Faith Without Works
James 2:14-26
February 18, 2007
This message is really a continuation of last week’s, when we discussed the necessity of getting off the bench and into the game. In other words, as James said in 1:22: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!”
It has become sort of a fun exercise to put James up against the Apostle Paul because they seem to be saying the complete opposite of each other. After all, James says, “Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?” (2:24). By contrast, Paul says: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV). Elsewhere Paul says, “Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” Galatians 2:16 NIV).
On the other hand, Paul says things like: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1). In Romans 2:13, he says: “…not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law that will be justified.”
What is happening with these two, I think, is a different emphasis for the same problem. Paul was primarily concerned with the Judaic notion and misunderstanding that it was human goodness and works that led to righteousness. James, on the other hand, was concerned that a confession of faith alone, without evidence of it entering one’s heart, lead to a dead, not a living faith.
The verse in today’s Scripture lesson that struck me was the last one, verse 26. “The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.”
During the first week of October in 1980, I got a call from my dad telling me that his mother, my grandmother, had died. He and my mom bought me a plane ticket and the next day, I was home from Denver. I remember the moment that I walked into the Funeral Home and saw my grandmother laying in her casket.
She and my grandpa lived just a few blocks from our house. Since my other grandmother lived in Michigan, this was the one with whom I had spent the most time. I remembered Saturday afternoons when I was a kid. I would go over to her house and we would watch Westerns on the television together. I remembered picking strawberries with her from her garden. I remembered the trips we used to take up to Auburn in her Rambler to see my great aunt. I remembered the times when she would come over to our apartment shortly after Toni and I were married. The conversation would always go something like this. “Grandma, would you like something to drink?” She would say, “Oh, I’ll have a highball.” We would have to say, “Grandma, we were talking about iced tea or a coke.” “OK,” she’d say. I’ll have a coke.” I remembered the last time I had given her a hug. She was so tiny.
As I looked at her in her coffin, I heard people all around me say how good she looked, how natural. I saw something different. I saw a corpse. I am confident that during those moments that I looked at her in her casket, her spirit was with her Lord. That was never a question for me. What I saw was just her earthly remains. She was a shell, a corpse, with no breath, no pulse, and none of the warmth I remembered.
That is what James was saying: “The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.” In other words, if someone claims to be a Christian, and they show some signs of the Christian life, then their claim is true and valid. On the other hand, if they claim to be a follower of Jesus and show no signs of a vital, Christian life, then there is a disconnect. How can one claim to be a Christian without living the life?
Let’s think for a moment about some signs of life that we see witnessed in the lives of some biblical characters. First of all, remember Abraham. Abraham originally came from Ur of the Chaldeans. This is the land of the Marsh Arabs in what is now present-day Iraq. For 5,000 years people have lived in these marshes, but now only a few thousand remain following the intentional draining of the marshes by Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. Some believe that the area has been irreparably damaged and will never be able to be reclaimed.
Abraham’s father took his whole family up from the south and finally settled in Haran, in what is today northern Iraq near the border with Turkey. It was while he was in Haran that Abraham heard the call of God. God told Abraham to pack up everything and move. He didn’t tell him where, just to go. “…I will show you” is all that God said.
Genesis 12:4 says, “So Abraham went…” He didn’t just say, “Yes, I believe you Lord. I know you love me. I have accepted you into my heart.” He tied his belief to action. His faith was made genuine when he followed through on his decision to leave the comforts of home and go where he was being led.
God has always required a movement of faith. Let me take you back for a minute to the third chapter of Joshua. The Children of Israel had been wandering in the desert for decades, but the time had finally come to cross over the Jordan River and take possession of the land that was promised to them by God. The problem was that at this time of year, the Jordan was at flood stage. How in the world, they wondered, would they be able to get everyone across the river without tragedy of some sort? There was no bridge, no boat, not even any life jackets.
The promise was that, some where along the line; God would intervene in this process. But the people had to take the first steps of faith. Some priests picked up the Ark of the Covenant, the traveling container for the Word of God, and walked into the river. At once, the flowing waters stopped and backed up so that the people could cross on dry ground. God kept his promise to lead the people across the river, but only acted when the people’s feet had actually entered the water. The power of God comes to those who obey. Faith is made known in action. Faith is only evident where there are signs of life.
Just prior to the crossing of the river, we come upon the name of Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute living in the city of Jericho at the time when the Israelites crossed the Jordan river to enter the Promised Land. Before the crossing, two spies were sent out, and they found refuge in Rahab’s house. She had heard about all of the exploits of the Children of Israel, from their escape from Egyptian slavery forty years before, to the present day. She had come to believe that the Israelites’ God was the true God. But she didn’t stop there. When the authorities came to look for the spies, she hid them, and then helped them escape.
