Sermon for the Feast of St. James of Jerusalem (October 27, 2024)
Sermon for the Feast of St. James of Jerusalem (October 27, 2024) at St.James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
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Transcript
Happy St. James’ Day everybody! This is our patronal feast day! One of the reasons for having a patron saint at all is to have a particular example for a person to have as our own saint as an example that a person or a community can follow. Who we choose as our patron saint tells us a little about who God has called us to be. And I think St. James is an especially fitting saint for our times. So I want to get into that a little bit.
First, I want to look quickly at the gospel where James shows up, not himself, but as a mention. This is where we learn he's the brother of Jesus and he shows up as kind of an excuse for all these people in Jesus' hometown not to listen to him. They're all gathered together.
St. Matthew says this is a place where Jesus could do no deed of power. That's surprising, right? Why does Jesus not do his deeds of power in this place? Well, when he is talking to all the people in the synagogue, they're not listening to him. They're thinking, wait a minute. Isn't this the kid who used to run around in Joseph's shop throwing blocks? I mean, James, that's your brother, right? He's just a guy. He's just your brother. They think, we know what this guy is going to say. He's no better than you or me. He comes from right here. Why should we pay attention? And so whatever it is that Jesus is saying and teaching, even though the people are there, and even though they might look like they're listening, they're not because their thoughts are full of what they think they're going to hear because they think they know who Jesus is.
Our next, our first reading, tells us a little more about James, and we get to hear from James in his own voice. And the story that we read that Eric read to us from the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the first council of the church. Very early on, before the generation that walked alongside Jesus passed away, there was already conflict and dissension among the people who followed Jesus. So to understand what's happening in this story that we read from Acts, we have to go back just a little bit in the overall story of Acts to know what is it that they are sitting down together. And when James makes this long speech, sort of making the judgment for which he, our patron saint, becomes known as James, the Just, the person who has good judgment, we need to know what exactly is he making a judgment about, right? So you know that from the beginning, the first people to follow Jesus were his own people. The Jewish people.
Jesus came to live and minister among the Jewish people. He lived and he died and he rose again. And before, at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, before he ascends again into heaven, he tells his closest apostles, he says to them, stay here until the Holy Spirit comes upon you. But when she does, I will send you and you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem and in the surrounding countryside and in the regions around, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And this is exactly what happens in the Acts of the Apostles.
People start testifying to the reality of this Jesus who lived in a way that showed us how to love one another, who died for the sake of that love, and who rose again because death could not defeat him. And everywhere they go, people hear their witness and change their lives and they want to be part of the movement. But as the movement grows from Jerusalem to Samaria to the ends of the earth, it starts to encounter difference, disagreement, conflict, because people who are not Jewish and who don't follow the laws that Jesus himself followed want to be part of the Jesus thing.
And so division develops among people who want to be part of the Jesus movement, people who want to follow Jesus. On the one hand, there are people who say, of course you are welcome to be part of this thing, but if you truly want to experience the life and the death and the resurrection of our Savior, then you need to do the things that he did. You need to follow the law that he followed. And most importantly, among the laws that comes up, is the law that goes back to Abraham, to God's covenant with Abraham. The essential sign of God's covenant with the people who belong to God is that the people, the males, would be circumcised. Believe it or not, this is not popular among adult male Gentile converts.
So disagreement and dissension develop, people saying, we want to follow Jesus too. The truth of this man's life and his death for our sake and his resurrection, it compels us. We want to be part of this, but we're not sure we can do what you're asking us to do. And then on the other hand, people who say, but this is how you belong. This is how you belong. Paul and Barnabas have been sent on a mission. They sail around the Mediterranean and while they are in Antioch, people come and say, look, this is all very nice, you're preaching to these Gentiles and it's wonderful that they want to be part of this, but they will not be saved unless they undergo circumcision. The conflict heats up to a point that Paul and Barnabas realize, they realize they can't keep going and doing what they're doing until there is some kind of resolution. Some judgment needs to be made, some decision needs to be made. Are we going to follow these laws? Are we going to require that others follow these laws or not? What is essential?
