94 - Faith and Works

James 1:1 - 2:26

So Paul says we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

James says faith without works are dead.

Which is right?  Or are they both?

Reading the Epistles sometimes makes my head spin.  I have a hard time counting the angles dancing on the head of pin.

At times like this I like to go back to the Gospels.

I find that Jesus often equates faith with healing.   When Jesus heals Bartimeaus, he says:  "Go, your faith has made you well."

Likewise, the hemorrhagic woman who touched Jesus' cloak, is healed as Jesus says: "Take heart woman, your faith has made you well."

Faith, or better, trust, in Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, makes us whole.

But living as Christians is the next step.

Immediately after Bartimeaus regained his sight, we are told that he followed Jesus on the way.

What is the way?

Jesus tells us the way:

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’  Matthew 22:34-40

And the Gospels are littered with specific directions and examples - the good Samaritan, the final judgment in Matthew 25, the instruction to the rich young man to sell all he has and give to the poor.  "The Way" is a way of action, of works.  It is a way of being "doers of the word, and not merely hearers..."

For us, as Tracey said in her sermon last Sunday, we are to find our vocation -- the place where our great passion (and abilities) meet the world's great needs.  If we are lucky it's in our paid vocation, as a teacher, a nurse, even as a lawyer or politician or engineer.  Or it's in our volunteer life, as a Red Cross volunteer, a tutor, or a sponsor of a school child in Haiti.

James letter also points us to where our concern should be - with the poor.

Have you found your vocation?