Martin Luther was wrong after all: there is salvation in doing good stuff! I know, I know, our spiritual forefather is about to jump out of his grave, ready to strangle me and get me off this Lutheran pulpit. In his day, he fought hard against the notion that good works or religious exercises can earn salvation and guarantee good standing with God. And because he attempted this sort of religious work-righteousness as a young man, which very nearly killed him, he was not fond of the epistle of James. James had the audacity to write things like, “Faith without works is dead.” Luther didn’t like it one bit. He called James derisively “the epistle of straw.”
Well, who was James and what was his message? James, it is believed, was a brother of Jesus and a leader of the first church in Jerusalem. We are talking about the toddler age of the church, ground zero, a few years after our Lord died on the cross. May we assume that James, Jesus’ own brother, knew a thing or two about our Lord? May we suppose that he knew the things he taught? I think we are wise to listen to James, especially since he contributes something that is otherwise not quite as clearly formulated in the New Testament. James reminds his readers repeatedly and with a passion that religion is more than prayers, more than believing with your head, more than attending church on Sundays. Christian faith, he argued, needs to be tested in life, by how you treat others and how you act towards those who are vulnerable, and by how much you give back.
You heard it at the end of today’s epistle reading: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” So, as a good Lutheran I am standing my ground against Luther: I say, there is salvation in doing good things. Now, before you call up our new bishop and tell her that I am preaching some very un-Lutheran teachings, hear me out. What I mean is this: it is often a liberating and life-altering experience for people to help others, to be engaged in something that serves a bigger purpose. Yes, giving of yourself, your time, your money, your talents, your sweat, your inner resources, is often an eye opener and a pathway both to yourself and to God. There is no one logical and exclusive way to finding God. Some people may find God in a good old retreat setting as they ponder scripture and pray, and as a result become more and more generous towards others, as an outpouring of their newfound faith. Other people may find God as they volunteer at Habitat or in the peace corps and find the experience enriching and wonder about the deeper underpinnings of life, and as they do, they come across the original source. We call that source God. No matter which came first for you, the knowledge of faith or the ego-shattering experience of serving others, both belong fundamentally together. James reminds us of that like no-one else in the New Testament.
Jesus’ brother uses a very interesting metaphor in today’s lesson. He says, 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.” I sometimes wonder what kind of mirrors people were using back in those days. Likely some kind of metal, certainly not anything like the mirror you and I have at home. A mirror is a symbol of self-examination. When we look into mirror, we automatically ask, “What do I look like? Who am I?” Frankly, as you age, you will sometimes be surprised at what you see when you look in the mirror. – This guy with the gray hair all around the temples, is that really me? Darn, it must be, there is nobody else in that picture. And yes, there are days when you look in the mirror and you want to forget what you saw and go on with your business… But ultimately, to be mature means to accept that person that you occasionally see in the mirror, accept that person with everything in it, everything on it and everything underneath the make-up. That’s me!
A friend posted on my birthday this year, “You are aging gracefully.” I don’t know where he got that from, but I wrote back “I am aging gray-fully.” (I can prove it!) Well, why did James use this mirror metaphor? He was saying, your self-examination as a Christian is not complete until you try to put your faith to work. Who are you? You don’t really know who you are as a Christian, until you dare to give of yourself generously. He is saying, doing things that benefit others, that’s your mirror moment. Who are you?
As I pondered this scripture I wondered whether James was familiar with the classical mirror story, the one from from Greek mythology. You have all heard about Narcissus, the guy who was so in love with his himself that, upon looking at his image reflecting from the surface of a lake, he fell into the water and drowned. It is one of the favorite stories of modern psychotherapy. Of course, all of us have some Narcissus in us, an un-healthy tendency to love ourselves and our own image. And if we don’t take care, we too can drown from a false love of self.
That’s where James’ message comes in. Do something that benefits others! Yes, Lutherans, there can be salvation in doing good things. It can free us from the unhealthy love of self, it can shatter ego and narcissistic tendencies, it can lead us straight into the core of the universe. That’s James message. It’s a message that I also heard repeatedly in one of the documentaries about the late Senator John Mc Cain that aired this past week. Like so many good people in history, he didn’t start out as a saint, but his awful time in the torture chambers in Vietnam, five and a half years of suffering, somehow helped him decide that he wanted to serve the greater public, that he wanted to live for a greater purpose. I heard him talk about that several times in the documentary. And that’s just it. People who do that – serving a greater purpose – will find rewards that cannot be measured in money, but will leave most of them deeply satisfied and happy in a deeper sense. Yes, I tell you, they are knocking on the door of salvation. Because who do we need to be saved from? I say, for the most part we need to be saved from our own selfishness and self-deceptions, and that’s probably 80 or 90 % of it!
So, don’t be afraid to give of yourself. Don’t hold back. It is not only James who suggests that. His brother Jesus said, “If you want to be my disciple you need to deny yourself, (shatter your ego), pick up your cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” I don’t know about you, but I think these two brothers thought alike. There is salvation in following their lead. Test it! Amen.