lived a self-satisfying life on this earth, a life of luxury. You have stuffed your hearts in preparation for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who doesn’t oppose you. 

I don't view myself as wealthy, but that is not probably surprising, because my guess is most of you don't see yourselves as wealthy either.

According to Charles Schwab's 2019 Modern Wealth Survey they found some interesting data.

          59% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck

          44% carry a credit card balance

          only 38% have built up an emergency fund

I doubt there are many here who struggle with those realities

But the other thing they found is what people consider being "wealthy"

          Having a million dollars isn't enough

The responses varied by generation.

Boomers, for example, said they needed $2.6 million to be considered wealthy

Gen Z’ers said they needed significantly less: $1.5 million.

It averages out to about $2.3 million for one to be considered "wealthy" in this survey

You all know what I make a year, as the church council approves my salary and financials are always available to anyone who wants to see them.

And I am pretty certain that I am not in the top half of the income levels of this church

But if I take my after tax salary and run it through a world-wide calculator, and you will get slight variations based on the calculator you use --- But the average suggests that I am in the top 1.5% of all the people in the world

Yet, I would imagine that Nancy and my pay does not put us in the top quarter in the USA

The median USA salary is 60,366 and in a family of 4, (2 adults and 2 children), are still in the top 6.4% in the world

But that is irrelevant --- by any standards, I am rich --- we are all rich

          We do not live paycheck to paycheck

          We have money in the bank

And James is speaking to ME to all of us

In Lima, Peru there is a concrete barrier that literally separates the rich from the poor.

Lima has some of the poorest slums in the world, and multitudes live in squalor.

The wealthy built a wall to protect themselves from the high crime rate of the slums. But the wall has become a symbol of the vast divide existing between the rich and the poor.

Can you, for a moment, imagine a man clambering to the top of the wall?

Imagine if you can James, the brother of Jesus, climbing up there because he wants to preach to the folk on both sides of that wall.

First he turns toward the rich people and boy does he give them an earful --- that's Chapter 5 verses 1-6.

And if you have read this chapter (as I hope you have read the entire Letter of James) you know that verses 7 - 11 are intended for the folk who live on that poor side of the wall.

I am not going to focus on that part of the Letter, but instead want to focus on what James has to say to us.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!" James calls out to us.

And the words he speaks echo the words that his brother Jesus spoke.

Jesus spoke more about money than he did anything else.

He knew the challenges that wealth can bring to people.

Mark 10

As Jesus continued down the road, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God. You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother.”

“Teacher,” he responded, “I’ve kept all of these things since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him carefully and loved him. He said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” But the man was dismayed at this statement and went away saddened, because he had many possessions.

Luke 12

Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.” Then he told them a parable: “A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods. I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?’ This is the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren’t rich toward God.”

Matthew 6

“Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!", then James continues: "Weep and moan over the miseries coming upon you."

Is that what Jesus wants? 

          Misery to come upon us?

I think he wants us to be mindful of what Jesus taught and what Paul affirmed:

(1 Timothy 6:10 Common English Bible (CEB))

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.

And if we are honest --- making money is often our goal.

So what are we to do?

As I began working on this week's sermon, I was drawn to a book that I read decades ago.  It has been revised and republished many times since.  It is Ron Sider's Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger.  If you have never read it, I highly suggest it.

In conclusion, he offers us three suggestions on what we must do if we are to follow the mandate of Jesus.

He writes:

We need to change at three levels. Appropriate personal lifestyles are crucial to symbolize, validate, and facilitate our concern for the hungry. The church must change so that its common life presents a new model for a divided world. Finally, both here and abroad, we must make the structures of society more fair.

By appropriate personal lifestyles he argues we need to simplify our life.

And he uses the founder of Methodist, John Wesley as an example.

Christians, Wesley said, should give away all but “the plain necessaries of life”—that is, plain, wholesome food, clean clothes, and enough to carry on one’s business. One should earn what one can, justly and honestly. . . . But Wesley wanted all income given to the poor after bare necessities were met. Unfortunately, Wesley discovered, not one person in five hundred in any “Christian city” obeys Jesus’ command.

“Any ‘Christian’ who takes for himself anything more than the plain necessaries of life,” Wesley insisted, “lives in an open, habitual denial of the Lord.” He has “gained riches and hell-fire!”

. . .

