Faith of Action

Scripture:  James 2:14-26

Elias Garcia Martinez was a Spanish painter who lived across the latter part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.  One of his later works in life was entitled Ecce Homo.  It was a fresco of Jesus painted in 1930 on the wall of a church in the small Spanish town of Borja.  While the painting hung in the church, ownership of the work was maintained by the family of the artist.  The family chose to donate the painting to The Archive of Religious Paintings in Spain.  It was reported that due to moisture in the church, the work had suffered some extensive damage.   When the archivists showed up to collect the painting they were surprised to find that restoration work had already been done.  Unfortunately, the work had been done by an 80-year-old woman in the church who saw the painting needed some touching up.   This woman may have used a paintbrush before, but she clearly was not trained in art restoration and the results kind of show. 
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The woman had good intentions but not the skill set to back up, but that can not be said for other examples.  For some reason, Spain has a real problem with botched restorations.  IN 2019 a restoration of a painting of St. George, done by supposed professionals gave the 16th century work a “plastic” look.   In 2020 another Spanish painting, this one of Mary, was also botched during a professional restoration attempt. In Spain there are no regulations or licensing requirements for art restoration, so anyone can claim the title.  However, art restoration is a highly technical and specialized skill, so there are few who can do it well.  The fact that hundreds of years old paintings keep getting ruined shows there are more people who claim the title of being an art restorationist than there are people who can do it.  This means the only way to know if someone is an art restorationist is they must have proved it by their previous works and actions.   There must be a track record of successfully doing the work.   This morning’s scripture makes a similar point about faith.   Conventional wisdom is that faith is a private thing that is not talked about publicly.  However, we should not have to talk about our faith because what we believe should be evident by the actions we take.  This scripture should spur us to action because it reminds us that a living and vibrant faith is one that does the work. 

I mentioned last week that the book of James is one that has long been contentious, and this morning’s scripture reading might perhaps be the most controversial part of the whole thing.   For instance, the great reformer Martin Luther did not like the book of James.  He referred to it in writing as an “epistle of straw”.  While he never formally advocated for it to be removed from the bible, he did put forth the opinion that it should be removed from the curriculum in high education.   One of Luther’s major issues with James was this morning’s scripture reading.  This is because one of the major doctrines that Luther emphasized was salvation by faith alone.   This is the idea that forgiveness and salvation can not be earned through our merit, behavior, or good works.  Luther felt that this morning’s scripture was contradictory.  It is easy to see why Luther felt that way.  For instance, Paul’s writing in Ephesians that states “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast” does seem to be in contrast with James that states “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Martin Luther was protesting practices like selling indulgences, where people could buy forgiveness.  The protestant reformation was built by reclaiming and leaning into the belief of salvation by faith alone, so it is not hard to understand why Luther might take issue with this morning’s scripture.  It sort of feels like the author of James thought there might be some disagreement with the point being made here because the author breaks out a couple of rhetorical devices.   First, the author introduces a fictional dialogue partner to argue against in verse 14-19.   The point being made here is that faith and deeds cannot be separated.   Belief should not exist just on its own.  As James points out, even demons believe there is a God.  Faith is more than just belief.  The author then goes on to back up their claims with examples from the Old Testament.   In both the instances of Abraham and Rahab, it is not their actions that earned their righteousness.  The point being made is that their actions were proof of their righteousness.    
Martin Luther was worried this scripture could be used to argue that our deeds earn us righteousness, but this morning’s scripture is not stating that salvation is earned.  The point being made here is one that is far more based in practicality and common sense.   Our faith is not an abstract, it is something that we actively live out and if we are living our faith out then it will lead us to act.    When our faith does not lead us to action then that is when we begin to have problems.   

There is an old story that illustrates this.  The story goes that there was a particularly dangerous section of coastline.  For years and years an old lighthouse had served as a warning to ships but due to decades of municipal budget cuts, the light house slid into disrepair and eventually reached a point where it had become to cost prohibitive to repair. 

