James the Mediator

We have been exploring James for a few weeks and something jumped out at me in my latest reading. I believe James is writing to Jewish Christians spread throughout the Roman empire. Some of them have land and status; some do not. James is writing to bridge the gap between them, writing to them about the possibilities of growth for the poor if things don't change, but also the necessity that they do.

One of the warnings James gives is in chapter 4. He begins the chapter with cautions about what actually starts all of the quarrelings among them: battles that rage within them. They covet; they desire. He then warns: Your friendship with the world is hatred toward God (v. 4). What they use to achieve status with the world despises God. Rather than achieving status with the world, they are to submit themselves to God. They are to wash their hands! They are are to purify their hearts! (v.8) Notice how James takes purity laws (wash your hands) and applies it in terms of how lives are lived in the context of the great promise of the prophets of a new covenant written on the hearts of people. James is appealing to the law and history of this group of people to establish a new context for their relations. He is mediating.

Then he finishes his warnings with advice: Do not slander one another. He is referring to them all, here, rich and poor alike. Poor, don't speak against the rich. Rich, don't speak against the poor. Why? Because when you speak you judge one another. And when you judge one another, you judge the law. And when you judge the law, you are setting yourself above it. Notice how James has now used the law--the great unifier of the Jewish people in dispersion--and shown how their disunity is a judgment on it.

James creates a new world for his hearers to live in, one that is shaped by their Scripture for them to live out the life of the church.

Reading James

James writes to Jewish Christians scattered through the Roman empire. They know the Old Testament. They have saturated their minds with it. But there are quarrels among them. They are reading; they are not understanding. Hence, James goes back to the law over and again--the royal law, the perfect law.

Today I am reading "Eat this Book" by Eugene Peterson, a book about spiritual reading. Spiritual reading is how one reads the Bible to be shaped and formed by it. A Christian has to get this book into them as thoroughly as if they were eating it. Peterson uses the example of running. When he was running, he would read and read and read about running. How to heal injuries. How to stretch. What to eat. If it was running, he would read it. However, when he got an injury, he stopped reading. As long as he wasn't running, he wasn't reading about it. This was because in his running, his reading was an affirmation, an encouragement, companionship, a deepening, a validation of his life. Likewise for Scripture, when our lives are being given for its story, we will read it for sustenance. We will read it because without it, we starve. The world doesn't feed those who live against its ideals and its stories. God does through his word.

Back to James. In this letter we have a glimpse at a community encouraged to eat the Old Testament again. Take it in. Be shaped by it. See its royalty and perfection. And in seeing this encouragement, we are given part of our own Scripture to take in and eat and consume. We are to be fed by it, but this only happens as we are participating in the world of James--a world where Jesus is Lord, where leaders are humble, where we are slow to speak and slow to become angry. I think this captures why the word planted in us can save us.

James and the Oscars

The Oscars always generate a lot of buzz. Morning news shows interview all the actors I've heard of but never seen or the ones I've never heard of and now am supposed to see but rarely the ones I've seen who aren't nominated for Oscars.

On Tuesday, our small group was talking about living out Christian lives in front of coworkers and how we can often be held to a higher standard. We asked, suppose James was sitting right here with us, what would he say about it? Count it pure joy. See the opportunity. Live genuinely--and be careful what genuine is! Be slow to speak. We then stepped back a bit. What about the situation to which James writes? He writes to a group of people with factions in their communities because of money. But he writes with instructions in how to live in the midst of it and that it should be resolved. Perhaps James realized that the opportunity for witness from a group of people who had come through such faction and fighting was greater than that of a community that never had any troubles at all. Likewise when we fall short of the standard of Christ, there is often a greater witness in our response to it--our apologies, our humility, our attempts at reparation--than had troubles never happened at all.

Back to the Oscars. Why all the buzz? I think it's because a good story is something humans appreciate. And yet we always need new stories. What were the five nominees for best movie last year? I certainly can't remember. We always need new stories to be energized and entertained and engaged. Wonderful thing, then, how our lives are always little episodic stories that, with God's help, can be weaved into one large one, thereby remaining fresh while coherent. What's the witness of our stories--especially in the midst of trial?

James--Practical Theologian

I have been meditating and studying James for a couple of weeks in preparation for our upcoming series. Recently, I have begun seeing James' ability to apply theology to his hearers. Practical theology is best not thought of as a list of dos and don'ts, but as theology that aims to be formative; beliefs about and from God that shape our practices--often dos, but sometimes don'ts--in order to shape our character.

Let me give one example of James' practical theology. James is writing to Jewish believers scattered throughout the Roman empire--a phenomenon called the diaspora. As a result of this scattering, some Jews are poor and without land, while some are wealthy, owning land away from Jerusalem. James starts to address this disparity not by telling all his hearers to share and be nice, but by pointing out the benefit of trial. Trials produce perseverance and perseverance leads to maturity and completeness! As a result, James encourages the poor brother to take pride in his high position--a position that enables maturity to be developed.

James continues by charting the course of the rich: the rich should take pride in their low position. They should do this because without a change of attitude, their doom is foretold: they will pass like a plat scorched by the heat. James has taken and applied Jesus' parable of the sower to the wealthy people in this congregation. Just as Jesus said that those seeds which fell in rocky soil were scorched, so James is warning that without a reversal of attitudes, so will the rich of these churches die and be forgotten. The choice is theirs and James makes sure they realize it: "Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

Notice that James does not give a road map to solving their problems. Rather, he combines the parable of Jesus ("planted") with the OT law in order to lay out for them their choice. How they live out the word is up to them, but James has made all the connections and challenges. He has redrawn the world appealing to their law--taking care of widows and orphans--and by warning them as Jesus had once warned his listeners.