St Giles’ 25th July 2010

St. James the Apostle

St James and the Cost of Discipleship
Prayer
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair.”
How often do we hear that shout in the playground ?
How often do we feel that ourselves – when someone else gets praise which is due to us ? Or when something goes wrong for us or for someone we love ?
“It’s not fair.”

Today is St James’ Day – and we’ll come on to that in a bit – but I want to begin this sermon by saying something difficult; being a Christian disciple does not mean that life will treat us fairly. It does not even mean that God will treat us fairly. The cost of discipleship can be very great – even to the risk of unfairness…

But let’s clear up a few things about St James first, because if you are like me, you may be a little confused as to which James we are talking about. There are, at least, 3 James in the New Testament.

James the brother of Jesus – early in Jesus’ ministry this James appears to have thought, with Mary that Jesus had lost his mind and so he came to take him home.  Later though, he had a special revelation of the Risen Jesus and came to believe. Indeed he became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem, a sort of early bishop or patriarch. It is quite likely that he is the man who wrote the Epistle of James which we have in our New Testament.

James the Less: he is mentioned in one of the lists of the Apostles – Mark 3:18 and Mark 15:40 – as James son of Alpheus or son of Mary (another Mary) who was at the crucifixion. We know very little else about him.

And then there is the James we are celebrating today: James the Great. Elder brother of John. Son of Zebedee. One of Jesus’ inner group of disciples, along with Peter and John. One of the “sons of thunder”,  as Jesus called them, perhaps because James was a passionate or even an angry man. He was the son of a fisherman. A tough northerner – for that’s what the Galileans were. But with a pushy Mum.

There is something really sad about the fact that his Mum comes and asks Jesus that James and John be given the seats of power in Jesus’ Kingdom. I wonder if Zebedee had died in the meantime and she was worried for their future – after all they had given up a steady job to follow Jesus. It looks as if she had not quite got the point either – she is imagining them sitting at Jesus’ right and left hand as he rules his Kingdom. A position of power.  Was she still thinking of Jesus as a Messiah who would seize political power ?

Not surprisingly the other 10 are up in arms about this – though given their own shortcomings this was a bit hypocritical ! Jesus calms the whole thing down by completely subverting their imperial vision of what it was to be one of God’s servants by pointing to the cost of discipleship. We’ll come back to that…

Before we get to the point of today’s sermon, there is one more thing to say about St James. If we had a Spaniard in church with us today, they would be celebrating with a passion. St James the Great is the Patron Saint of Spain. The legend is that after the Resurrection he travelled to Spain to preach the Gospel, only returning to Jerusalem in time for the story we read today. His shrine is in Compostela and if we were there this morning, there would be great celebrations – not least with the most enormous incense dispenser I have ever seen. It is a huge thurible which is operated by a little team of servers from a pulley and swings over half the length of the cathedral.

Sadly, the historians doubt the story about James and Spain. It is more likely that as the New Testament says, the Apostles did not leave Jerusalem until the persecution began. But as a country with a largely made up saint, it probably suits us to keep quiet…

To be serious – James’ death marked the beginning of really nasty persecution, so in some ways today is a day of sadness. After Stephen, James is the first martyr of the Early Church, the first of the Apostles to die.

Jesus had warned James , that if he wanted to share authority with Jesus, he would have to be ready to share Jesus’ suffering – because that is how Jesus comes to have authority. James had said he was ready to drink this cup of suffering. And when it came to the time for him to drink it, bless him he was ready. And he died at the hands of one of Herod’s executioners.  Why James ? Perhaps he was unlucky – they caught him and not the others. Perhaps he stood out because he was still a “Son of Thunder” and was out there preaching Christ. We don’t know. But we do know he died for his Lord.

If we read on in Acts we would have found the story continues with Peter’s arrest and imprisonment. But unlike James, Peter is rescued.  God sends an angel and Peter is lead mysteriously out of the prison and survives.

And that is a puzzle and should make us stop and think. Peter is saved – at least for the time being. James is put to death. “It’s not fair” – is it ?

A couple of straightforward comments before we return to this puzzle. First, the book of Acts does not comment on this. There is no questioning of God’s fairness, or even James’ simple bad luck. Luke simply tells the story and moves on to Peter’s miraculous escape. In the New Testament in particular, there is little questioning of God’s fairness. Because these Christians trusted so deeply in God’s love and God’s sovereignty, if something went apparently wrong, they did not question God. The Old Testament gives us many more examples of People of Faith questioning God. But not the New.

And down the ages the majority of Christian believers have believed that if suffering came their way – even if it was unfair – somehow this was still within the will of God and so they put up with it. They would often try to find the good that God was doing  through the suffering.

One of the most beautiful books written about suffering and dying was written by a man called Jeremy Taylor. He was a chaplain to Charles I’s army and was made a POW. Later in life he became a bishop but he suffered greatly. He wrote this in his book Holy Dying:

‘These cords thou canst not break; and therefore lie thou down gently, and suffer the hand of God to do what He please, that least thou mayest swallow an advantage which the care and severe mercies of God force down thy throat.’

Another time we might think together about this theology of simply accepting the suffering which God sends. But for today I just want us to notice the cost of discipleship for St James. He lost everything, including his life. And it didn’t seem very fair…

We often say to each other – when we read these ancient stories of Christian martyrs – that they feel very distant to us. This is both because they are distant in time but also they feel very distant to us. We are not threatened with death because of our Faith. Frankly, it costs us very little to be Christians A bit of extra effort perhaps ? Some demands on our time and money ? Not our life.

Of course, were we able to hop on a plane this morning I could take you to places within a few hours where Christians are dying for their faith. When I was training for the ministry we spent 6 weeks in Nigeria, including time in a lovely place called Jos. It was cool – up on a plateau - and they grew brilliant Irish Potatoes. ( I was glad to see they called them by their rightful name !) We were very happy there. It was a peaceful city, mixed between Moslems and Christians. These last few years there has been more and more violence. And very recently a church was attacked and burned – the Pastor escaped but his wife and daughter and a grandchild were killed. I trained with the man who is the Anglican Archbishop there now, Ben. He has been attacked several times in his life. It does us good to stop and remember and pray for these our fellow Christians and to pray for peace.

It does us good because it reminds us, brutally, of how easy it is for us to be complacent about our discipleship. When something doesn’t cost us much, it is easy for us not to value it very much…

But we are good at noticing when things are “not fair”. I put myself front of this list of those who say things are “not fair”. And I want to finish with quite a sharp challenge to myself and to you.

Being a Christian demands everything from us. That’s the deal. It is not an easy path. We have to be very watchful of the mood of society around us which – a lot of the time – plays down the cost of discipleship.

Part of this demand of everything is even fairness. As you have, so too have I seen great Christian saints, wear themselves out for God. Die young. Die of cancer. Lose their money. Lose their minds. Being a Christian is absolutely no guarantee that things will not go wrong. In some ways, God asks us to take risks for him which might make things go even more wrong. It can all feel very unfair.

But that is how it is. Being a Christian costs everything. So the next time I am tempted to grumble at having to do something in church, when it has been left to me by someone else – or you do – and we are tempted to say: “it’s not fair”. We might remember the example of St James, who gave everything. And grumble a bit less.  Amen.