We need not agree with Wesley’s every word and concrete standard to see that he was struggling to follow the biblical summons to share with the needy. How much should we give? Knowing that God wants every person to have the resources to earn a decent living, we should give until our lives truly reflect the principles of Leviticus 25 and 2 Corinthians 8.

And what are those principles?

In Leviticus it is the principle of the year of Jubilee, when all debts are forgiven and people are given a fresh start.

In 2nd Corinthians, Paul was writing to the church in Corinth sharing what the Macedonians had done.

They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.

And he reminds the Corinthians why they should do this

A gift is appreciated because of what a person can afford, not because of what that person can’t afford, if it’s apparent that it’s done willingly. It isn’t that we want others to have financial ease and you financial difficulties, but it’s a matter of equality. At the present moment, your surplus can fill their deficit so that in the future their surplus can fill your deficit. In this way there is equality. As it is written, The one who gathered more didn’t have too much, and the one who gathered less didn’t have too little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded us of this principle when during the great depression he proclaimed:

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

So for Sider, the second challenge is that the church must model this behavior.  We must become a beacon in reaching out to lift up our sisters and brothers.

Does our budget show our priority in ministries that are focused on compassion and justice?

And then finally, we must seek to make the necessary societal changes so that fairness is what rules the day.

But where does one start?

          With you

According to The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy charitable giving among individuals is down this past year.  Most studies suggest charitable giving is about 3% of income in the USA with the poor giving a higher percentage than the rich.

One of the things we can do is evaluate our own giving patterns.

Nancy and I give 10% to the church and support numerous other charities as well.

How about you?

Are you following the teachings of James, or John Wesley --- or for that matter Jesus --- in how you use your wealth?

Start by evaluating your spending

          Are the things you are purchasing necessary?

         

          Seek to find ways to give away more

                   Our current clothing drive for Family Promise

In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates made a pledge --- to give away at least half their wealth.

          Today 204 billionaires have joined this pledge

We may not have the resources that those families have --- but we can make a difference, by doing our part.

"Pay attention, you wealthy people!", because James is showing us the biblical way of living

Bishop White shared this prayer as a benediction to the 1996 General Conference.

And now, may the Lord torment you. May the Lord keep before you the faces of the hungry, the lonely, the rejected and the despised. May the Lord afflict you with pain for the hurt, the wounded, the oppressed, the abused, the victims of violence. May God grace you with agony, a burning thirst for justice and righteousness.

May the Lord give you courage and strength and compassion to make ours a better world, to make your community a better community, to make your church a better church. May you do your best to make it so; and after you have done your best, may the Lord grant you peace.  

James: The Power of the Tongue

James 3:1-12   (CEB)

My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers, because we know that we teachers will be judged more strictly. We all make mistakes often, but those who don’t make mistakes with their words have reached full maturity. Like a bridled horse, they can control themselves entirely. When we bridle horses and put bits in their mouths to lead them wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.

Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are needed to drive them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder. In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.

Think about this: A small flame can set a whole forest on fire. The tongue is a small flame of fire, a world of evil at work in us. It contaminates our entire lives. Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire. The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.

People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish. No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!

Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do they? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a saltwater spring either.

In March of 1862, the publication The Christian Recorder, shared in a publication for the first time, what they called an old adage and one I am willing to bet most of us are pretty familiar.

          Sticks and stones will break your bones

                   But names will never hurt you

Unfortunately, many of us, over our lives have learned just how untrue that statement is --- as we have been wounded greatly by others words.

Yehuda Berg, former director of the Kabbalah Centre once said:

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”

This has been one of the most challenging sermons that I have ever worked on.

The rhetoric that comes from politicians of both stripes has become so uncivil and downright hurtful, and the last thing that I want to do is turn this into a bashing of anyone.

But I would highly suggest that you take a look at the statement that came out of the National Cathedral in Washington DC this past week.  Almost every news outlet covered the story except for a few, that often seem to miss these kinds of stories.

I encourage you just to Google it.

Quoting from the pastors from The National Cathedral: “We have come to accept a level of insult and abuse in political discourse that violates each person’s sacred identity as a child of God,”

Declaring “the time for silence is over,” the statement continues: “What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.”

There are certain Facebook pages that I avoid because they seem to want to encourage belittling of each other.

          And, quite frankly, I have had enough

Words are powerful

And words can be used to hurt or they can be used to heal.

And as I read the news this morning --- two senseless mass shootings --- one in El Paso, and the other just down the road in Dayton.

