Both/And Faith

James 2:14-26

June 16, 2024 • Mount Pleasant UMC

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Or, to shorten and update Fitzgerald’s statement, “Two things can be true at the same time.” Schrödinger’s Cat is somehow considered alive and dead at the same time—a contradiction and yet both are true. Justice and mercy often work together, even though one might seem contradictory to the other. Can you have true justice if mercy is involved? And the same thing is true of faith and works. For some, these two could not be more opposite, and yet James, half-brother of Jesus and author of the New Testament letter that bears his name, holds them together in a beautiful way. Faith and works are the components of what Methodists sometimes call “both/and faith.”

This morning, as we continue our journey through the “strangely warmed” life of John Wesley, founder of Methodism, we’re going to focus on the way Wesley and the early Methodists were focused on serving those in need. Last week we talked about how much Wesley spent preaching and how he took the message of Jesus “to the streets,” you might say, or at least to the hillsides. But do you remember the kinds of folks I said had gathered to hear Wesley preach, especially in Bristol? They weren’t the wealthy and the supposedly important. They were the miners, the working poor, the underserved and the underpaid. But these were the people Wesley had always tried to reach out to. Even before Aldersgate, Wesley made it a habit to visit in both of the local prisons twice a week. He had designated days each week to visit children and the “poor and elderly” (cf. Hamilton, Revival, pg. 110). All of his life he had a concern for the ones Jesus called “the least of these” (cf. Matthew 25:40), and that mindset became hallmarks of the early Methodist movement: “ministering to prisoners, helping impoverished children, visiting the elderly, [and] caring for the poor” (Hamilton 111).

All throughout the history of the Christian faith, there has been this pull toward an “either/or” faith. By that I mean there has often (and still today) been this false dichotomy between two practices, what I would call “personal faith” and “social holiness.” Some believe that the Bible teaches that all that matters is having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” a phrase (by the way) which you will not find in the Bible. But putting one’s faith in Christ is, of course, absolutely essential; Wesley believed that with everything in him. We might call that the “first half of the Gospel.” There is a “second half” to this faith, because if all we do is focus on what Jesus does for “me,” we will have what one author has called “narcissism masquerading as Christian spirituality” (Hamilton 107). It will become all about “me and Jesus only,” and that will lead to all sorts of problems. To complete our faith, we need to listen to the words of James, who tells us that “faith without deeds is dead” (2:26).

Martin Luther, the great reformer, called James “an epistle of straw” (qtd. in Hamilton 109), in other words worthless. Luther had re-discovered, especially in Paul’s writing, that we are saved by faith and not by anything we do. It’s grace, like we talked about last week. We can’t earn our salvation by anything we do. Luther was big on that doctrine, typically called “justification by faith alone,” and so he was put off by James’ emphasis on good deeds. He, and many others throughout history, believed James contradicts Paul, that James was focusing on salvation by works, earning your way into God’s kingdom. But if that were the case, James would never have been included in the Bible. The early church knew what they were doing when they preserved this letter. They knew we are not just saved from sin. We are saved for good works, good deeds. We are saved so that God can use us to change the world. James does not contradict Paul; James complements Paul.

James begins our passage this morning by asking if “faith with no deeds” can save a person (2:14). And our usual immediate response is, “Well, of course. You don’t have to do anything to be saved!” And that is true; Paul says, as we read last week, “it is by grace you have been saved…not by works” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Except that the way James asks the question, the implied or understood answer is, “No way! You aren’t saved without deeds” And that might cause us to shake our heads, but you have to stick with James’ whole argument here. He first uses the example of someone who sees a person without clothes and food and tells them, in James’ words, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed” (2:16). Someone who does that is wishing the other person something that is, quite literally, impossible on their own. It’s the equivalent of saying to them, “Goodbye and have a good day,” or “Hope you find what you need somewhere” (cf. Osborne, “James,” Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume. 18, pg. 59). It’s not that those are bad wishes for a person in need, but James indicates that the person saying that has the means to help them. In other words, their greeting or well wishes to the person in need is simply a “religious cover for the failure to act. The person is actually asking God to do what they are unwilling to do, and that is a false prayer” (Osborne 59). James tells us that if we see someone genuinely in need and can help but don’t, then our so-called faith is useless. James says faith and good works are inseparable, not because works save us but because (in the words of Scot McKnight) “the good God who empowers us to good faith transforms us into doers of good works” (James and Galatians, pg. 42). If our faith does not show up in works, James would seriously question if we have any faith at all.

