In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away.
So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn't able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument.
But to his great dismay it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner's home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become his prized possession and he would not sell it.
Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. "Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?" he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector's emotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself," he exclaimed. "It's yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it."
Ambition, courage and zeal, three traits that Kreisler demonstrated in seeking to ensure that this violin kept its voice, traits that we see clearly in James who we celebrate today as one of the Benefice patron saints.
It was because of these traits we begin at the end because he paid the ultimate price for his unwavering faith in Christ, as we heard in our first reading from The Acts of apostles that Herod had him killed.
As we think about his sacrifice, I wonder whether any of us would be willing to follow in his footsteps.
Our Gospel reading this morning tells of how James’ mother made an extraordinary request on behalf of James and his brother John. ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and the other on your left in the kingdom’
On the face of it, it seems that the request is their mother’s but as we read further, we get a glimpse of what might have happened. The gospel tells us that the ten disciples were angry with the brothers, rather than their mum, which suggests that they were at the very least involved in the request being made.
Christ could have easily given them a lecture on power and how it can be abused, but instead he turned it into a challenge, ‘are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’
This wasn’t a rebuke, rather a challenge to them to see how far they would really be willing to go for the sake of the messiah.
James took this challenge to heart and followed Christ to the point where it led to his own death.
The ambition that he had may have been misplaced at that time as he and his brother replied to Jesus, ‘we are able’, and whilst this may have been seen as youthful arrogance, it didn’t detract him from faithfully following the call that had been placed on his life, and so as he matured, his ambition wasn’t removed, it was instead transformed into a positive ambition, to share the good news of Christ to others.
The word that would be used for this ambition is Zeal, something we don’t hear very often these days, because to have zeal, or to be Zealous is a 15th century English word which means ‘an eager and ardent interest in the pursuit of something.’
Just like this encounter in the Gospel, we also see glimpses of this in the same Lukan passage and others, but it comes to the fore through our reading this morning. After they had replied to the challenge, Christ prophesied that James would drink of his cup, and just 14 years later, as many scholars believe, he was the first apostle to be martyred, and the only one whose death is recorded in the New Testament.
This brings me onto another trait of James, because if we were to read all the stories about James which are found in the Bible, then it would be easy to agree with the suggestion that he was Courageous.
James travelled far and wide to preach about who Christ was, even to the point where he upset some of the Jewish leaders who were afraid of this growing group called Christians.
He didn’t falter from his commission; he pushed forward without hesitation, and taught throughout Judea, instructing many in the ways of Christ, and bringing them into a new closer relationship with God.
We hear in Luke’s Gospel of how his courage stretched even to the point of saying to Christ ‘‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ when a Samaritan town refused to receive Christ into their midst.
This may have been a misplaced mixed of his zeal and courage, and as a result Jesus rebuked him, but it is just one example of how far James was willing to go to spread the good news of the Gospel.
James has become an inspiration to countless Christians over the centuries for his faithfulness to Christ and his teachings, and today we join with them as we celebrate the life and death of our patron saint.
But a patronal festival isn’t just about having a special service, simply, with words said about a specific saint whose name is on one of our notice boards, it’s much more.
The original meaning of the word patron, was someone who protects us. Now for some here in church today, this may be a concept that we are not comfortable with.
But, it also means a person who gives us support, an advocate, or perhaps a friend, and in the case of a patron saint. One who gives us a glimpse of truth and reveals to us more about the glory of God. I am sure that if we all thought about the works of the apostles and saints of the church, there would be one or more who’s life and work resonate with us personally, for me it would be Francis of Assisi, but that’s a sermon for another time!
But today we are commemorating James, a man who through his life and work can clearly be an inspiration to us today, and it is through this inspiration, that we can be stirred to think about how we will each respond.
This is where the second part of our Gospel becomes our focus. The first half was the challenge, but in the second half Christ shows them the way.
It comes down to one word, sacrifice. Now whilst we know that the ultimate sacrifice was made on the cross redemption, Christ invites us to follow him as he challenges us to take up our cross and follow him.
To become one who serves others demonstrates humility and sadly this is a quality lacking in the world today. If you’re not on top, your nothing, that’s what they tell us, and they use fancy words to convince us of that fact.
But this view, this philosophy is diametrically opposed with the Christian faith, I’m not saying that being a Christian and being an executive are exclusive of each other, rather that for those who hold power have to wield it in a way which honours their faith.
At the beginning of Pauls great and contentious scripture in Ephesians 5 is that amazing line ‘Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.’
Paul echoes Christs words from our Gospel, these are reminders that as the household of faith, as members of the family, we are called to work together, to do what we can to help each other, to enable and encourage, to allow each other to become the best that each can be.
It doesn’t have to be great and grandiose gestures, it can be in the small things as well. The way we lift each other can be in
in the ordinary and the everyday things, equally as much as those extraordinary events, the Christlike qualities that we all have equally shine through in what we do.
The gospel today reminds us of the courage and zeal that James had, he shared his passion with others, and perhaps some of that passion is here sat within the pews this morning, eager and ready to burst through the doubt and trepidation and shine as brightly as those gifts that the apostles and saints demonstrated so long ago.
But we also need to remember that we are not just copies of others, not all of us will be James shaped, we all have our own gifts and talents, which we can nurture and develop, and as we strive to be the best that we can be.
Yes, we can still draw great strength and encouragement from James in our own way, because though his ambition and zeal, he reminds us that whatever we do for God should be the best it can be.
God can and will grow us, so that we can become all that we should be, and that in itself is a reminder of what James taught us.
Remember the story at the start of our sermon, Kreisler wanted to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to hear the music of the violin, and he stopped at nothing to achieve his goal.
Today is a day to ask, are we courageous enough to allow God to begin his great work in us, to set us free us from the doubt that prevents us from showing our Zeal, our love for God, so that we can be the people, the church he wants us to be here in Littleborough?
Amen.
