Sermon for July 23rd, 2017
James 2:1-26
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
James 2: Wisdom from Above
Charles Blondin was a famous tightrope walker, perhaps the most famous and accomplished tightrope walker who ever lived. As the story goes, there was an American journalist who, in his weekly column, expressed skepticism that Blondin had really actually done all the feats attributed to him--things like crossing a thin tightrope with a man on his back, or blindfolded on stilts, or carrying an oven and stopping in the middle of the rope to light a fire and cook an omelet.
Blondin got wind of the journalist's column and his unbelief, and invited him to come to a well-publicized event where Blondin would cross over the Niagara Falls from the United States into Canada and back again. The journalist accepted the invitation.
On the day of the big event, Blondin announced (in typical fashion as one of his famous stunts) that this day he would cross over the falls on a rope, pushing in front of himself a wheelbarrow filled with 350 pounds of cement. The skeptical journalist was waiting for him on the Canadian side. He didn't have to wait long. Blondin bounded across the line in under 15 minutes. Reaching the other side, he sought out the journalist and said to him, "Now do you believe I can do it?”
Still recovering from his astonishment but wanting to be a good sport, the journalist admitted, “Yes, I do.”
“No,” said Blondin, “do you REALLY believe I can do it?”
“Well of course I do," said the journalist. "I just saw you do it.”
“No, no, no,” said Blondin, “do you have faith that I can do this?”
“Yes,” said the journalist, starting to get annoyed, “I have faith you can do it.”
“Good," said Blondin. "Then get in the wheelbarrow, because we're going back together.”
Faith...and works. Can one truly exist without the other? Are they just different sides of the same coin? Or are they two different things entirely? This is the subject that James, the brother of Jesus, explores in today's text.