A bunch of local boat owners did not like this.  They wanted their coastline to be safe, so they banded together.  They set up patrols to help guide other boats at night, and when a boat did get in trouble they were there to help.  Others took notice and wanted to help to, so this informal group of costal helpers grew, so they decided to organize.  They called themselves the Rescue Yacht Club, and to have a central spot to coordinate their efforts and gather they built a clubhouse.  They still did nightly patrols, and they still helped people, but as their building was beginning to get finished their meetings started to be more focused on items like what should the carpet color be and less how do we make the coast safer.  

Once the clubhouse was finished, they discovered that there was some ongoing cost, so they began charging dues.  This money covered the cost of running their clubhouse, but it also created some extra funds that they decided to use to make their building even better.  At this point the Rescue Yacht Club ran into a problem.  They still had plenty of members, they had plenty of money, but they had a problem filling the nightly patrol schedule.   The nightly patrols were cold, dark, and wet.  They also did not always end with people being rescued.  Most times nothing terribly exciting happened, so most of the members preferred to stay in the comfort of their clubhouse.   In response to this problem, they decided to install a telephone.  People knew where they were after all, so if they were needed someone could call them. 

This led to an end of regular patrols by the Rescue Yacht Club.  Unfortunately, the coast was still dangerous.  There were still people out there who needed to be guided to safety, there were still boats in danger, and people who might need to be rescued.  A group of concerned citizens decided that if the Rescue Yacht Club was not going to be doing it regularly, then they would.  They formed the Community Rescue Boat Society and resumed the nightly patrols.   After a while of doing this informally, they also decided that having a central location would be helpful and acquired a piece of costal property a few miles down the road from the Rescue Yacht Club.   They also eventually turned to asking for dues, and eventually also decided that their focus was not going to be on the nightly safety patrols. 

Today, it is still a dangerous coastline.  There are still people lost in the dark who need someone to show them the way, there are still people who are in danger of running aground on deadly obstacles, and there are still people in need of rescue.   Unfortunately, there is no one on that particular coast doing that, but there are several of the finest yacht and boating social clubs you will ever find.   

If the people in that story were real, they would likely all believe in the importance of a safe coastline.   They likely would point to the prestigious history of how their organization helped make the coastline safer, but at the end of the story that is not what they were doing.  The belief no longer influenced the actions and none of the organizations on that coast could show any proof that backed up their supposed belief in safety.    In the same way our faith is not a label or a demographic.  Our faith is not a membership in some club, where we pay our dues so that it can go on our resumes.  Our faith is in God the Father, who loves the whole world.  So that means our faith must lead us to loving others.   Our faith is in Jesus the son, who did come to be served, but to served.  So that means our faith must lead to serving others.  Our faith is in the Holy Spirit that empowers and equips.  So that means our faith must empower us to proclaim the good news through our actions.  
           
Friends, our faith should not be something that we keep private.   It should be no secret to anyone that we follow Jesus, because our actions- the way we live our life reflects Jesus.  We’ve all heard it said that “actions speak louder than words.”  How we act should declare to the world what we believe far more than sharing a Facebook post or a bumper sticker on our car. 

Our desire to act like Jesus cannot just be an idea, but again it must be something we live out.  This morning’s scripture is very specific about this.  Notice James specifically calls this out in verse 15: “Supposed a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.”   We are supposed to care for one another and the way we care for one another is a metric for a living and vibrant faith.  When we see there is a need, we should ask “what can I do to help.”  Or better yet we respond with “May I help you in this way. . . “ and then freely volunteer to do something that is needed.   Beloved children’s TV icon Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”  Church, when people look for the helpers, we are who they should find.  Not because we think doing good is going to save us or earn us forgiveness, but because following Jesus compels us to love and have compassion for others. 

​This morning’s scripture has been one that has been contentious and misunderstood.  We are saved by faith alone, not by works- but that does not mean our faith does not go to work.  Faith is more than abstract beliefs, it is a way of life, a way of being like Jesus.  So may people know that you are a Christian because you act like a Christian.   May you have a faith of action.  May we be the helpers.  May we see the needs around us and may we meet the needs.  Because we are a people of faith, when there is a need in our community may we be the first ones to stand up and say “Here I am Lord, I will go Lord”  

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