Blessings of works and faith: a take on James

(James 1:17–27)

My doctoral supervisor, Dr Roberta King, worked for many years at Daystar University in Nairobi. She told me about a Kenyan proverb: “When you pray, always remember to move your feet.”….   What starts in contemplation and spiritual offering has to find its way into the embodied and enacted world.

In James, we hear the same sentiment. He emphasizes moral action and attention to the social justice issues of the day. Martin Luther considered the focus on good works by James to be an affront to Paul’s assertion in Galatians 2:16 that “a person is justified not by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Luther questioned the letter’s apostolic authority and famously referred to it as “an epistle of straw.”

James does nothing more than drive to the law and its works. Besides, he throws things together so chaotically that it seems to me he must have been some good, pious man, who took a few sayings from the disciples of the apostles and thus tossed them off on paper – Martin Luther

Luther thought about faith and works as separate entities—as opposite poles in a binary system. But for James, works arise as a natural outgrowth of genuine faith. Works tell the tale of whether true faith exists. The works themselves are not separate from faith but are a part of the whole. Works are acts of living as a community who “cares for orphans and widows in distress.”

James calls us to to “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” James’ use of the word hearers an allusion to the Shema, a foundational verse of scripture found in Deuteronomy 6: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

The use of the word SHEMA carries a second, equally emphatic meaning: “to obey.” When I say “listen to me,” I generally also expect people to respond to what I have said. If they fail to act, I might legitimately question whether they have heard.

The writer of James keeps the relationship between hearing God’s word and doing what the Lord commands. Hearers and doers are the same disciples; the posture of hearing produces obedient action, an experience which in turn opens the faithful person to a deeper relationship with the God who originates “every generous act of giving.” Hearing God and responding to God’s call are bound together for the purpose of providing care for the most vulnerable.

Last week, in the 8am service, we were joined by my friend and colleague, Ann.  She mentioned in our conversation that in her region she started a Prayer Fence. A box of ribbons is left out near her fence and people are encouraged to tie a ribbon on the fence as an indicator of someone or something to pray for. Ann and her congregations will pray for all those who tie a ribbon on the fence.

But it didn’t stop there.

Cath (a member of Eastwood) was inspired and decided to pick up the idea to use with her school. If you walk past Cath's home, you can see the ribbons already starting to flutter. Others are picking up the idea too. We can be the VISIBLE community of prayer in these isolating and invisible days.

Only a couple of decades ago, when people sought a pastoral conversation, there was an understanding, “I know what I am supposed to do in life, but I am struggling to do it.” In the safety and privacy of the pastoral relationship, the pastor or carer was to communicate, “In here there is no right or wrong, only total acceptance and unconditional grace.” The hope was that in this nonjudgmental environment the broken places could be healed and people could get back to life.

But now the culture has changed. When people talk to their ministers or carers today, their cry is often not “I know what I am supposed to do; I just can’t do it,” but “With the confusion of voices I hear in the world today, I do not know what I am supposed to do.” People can be quite unsure about what constitutes the shape of a life that matters, about what it means to live a life that has moral substance. To suspend the categories of right and wrong would do nothing but exacerbate the situation. When we are inundated with information overload that, we know, contains both truth and fake news, how do we find our way through the noise?

As Christians, we are not meant to become judgmental moralists, but we can spend some time considering the how scripture informs wisdom and ethics. We should seek to have the conversations that help people discern what how grace is to be lived out. What does contemporary morality look like?

Prayer ribbons on fences is one way to start to become visible about faith. Another is what some of us have been doing over past weeks by chalking the footpaths. Another is leaving PEACE rocks. Sometimes I find rocks or pebbles that have been painted and decorated or some that simply have the word PEACE written on them. They are left on walks as an encouragement and sign of blessing.

Sometimes it can be hard to identify - what work can I do? Especially when the world seems to have closed in. What can I do from lockdown? What good work can I participate in? Even at home I can sing. My friends, Craig and David, wanted to send a song they had written to be considered for the new supplement to the Church of Scotland hymnbook. In this digital world, they messaged me on Facebook messenger to ask if I could record a vocal track. They sent me a music karaoke-style file to play on my iPad, so I could listen through headphones while recording to my computer. I sent the track back to them and they built an accompaniment around the voice. Then they added graphics.

 

Craig got the ball rolling, but he didn’t try to do everything by himself, even in lockdown. Did I mention that David lives in Brisbane and Craig lives in Melbourne? We were only able to do this work together because we are learning how to do ‘good work’ from home. We are trying to find new ways to bless people from the situation we find ourselves in.

James encourages us to hold a magnifying glass to the ethics of everyday life. Doing good is okay in its own right. We do not do good to store up riches in heaven. We do not do good for personal gain – indeed, doing good will often mean sacrifice. We do not do good to people in the expectation of changing them, but are called by God to follow the example of unconditional love. Doing good is the right thing to do. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Good works can start with a ribbon or a rock or a chalk mark. They can grow into movements that support Afghani refugees and break apart systems of racism and house the homeless. Big works start with small works.

We can see works as blessings. Blessing is the idea that we draw out the best – in others, in ourselves, in life. In the exchanges of daily conversation, we can offer blessing. When we make peace in close and sometimes strained personal relationships, we can offer blessing. When we care “for widows and orphans in their distress”, we can enter into a life well worth living.

We can seek to live in such gentle ways that we reap a “harvest of righteousness”.

When we are hearers and doers who exhibit faith through works, we are praying while moving our feet.