Sermons

Saint James the Apostle
Sunday 25 July 2004 at 10am
Louise Lancaster

Readings: Acts 11.27- 12.2 & Matthew 20.20 - 28

Today, we celebrate the life and witness of the apostle James. Unlike some of Jesus' other close friends, we know quite a lot about him. James was a Galilean fisherman and brother of John. He and his brother were among the first to be called from their daily lives to follow Jesus, and James was one of the 'inner circle' of Jesus' close friends - with Him on the Mount of the Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane. James and John annoyed the other disciples by asking for special places of honour in the Kingdom and they were present when Jesus appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection. James was put to death on the orders of Herod Agrippa - probably in AD44.

This bare outline of a life doesn't really give the full picture of how influential James was in the early Church. He only lived around 11 years longer than Jesus but it was long enough to see the Church well established in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria and some of the port cities of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Antioch.

The Jerusalem Church of which James was a leader, consisted mostly of converted Jews. It seems to have been rather conservative, insisting on the importance of circumcision for new Christians and their keeping of the Law of Moses as the Jews did. In spite of Peter's dream that all things were good for Christians to eat, we still see in Acts how suspicious he and James and the other Jerusalem church leaders were of Paul and his mission to the Gentiles. Paul went up to Jerusalem from Antioch to tell them of his plans and to give them the money collected by the Gentile Christians for their relief; and received their assent, but the Jerusalem church long remained rather Jewish and slow to expand it's understanding of Jesus Christ and the Good News he had come to bring.

It seems to me that this situation in the early Church mirrors something of what's going on in the Anglican Communion at the moment. It's perhaps too crude a way of putting it but we can see on one side, the forces of conservatism in some of the bishops from Africa, south Asia and south America, with their rather Victorian theology and ideas of Christian behaviour, and on the other, the western churches, particularly the Episcopal Church of the USA, who they see as decadent,lax and unbiblical.

How far should Christians be part of the prevailing culture? The sometimes phenomenal growth of some of the African Anglican churches would suggest that, in our uncertain times (so like the 1st century AD) people want certainty if it can be had (it can't of course). A certain polarisation is taking place in other faiths too. Fundamentalist Hindus in India come into regular conflict with Muslims and Christians; while Muslims themselves are divided on issues of peaceful protest versus violence, women's rights and the right to existence of non-Muslims. So that we are seeing in many of the faith communities a flight from the traditional centre, with it's necessary questioning and belief that it doesn't have all the answers, to the edges.
Some find shelter in the stricter churches with their set of beliefs to be subscribed to, while others immerse themselves in the prevailing secular culture to the extent that it's hard to tell if they're Christians or not.

Jesus Christ said to Peter 'on this rock I will build my church' and in fact we need both conservatising and more radical wings if our worldwide church is to be balanced and healthy. Our faith is built on the traditions of Jesus, the apostles and saints but we need always to be pushing on to discover what new things the Holy Spirit has in store for us. This makes discernment even more important. 'Is this ot that of God or not?' is very much a question for our times, for we see that when one tendency or the other becomes too strong, love, charity, generosity, patience - all the gifts of the Spirit - depart.

Paul said to the Christians at Ephesus, 'Spare no effort to make fast with the bonds of peace, the unity which the Spirit gives.' And this is our task, to remain in friendship and Christian love with all, just as James, Peter and the rest of the Jerusalem church did with Paul and his Gentile converts. They can't have approved of everything but they held on to what was essential - Jesus Christ.

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