Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: James 2,14-26. 18. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

James 2,14-26 5319

18. Sn. n. Trinitatis 063

Wendelin, Abbot ✠ 1015

20. Oktober 2019

1. O Lord, One God in Three Persons; help us to love You with all our heart, soul and mind, so that we may then love our neighbor. Amen. (Matthew 22,37-39)

2. »But someone will say: „You have faith and I have works.“ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead« (James 2,18.26).

3. The text of James 2 is an interesting preaching text to have before us one week before we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation. Particularly so when we consider that Martin Luther is remembered, among many other things he said and wrote, for the following utterance: „James is an epistle of straw“ (Luther 7,3. Das Newe Testament Deutzsch, Vorrede. Wittenberg 1522). And yet, Luther wrote a number of beautiful paragraphs extolling the very themes that we find in the Epistle of James, particularly in his 1520 essay The Freedom of a Christian, which I highly recommend that at some point you get a copy of, or find it on the Internet, and read it where you will see Luther at his finest in what is considered one of his greatest writings of his lifetime.

4. James’ infamous verses stand before us today: »What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says they have faith but do not have works? Can that faith save them? No, for faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.«. Both Paul and Luther agree with James on this point, because the works James is talking about here are different from the works Paul and Luther are normally talking about. Paul boldly declares: »A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law« (Romans 3,28); to this Luther added in his German translation of that Pauline verse alone: A person is justified by faith alone apart from works of the law. And James agrees with Paul and Luther here. Paul is referring to the works of the law: the 10 Commandments. The Pharisees taught in Jesus’ and Paul’s day that one earns or merits justification by perfectly keeping the 10 Commandments and all the traditions of the elders. Paul counters that and says: no, no one can be justified by obeying the 10 Commandments because no one can even do that. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3,23); all are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

5. James is talking about a different sort of works. He’s not arguing that one must perfectly keep the 10 Commandments to merit justification, but that a person must be charitable. James is talking about deeds of grace and mercy, and that is the context of the entire 2. chapter of his epistle. Listen to his examples he sets forth: someone in need of clothes, someone who lacks daily bread, etc. The works James is referring to here are acts of charity one shows to a neighbor who is in need. Thus James argues: if you see someone destitute but don’t lift a finger to provide some small amount of relief, then you truly do not have faith in God. Jesus makes this very point in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Day after day, the rich man saw suffering Lazarus and did absolutely nothing to alleviate Lazarus’ suffering because the rich man had no faith in God; his lack of charity proved it.

6. Faith and charity go together; they are two sides of the same coin. James says one who believes in Jesus will then be charitable when he sees a neighbor in need. Luther described it this way: „Faith, however, is a Divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1[,12-13]. It kills the Old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart, spirit, mind and powers; it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them. ... thus it is impossible to separate works from faith“ Luther 35, 370-71).

7. Why is faith so eager and active in these acts of charity? Because of Jesus. Faith receives Jesus and His gifts of salvation and forgiveness. „The Epistle of James is mostly about what God’s gifts do to us, how they work out in our lives. … The gifts shape how you use your tongue, how you treat widows and orphans, the hungry, people with money, people you employ. … in James we get the starting point: the Giver God, from whom comes every good and every perfect gift. ... As God pours the gifts, with each fresh gift, He gives us another nudge, „… help Me give My gifts away.“ … With hands held wide to Him for His gifts, we will be moved and shaped by those gifts forward from firstfruits to the final joyous harvest. When we shall „sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvelous things“ [Psalm 98,1] (Nagel 137).

8. James is really pointing us to Jesus in the 2. chapter of his epistle. Faith leads to acts of charity, and just as Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection, so He is also the first fruits of Christian charity. Jesus is the Faithful Son whom God the Father has sent to bring gifts to His creation: you and I, men and women. Jesus does this throughout His public ministry where He brings the reign of God into our midst: He heals the sick, He forgives a sinner, He feeds those who are hungry, He teaches the Scriptures, etc. The great charitable gift is finally given to us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday where Christ paid for our sin with His life, redeemed us back to the Father and rose from the grave in the grand victory of life triumphing over death. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to continue giving His gifts to us. Today we have had our sins absolved, heard the words of God in Holy Scripture and will receive in the Sacrament the body and blood of Christ which were given for us at Calvary. Such great gifts given to us by our Great Giver, Jesus the Son of God!

9. We in turn give to others. Luther writes about this in his 1520 essay The Freedom of a Christian; it is one of his most thoughtful and powerful writings where he works through the implication of the Epistle of James in the living of a Christian life, namely the two-sided coin of faith and charity. Luther draws to conclusion his essay by saying: „Your one care should be that faith may grow, whether it is trained by works or sufferings. Make your gifts freely and for no consideration, so that others may profit by them and fare well because of you and your goodness. In this way you shall truly be good and Christian. ... From Christ the good things have flowed and are flowing into us. He has so „put on“ us and acted for us as if He had been what we are. From us they flow on to those who have need of them so that I should lay before God my faith and my righteousness so that they may cover and intercede for the sins of my neighbor which I take upon myself and so labor and serve in them as if they were my very own. That is what Christ did for us. This is true love and a genuine rule of a Christian life. Love is true and genuine where there is true and genuine faith. ... We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, and his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor. Yet he always remains in God and His love“ (Luther 31,371). May God at last be merciful … to us and cause His face to shine upon us so that we may know His ways upon earth [Psalm 67,1-2], His salvation among all the nations, God, who is blessed forever [2. Corinthians 11,31]. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners; make known to us the new covenant in Your Only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we love and trust You always. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, October 21, 2019

James 2,14-26. 18. Trinity

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