Which Way to the Heart of God?

 James 1:17-27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Martin Luther and I both have trouble with the book of James.  Luther’s problem was that James is the “faith without works is dead” guy, while Luther, on the other hand, was the “justification by faith APART from works of the Law” guy.  For Luther, Justification by faith apart from works clashed with James and his “pure religion is to do works” stuff.

Now I wouldn't tell Luther this to his face, but maybe James was just saying that doing good things for our neighbors is a part of our faith in the same way that Jesus does in the parable of the sheep and the goats?  With that Lutheran heresy out of the way, I do continue to completely agree with Luther that the way we live in the world doesn’t MAKE God love us or FORCE God into “saving” us, BUT, I have to say I think James has a point as well.  When we live into the free gift of faith… a gift we’ve been given without condition by the Holy Spirit… we simply won’t be able to help ourselves but to care for our neighbors with real, tangible works out there in the real, tangible world.  

I just don't think the way to go deeper into our faith is an “either/or” sort of thing.  I think it's a “both/and” sort of thing.  It is not the toxic extreme that some proclaim, where by living a certain lifestyle, praying a particular prayer, or belonging to the “right” church gives makes God do whatever you want.  But neither is it the equally toxic extreme of being so fearful of ever doing even the smallest sort of “good work” that you refuse to volunteer to mow the church lawn!  You laugh but I’ve seen both!  

The reality is that our faith IS a completely free, no strings attached gift from God.  It’s been loved into us with the same powerful love that created the universe and raises the dead!  AND with the gift of a love that powerful, we will just not be able to help ourselves but to act like Christ and love our neighbors.  Sure, we never perfectly live into the gift of faith and sometimes we fight the idea of caring for our neighbors.  But the balance of those two things is one that Luther himself proposed!  That as we more deeply embrace the gift of faith, we become completely free lord of all, subject to none, AND at the same time, we a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all!    

MY issue with James is that when James lays out all the good things we’re supposed to do… “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness” he never tells us HOW TO DO THAT STUFF!  You tell me what to do, James, ol’ buddy, but I don’t seem to be able to get it to just magically come out!  I find myself more like Paul.  I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do!  I’m a mess James, and just telling me to do better, frankly James… it’s not helping!  

The other option of course is that like Luther, perhaps I've gotten James wrong as well.  Maybe for James it was in the taking care of the widows and orphans… in the living day to day as Jesus lived… in the trying to listen more and speak less… Maybe for James, he found that it was in the doing those things out here in the real world, that he was finally able to more fully grasp the gift of faith which God has already planted within us?

Could it be then, that this too is yet another one of those both/and things which God seems to love so much?  Maybe God knows that some of us find our way deeper into the gift of faith when we start in our heads with the proclaimed Word which then transforms our hearts and leads to doing good things with our hands out in the world.  AND, maybe it’s also true that others find their way deeper into the gift of faith when they start with their hands and do the work of Christ in the world which transforms their hearts and leads to being able to work out ways in their heads to help others hear the Good News?  

Front ways or Back ways, right ways or wrong ways, that’s where I’ve landed this week.  Whether we start in our heads OR start with our hands… The truth seems to be that either way we will inevitably find the immeasurable power of God’s love at the center of it all!  So head to hands or hands to head.  Start at whatever end you find yourself at today and then move deeper from there.  If James and Luther are both right, I suspect from either end, you will inevitably end up, right in the heart of God.  Amen.