God’s Rule of Life: Pure Religion
about this book of the Bible. If you are like me, it is one we have heard quotes pulled out of context from but maybe not a part of the Bible studied as much as others.
Who is the author? James – possibly the brother of Jesus or maybe son of Zebedee, but for sure a Greek speaking Jewish Christian. Likely an editor from a school ofone or the other James’ who wished to share their wise advice with the new Jewish Christians.
The book of James is a letter addressed to the 12 tribes in Diaspora. Huh? Diaspora is in exile, but - tribes - what a strange way to address Christians. Maybe they were really in exile outside Judea. Or, maybe this was a claim that the people being addressed are the new people of faith. Regardless, as is uncomfortably often true in our scripture, the words the early Christians needed to hear, speak to us today as well. Listen to the living Word:
James 2:1-10, 14-17
2 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Don’t you love getting mail? I’m not talking about junk mail – I’m talking about mail, special notes just for you – snail mail cards in a mailbox, notes in chat or email – even texts. They have a way of uplifting us or speaking to us that is different from spoken word. Spoken words have power too – James talks about those too – tune in next week.
There is something unique, moving and powerful about the intentionality of written word. I never quite grasped the depth letters could carry until a death in my family and a personal medical emergency found a flood of letters flying my way. The comfort and love they engendered was amazingly moving. We find notes/letters fascinating – we even put them in bottles. Love letters, quirky memos, SOS notes from shipwrecked or stranded crews. There are many stories of notes flung to the seas with hopes that someone will later pick them up and reply, respond, render aid – sit up and take notice/listen.
The world record for oldest bottle is held by a message in a yellow-tinted, gin bottle that spent 131 years and 223 days lost at sea before being found in Australia. This letter was one of thousands used to try and track ocean currents by German sailors by dropping bottles at various places. So maybe that particular one wasn’t a personal note but it is still intriguing.
Do you think that this author, I will call him James, even imagined his notes would have been received by us in 2021? While not written to an individual, it is more personal than a science experiment – especially for us, the church. These words were set down with intentionality, in compassion and care for how Christians are the church, Christ’s body in the world receiving the living word through a treasured letter.
Reading the letter of James, I find it eery that no matter how we differ across ages, we are so much the same as a people. We are just like the early Christians – we like to compartmentalize, order our world by what we have come to expect. We have ways things are supposed to be done and people that fit those norms. It would be very easy to read this scripture and think that this text is calling out the rich, but that is far from the main point. Instead, we are called to take care with our assumptions. Yes, some rich are called out. Why did you give preferential treatment to the very rich who set up systems that hurt you, that make things hard on you? But, James text has many qualifiers and does not assume all rich misuse their power and position.
There are several words that make us squirm because they have shifted in definition over time or taken on baggage from the way society has used them:
Purity, Justice, Mercy, Rule – James doesn’t shy away from these words like we do. He meets them head on and pushes them back at us in a ‘not so gentle’ way. James uses more than 100 imperatives in this letter. 100 commands! The biggest challenge with words like these is they tend to pull us toward a position of judgment – taking sides rather than following the first instruction of James to listen and let these commands move us in a new direction. These words don’t call us to camps of political parties or action against another. They call us to sit in the gray seeking wisdom, but it is easier to look for someone not doing ‘right’ than to remember what we saw reflected back at us from the mirror. Internal reflection is hard work We even pit theology – ‘God words’ against each other – and have been for a very long time.
Martin Luther, even him!, dismissed this letter from James because of the ‘Grace’ versus ‘Works’ argument. Luther would have pointed to Paul in defending that grace is a gift and there is nothing we can do to earn this gift. No work is required, and no work can ever be enough to earn this wondrous gift from God. There it is - one camp versus another in the name of faith! It is not a matter of understanding the nuance of grace vs faith. It is living into the gray and the questions of a grace so freely given that we can do nothing other than act out our faith with works. And, these works are empowered by the Holy Spirit in and through us – this we hear from Paul.
But wait – what about mercy versus justice? We continue to divide into camps and seek our clear-cut territory. Still looking beyond instead of deeply into the mirror, we look at others and call for justice. We think of these concepts as opposites – mercy is compassion and justice is judgment. Alan Brehm writes, “… nothing could be further from the truth. The practice of justice and the practice of mercy are one and the same…. The Hebrew Bible makes it clear over and over again that justice is about ensuring well-being, or shalom, for everyone. It’s about a way of life that makes it possible to everyone to thrive, not just the privileged few.” He continues citing that the old testament is filled with examples of caring for the poor, the widow, the immigrant, the hungry. He describes justice as mercy in action.
Grasping at our own straws, we raise the age-old argument of Old Testament God vs New Testament God, replacing a vengeful God with a loving Jesus. Isn’t the Old about laws and punishment where the New is about grace and compassion? A study of the laws of Leviticus sounds like an exercise in pulling teeth. Aren’t we children of the new covenant?
But wait – James references Royal Law. That should shock us, but does it? Brehm describes it well, “The Hebrew Bible is just as much a book of grace and love and mercy as the New Testament, and the New Testament is just as much a book of obedience and justice. They just use different words to talk about it.”
Leviticus 19:18 says: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” - And the rest of that chapter of Leviticus is all about ways we care for and show mercy to our neighbors, yes by following rules. James too calls on these rules highlighting this Royal Law – we’ve landed smack in the middle of that gray area.
The difference is not between a God of old and new but a God that speaks to us in our situations, in our vocabulary – over and over again bringing us words written just for us. Be the words written softly on our hearts or in all CAPS screaming in law and words of command. Care for one another – love one another.
From the old testament language of Micah 6:
With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
From those Old Testament words to the embodied example speaking to us in Jesus words from Matthew 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Living words in a letter carried to us across time. God would have us see our genuine selves in the mirror – we look for the differences between you and me and them, but God’s care knows no differences. Our faith, justice and compassion shouldn’t either. In a nut shell - faith, pure religion is caring for others. God’s justice is mercy lived in and through us – an intentional love floated out to one another, to all others. This is God’s command. Amen.
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