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Pentecost P.18 September 9, 2012
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Ps. 146: 4-9
James 1:17-27 Mark 7:31-37
The
Bible has been a source of disagreement amongst people of faith for a long
time. And in fact it seems as though one
portion of the Bible may actually be written to counter another portion of the
Bible. We tend to think that everyone
agreed with St. Paul; but we find that he had some disagreements with Peter and
others.
Today we have read from the Letter of
James. We read this: What
good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have
works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily
food, 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? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
There was a famous theologian who had
difficulties with the apparent contradiction between the emphasis of the letter
of James on works and the writings of St. Paul with an emphasis on faith and
grace. This theologian was Martin
Luther. Luther was so troubled by the
writing in the letter of James, he did not regard this letter to have the
authority of the apostles. In short, it
was not a part of “his” Bible.
One of the results of the modern historical
study of the Bible is that we don’t need to have the kinds of dilemma with
biblical writings that Martin Luther had. In our study of the Bible we don’t believe
that somehow God’s word happens unfiltered in the biblical writings. We don’t believe that words of Bible have one
self-evident meaning that can be discovered to be the same by everyone who
reads them. In short, we believe that
the words of the Bible happened within a context, a very human context. And the context means that persons are asking
questions that pertain to that particular context.
Martin Luther was reading the Bible in
reaction against what he perceived to be an emphasis on salvation achieved
because of one’s good work. Luther
believed that if salvation was due to one’s works then it diminished the grace
of God. Luther observed too many clergy
using guilt and work to manipulate lay people.
One extreme form was the alleged selling of Indulgences by clergy for
lay persons to receive official remission of their sin. So, Luther, from his reactionary context,
could not accept the context from which the letter of James was written.
You and I from our own context probably
cannot identify with the context of Paul or the letter of James or Martin
Luther. Our context is different and
different questions arise for us in our time and place.
In our time, we are beneficiaries of many
more years of biblical studies. Some of the
letters that Martin Luther assumed were written by St. Paul are no longer
regarded to have Pauline authorship even though they may have been written by
some of Paul’s disciples.
Most of the New Testament was written with an
imminent expectation of return of the Son of Man in the clouds. For these people, salvation was defined by
whether they would be “saved” or embraced by the Son of Man. We know that there is amongst modern biblical
fundamentalists an effort to maintain this imminent return of the Son of Man
tradition and they do so in specifically predicative ways. So they worry about every current event in Israel
because they see portions of the Bible as precise blueprint for what is going
to happen in the future.
How can you and I from our contexts find some
insights in this ancient discussion of faith, grace and works? What relevance does this have for you and
me?
I think what we learn from Jesus is that I am
not supposed to judge anyone except myself.
In short, we are not supposed to think that we are more worthy of God’s
grace and favor than anyone else. We
might be fooled to think so when we start comparing ourselves with others. But if we think it worthwhile to compare
ourselves with others, why wouldn’t we just compare ourselves with Jesus, St.
Francis and Mother Teresa of Calcutta and find ourselves woefully lacking. Usually our judgmental attitudes come because
we compare ourselves with someone whom we already think we’re better than. In fact, we actually might like to have “notorious”
obvious sinners around just to make us look good.
Jesus reminded us that we need to be perfect
as the Father in heaven is perfect; so that our moral direction is so high and
unattainable, we definitively need grace to tolerate ourselves in light of God’s
perfection. And we need grace to tolerate
ourselves for not yet being who we can become.
If we are always lacking in our progress to
become better, we always need grace and so we need to have faith to accept that
grace. The Christian notion of grace
means that the act of faith is accepting that God makes up what we lack in
perfection at any time in our life.
The act of faith is indeed a human work and
it is a significant work even though it is a work that is overshadowed by the
grace offered. Put in monetary terms,
should I be congratulated for my gracious work of taking a million dollars; or
should it be of greater importance that someone who was generous offered me a
million dollars? “ Congratulation, Phil, you’re so great and wonderful for
taking that million dollars.”
On the other hand, if I don’t take the
million dollars, do I have the million dollars?
If you understand this you can understand how the relationship between
grace and work and faith is a matter of emphasis.
And that brings us to the question in the
letter of James. It is a kind of what
comes first, the chicken or the egg type of argument. Are you saved and have you received
grace? Well, then why are you treating
people so badly? You show no evidence of
having taken the “million” dollars.
Works of charity manifest the proof that someone has indeed taken the
gift of God’s grace. We don’t give to
get something; we give as proof that we’ve already received the gift and grace
of God. In the Gospel words, if we are abiding in the
grace of Christ, we will bear fruit; we will produce the evidence of our
relationship with Christ. The writer of
James was essentially saying that one has to show the evidence of receiving God’s
grace by sharing that grace through the love and kindness of one’s life. In this way we can understand that grace, faith
and works are not really contradictory but mutually reinforcing and co-existence. And so one cannot divide grace, faith or
works; they all happen together at the same time. One cannot presume that one’s works occurred
without a prior event of grace; to deny the event of grace is the sin of pride.
The Gospel presents God’s grace in the form
of the stories of Jesus. God restores us
to our lost childhood joy as we overcome all of the interior forces that keep
us from freshness of life. God
continually heals our hearing because we always need to hear new things and new
insights for our lives.
Let us hear today the insight that grace,
faith and the good work of our lives are all simultaneous events. Amen.
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