But, I pretend to hear you say, isn’t it enough to “just believe” in God? I mean, that’s what the bumper stickers and the t-shirts say. As long as I say I “believe,” aren’t I okay? Well, here’s the harsh truth, according to James: no. Remember he is writing his own people, to Jews and probably Jewish Christians. This letter is addressed to “the twelve tribes scattered” (1:1), so his audience is those who, all of their lives, have prayed every day a singular prayer: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The confession that there was only one God was distinctively Jewish, and for many, it was the centerpiece of their faith. Wasn’t that belief enough? And James, again, says no. He says such belief is a good thing, but it’s not enough. Why? “Even the demons believe that,” he writes (2:19). N. T. Wright puts it this way: “It won’t do simply to tick the box saying ‘I believe in one God’ and hope that will do. It won’t. Without a radical change of life, that ‘faith’ is worthless and will not rescue someone from sin and death” (The Early Christian Letters for Everyone, pg. 18). Even Paul, in that passage we read last week, goes on to say that we were made “to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10). The difference between us and the demons is that we put our belief into action.

John Wesley discovered that, without a doubt. Early on in his life, he had orthodox beliefs. He would have been one who checked that box that he believed in the one true God, in Jesus, and he even did good works by showing up at the prisons and the poor houses. He even came to America as a missionary, and yet, he still felt a restlessness and an emptiness in his soul. He was unsettled because the things he was doing were being done not out of love for Christ but just because he felt like he should do it. His heart was not in it. It was an obligation, not a joy. It wasn’t until Aldersgate, when his heart was “strangely warmed,” that those “good works” became an overflow and an outgrowth of a genuine, passionate faith. It was when Wesley moved from a servant to a child of God that everything was different and he fully embraced both/and faith.

For Wesley, as well as for James, “good works” meant caring for the poor and the marginalized, those on the outside of society and the underside of life (cf. McKnight 43). That was certainly part of James’ Jewish heritage, and he expressed it earlier in this letter: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (1:27). For Wesley, these practices had come to him through the Catholic tradition of “works of mercy.” And those came largely from what Jesus had taught in Matthew 25, where he talks about the difference between the “sheep” (who are welcomed into his kingdom) and the “goats” (who are not welcomed into the kingdom) is found in what they did or didn’t do to those in need. Following James, Wesley understood “works of mercy” to include any way we “intentionally care for and assist those who need God’s help” (Hamilton 109). It’s when we are Jesus’ hands and feet.

As Methodism grew in London, it became necessary to establish a base of sorts. One day in November, Wesley had preached to about 8,000 people outside an abandoned cannon foundry and an idea was sparked. The Methodists purchased the building, which was in disrepair, renovated it and called it, simply, “The Foundry” (cf. Hamilton 112-113). And out of that building, which unfortunately no longer exists, many works of mercy were offered to the needy person in London. The first thing the early Methodists focused on was poverty. Wesley believed money was a good servant but a poor master, and learned early on how much he could live on. Even as his income increased, he lived on that same small amount and gave the rest away to the poor. Out of the Foundry, small loans were made to help people start businesses; we would call it “microlending” today. They also leased houses for poor people to live in until they could get back on their feet.

A second area of focus for the early Methodists was slavery. Wesley believed that any wealth that depended on human suffering was offensive to God, and he worked tirelessly to make sure all were free. In fact, as I’ve shared before, the final letter Wesley wrote, just days before his death, was to William Wilberforce, a man who would spend his whole life trying to end the slave trade in England. Wesley wrote these words to encourage Wilberforce: “Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, until even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.” Slavery is still a thing. There are still places today in our world where people are enslaved, but not all the chains that hold people are physical. Some are enslaved by their addictions, and our Celebrate Recovery ministry is one way we stand in that grand tradition of fighting against the things that enslave people.

A third area of focus was politics, and if there is anything in our world today on which we need some different voices, this might be it. Wesley was not a politician, but he still spoke often on political matters. He was a strong monarchist and could not understand why American chose to break away from England. However, what I always find helpful is his advice for voting. Wesley was not one to tell someone who to vote for, and I’ve tried very hard to stay in that tradition myself. But he did want people to think about elections through the lens of their faith. As we are in an election year ourselves, I urge you to do the same, because simply in our voting we can exercise our faith and make a difference. So here are Wesley’s guidelines for voting. He says, first of all, we should vote for the person we judge most worthy. Do they have the qualifications and the character to serve in the office they are seeking? Second, and this is perhaps the most needed advice today, to “speak no evil” of the person we vote against. What a difference social media would be if we followed that word! And third, in the same vein, he says we should makes sure our “spirits are not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.” In other words, stop being mean to those who think differently than you, especially if they are Christians. You are all part of the same family, the body of Christ, so act like it. Extend mercy, even to those who differ from you. Honestly, sometimes, Christians have been the most unkind people online.