One has to wonder when WE will say this culture of destruction must come to an end --- and we accept the price that it will cost to truly follow the Christ and put an end to this madness

It was Abraham Joshua Heschel who said:

          “Few are guilty, but all are responsible”

Chew on those WORDS for a few moments.

I am not going to focus on the negative aspect of our words --- each of you could probably come up here and give a testimony on how words have hurt, or maybe even devastated you --- I know I could.

"But what good is that?", as James asked us last week.

So let's look at ways that we can put our faith in Jesus --- who teaches us to love God completely and to love others --- let's look at ways we can live our faith out through our words.

Johnny attended a business training that was conducted by Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glands that was given to 3,000 front line workers of grocery stores and retail outlets across the country.

They talked about the power of words and how what you say really does make a difference in people’s lives.

A month after the event, Barbara said she got a call from a guy named Johnny, who was at the training.

Johnny told her, “I’m nineteen years old. I have Downs Syndrome. I work as a bagger at a grocery store. I went back to the store and I didn’t know how to apply your statements. I liked your talk but I didn’t know what to do with it. I went home and talked with my dad and got an idea. My dad and I sat down at the computer and every day we come up with a statement that is affirming of people, that’s encouraging. If I can’t find one in a little quote book, I’ll make it up. We’ll type it up six different times on the computer. I print off fifty sheets and cut all of them.”

So he has three hundred of these quotes.

Then, every night, Johnny signs each one of them personally.

The next day at the grocery store he puts this stack right by where he bags the groceries.

          He gets everyone’s groceries bagged up.

Then on the last sack he puts the quote of the day, the encouraging word.

He makes sure he looks them in the eye and says,

“I put something very special for you in this sack. I hope it will brighten your day.”

Johnny does this --- every --- single --- day.

Barbara said after about a month she got a phone call from the manager of that grocery store. He said,

“Barbara I can’t believe it. Something really amazing is beginning to happen. I was walking around the store and I noticed while we had lots of checkers at the checkout line, there was almost no one there but maybe one or two people. The line where Johnny was doing the bagging went all the way back to the frozen food section.”

He continued,

“I would tell them over the intercom that there were other lines you could move over to. I would walk down the line and tell people there were other lines open. People would just look and say, ‘No, we’ll wait because we want Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’

One woman came by and grabbed the supervisor. She said, ‘I used to only come to the grocery store once a week or once every other week. Now I come by almost every day. I buy something just so I can get Johnny’s encouraging word for the day.’”

After about a month had passed, the store manager again called Barbara and said,

“It’s changing our entire culture of our store. Even in the floral department when a flower was broken they used to just throw it away. Now they walk out into the lines, on their own initiative, they pin it onto elderly women or young girls. They brighten their day.”

Every day we are given the opportunity to be a positive influence in the world.

Now I am not telling you that we shouldn't call out those who are speaking vile and hurtful words --- I think we must --- but we need to figure out a way to do it in a positive way.

More than anything else we need to celebrate our commonality

We are letting others divide us

Think of what would happen instead of saying someone whom we disagree on a position is unpatriotic, we looked and celebrated the way we both love our country in our own special ways.

Choosing to be positive requires a conscious choice --- every moment of every day.

At the end of every Rotary Club meeting we would say the four way test --- i still remember it even thought I haven't been a Rotarian for a number of years.

          Is it the TRUTH?

          Is it FAIR to all concerned?

          Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

          Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

We need to be conscious of the choice we have to share a kind word rather than a divisive one.

So ask yourself

·         what can I say to encourage that person today

·         What can I say to affirm them in some way and help them to realize how important and special they are to God?

Parker Palmer shares a great story.

It actually comes from Carter Hayward, the great womanist theologian.  She shares

Once there was a wise old woman who lived in a small village. The children of the village were puzzled by her—her wisdom, her gentleness, her strength. One day, several of the older children decided to fool her. No one could be as wise as everyone said she was, and they set out to prove it. So they found a baby bird. One of the boys cupped it in his hands and said to his friend, ‘We’ll ask her whether the bird I have in my hands is dead or alive. If she says it is dead, I will open my hands and let it fly always. If she says it’s alive, I’ll crush it and she’ll see that it’s dead.’ So they went to the woman and presented her with this puzzle. ‘Old woman,’ the little boy asked, ‘the bird in my hands, is it dead or alive?’ The old woman became very still, studied the boy’s hands, then looked carefully into his eyes. ‘It’s in your hands,’ she said.”

