Faithful Activity: A sermon on James 2, Sept 9th, 2018

Text: James 2:1-17

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who calls us to faithful activity.

Ole and Lars were working for the city public works department in Wisconsin.  Ole would dig a hole and Lars would follow behind and fill the hole in. They worked up one side of the street, then down the other, then moved on to the next street, working furiously all day without rest, one digging a hole, the other filling it in again.

An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn’t understand what they were doing. So he asked Ole, ‘I’m impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work, but I don’t get it — why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?’

Ole, the hole digger, wiped his brow and sighed, ‘Vell, I suppose it probably looks odd because ve’re normally a three-person team. But today Sven, who plants da trees called in sick.’

It’s a different kind of works we’ll be talking about today as we have the works verse today. Faith without works, is dead. It’s an over-reading of this one verse that really got to Martin Luther, and from that to the rest of Protestantism. Martin’s fear and issues around works come from his own history of dealing with this thought. Martin, who would probably be diagnosed with Clinical Anxiety and depression at times in his life, especially when he first began training to be a priest and after the deaths of two children, he feared that he would never reach up to the standards of doing the right things in order to earn salvation. His mentality then was, how would he ever be able to do enough good works to have God love him. It was a massive break through for him when he reads Ephesians chapter 2, and something clicks. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” He’s relieved, it’s not up to him, it’s God’s gift.

But, then we read James here. Verse 17, So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

And, so it can be asked, which is right? Is it faith that’s important? Or works?

And I get to now use one of my favorite gifs.

Why not both? We talked about this last week, but as we had just a massive overflowing attendance because of Labor Day weekend, it bears repeating. For James, the call to do good works, all starts with who we are. James writes this letter to give instructions for how to live here and now. He writes to give a lodestar, a guide, for life in the world. In community now, not later. He’s not concerned with eternal life or heaven as much, because for him that’s a given. He talked about seeing yourself in a mirror, and through that knowing who we are. We see that we are created by God, we see that through God’s grace we have been given the gift of eternal life. Because of God’s grace we have faith. That is what our salvation is based on, God’s free gift, given through love.

But, what of works then. I want to look another translation of this verse, which I think helps to see what works really mean.  From the Common English Bible, In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.

What works are, is faithful activity. They are how we show our faith to the world. Using today’s theme, they are how we enact God’s work with our hands. Today as we go to make backpacks and clean up trash we are doing faithful activity, we are doing good works. They do not save us, they are in response to what God has already done for us.

There’s the well known song, they will know we are Christians by our love. How do we show our love? Verse 8 of our text has James repeating what is repeated numerous times throughout the bible, originating in Leviticus, repeated by Jesus, love your neighbor as yourself. We love our neighbor, by helping them, by doing good works for them, by engaging in faithful activity on their behalf, no matter who they may be. That’s how we show faith.

If good works are not done, how would anyone know if you have faith. I am reminded of the wonderful text from Matthew where Jesus teaches the disciples about helping those in need. He tells of when the Son of Man comes, and says come into my kingdom, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ And they answer, when did we do these things, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

When we help those in need, we help Christ. When we show forth our faith, we show God our love.

Works are the blood pressure of faith, they are the heartbeat of faith, the vital signs of faith. They are how the world knows faith is alive within us. They are faithful activity, they are what flows out of people who have faith. It is through good works, done out of appreciation of what God has done for us in Christ, that we show the world that we have faith. That we show the world that we love God and our neighbor. If all we do is offer words, does anyone truly know we have faith, do they know that they are loved?

I think often about the phrase sending our thoughts and prayers.

It pops up after major events, often tragic ones, and people send their thoughts and prayers, and usually nothing else. If all we send is thoughts and prayers, is anything actually done. From our text, 15 Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. 16 What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? 17 In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.

That’s what James means by faith without works is dead. If we simply say we have faith, but we don’t care for those around us, if we see their needs and don’t offer support or engage in faithful activity, are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? Are we caring for Jesus in the least of his brothers and sisters?

We end our worship service today, with actual service, actually doing faithful activity to give thanks to God for all God has done for us. We go to give school kits to kids across the world, we go to clean up our own community. May these good works, this faithful activity, may they be simply one good work of many we do in gratitude for God’s love. Amen.