And a fourth area (and these are not the only areas the early Methodists focused on by any means) was education. Education was important because it was a potential ticket out of poverty for many. So in the Bristol area they started a school for the children of miners, but not just for children. It was a place where anyone, regardless of age, could come and learn. At Oxford, Wesley and some others pooled their resources to hire tutors for children who were struggling. And that spirit spread across the pond, as it were. The early American Methodists began schools all over the place. A lot of what became public schools across the country started in the basements of Methodist churches, and still today, one of the biggest ministries those in the Wesleyan tradition host are preschools, like the one we have here (and for which registration is filling up, so if you wanted to have a child or grandchild in preschool here this fall, you need to get on that!). They also started colleges, some of which you’ve probably heard of—little places like Southern Methodist University, Duke University, Boston University, Northwestern, the University of Southern California and the University of Indianapolis. The first Bishop in America, Francis Asbury, started a school called Bethel Academy, which was the predecessor to a couple of places I know well: Asbury University and Asbury Seminary. Education makes the world a better place (cf. Hamilton 111; Weems, John Wesley’s Message Today, pgs. 64-70).

But again, none of these good works is what our faith is about. Good works is what happens when a person is truly converted. You can’t help it. This desire to make the world more the way God wants it to be just begins to take over. Personal salvation and social holiness—it’s not that one is more important than the other. It’s that both are intertwined. Ours is not an either/or faith. It’s both/and, which is why James says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (2:26). Someone pointed out that the comparison James makes here seems to be backward. Wouldn’t “body” more naturally pair with “deeds” and “faith” with “spirit”? Why does he compare the body to faith? I don’t know, but I think perhaps he has in mind what he said just a bit earlier, back in chapter 1, where he urged his readers to not just listen to the word but to put it into practice (cf. 1:22). He’s heard people talking about their faith, but when he watches the way they live it out, it’s a shell, a husk. It’s empty, like a body without a spirit. There’s no life there. By contrast, a lively trust in the living God will result in faith with deeds, living out the word we have heard (cf. Wright 17). That’s the Wesleyan way. That’s the Christian way.

I’ve already mentioned Celebrate Recovery and our MTP Preschool, two expressions of the way we pair our faith with our deeds. But did you know there are people who go to the county jail and the federal prison on a regular basis to reach out to and share the good news with those who are incarcerated? Did you know there is a visitation team who, every single week, makes contact with out shut-ins and many others in the community? They go to homes and retirement villages and nursing facilities in order to let those who can’t get out anymore know that they are loved and that Jesus and the church have not forgotten them. We host Scouting ministries which teach life skills and also invites youth to do their “duty to God.” All throughout the year we collect items for Operation Christmas Child (and this past week, some folks gathered to make crafts for that ministry) in order to provide Christmas gifts for children around the world who otherwise wouldn’t have anything. And in the process of that outreach, they also get to hear the story of Jesus. The baby bottles that many of you brought in today (or that you will bring in during the weeks to come) will help provide parenting classes through the Crisis Pregnancy Center and help people who didn’t plan to have a child at this point learn how to care for that child. And we have a group of people who meet every single week to make blankets and shawls and other items which are given to people who have lost loved ones or who are going through a difficult time, just as a reminder that they are loved and prayed for. There’s nothing magic in what the Yarn Spinners make, but I have heard from so many people how much that kind gesture meant to them. Same with the bears that a group makes every month here that go to the hospitals and other places. Friendship House has begun hosting monthly gatherings hoping people will experience “unexpected belonging,” bringing unlikely people together for fun, fellowship and friendship. I could go on. I’ve probably gone on too long now, and I don’t mean to imply that we have it all together or that we are doing everything we could. Not at all. But these are some of the ways we, as a community of faith, are seeking to demonstrate to a hurting world that faith in Jesus makes the world more beautiful. Faith in Jesus results in the works of Jesus being done and the grace of Jesus touching everything and everyone. Faith without works is dead, but faith with works will change the world. Thanks be to God! Let’s pray.