Thursday night I had the privilege of attending the closing celebration of Project Transformation.

          153 kids participated

          285 persons volunteered

          Over 3,000 books were read

And most impressively of all, 99% of the kids, avoided the summer slid in their reading abilities

The theme book this summer is one of my all-time favorites, The Lorax, and I want to end by quoting from that great 20th century theologian --- Dr Seuss

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."

It is in my hands and in yours --- lets lift each other up with words of hope and love.

James: What is Faith

James 2:14-26   (CEB) 

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. 

Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous. What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead. 

In the fall of 2002, Biblical Archeology Review (BAR) shared an announcement with the world. 

          An Ossuary (a bone box) had surfaced in Israel.

Now this in itself is not an uncommon occurrence

For about two hundred years ending when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple -- there was a widely accepted practice among the Jewish people using what we call ossuaries in their burial practices.

According to BAR what would take place is:

"A corpse would first be laid in a niche carved into the wall of a burial cave; about a year after this primary burial, when the corpse’s flesh had decayed, the bones of the deceased were gathered together and placed in a box or chest, usually made of Jerusalem limestone, called an ossuary. Sometimes the bones of more than one person were placed in the same ossuary. The practice . . . made room for additional primary burials inside the burial cave.

But what made this particular ossuary intriguing was an inscription written in clear Aramaic letters: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

For the past 17 years, there has been a fight over whether or not this inscription is authentic.

In 2012, after a seven-year trial, an Israeli court concluded that the ossuary was not a fake and cleared a number of people who had been under accusation for making a forgery.

Hershel Shanks, then editor of BAR, in an opinion piece concluded:

In all the hubbub and flurry of the verdict last March in the “forgery case of the century,” one question—the central question—seems to have gotten lost: Is the ossuary inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” genuine or not? And if it is, does it refer to Jesus of Nazareth? After all, “Jesus” was a common name at the time.

These are enormously important questions to the world of Christianity, as well as to anyone else interested in the material world as it existed at the time Jesus walked this earth.

As to the authenticity of the inscription, while we should not avoid reasons for doubting the authenticity, neither should we dismiss it simply because it is “too good to be true.”

Is the inscription authentic? The court held only that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the inscription was a forgery. But it surely did not find that the inscription was authentic.

My bottom line is simply this: There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the James Ossuary. Whether it refers to Jesus of Nazareth remains a question.

Since that discovery, I have been fascinated by James, the brother of Jesus in ways that I was not before.

For the next month, Mary and I will share some of the key themes from the letter that James, the brother of Jesus wrote to the Jewish Christian community.

James can be rather uncomfortable for many in the protestant traditions.

Elisa Tamez, professor of theology at the Latin American Biblical University in Costa Rica in her powerful book: The Scandalous Message of James wrote:

If the Letter of James were sent to the Christian Communities of certain countries that suffer from violence and exploitation, it would very possibly be intercepted by government security agencies.  The document would be branded as subversive.

I hope that you have taken the time to read the Letter of James.  If not, I strongly encourage you to do so --- and to read it and compare the ways it has been translated.

Like I often say -- Jesus has been homogenized and pasteurized by the church today --- it is clear that many translators struggled what to do with some of his challenges to us.

James 2:14 in the translation The Message says:

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?

Or as the NRSV has it: "Can faith save you?"

For many of us, we have grown up with the idea of FAITH ALONE --- faith is all we need --- but James, here in this second chapter wants to challenge that idea.

For James, faith alone is never enough

There is no part of the Bible, other than the Letter of James, that better illustrates what Jesus meant when he was asked: What must one do to inherit eternal life.

Do you remember what Jesus answer was?

For years, Evangelical Christianity has argued that the way to eternal life begins with praying what is known as The Sinner's Prayer.

Campus Crusade and Billy Graham may have been its biggest proponents:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

But is that what Jesus said?  Nope!

Jesus said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

For James, "works" means a life of loving God and loving others,

          and loving others means deeds of compassion toward those in need.

James would go so far as suggesting that you can have all the faith in the world, but if there is no action behind the faith --- then you will not be saved.

He goes on and in an example that would be funny if it were not so tragic and often true says:

"Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity."

How often have we driven past a needy brother or sister on a winter morning --- maybe even on our way to church.

James doesn't mince words to us.

