James 2:14-26
We’re a few weeks into our reading of the book of James and I’ll bet you’ve got his main argument down: it takes both faith and action to model your life on Jesus, which is how James understands what God wants of us. He gives good examples that people of his time would have experienced daily. You see someone hungry, you feed them. You see someone without clothing, you give them something to wear. When you see a need, you meet it. Later he tells us that’s what Rahab did when the spies from Israel scoped out Jericho: she helped them escape capture. Later when the walls fell, Rahab’s house built into the wall stood. I don’t think Family of God needs much encouragement to meet needs that we see in the community. Although there will always be new opportunities, we are pretty good at seeing a need and meeting it, at least so far as we’re able. We also identify what we do as a “faith response.” But I suspect that part is harder for us to define. So, let’s take a crack at it today.
One way to understand “faith” is believing things that are hard to believe. The more unlikely that something is true, the more faith it takes to believe it. Resurrection would fall into that category. It might be the biggest one. So would the walls of Jericho tumbling down after the Israelites marched around the city seven times blowing trumpets. Or Ezekiel preaching to a field of dead bones that become living men again. There are lots of Bible stories which on the surface seem unlikely to have happened. Many are allegories or fables, or other tales told for the point and not the details. Remember our friend Marcus Borg who taught us, “The Bible is full of many true stories, some of which happened.” Faith as believing the impossible isn’t what James is talking about.
Another way of defining “faith” is believing that the doctrines of the church are true. “Jesus died for our sins,” is a doctrine, as is “Jesus’ body rose from the dead.” “Anyone who isn’t Christian is going to hell” is one of my least favorite doctrines. From time to time the teachings of the church get adapted by new scientific knowledge or changes in culture. I suspect that a majority of people who identify as “Christian” today couldn’t tell you many of what the doctrines are. But James isn’t talking about being doctrinally pure because when he wrote, the doctrines hadn’t been defined yet. We’re talking about early second century when all there was for Jesus’ followers to go by was Jesus.
Which leads us to what I’m guessing James meant by faith: trusting Jesus and the stories about his teachings to be helpful. For the earliest followers Jesus was a reliable guide to the best way to live in what Jesus called “the reign of God.” Martin Luther King Jr. called it the “Beloved Community.” We often refer to it as “becoming whole.” Jesus described it with encouragement to “love one another,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” “love your enemy,” “share with those who have less than they need,” “trust God to care for you.” When we’re reminded of these teachings, we can understand why James links faith and action so closely. None of these teachings is something you just think is true. They are all actions. It isn’t just knowing the story that matters, it’s putting the point of the story into practice in your daily life.
Here's an important distinction that I hope I can explain…faith isn’t just believing the right things; it’s becoming a person shaped by Jesus and his love of God and humanity. There’s a strong thread of what’s called Christianity which stresses what we believe. Think the right things and repeat the right things and you’re in. You’re “saved.” That kind of salvation is a ticket for a future reward. Accept Jesus, say the words, go to heaven when you die. James is saying that faith is about becoming a new person. Understand the teachings of Jesus so you can live them, and you enter a new way of life right now. You put what you know (faith) into action (works) and you ARE both of those things combined. When we do that together, we’re being the reign of God in our own time and place.
Let’s take another whack at making sense of this. There are a lot of Christians who separate what they believe about God from how they live. Or they separate “religion” and “Life” into two separate compartments of daily living. You go to church, hear the ancient stories, sing old or new songs, drink coffee and eat donuts – that’s the religion part of your life. Then you go into the rest of your week, go to work, take your kids to school, hang out with friends, go to the game or the movies – that’s the Life part of your life. They can be separated. How you behave or think at church might not be the same as how you act at a hockey game.
James is saying that what you believe can’t be separated from how you live. Even if you say holy things, if you don’t live by them, you don’t believe them. How you live day by day can’t be separated from who you are, and your faith is how you define who you are. Your life is the consequence of what you hold true. Whatever you believe to be true is your faith. It may sound like Christian doctrine, or it might not. James is telling us that if we don’t live by it, we don’t believe it. Because faith is who we are, not what we think.
Someone asked Nadia Bolz Weber how she could have faith when life is so hard, and resurrection seems so unlikely. Here’s part of her answer:
Maybe faith isn’t about the intellect or even “feelings”. Maybe it’s about a deep knowing. And I suspect that if you can quiet down all those church-y messages you received, you might, in the moments between your breaths, in the moments between your doubts, be just barely still enough to know that God is.
I know people who can tell us exactly what that means. God is. But I can’t. Most of the doctrines that have explained it to me over the years seem self-serving and doubtful to me. But I believe it’s true. James believes it’s true. The word that comes to me this week is possibility. God is the possibility that we can love one another. It’s the possibility that we can live in chaotic times and not be afraid. It’s the possibility that the hungry can be fed, the damaged can be healed, and the world can become a beloved community. One story goes that when Moses wanted to know the name of God, he was told it was, “I am.” Paul Tillich called that “the Ground of Being.” Eckart Tolle once told Oprah, “I am God.” It scared her to death, and I believe it’s true. None of us replaces God, but God is the heart of all that we are. God is our “being-ness”. The Shema tells us to love God with heart and mind and strength – the word strength translated literally is “muchness.” James is telling us that we can’t separate faith and action because faith is knowing God with all that we are. When we know ourselves to be filled with the presence of God, what we do is love our neighbor and create community. We live our faith because we ARE our faith. When we know that to be true in our deepest places, the possibilities are endless.