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September 24, 2006

Anne Jensen - Sept. 17 2006

Proper 19 B Is. 50:4-9, Psalm 116:1-8, Letter of James 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18, Mark 8:27-38

Last week’s story, Jesus’ Day Off, is a hard act to follow, which is pretty much the same situation the disciples faced after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus IS a hard act to follow.

I don't know exactly how many times in the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament Jesus asks other people to follow him. But it's well more than 20. The whole question of "Who is willing to follow Jesus Christ?" is pretty much the defining question of Christianity.

Some Christians may ask it personally of you in the form of, “Are you a Christian?” (which means essentially, "Have you claimed Jesus personally enough to really be a follower?") Other people may pose the question about following Jesus in these terms, "You mean you believe all of this stuff about forgiveness, and loving enemies, and this resurrection from the dead?" However it's worded, the whole matter of following Jesus is central to living the Christian faith.

The question becomes, "What does it actually mean to follow Jesus, especially in modern times, or in middle- or upper-middle class North America?" If you're going to take the words of Jesus seriously - those ones about "losing your life for his sake" and "denying yourself" - well, what's your life going to look like? Should you vacation in Cancun? Or would Yosemite be better? Which destination would express your faith more fully? Does camping versus staying in a hotel make a difference? Should you pursue a job promotion, or be content with where you are? What would the new job mean in terms of time and emotional availability for your family? What about expensive tickets to a sporting event or the theater or opera? If you buy a pair of those, is that gross self-indulgence? Or if your house is full of all sorts of material possessions, what will happen to your soul the next time you pass over a person in need? These are difficult questions, and questions we need to live with every day.

What does it mean to follow Jesus in your life, and in these times? We can worry over the stock market and argue over who holds the TV's remote control. We can get all upset over what other people are doing or not doing, even if we don't care a bit about the inner or outer states of their lives. Yet we struggle to keep focus during even the briefest of prayers. So what does it mean to follow Jesus?

This is the very question James was addressing in his letter. James has some advice that is not bad for us to hear as we begin a new program year together: Last week we heard the part of the letter that reads, "be doers of the word and not merely hearers . . . " The Christian faith is not merely acceptance of doctrine or an inclination toward Jesus, but implies activity in the world (praxis). James continues, “Pure and undefiled religion is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

The text for this week covers important ground. Rarely is Scripture clearer in its affirmation of inclusivity in the church, in this case with what we would today call social class. Two visitors arrive to worship, one with gold rings and fine clothes and another a poor person in dirty clothes. James condemns those who would make distinctions and indicates where he thinks God's loyalties lie: "Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom" that is promised to those who love God? That is heavy stuff, and it gets heavier: "But you have dishonored the poor… "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," he says, and that love is to be impartial and active. He continues: What good is it, my brothers and sisters if you say you have faith but do not have works. Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says, "Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?" So faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Martin Luther thought this was an awful letter and should be dropped from the Bible because he believed it encouraged a works righteousness…a kind of trying to earn your way to salvation. Other writers find it a balance to Paul’s epistles. Paul was writing against ritual practices such as circumcision and purity practices as a way to salvation.

This letter has traditionally been ascribed to James the brother of Jesus, but scholars believe this is unlikely and that this was written later in the name of James to a Jewish Christian Church. James’ message is to people who already believe, who already have experienced grace, who have already heard the stories of how Jesus lived, and how he reached out to the poor. The works James commends to the readers are acts of compassion. Love of neighbor and of the poor is not works righteousness but a “means of grace.” Just like prayer, reading the Bible, and Holy Communion are channels of God’s grace rather than acts of works righteousness, love of neighbor can be a channel of God’s grace as well. We do not need to earn God’s approval, but we do need to become open to God’s grace.

I want to share with you a story I heard from a woman about five years ago. She joined “the movement,” a group of causes meant to improve the world, in the late sixties, early seventies. She worked hard, but she was unhappy. I suspect she burned out. Love had very little part in her scheme of things. She took some time off, but she had no place to go. She was poor in spirit and she was poor in the material sense. Somehow she encountered some people from the Jesus Movement. In Minneapolis the Jesus People took over an old theater and used the marquee to proclaim Jesus and it appeared to have a lot of young people full of enthusiasm. But this woman’s story was in Connecticut. They took her in and said, “You can come stay with us.” They had a place out of town, an old house with some land around it, and she did her share of the chores.


This woman had grown up in the church, but she felt it was about conforming and duty. The thing that amazed her was how happy these people were. They lived and worked together, but they also sat around and sang songs. They hugged a lot. They told her about Jesus’ love for people—even Jesus’ love for her. She just didn’t get it. She did her chores and would go down by the duck pond to think about things. One day she was down there and she could hear the kids singing up at the house and suddenly she was overwhelmed by the presence of Jesus. Tears started to fill her eyes. After a while she returned to the house. As soon as she entered, the young people looked at her and knew that she’d had an experience of God’s grace. They were almost as joyous as she was! This poor young woman they had adopted for a while was also a channel of God’s grace for them.

Shortly after that the woman returned to her community and her church. She had passion for the poor; with the help of several congregations she developed a center to support inner city families and worked there for years. After that she bought a house in Bridgeport, a kind of shelter for the spiritually lost and gave them nurture and hope. She found her vocation…religious language for doing what Jesus is calling us to do as his followers.

I like how Frederick Buechner defines vocation in a way that makes sense for the Jesus of Mark’s gospel. It makes sense to me and I hope it will for you: Vocation is “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” (Wishful Thinking)

There is indeed deep need in our world. At clergy conference this last week Bishop Marc Andrus asked us and encouraged us to think of ourselves as followers of Christ, not just as individuals, but as a people who reach out to the world’s needs. He is particularly engaged with the Millennium Development Goals, and we’ll hear more about this later. Christ is present in the world as we together are the body of Christ. This is not to denigrate personal faith or responsibility, but it is to name and reclaim the communal aspect of our faith. The truth is that we need each other—we need support of many kinds…support in discerning direction in our lives, support in our faith, support in our learning, support in our celebrations, support in our making choices for the world instead of our personal convenience.

We will be able to accomplish much more in this world if we join with others to continue the ministry of Jesus. Faith and works go together. We will be doers of the word, and in our doing we will find joy.