“Every generous act of giving, with
every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…” This is how
James begins this mornings NT reading.
I can’t tell you how hard I tried to use this as a text on stewardship
and giving but somehow I just couldn’t get there in the way I wanted to. And you’re thinking, all riiiiiiight!!! I do want to look at James today so let me
give you some background about the man and this epistle.
Because
the epistle of James does not have the same kind of theological underpinnings
as the Pauline epistles, it is a book which has been disregarded by many. In fact, Martin Luther called it the epistle
of straw. One of my seminary professors
said, “Maybe so, but it takes straw to make bricks.” Paul often takes the first
half of his epistles to lay out some theology pertinent to the situation he is
writing to and then makes application of it in the second half. The author of James however, simply begins
with pragmatic application of the faith he already knows is present in his
audience. He can do so because he knows
their roots as you will see.
The author of the epistle of James could have
been one of three people: James, the half brother of Jesus, the traditional
choice; James the son of Zebedee and brother of the apostle John, a less likely
but possible choice; or James the Less, who was so much the less that
virtually nothing is known about him.
Not a likely choice at all. So
let’s go with James the half brother of Jesus.
This James was clearly a Jewish man and was the first bishop of the
church in Jerusalem. As such, he is
writing to Jewish Christians in the Dispersion, that is folks who have left
Jerusalem, the roots I spoke of a moment ago, for other parts of ancient near
east. These folks in the dispersion are
“facing various trials of many kinds”
as James writes in the first verses of the epistle. And so we hear James encouraging them to remember, even while
enduring trials and suffering, that God is the giver of every good and perfect
gift, and that God has good to give them. James also encourages them to live into the righteousness
of God rather than reacting to their circumstances with anger.
Then
he writes “And welcome with meekness the
implanted word…” Now most of us
think of meekness as weakness, but I like the definition of meekness I heard
twenty some years ago. Meekness is
tamed or gentle strength. So receive
the implanted word with gentle strength.
Can you do this? Allow God’s
word to be a source of strength in your life.
I hope so because the next verse is key to this section, and in many
ways the whole epistle.
“Be doers of the word and not merely
hearers who deceive themselves. For if
any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at
themselves in a mirror and, on going away, immediately forget what they were
like. But those who look into the
perfect law, the law of liberty and persevere, being not hearers who forget,
but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.” Even though
we just sang about hearing the word, hallelujah, James does not just want pious
words from believers in his brother Jesus.
James expects action as the result of such belief. When you look into a mirror, you see not
only yourself, but Christ in you – that is the perfect law, the law of liberty
of which James speaks. It’s interesting
that he uses the word law because Paul speaks so often of grace not
law. Because the law crushed the Jews
under its weight but the grace of Jesus Christ was, and is, freeing. And that’s what James is saying. The perfect law is the law of liberty which
is freeing. Look into the law of
liberty rather than the law of condemnation and see there freedom, not
bondage. And having done so – live
it! Go out and live it out. Be a doer of the word.
And
how does James define that in this text? “Care for orphans and widows – and remain
unstained from the world.”
Remember, they were living in a pagan world in the dispersion so remaining
faithful was difficult. And what about
widows and orphans? Is that all we’re
supposed to do to live this out? No! Widows and orphans were the ones in middle
eastern society who were not well cared for.
Widows and orphans had no standing in the community. Since their husband or parents had died,
they were nothing. James is saying,
pure religion is to care for those who have nothing to give you in return.
Isn’t
this really how we see ourselves as a congregation? Hasn’t outreach been a focus for us the last few years? Maybe it’s time for us ALL to claim this as
our modus operandi, our mark for Christ in this world and live into it as doers
of the word. A word which tells us to
feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the
sick, visit those in prison and tell the good news to others. Not one or the other … both/and. When I was a child I used to love that time
in elementary school when we got to do show and tell. Remember that? When you
bring something in to show and tell about it. I think that’s really what James’ message is for us today. Only we don’t bring something in, we go out
and do and tell folks why. And why do we? Because every generous act of giving, with every
perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” And that’s the gospel truth.
AMEN