“Faith without works is dead”. This is a well-known quote from our reading today from the Letter of James.
Now, this phrase is often viewed as controversial, particularly in contrast to the writings of St. Paul whose theology is that we are “ Justified (saved) by the grace (or gift) of God”. This is taken to mean that we can do nothing of our own to earn salvation or become entitled to salvation. For Paul, Abraham was justified by his works. In contrast, for those who followed the teachings of Jesus, faith alone was sufficient.
However, if we take James to mean what he said, why would he write Faith without works is dead?
Faith, Works…do they fit together? What do they mean for us?
If you put faith into a search engine like Google, things start to get complicated –you will get over 37 million hits—just a few along the line of my search about religious faith, others being ‘Faith on Amazon, Faith Hill, Improve your Faith’ etc. Some definitions and references, however, may be helpful.
“Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable” [H.L. Mencken Prejudices: Third Series] “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Bible: Hebrews. From the Britannica: Faith: an inner attitude, conviction, or trust relating human beings to a supreme God or ultimate salvation. In religious traditions stressing divine grace, faith is the inner certainty or attitude of love granted by God himself.
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers up 17 pages starting in Old Testament times exploring faith objectively and subjectively as the faith of God in man and man in God. Basically, it is saying that faith is given by God. (Note that the term faith is used here to define faith which is a bit like saying blue is the colour blue). In religious literature faith is often referred to as ‘the faith’. For example, the Pope sees his role as upholding ‘the faith’ and the clergy as teaching ‘the faith’. The catechism sets out the faith.
James is fairly explicit about Works. He writes about feeding the hungry, clothing naked— all reminiscent of Jesus teaching “I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me something to drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; sick and you took care of me” (Matt. 25:34-45). I think James means that if we say we have faith, then these works will flow forth. Otherwise, the faith is barren. In other words, we need to think of faith as verb—that faith is expressed not in the recitation of creed or statement of a fact but as actions in our everyday lives.
Thus, kindness and compassion are expressions of faith. Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are expressions of faith. Seeking justice for all people and creation is an expression of faith.
These ‘works’ are not done to court favour with God, but rather to express our love of God and love of neighbour.
If we look at the Bible, terms like salvation and justification are very prevalent in the Hebrew (Old) Testament and relatively absent from the Gospels. The good news of the Gospels is that God and the Kingdom are in our midst, that there is a new order that seeks justice, sets the oppressed free, and shares the bounty of creation with all. Just think of the actions and teachings of Jesus.
Some of the prayers for today echo these themes. As we prayed in the collect for today:
Stir up, O lord, the wills of you faith people, that richly bearing the fruit of good works, we may by you be richly rewarded.
(Some of you may remember from years gone by, this collect which was appointed for the last Sunday before Advent was affectionately called ‘Stir up Sunday’)
And in the prayer over the gifts:
Accept our offering of labour and love
And in the prayer after Communion:
Your word and sacrament give us food and life. May we who share holy things bear fruit to your honour and glory.
To sum up, quoting from Marcus Borg’s “The Heart of Christianity”:
Compassion and justice are the primary ethical fruits of the Christian Life.
And that life is found in the words and deeds of those who call themselves Christian.