Scot McKnight in his commentary writes:

The description here is tragic: the messianic community is connected to the Messiah who became poor in order to make others rich and who taught in word and deed to show mercy to those in need; the community is connected to the Scriptures of Israel, which from beginning to end advocate mercy and compassion for those in need; and the community is filled with poor who know the underside of oppression.  Yet --- and this is what perplexes James into strong words --- this group of those who say they have faith in Jesus the Messiah, the glorious one who became poor, does nothing for those who make their needs obvious.

I don't know about you --- but those words hurt!

I have lots of rationalizations and explanations of why I didn't stop --- or a list of the few times that I did help --- but James keeps asking: WHAT GOOD IS THAT?

Suppose I told you about a family that has stayed as our guests here at Meridian Street, they are close to getting back into their own home, but just as they are about to move the only car they have breaks down and needs $500 in repairs, and now they are stuck with a choice of getting the car fixed (so that they can get to work and keep their job) or moving into their own place.

          Do you care about their plight?

                   Of course you do --- many of you are filled with compassion and empathy

But what if I took $100 out of my pocket and said --- I care this much --- how about you?

Faith for James is not simply trust, or the ability to recite creeds --- faith for James always flowers into full blown acts of mercy toward the poor and marginalized --- or it isn't faith.

James then uses two examples from the Hebrew tradition to demonstrate what he means.

          He uses the stories of Abraham and Rahab

When we talk about Abraham we get the argument of Justification by faith, that is developed by Paul particularly in his letter to the Romans.

I could spend another 20 or 30 minutes just on these two little sentences of James, but let me just say that for James: "To be justified is to be brought into a saving relationship with God thought the new birth (1:18), in which one lives out God's will as taught by Jesus, particularly in showing mercy to those in need." (McKnight p247)

James wants to articulate a working faith --- not a faith plus works.

What I mean is faith works itself out in works and faith is completed by works.

Scot McKnight concludes this section of his commentary on James with these words (you may want to grab on to your seat or walk out now):

James has argued that, since faith and works are inseparable, (1) the messianic community's prejudice against the poor and favoritism toward the rich are contrary to faith (2:1-4), (2) experience itself should inform the community's members that God is with the poor, while the rich are oppressing the community (2:5-7), and (3) the royal law to love one's neighbor as oneself demands care for the poor, while the community's disrespect for the poor proves that its members are transgressors. . . . Faith can only be shown to be saving by works (2:18b), creedal faith is not enough because even the demons that have (2:19), and the examples of the unquestioned faith of Abraham and Rahab prove that they had the kind of faith that worked.

McKnight goes on:

faith is confessional and works behavioral, but for James a saving faith is one in which the confession is manifested in works of mercy toward those in need.  Faith alone, by which he means a minimal creedal faith, cannot save.  It is useless, ineffective and dead.

What motivates us?

          What gets you to do good or to do as James would say: Works?

Sure, we’re saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone.

If we are not changed by our relationship with Jesus, something isn't right.

Joey Prusak began working at his local Minneapolis Dairy Queen at the age of 14. 

          He was now the manager at age 19. 

One of his regular customers, who is visually impaired, dropped a $20 bill on the floor. 

Standing directly behind this man was another customer in line, a woman, who picked up the $20 and put it in her purse. 

When the woman who picked up the $20 came to the counter Joey refused to serve this woman until she returned the money to its rightful owner. 

The woman herself refused and stormed out of the store. 

So Joey took $20 out of his own pocket, found the visually impaired man outside and gave him the money he had lost. 

What motivates you?

          What gets you to do good or to do as James would say: Works?

James demands that we pay attention to the ragged homeless person who stands on the street corner.

He demands that we pay attention to the orphans and widows.

He demands that we pay attention to the alien in our country.

If you’ve really put your faith in Jesus, it’s going to change you.

The Spirit is going to move into your live, and start to make changes.

You won’t be perfect, but you’re sure going to be different.

You’ll move in fits and starts, and sometimes take backward steps, but over time you’ll see real change.

It will change the way you see people.

          It will change your heart for God.

          It will cause you to struggle with sins you used to love.

You won’t be perfect — we never are in this life — but your faith will start to change you.

James says if you don’t see that happening, you may say you believe, but you really don’t.

Real faith is believing and acting.

And it is available to anyone who wants it.

Don’t settle for assent to ideas or even creeds.

Come and encounter the real Jesus.

Receive Jesus' grace in your life, and you’ll never be the same.