Sunday's Message

Family,

We are three weeks into Lent, and it seems we are flying through this season of repentance and transformation. I can only speak for myself, but i have had several moments of revelation and insight, and i thank God for that. I thank God that at times, He must and is hard on me, so that i can see what is true. More than that, so that i can see how my choices, actions, or even inactions ripple out and have eternal affects. But also, when i choose love over hate, peace over war, forgiveness over revenge, and serving others over serving myself, i/we create the same tidal wave of ripples that create a world where God's Kingom breaks through in Living Color.

We have talked about the need for emotional healing, so that we can love God with our hearts. From there we journeyed into the dark, mysterious areas of our brain, hoping to discern how we can love God with our minds. And last Sunday, and last week in our Lenten adventure, we discovered how our bodies need to be physically fit and well kept, in order for us to love God with all our strength as well. We have covered the main pieces of the Shema, or Jewish prayer found in Deuteronomy. Is there more we can and must do to love God wholly?

Our Scripture focus for Sunday is James 2: 14-26. I invite you all to read it. Pray over it. Discuss it with your friends and family. And then add your thoughts to this blog. We are a community, folks, and in order for God to work, honestly and effectively, we must do all things together. We must create the message, together. We must worship our Creator, together. We must seek peace, together. We must love, together. I anxiously wait to read your added thoughts to your understanding of James 2: 14-26.

This is a famous text, in fact, most Brethren attach themselves to this text as being the foundational chapter in our identity as a people. The Church of the Brethren has often seen itself as several things: peace church, community oriented church, no creed but the New Testament church, and a service-oriented church. It is this last marker that has pushed many Brethren to believe that James makes it clear that we should live our faith.

We must make it clear who we are and who we follow. Not by speaking loudly, but by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless. But also by visiting the sick, caring for the widow and orphan, and ensuring the aging members in our society have dignity and respect as they retire and find themselves unable to care for themselves. That is our reality. It is why we have retirement communities. It is why ministries like "Heifer Project International" was started in the Church of the Brethren. It is why the international organization, "SERRV," or "A Greater Gift" was started in the C.o.B. It is why the C.o.B., even with its low membership, is one of the first on the scene after a natural disaster, helping with recovery and child care through our Disaster Relief. It is why we have ministries to care for God's Creation. We are connected and deeply rooted in Christian Peacemaking Team through our own group: On Earth Peace Assembly. We have a plethora of ministries/missions established, all with the purpose of living our faith, and we cannot forget or look past one of those ministries, which President Kennedy used as a model for Peace Corp: Brethren Volunteer Service.

We have always been, and i hope we will always be, a people of living faith. Which is what James is talking about. It seems, according to the homileticsonline commentary, that James is dealing socio-economic prejudice. One group, the group with the money, status, and social clout is judging and looking down on those without. As so often is the case in our culture the haves make it a habit of defining the have nots as lazy or maybe even parasites on society. Many times, the haves believe they are entitled to a certain level of service, respect, and identity, while the have nots are simply left to carve out some sense of identity in a world that grows more and more militant against them. This is no different today as it was 2000 years ago.

This is one of the things James addresses. If we are to be called Christians, than James, echoing Paul's sentiment in Corinthians, argues we must act differently. We must love our brothers and sisters, regardless of their status in society. In God's eyes, whether one is poor or rich, a president or a pauper, divorcee or happily married for 60 years, or not sure about your faith versus someone who has stood strong for all of their lives, in God's eyes, we are all the same: His children. And yet we are so much more to God than "children." We, each of us, are His beloved.

That's what James begins with, making it clear we are one, equal, the same in God's eyes. But James doesn't stop there, and many feel this is where James addresses some misnomers about the Christian faith. In Romans, Paul writes that grace through faith is how we are saved, not by works, so that we can't brag about our good deeds. James, on the other hand, seems to make a direct confrontation of Paul by saying you show me your faith in Jesus, and i will praise Jesus with you, but, James argued, but i will show you my faith by what i do. How much am i doing to feed people, house people, clothe people, or visit people?

This becomes an argument about the role and purpose of faith. If faith is real, alive, and relevant, than there should be lives changed. If faith is dead, stagnant, and irrelevant, than nothing of significance seems to happen. And that is our challenge, not for just this next week, but for each day of our lives. We must distance ourselves from the "pagan" culture and begin to mark ourselves as followers of Jesus. How we do that is wide open. We can feed people, and we are through the Love Cupboard. We can clothe people, and we have through the Community Closet, and we have helped rebuild homes through our trips to Lousiana and the high school rebuilding project with Oakland C.o.B.: Extreme Home MakeOver: Oakland C.o. B. style.

But is that all we can do? Should we rest on our obvious successes? Or might we find more peace in areas that have yet to be discovered? I don't know. All i know is that a faith without deeds is dead, and both James and Paul believed this, and just like the soldier from Monty Python: Im not quite dead. Nor is our faith. Amen.