in Southern California’s San Juan Capistrano, can set in motion a series of events that can lead to a thunderstorm on Cape Cod, where I live. What we do matters. Ordinary and often unnoticed interactions can change the world one person at a time. This emphasis on the importance of everyday life as sacramental is the heart of James’ message. Following the pathway of Jesus is not esoteric or extraordinary; it is the result of our daily commitment to see the holiness in one another and then move from vision to action, making every encounter a gift to God and our neighbors.
The Letter of James invites first and twenty-first century congregations to be both spiritual and religious. Our words and actions are intended to bring beauty to the Earth, supporting insider and outsider and wealthy and poor alike in their quest for wholeness. James is no respecter of persons. His vision of church inspires a lively and diverse community that walks the talk and talks the walk with grace and honesty. There is no distinction between contemplation and action or prayer and justice-seeking for James. We pray with our lips and also our minds, hands, and hearts. Every action, James believes, can be prayerful and contribute to the healing and wholeness of persons and communities. James would have agreed with the Jewish mystics who asserted that when you save a soul you save the world, for the healing of every individual contributes to our own healing process in the dynamic, interdependent world of today’s physicists and ecologists and also in the global body of Christ.
Discovering James
Scholars speculate about the identity of the author of the Letter of James, recognizing that no answer will be definitive when we research an era in which the greatest homage you can give to a predecessor is to pen her or his name to a text. Most agree that the text alludes to James the brother of Jesus, the spiritual leader of the Jerusalem Church. Whether or not brother of Jesus penned these words addressed to Jewish Christians throughout the Mediterranean and Christians everywhere, the intention is clear: this text seeks to embody the spirit of Jesus’ brother in its emphasis on living the faith of Jesus over abstract doctrine, its concern for vulnerable and expendable members of society, and its desire to mediate tradition and novelty and particularity and universality in the evolution of Christian faith.
Written sometime between 60 and 80 CE, James finds inspiration in the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic writings. His writing mirrors the practical theology of Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount and the prophetic urgency for justice of Jesus’ Hebraic parents. While James is often pitted against Paul and seen as inferior in theology and spirituality, James may have been written not to criticize Paul’s emphasis on the primacy of grace, but to present a holistic complement to Paul’s theological insights and correct a tendency among Christians of all ages to be “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” James would have opposed the popular Christian saying of a few decades back, “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven,” by reminding us that Jesus invited his followers to seek perfection and to embrace their divine destiny. James would have chuckled and nodded approvingly at the bumper sticker controversies that spawned the following response to the popular slogan, “Honk if you love Jesus.” James believes that actions speak louder than words and that “If you love Jesus, seek justice. Any fool can honk!”
James invites us to focus on the life of Jesus. His words are a challenge to walk the talk and let the walk of ethical and socially concerned faith be our primary witness in the world. James’ theology is straightforward and life-changing:
God loves you and wants you to flourish
We are creatures of community who shape each other by our actions.
Christianity involves following the path of Jesus in its embrace of the least of these, discovering God’s presence everywhere.
Holistic Christianity
A friend of mind gave me a paper weight that proclaims an affirmation attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” James would have approved of Gandhi’s wise counsel. The world is saved one person and community at a time. We can’t wait for others to follow the pathway to Jesus; we must live it out today. Heaven is not somewhere else. It is right where we are and not the pie in the sky when we die. As Jesus asserted, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” James wants to make this Earth heavenly, first in the lives of faithful communities and individuals and, then, in the broader society.
Many scholars believe that the Epistle of James is an invitation to the early church to embody the wisdom of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in presenting a dynamic vision of holistic spiritual practices. Faith, for James, involves cells and souls, welcome and witness, diet and doctrine, and prayers and practices. Everything fits together in the Christian life – mind, body, spirit, and actions; and individual, community, and planet. All are part of God’s quest for salvation and should shape the daily life of Jesus’ followers.
A bit of sagely advice given to spiritual leaders goes “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” James would agree: doctrine is dead without justice, and piety is meaningless without ethics and social concern. James joins the everyday spirituality of the wisdom tradition with the social concern of the Hebrew prophets, whose quest for justice found its wellsprings in the vision of personal God who truly cares about honest business practices, fair mortgages, and meals for the hungry. Our ritual purity, worship services, and doctrinal orthodoxy mean nothing unless the hungry are fed, naked clothed, and the homeless given lodging. In the background of James’ message is the prophetic admonition:
I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and
grain-offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps .
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
(Amos 5:21-24)
This is a truly holistic spirituality and a faith that responds to the deepest concerns of seekers, pilgrims, disaffected Christians, and the spiritual but not religious. In living with the Letter of James, we will discover a Christianity worth believing and faith that changes the world.
In the following chapters, I will focus on a few “moments” from James’ holistic spiritual vision. In the spirit of James, I will conclude each chapter with a short spiritual practice that joins action and contemplation in the quest to be God’s companions in healing the world.
1 From Carrie Newcomer’s “A Gathering of Spirits.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qZyoRiBteI
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