Apples and Strawberries

Well James hits the news right smack in the center again, doesn't he?  A
teacher strike in Chicago and James warns us about how hard it is to be a
teacher.  He also challenges me personally about how hard it is to be a
teacher of the Word.  And, as James says, you all do hold me to strict
standards in my teaching, and I thank God for that.  I fully realize I stick
a little closer to the text than you have been used to in the past, but once
we understand our primary texts and their context, then we can more ably and
accurately apply the texts to our world.  So let us launch into today's
text, and reflect on some questions many of you legitimately raised about
last Sunday's message.

Will you pray with me?  "May the words of our mouths and the meditations of
our hearts be acceptable unto you, our God, our Rock, and our redeemer."
Amen."

I want to address two questions many of you had about last week's message.
First, some of you commented that we read from a translation that referred
to God as a he.  Well, the Hebrew says he, and the translator kept that
reference.  I fully understand the importance of inclusive language, but I
think it is important to be reminded on occasion that the worldview of the
writers of our Bible-both Hebrew and Christian Testaments-were very
different from ours.  Things they took for granted, for instance their
assumptive patriarchy, we do not believe.  So rather than change the
translation, I chose to leave the word He for God to remind us that these
are very old texts and everything they say might not be from our worldview.
And that leads to your second question, why didn't I address the sexual
prohibitions in Leviticus 18?  First, they were off topic of acting out our
faith, and second, just as for patriarchy, our culture and understanding of
human relationships has grown beyond the perspective of a writer 3000 years
ago.  There are many rules of sexual conduct in Leviticus 18.  But if you
read them carefully, they all have to do with preserving the man's honor.
They are exclusively patriarchal.  They do not speak from the woman's
perspective at all-well that is not entirely true, verse 23 says don't have
sex with an animal, but then the last part of the verse says that a woman
must not have sex with an animal, as if women were a totally separate sexual
category in these rules-because, in the ancient world, they were.  Leviticus
18 is a codification of the honor-shame sexual code, which is completely
focused on avoiding shame of the man.  These are male-focused sexual codes.
And in ancient society two men having sex meant one was acting as a woman,
and that was completely forbidden as it shamed the man who was presumably
acting like a woman.  We now understand relationships are far more nuanced
and complicated than just sex-only.  The worldview of the ancient world did
not even acknowledge that two women or two men could love one another.  Our
modern understanding of anthropology does understand multifaceted human
love, and so, just as we realize the law of not wearing fabric of two
materials as outdated (all of us are wearing cotton-polyester blends!), so
we also realize that many 3000 year-old honor-shame sexual rules are
outdated.  In this place, we take these biblical writings far too seriously
to take them literally without questioning.  Questioning makes them come
alive for us!

So back to your questions, many of you asked why James placed so much
emphasis on the law.  As Christians, don't we believe that Jesus came to
fulfill the law and free us from it?  We do believe that, but James shows us
this wasn't always the case. Why does James talk so much about the law?

That is a great question.  Let's investigate.  Let's notice that James talks
about God, but never mentions Jesus at all.  It is almost as if James is
talking to a Jewish community exclusively.  Hmmm.   Let's think about that a
for a moment.  If this book was written by James the Just, Jesus' brother,
leader of the first Jerusalem church, then who were his congregants?
Yes-exactly, Jews from the Temple.  Devout Jews who were also followers of
the recent prophet, Jesus of Nazareth.  There is not much developed
Christian doctrine in James, and it may be because it was written very early
after Jesus was killed by the Romans.  James was still working out of the
Jewish culture and ethos.  And James was writing before Paul had begun to
have a large influence on the new church.  So James is trying to make the
turn from Jews keeping all the laws in Torah to focusing on what Jesus
taught about the downcast, the poor and the homeless.  James is trying to
place Jesus' teaching into the context of trying to help the Jews realize
they had abandoned the poor, orphans and widows.  Actually, all of the
Hebrew prophets had this same message as historical cycles of prosperity
caused the Jews to wander off from taking care of the poorest among them in
their society.  So, on the one hand, James teaches all of the laws are
important, but, on the other hand, did you notice that in the midst of these
teachings he places the Royal Rule of Love ahead of all of the other laws?
That is not very Jewish, but it follows exactly what Jesus taught.  We are
seeing here the beginnings of the change of focus from keeping the entire
law to focusing on the law of love, the Royal Rule of Love as James calls
it.  James is struggling to develop a new relationship to the law, and we
get to watch this struggle.  It unfolds again right before us in the Book of
James.

