"How Awesome...to Do Good Works"

By Magdalena I. García

Sermon preached at the opening worship of the Summer Conference of Presbyterian Women in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, on July 15, 2011, at Chapman University, in Orange, California.

Scripture Reading: James 2:1-18 (NRSV)
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

%%%

Do you recall seeing pictures of celebrities displaying a white mustache?
Superman, Muhammad Ali, Britney Spears, Jennifer Hudson,
Elton John, Ronald McDonald, and others.
Even Spanish celebrities, like Verónica Castro and Charytín.
We’ve seen them all, on billboards and magazines,
displaying a white, foamy, milk mustache
as part of the national “Got milk?” campaign.

“Got Milk?” is an American advertising campaign
encouraging the consumption of cow’s milk.
It was created for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993
and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers nationwide.
The campaign has been credited with greatly increasing milk sales,
and raising awareness about the health benefits of milk.
“Got Milk?” is one of the most famous commodity brand campaigns
ever launched in the United States.

Want to know more about this campaign or the benefits of milk?
Visit gotmilk.com, where you will find recipes
to make delicious drinks, such as…
a Red Velvet Frappé, a Tiramisu Shake,
a Honey Bee Latte, a Cooling Coconut Cream,
or even a Peanut Butter and Jelly Frappé.
And if you’re a tea drinker, there are recipes for you too…
like an Iced Chai Latte or an Earl Grey Tea Latte.

As I was studying today’s Scripture passage,
I thought about the “Got Milk?” campaign,
and I realized that if James had hired an advertising agency
to launch a campaign for his letter,
the theme may NOT have been “Got Milk?,”
but it could have been, “Got Works?”

Of course, instead of people with foamy, white mustaches,
the campaign would feature James and other Christians hard “at work,”
doing good deeds as a natural consequence of their faith.

Now the “Got Works?” campaign
may be problematic for some Christians.
In fact, we know of at least one of them,
a rather famous and influential one,
who was NOT AMUSED by James’ thesis
that “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

The 16th Century Reformer Martin Luther despised the letter of James!
In his Preface to the New Testament, published in 1522,
he referred to James as an “epistle of straw”
precisely because of its emphasis on works
(as opposed to faith).
Luther would have preferred that James not be written at all,
let alone included in the New Testament canon,
because he felt it contradicted the Apostle Paul’s teachings
on justification by faith.

What do you and I make of James and his message today?
One can read James as a threat
to the doctrine of justification by faith
(which was the way Martin Luther read it).
Or one can read James as a compliment
to the doctrine of justification by faith
(which was the way John Calvin read it).

Or perhaps there is a third way to read James:
as neither a threat nor a compliment to our theology,
but rather as a CALL to live out our faith in such a way
that we honor everyone’s dignity,
and hold each other accountable for our actions
instead of shamelessly justifying
society’s abuses and Christian apathy.

Where do we get this idea, you might ask?
From a closer look at the intended audience for the Letter of James.
To whom is James writing?
James is addressing a general audience,
instead of a particular community.
There are several letters in the New Testament
addressed to a general audience,
which is why they are often called universal letters.
These include James, along with 1st and 2nd Peter,
the Johannine Letters, and Jude.
You could say that these are early examples
of what were later called encyclicals (in the Roman Catholic Church)
or confessions and theological declarations (in the Protestant Church).

James 1:1 says that the letter is addressed
“to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.”
This is a 1st Century expression that refers to the totally
of Christian Jews living outside Palestine.
And this little phrase begins to give us some clues
about the situation of the original audience.

Most scholars are quick to notice that “the twelve tribes”
has ethnic implications: the audience is Jewish.
Other scholars also notice that “in the Dispersion”
Has sociological implications: the audience is living in exile.

Elsa Tamez is among the scholars who emphasize
that the phrase “...the twelve tribes in the Dispersion…”
highlights two characteristics about the audience of the letter:
1)their ethnicity (that is, their identity as Jews), and
2)their sociology (that is, their condition as migrants).

Tamez has written extensively about James.
She is the author of the book
The Scandalous Message of James: Faith without Works is Dead.
Some of you might recognize her name
Because she is Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies and Former President
at the Latin American Biblical University
(Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana)
in San Jose, Costa Rica.

In an article titled “James: A Circular Letter for Migrants,” Tamez writes,
“The letter of James is a document of the Wisdom-Prophesy genre,
written to communities that were living far from their land and their culture.
It deals with communities made up of migrants
who live in a society that is, at the same time, hostile and seductive...”

“A Circular Letter for Migrants?”
That’s probably a new reading of James for most of us!
But it’s an accurate description of 1st Century Christian Jews
living outside Palestine in a Greco-Roman society.
These were indeed communities of migrants.
They were communities of immigrants.
They were communities of foreigners.

As Tamez points out, James writes to communities
that are suffering for two basic reasons:
1)their precarious economic situation, and
2)their Jewish ethnic and religious identity.

And Tamez underlines that, to make matters worse,
they are living “in a society that is,
at the same time, hostile and seductive.”
This means that they are living in a society
that does NOT fully accept them,
and yet, simultaneously,
it lures them into behaving like the oppressors.


