The Letter of James G E N E R A L E D I T O R Robert B. Kruschwitz A rt E di TOR Heidi J. Hornik R E V ie W E D I T O R Norman Wirzba PROCLAMATION EDITOR William D. Shiell A S S I S tant E ditor Heather Hughes PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Elizabeth Sands Wise D E S igner Eric Yarbrough P UB li SH E R The Center for Christian Ethics Baylor University One Bear Place #97361 Waco, TX 76798-7361 P H one (254) 710-3774 T oll -F ree ( US A ) (866) 298-2325 We B S ite www.ChristianEthics.ws E - M ail [email protected] All Scripture is used by permission, all rights reserved, and unless otherwise indicated is from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. ISSN 1535-8585 Christian Reflection is the ideal resource for discipleship training in the church. Multiple copies are obtainable for group study at $3.00 per copy. Worship aids and lesson materials that enrich personal or group study are available free on the Web site. Christian Reflection is published quarterly by The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. Contributors express their considered opinions in a responsible manner. The views expressed are not official views of The Center for Christian Ethics or of Baylor University. The Center expresses its thanks to individuals, churches, and organizations, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who provided financial support for this publication. © 2012 The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University All rights reserved Contents Introduction 8 Robert B. Kruschwitz God Gave Us Birth 11 Mariam J. Kamell Faith-In-Action: An Ethic of “Perfection” 20 Patrick J. Hartin Taming the Tongue 29 Todd D. Still James’s Theological Grammar 36 Robert W. Wall Drawing James 46 Heidi J. Hornik James the Less Paul Soupiset Apostle St. James the Less Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco The Seed—James the Less Paul Soupiset Ex Libris—James the Less Paul Soupiset Worship Service 53 Bruce Gillette and Carolyn Winfrey Gillette O Lord, May All We Say and Do 60 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette Seeing Ourselves in the Mirror of the Word 62 C. Stephen Evans Living as the Friends of God 70 Paul J. Wadell continued James’s Amazing Grace Gumbo 79 Bert Montgomery Following James’s Map 83 Jeremy Colliver Finding a Central Thread in James 87 David M. Moffitt Editors 94 Contributors 96 ChristianSTUDY GUIDES &Reflection LESSON PLANS These excellent companions to Christian Reflection integrate worship, Bible study, prayer, music, and ethical reflection for personal or small group study. Free ONLINE www.christianethics.ws. Click on “Free Study Guides.” www.ChristianEthics.ws ST U DY GU IDES & LESSON PLANS These six study guides integrate Bible study, prayer, worship, and reflection on themes in The Letter of James. GOD GAVE US BIRTH On a common misreading, the letter of James seems like an awkward misfit that constantly focuses on works instead of the grace of God through Christ. Instead, the letter is an appeal for disciples to become what they are: the firstfruits of a restored creation, set free to live according to God’s character. FAITH -IN-ACTION : AN ETHIC O F “PER F ECTION ” James challenges us to live faithfully, to “be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Such wholeness or completeness demands that we embrace a life where action and faith go together. Our faith must express itself in our actions, and our actions in turn bear witness to our faith. TAMIN G THE TON gu E The things that we say or fail to say serve as a barometer of our Christian character, according to James. The ability to master our words is both a metric for and a mark of spiritual maturity. JAMES ’S THEOLO G ICAL GRAMMAR A theological grammar of James, guided by the Church’s apostolic Rule of Faith, can help us uncover the letter’s rich Trinitarian theology. It enables a faithful community to mine this sacred text for a wisdom that saves and a Christian maturity that performs “every good work.” SEEIN G OU RSELVES IN THE MIRROR O F THE WORD One who hears the Word of God but doesn’t act accordingly is like one who “observes his bodily face in a mirror” but turns away and forgets what he looks like. In James’s parable, Kierkegaard explains, we learn that Scripture is fundamentally practical. We cannot hear it or read it properly unless we have a fundamental concern for how it should govern our lives. LIVIN G AS THE FRIENDS O F GOD James calls the Church to be a living sacrament of friendship with God, a compelling sign of hope and a credible witness of a more promising and truly human way of life. This is what the friends of the world have a right to expect from the friends of God and, perhaps, even long to see in them. 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Simply go to the Web site, click on “Donate,” and press the button to enter a secure online form. Because your gift to the Center for Christian Ethics Excellence Fund is a tax-deductible charitable donation to Baylor University, you will receive a grateful acknowledgement from the University. 8 The Letter of James Introduction BY ROBERT B. KRUSCHWITZ Though often neglected by scholars and church members alike, the letter of James has much to teach us about God’s grace and our faithful response within the Church. Our contributors sift James’s vivid illustrations, pithy parables, and trenchant sayings for their transforming possibilities for our discipleship. hough it is too often neglected by scholars and church members alike, the letter of James has much to teach us about God’s grace and Tour faithful response within the Church, the body of Christ. Yet to hear and practice its wisdom, Timothy Luke Johnson has warned, we must let this epistle speak to us “in terms of its own voice rather than in terms of its supposed muting of Paul’s voice.” Our contributors do this by sifting James’s themes for their transforming possibilities for our discipleship. According to one common misreading, the letter of James is a theologi- cal embarrassment for Christians, ignoring the grace of God through Christ and exhorting readers to pull themselves up by their spiritual bootstraps. But the opposite is true, as Miriam Kamell shows in God Gave Us Birth (p. 11). “James sees God as beginning a new work of creation in the Church,” she writes. “This work is initiated by God’s will and sustained by his presence, but now the word has been implanted and the calling is thereby higher and yet truly achievable.” Another problem is that the letter of James can seem to wander about in a disorganized way. In James’s Theological Grammar (p. 36), Robert Wall orders the epistle’s major teachings around five themes—the Creator God, Christ Jesus, Community of the Spirit, Christian Life, and Consummation— to help us uncover its rich Trinitarian theology. James insists that religious Introduction 9 orthodoxy must be thoroughly embodied, Wall notes. “James articulates practices a ‘pure and undefiled’ congregation performs as acceptable to God: a piety of poverty or powerlessness, purity in speech, rescuing way- ward believers from theological and moral error, and hospitality.” Patrick Hartin in Faith-in-Action: An Ethic of “Perfection” (p.