So they go back to Jerusalem where all the elders of the church are called together and they need to make this decision. And Paul and Barnabas are testifying. They're testifying to the people who have never known, who have never lived as God's people under God's laws, but who nevertheless are alive to the presence of Jesus in their lives. And the people, the elders, are listening. And then St. Peter stands up and he says, I'm on board too. Remember the story we heard? I don't remember when we did. It must've been like in the Spring where Peter is napping on the roof and he has this dream where God sends down this picnic blanket full of foods that are forbidden by his laws. And God says, go ahead, Peter, eat up. And Peter's like, no way. But it happens three times. God says, eat. And Peter says, no, and God says, eat. And Peter says he wakes up from his dream and who is knocking on his door, but the servants of a Gentile asking him to come and eat at his house. And that's where Peter tells his famous speech. He says, I truly understand that in every nation, every generation, God shows no partiality. So Peter gives his testimony again.
But you can imagine the heat in this room because there are people with this lively testimony, these lively stories about how Jesus is calling and connecting with people who live outside of God's laws. And at the very same time, there are people who their whole lives have known God precisely through the laws that God has given to God's people in the covenant that God established forever through those laws. And they remember Jesus saying, I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The heat is in the room, and then we get to the part we read today. What is the first line of the portion of Acts that we read for today?
Everyone falls silent as they listen to the testimonies. Everyone falls silent. Now, for me, when I feel strongly about something, even if I look silent on the outside, on the inside, I'm not silent on the inside. So often I may look like I'm listening, but I am thinking about what I'm going to say as soon as I get my chance. Okay? Much like the people in Jesus' hometown. They're all in the synagogue. They look like they're listening to Jesus, but on the inside they're like, who does this guy think he is? Okay? There's listening and then there's listening.
What happens in this first council of the church is a miracle. I can see I am not the only one who is often doing the kind of listening that is mostly preparing my own rebuttal. This is human. This is what human beings do. The miracle of this first council of the church is that all these people with their good reasons for doing and believing and demanding what they do and believe and demand of themselves and one another on both sides of a really divisive issue that threatens to crack the church, they're all actually listening. And it's out of that listening that James, I believe, is able to hear the Holy Spirit and to make a right judgment.
James says, look, the gist of his speech is, let's require some things. We want to have accountability and we care about the law, but let's remove this biggest stumbling block, circumcision. Let's set that one aside. And like any great compromise, I am sure that it made exactly nobody in that council happy, but it holds the church together. And all of the New Testament is full of records of the conflict and disagreement. Read the letters of Paul. He is always talking about holding the church together across its disagreement. We who inherit the church of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and James and Paul and Peter, we know that conflict and disagreement still exists in the church 2000 years later, and this idea that real listening can hold us together.
I've been thinking what would it be like if in the halls of our government there was a silence, like the silence that fell over that council? And what if there was listening, really listening like that? The prayer we pray today says, God, grant, that we would follow the example of your servant James the Just, the brother and the friend of Jesus, James of Jerusalem, the holy city of God. Grant that following his example, your church would be continually given to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity. This is our calling, like that council, the power to heal, to reconcile those who are at variance and enmity. It rises out of prayer. We can only fulfill the calling to be healers if we are continually given to prayer. And what is prayer except to listen to God?
Our prayer book says that prayer is our response to God. And how can we respond truly and faithfully if we aren't listening? It's the listening, the real listening, not the kind where you look like you're listening on the outside, but on the inside you're planning, the real listening, where we let our hearts be touched by one another's testimonies and where we listen to God as God may choose to reveal himself in the face of another human being.
The invitation for all of us is that we would be continually given to prayer, to careful listening and to attending to the spirit of God, to trust and believe, and to live as though that spirit were truly alive in every human heart. And to offer ourselves as ministers of reconciliation in a world that will not have us listen unless we do it ourselves on purpose.
It is a noisy, noisy, noisy world, and we are all constantly being encouraged not to listen. But remember, the Holy Spirit within us is praying, responding, and calling us to offer ourselves continually to prayer and to listen with our whole heart and our whole mind, and our whole strength and to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. May we follow the example of Blessed James of Jerusalem. Amen.