These are helpful contextual insights
as we try to discern the message of James.
These clues helps us to understand that when James speaks about “trials”
he is not just speaking about a hypothetical situation.
Nor is he speaking about spiritual suffering.
James is referring to the plight of 1st Century Jewish migrants,
who suffered rejection and persecution
because of their identity,
and who endured economic hardship
even at the hands of their brethren
who had acquired the values
of the dominant Greco-Roman culture.

Does that sound familiar? It should!
There are plenty of migrants in the 21st Century.
We live in a world where millions of people
are displaced from their country of origin
due to ethnic and religious conflicts,
and economic disparities.
And there are plenty of immigrants right here, in our midst,
due to ethnic and religious conflicts,
and economic disparities.

Much like the Beatitudes,
the letter of James has a series of “blessings.”
It has words of encouragement...
wonderful, reassuring, and comforting words of encouragement
for any migrants who might be enduring suffering
because of the partiality shown by their neighbors.

And much like the Beatitudes,
the letter of James also has a series of “woes.”
It has words of warning...
tough, troubling, and disturbing words of warning,
for anyone showing partiality
by inflicting suffering on migrants.

Let me offer you an example
of the kind of partiality James is talking about...

James reminds me of a reading selection
titled “The Welcome Table,” written by Alice Walker,
which is one of the essays from contemporary literature
and the life of faith
included in the book Listening for God.

Alice Walker writes about an old woman
with skin “the color of poor gray Georgia earth…,
a long rusty dress adorned with an old corsage, long withered,
and the remnants of an elegant silk scarf as headrag
stained with grease from the many oily pigtails underneath…”
who one Sunday morning, out of the blue,
shows up in the white people’s church.

I quote from the essay now...

“The reverend of the church stopped her pleasantly as she stepped into the vestibule. Did he say, as they thought he did, kindly, “Auntie, you know this is not your church?” As if one could choose the wrong one. But no one remembers, for they never spoke of it afterward, and she brushed past him anyway, as if she had been brushing past him all her life, except this time she was in a hurry. Inside the church she sat on the very first bench from the back, gazing with concentration at the stained–glass window over her head. It was cold, even inside the church, and she was shivering. Everybody could see. They stared at her as they came in and sat down near the front. It was cold, very cold to them, too; outside the church it was below freezing and not much above inside. But the sight of her, sitting there somehow passionately ignoring them, brought them up short, burning.

"The young usher, never having turned anyone out of his church before, but not even considering this job as that (after all, she had no right to be there, certainly), went up to her and whispered that she should leave. Did he call her “Grandma,” as later he seemed to recall he had? But for those who actually hear such traditional pleasantries and to whom they actually mean something, “Grandma” was not one, for she did not pay him any attention, just muttered, “Go way,” in a weak sharp bothered voice, waving his frozen blond hair and eyes from near her face.

"It was the ladies who finally did what to them had to be done. Daring their burly indecisive husbands to throw the old colored woman out they made their point. God, mother, country, earth, church. It involved all that, and well they knew it. Leather bagged and shoed, with good calfskin gloves to keep out the cold, they looked with contempt at the bootless gray arthritic hands of the old woman, clenched loosely, restlessly in her lap. Could their husbands expect them to sit up in church with that? No, no, the husbands were quick to answer and even quicker to do their duty.

"Under the old woman’s arms they placed their hard fists (which afterward smelled of decay and musk—the fermenting scent of onionskins and rotting greens). Under the old woman’s arms they raised their fists, flexed their muscular shoulders, and out she flew through the door, back under the cold blue sky. This done, the wives folded their healthy arms across their trim middles and felt at once justified and scornful. But none of them said so, for none of them ever spoke of the incident again. Inside the church it was warmer. They sang, they prayed. The protection and promise of God’s impartial love grew more not less desirable as the sermon gathered fury and lashed itself out above their penitent heads...”

My friends, this is the kind of favoritism and shameful behavior
that James condemns in his letter.
And James makes it clear that the Christian faith
is not a question of right believing,
but a matter of right living.

At the end of Chapter 1, James writes,
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers
who deceive themselves...
27Religion 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.

And in Chapter 2, which we read today, James adds,
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if you say you have faith but do not have works?
Can faith save you?
15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
16and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,”
and yet you do not supply their bodily needs,
what is the good of that?
17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

What is there not to understand about these words?
Rarely is Scripture so clear!
And James’ writing echoes Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes.

Needless to say, a “Got Works?” campaign
would have been very popular and successful…
among those 1st Century Jewish migrants
to whom James is writing,
because they were exiled and oppressed
in a Greco-Roman world.
And a “Got Works?” campaign
would have been equally popular and successful…
among Jesus’ followers,
because they were living under the political occupation
of the Roman Empire in Palestine.

For James and for Jesus works are not optional in the life of faith.
Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, honoring the poor,
welcoming the stranger, accepting everyone,
loving one’s neighbor, and showing no partiality
are at the core of who we are as Christians.

And for James and Jesus, doing good works
is not—and should not be—a burden.
Doing good works is a natural consequence of our faith.
How awesome that we can do good works!
How awesome that we can live in such a way
that Jesus would call us “blessed.”
How awesome that we can choose to behave in such a way
that nobody should have to ask of us: “Got Works?”

%%%