Rahab put her faith into action to show that it was genuine. She put her life on the line. She wasn’t content to just sit back and relax in the warmth of the glow of faith, she did something with it.
King David danced before the Lord while others gasped, but he had to give evidence of his faith. Even though he was tempted to withdraw and hide in his cave for the rest of his life, the prophet Elijah listened to God and re-energized his prophetic career, giving legs to his faith. Peter, the one who originally had withdrawn from and denied Jesus, straightened his backbone and preached his faith in the midst of threat and persecution. Paul, who had a life-changing experience with Jesus on the way to Damascus didn’t let his new found faith languish, but became the greatest Christian missionary the world has ever known. John wasn’t content to keep his faith to himself. His reward was persecution and banishment to the island of Patmos where he would have a revelation from God that would change the world. The biblical evidence all points to faith that is active, involved, and working.
I am thinking of some other Christians who have understood this message, who have “gotten the point.” I am thinking of Millard and Linda Fuller. In 1965, they were at the top of the ladder in the corporate world, making more money than they had ever dreamed about, and enjoying all of the perks that come with a high income. But their marriage was in trouble. Their personal lives were drifting toward disaster.
They gave it all up and went searching for some way to rejuvenate their lives. They found their way to Koinonia Farms in Americus, Georgia, a Christian community dedicated to ministries of justice and peace. Clarence Jordan was a Ph.D. in New Testament who had founded the community. He was the one responsible for the “Cotton Patch” version of the gospels. One of his favorite sayings was that people would “worship the hind legs off of Jesus but they wouldn’t obey him.”
After awhile, the Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity, a project to build affordable housing for the desperately poor. It was a way to put feet to their faith, a way to respond to the imperatives of Jesus to “go and do.”
In my opinion, and that is all that it is, my opinion, three of the greatest middle linebackers to ever play the game of football were Randy Gradishar of the Denver Broncos of the late seventies (No surprise there huh?), and Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary, both of the Chicago Bears.
Mike Singletary of the 1986 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears: nine straight Pro Bowls, Defensive Player of the Year, NFL Man of the Year, more money than you can shake a stick at. He discovered that all of the fame and money in the world couldn’t give him what he needed: a close relationship with his wife and family, and more importantly, a relationship with God. Now he gives motivational speeches all around the country. When he goes into a church, he never charges money. The message is too important. The time is too short. The task is too urgent.
He was born as the youngest of ten children in a poor family in Houston, Texas. He had a significant hearing loss and often stuttered. They thought he was too small to make in it football, yet he received a football scholarship to Baylor University where he was a starter after eight games and eventually defensive player of the league for three straight seasons. Drafted by the Bears even though they had some reservations about his size and toughness, he became a great middle linebacker.
He discovered that he could change his pride and arrogance for servanthood. As he speaks to young people about their values and choices, he knows that he is doing it because faith without feet is like paddling a raft UP the Colorado River. God has always required a movement of faith. Mike Singletary knows that.
I am not suggesting that we all need to be Abrahams, or King Davids, or Elijahs, or Peters, or Pauls, or Millard and Linda Fullers, or Mike Singletarys. First of all, we can’t be. They are who they are and we are who we are. But I do believe that we can all find ways to put feet into our faith.
Jamison Jones, who was President of the Iliff School of Theology at the University of Denver when I was a student, talked about putting the Word into our feet. He preached a sermon at the Little Rock Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1977 that is as relevant today as it was then. He said that the world can be divided into two groups: the sitters and the runners. The runners are the ones who know that they can’t be content with Jesus in their hearts, unless he is in everyone else’s heart as well. So they actively search for ways to be witnesses in word AND deed.
Sometimes, he says, the Spirit of God says “swim” but we say, “The water is too cold.” Sometimes the Spirit of God says “swim” but we say that we have forgotten our bathing suit. Sometimes the Spirit of God says “swim” but we say, “I never learned how.” Sometimes the Spirit of God says, “swim” but we say, “I’d rather just rest here on the beach.”
The only way to put feet into your faith or to get the Word into your feet, is just to take the plunge. That plunge is going to be different for you than it is for me. Your plunge is going to be different, perhaps, from your spouse’s. Your plunge is perhaps going to be different from the plunge of your best friend. Certainly our plunge is going to be different than that taken by Mike Singletary.
You don’t have to be an ordained minister to plunge. I would point you to the “Discipline of the United Methodist Church” and its paragraphs on the ministry of all Christians. In the church’s opinion, church members cannot just sit back and expect the minister to be religious for them: to let the minister do all of their praying and serving, so that the rest of the membership can throw their ten bucks a week into the collection plate and feel good about themselves. All people who believe in Jesus Christ are called to live the Word. All people who believe in Jesus are called to put their faith into action.
Once again, let me close with the words of James. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” I pray that our faith will move in our hearts in such a way that it can’t help but move our feet as well.
