Faith, Without Works, is Dead

Pentecost 17 – September 15, 2024

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-9
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

After telling us that faith without works is dead, James returns to the theme of speaking. He begins this conversation by telling his readers that most of them should not become teachers because teachers are judged with greater strictness. He then turns to their speech. As I have said previously, it seems that the people to whom James is writing spent much of their time arguing with each other about their faith and those arguments must have brought anger and division in their community. This is a guess based on the fact that today’s reading is the second time James talks about bridling the tongue. This is so important for James he adds several more metaphors to emphasize it. The tongue is like a rudder on the ship, a small thing that can change the course of the ship, or like a small fire that sets the whole forest on fire. He then goes on to remind them that any wild animal can be tamed but not the tongue. All of these examples demonstrate his point that the people to whom James was writing were not living as God desired for them to live - their speech and all that they did should show the love of God.

That is not a new message to us. We have heard it many times. But as Luther said, we are both sinners and saints. As James put it, both fresh and brackish waters flow from our lives. Peter is a good example of this. At one moment he is declaring Jesus as Messiah and in the next succumbing to the ways of the world. But even as Jesus called him Satan, he did not reject him. That is the way of Jesus. He has called us to be the children of God by his own life, death, and resurrection. That call is to pick up our cross and to follow him. We all have been given many gifts and called to share them with the world. But how we do that can be difficult to learn. That is why we need to spend time with Jesus through reading the Bible and prayer. For some people the call can be to one life-long task. For others it may be many different tasks in their life. Certainly whatever the task is, it is something that fits in with our life and abilities. Jesus’ call also comes with the assurance that, if we fail, we will be given another chance. For our life and salvation does not rely on our doing everything perfect, it relies upon Jesus. We do not have to do good works to be saved, we get to do good works because we are saved. May your lives spring forth the fresh waters of faith so that others may experience God’s love through you.