Now speaking of struggles, let's look a bit more closely at the struggles of
the early years of the church, the context of our text.  The infant church
first developed as a Jerusalem-based sect of Judaism, but God had other
plans for the church.  The first thing that happened is that God called a
Jew by the name of Saul to preach the Good News to the gentiles.  When Saul
was converted, he because Paul.  Then, when Paul began having enormous
success all around the Mediterranean Sea in converting gentiles into new
Christ-followers, it caused cataclysmic problems back in the Jerusalem
church.  Paul was inviting gentiles into this new following, and these new
converts were not required to follow Jewish law or convert to Judaism at
all.  The people in the Jerusalem church were completely scandalized.  How
can this be?  They said emphatically, "Jesus was a Jew, so we must follow
Jewish law."  Paul said no, we can follow this new prophet Jesus without
being a Jew.  You can read about the huge meeting that took place in
Jerusalem to resolve this issue in Acts Chapter 10.  While this council may
have made a decision, the people in the Jerusalem church were still very
conflicted.  You can read about the controversy and Paul's trial in Acts 20
through 25.  It is a very powerful story.  The Romans stepped in and
imprisoned Paul.  But the die was cast: the conflict raged on in the church.
James led the Jewish Christians who said the law must be kept.  Paul led the
group who said Christ fulfilled the law and that the law no longer held sway
for a Christ-follower.  Can you now see why James would talk so much about
the law?

Now Paul is important in this story.  You have noticed, I'm sure, that Paul
disagrees with some of what James has taught in our first three chapters.
James said in 2:24 "you see that a person is justified by works and not by
faith alone."  Paul teaches the exact opposite in Romans 4 "Abraham's [and
also our] faith is reckoned to us as righteousness."  Paul says no works are
required for a relationship with God.  But James says we live out our faith
as Christ-followers by our action in the world-not just our words.  So, what
is it?  James or Paul?  Living active faith, or faith alone?

This controversy rocked the new church in Jerusalem in it's first years.
You noticed and asked about this controversy before you even knew what was
happening.  Did new believers have to follow the law, and thereby become
Jewish, as James teaches?  Or could new believers disregard the law and
through their faith in Christ become members of the Way?

The faith versus works argument has boiled over many, many times in the
history of our church.  It finally exploded with Martin Luther as he led the
Reformation.  Luther rejected James as a part of the Bible because of this
controversy.  Luther was reacting to the Catholic church which was using the
sale of indulgences to erase people's sins-worldly works substituting for
faith.  Luther saw the same thing in his day that Jesus saw in the first
century; people teaching that following the rules was the way to God.  So
Luther sided with Paul that our kinship with Christ is through faith alone,
not works.  But is it that simple?  Paul or James?  Faith or works?

[Sigh.]  No.  It is just not that simple.  One of the deep truths that Jesus
taught was that the faith life is a spectacular paradox. The first is last.
The last is first.  The physical world is a ghost and the unseen, unfelt
spiritual world is the real reality.  The smallest mustard seed is like the
enormous and everlasting Realm of God.  Yeast is like heaven.  Those who are
humble will be lifted up and made high.  Read the Sermon on the Mount and
you will see that Jesus refers to the Realm of God as paradox after paradox.
Those who are empty and seek will be filled.  If we ever think we have fully
defined the Realm of God and our relationship to the divine, we are
mistaken. Because God is unknowable, an unfathomable mystery, a paradox of
knowing deeper that is deeper than facts or knowledge.  So the paradox of
our faith is centered around knowing our relationship with God is by faith,
but that we are also God's hands and feet to act in the world tending to the
poor, homeless and hungry.  Our faith establishes our relationship with
God-no works can do that.  But our works establish our relationship to the
world-faith alone cannot do that.  It is a paradox.  It is both faith and
works, in the right proportion and for the right reasons in the right time
and in purity of heart. 

But it is God then who mercifully forgives us for breaking the law, forgives
us and loves us anyway.  We trust that God responds to us in unconditional
love.  So our faith is not about our failure, but about God's response to
us.  Works without faith are dead.  But faith without works is empty.  Our
relationship to God in the world is a complete mystery, a paradox, a
conundrum, a mad love affair, an indefinable joyous ride of life.  Anyone
who has ever raised a child understands this paradox.  You can love your
child beyond words and simultaneously and paradoxically be so incredibly
frustrated by them.  The first is last.  The last is first.  Paradox.

Have you ever noticed the paradox that Paul says salvation is by faith
alone, but then Paul proceeds to give us the longest lists of prohibited
activities for the Christ-following life?  Well, which is it, Paul?  Are our
actions important or not?  Paul, you say it is faith alone, but then you
list a hundred action items that refute your claim of faith only.  We
finally must answer it is both faith and works, each in its own time and
place.  Following Christ is not by faith alone, or by action alone.
Following Christ is developing a relationship.  Just as there is no
checklist for human love, there is also no checklist for our glorious
eternal love affair with God. 

Following Christ requires both faith and action.  Following Christ is
placing love before rules.  Sometimes love overrules the rules-as parents we
all know this paradox.  Following Christ is paying attention to your heart
instead of just your head.  Following Christ is being fully present,
compassionate and human.  Following Christ in real life is not as easy as
picking either apples or strawberries.  Life is always a smashed-together
somewhere-in-the-middle apple and strawberry mixed-up smoothie.  Following
Christ is complicated and a bit messy because life is messy.  In all love
affairs, the honeymoon ends eventually, and the real-life hard work
following of Christ then joins our faithful dreams.

So blessings to you as you discern how you unravel the paradox of faith and
action in your life.  No one else can decide these things for you.  May the
paradox of our Christian life of faith and action be a blessing to you,
reminding you always to follow Jesus, seeking a way through the constant
paradox of our own lives.  And maybe, just maybe, we will all come to love
the paradox of enjoying both apples and strawberries together.  Amen.