A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
Luther did not like the letter of James, and that's putting it mildly. He didn't think that James is a very good theologian, and he is probably right. But what James lacks on a theoretical level, he makes up for on a practical level. He thinks that Christians should behave like Christians, and he really slams us when we don't. We rightfully call James a hellfire and brimstone preacher. And that's what his letter is-it's a sermon. Of the 108 verses in this sermon 60 are imperatives or commands. In other words, sixty times James says, "you are not acting like Christians!"
He says that they are discriminating against and mistreating the poor. He says that they are playing favorites. When wealthy people are visiting the church, the members are bowing and scraping and offering them the best seats in the house. They are judging people on the basis of outward appearance. They are judging them on the basis of how they dress which is an indication of how much money and status they have in the world.
Dave Daubert tells this story of an incident that occurred in his church. A man named Jim had started to come to their worship services. The people liked having him there. It made them feel tolerant to have a street person in their church. But his dirty clothes, greasy hair, and smell of alcohol offended them too much to really accept him.
On a Sunday much like any other, people gathered for refreshments after worship. Jim liked to be with people at this time, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other, a few crumbs usually catching in his untrimmed and oversized mustache.
Suddenly, he collapsed on the floor. As people realized what was happening, they panicked. Was he dying? People watched, afraid to touch him because of the dirt and smell. It was clear he was in trouble. His breathing stopped. If he didn't get help right away, he would die.
One member said, "I'll call 911." Another member, a teenager named Tina, pushed through the people and knelt near him. There was no breath and no pulse. Brushing the crumbs from his mustache and clearing a piece of donut from his mouth, she placed her hand over his nose and her mouth over his and began CPR. After a couple of minutes he began breathing again and his eyes opened. He smiled. Tina was glad she had lived out her faith, caring for someone that most members found impossible to reach out to.
That may be a radical example, but it raises the question James raises: how do we judge people? Do we judge them on the basis of outward appearance? Do we judge the same way the world does? Do we show special deference to some and ignore others? Or do we believe Jesus when he says that when we minister to the hungry, the homeless and the poorly clothed, we minister to him? In verses one through seven James makes two things crystal clear: One, those who are well off are not to be treated with special deference. Two, God has a special regard for the poor whom the world rejects. We need to remember that when God became one of us, he chose to come as one who was poor. God has a special regard for the poor and we should too. So that is the first command that James gives: Do not discriminate!
His second command is this: fulfill the law of love! This means: love your neighbor as yourself. This means love as Jesus did. How did Jesus love? I like what Henri Nouwen says about this. He says that all Jesus was interested in was downward mobility. He had no desire to better himself economically. He had no interest in status. His only interest was in helping others. In fact, he was quite willing to humble himself for the sake of others. Then Nouwen goes on to talk about how much this troubles him personally. He says, "Everything in me wants to move upward. Downward mobility with Jesus goes radically against my inclinations, against the advice of the world surrounding me , against the culture of which I am a part."
Now, by saying, "fulfill the law of love", James is not promoting some sort of merit system by which we earn our way into God's good graces. James knows that it is by trusting in God's love in Jesus that we are accepted. James is simply saying that people who are as radically loved as we are should be radically loving. And we can do this through the power of Christ. So these are the first two commands: Do not discriminate! Do Love!
And the third is: Don't fool yourself into thinking that your faith alone is going to save you! Now as a Christian of the Lutheran persuasion, it is hard for me to hear that because it sounds like James is saying that good works will save you and that faith is not all that important. So, listen carefully to what James is saying about this, because I really don't think that there is any disagreement with our tradition.
First, when James is talking about faith, he is thinking about people who say, "I believe that what the Bible says about Jesus is true." In other words, he is talking about mere agreement to the truth of a proposition. In verse 19 of chapter two, which follows shortly after the words we read today, James says that even the demons believe in Jesus in that sense. They know who he is, but mere knowledge is not going to save them.
What is going to save us? James talks about the same kind of faith that Luther does. Faith active in love is what is going to save us. And so Luther says, "Faith is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by works; but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with our faith." And so James can get pretty sarcastic with people who think faith doesn't need to be expressed in acts of love and Luther could also. How ridiculous it is, says James, that anyone could see someone in need of basic necessities, such as food and clothing, and say to them, "God Bless you. I really hope and pray that you will able to find what you need." James may not be the greatest theologian in the New Testament, but he knew what it meant to practice the faith.
Well, let's try to focus this all by asking a single question. This question comes from William Willimon, the chaplain at Duke University, as he reflects on the letter of James. He says, "Do we as a church mirror the injustices of our society or do we rise above them?" I suppose the answer to these two questions is : Yes.
In many ways we rise above the injustices of our society. Would there have been a Civil Rights Movement without the church? I doubt it. Likewise, most of the major social service institutions in our society have come into being as a result of the compassion of Christians. When we look at our own church body, the ELCA, we could talk about our 254 social service agencies which serve over a million and a half needy people every year. It is one of the largest networks among the churches. And we could talk about the Lutheran World Hunger Organization to which Lutherans contribute an average of twelve million dollars a year to help the hungry here and abroad. And, of course, we support all these efforts through our benevolence giving which amounts to better than ten per cent of our budget each year. And we could add to that the efforts of our local congregations involved in social outreach projects like ours, i.e. things like the Y-Bridge Ministry, Good Neighbors, Habitat for Humanity, bell ringing for the Salvation Army and numerous other social service projects that go on every year.
I think that the way Lutherans reach out to the poor is one of the best kept secrets in the church. And sometimes I bristle a little when I read articles about how grand ministry is in all these new mega-churches and how they shine in comparison to us. Well, God bless them in their ministry. They do many things well. But the truth is that when you roll all these new independent mega-churches into one they are midgets in comparison to the Lutheran Church when it comes to social outreach. And yet, at the same time, we can grow, can't we? To too great an extent we do mirror our society. It does go against our grain to be downwardly mobile as was our Lord Jesus. We should not play favorites. We should grow in compassion. As Luther says, and as James would agree, the only real faith is faith active in love.
Copyright 2000 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma