But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (Jas.1:22)

Our second lesson for the day comes from that wonderful piece of Scripture known as the Epistle General of James. This book is short, pithy and instructive. Historically credited to James the apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem, The Epistle General of James, under the inspiration and direction of the Holy Ghost, became part of the Canon of the New Testament. We should be glad it did. Why? Because the Book of James injects into New Testament Christianity a large dose of realism in what otherwise could become merely an intellectual or emotional exercise. That is, we could have just an emotional or intellectual "sense" of our salvation, without the actual performance of certain acts required of a Christian.

James thus rejects only an assent of the will as being necessary to our Christian life, or as he terms it, "his religion." In (Jam 1:25) " But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." and (Jam 1:26) "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain."

For St. James, actions do count. He sums it up as follows: (Jam 1:27) "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

This little passage flies in the face of those who think that it is only necessary to be "spiritual" and to be "a good person" inside in order to enjoy some sort of nebulous salvation or afterlife Not so, as James tells us that we must take action; we must bear fruit. Good thoughts, which lead to good deeds, which lead to good habits, which lead to good character, should be the natural fruit of a Christian. I believe it was Anselm, the early Medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, who said that good deeds should fall from the Christian, naturally, like fruit from a tree. As Christians, we are simply expected to bear fruit.

Let me step back (or rather forward) into one of the greatest controversies in the Christian Church, the debate over faith vs. works. We are told over and over again by St. Paul that we are saved by faith, not by works. Recall how that in Romans 10:9 we are told: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Also, in Eph 2:8: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"

We find this also in 1st Corinthians:; (1Co 15:1-2) "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain."

What? Is there a contradiction in God's Word? Is the Holy Spirit telling us that we are saved through faith on one hand, while also telling us that "faith without works is dead"? This is a most interesting quandary, yes?

James goes on in Chapter 2: (Jam 2:17-18) "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

It seems as if we have a huge problem on our hands. It surely appears as if we must work to earn our salvation, doesn't it? Or, at least, as our Roman Catholic brethren tend to believe, we must participate in some way towards our salvation. Even the Eastern Church has the idea that man was not totally corrupted by the Fall and that a spark of original goodness still resides in us, waiting for God's call. This type of theology, however, has serious pitfalls. It says that Man can still choose salvation, because he still has some "God-ness" left in him. That is, give him the right environment, the right preaching, the right emotional experience, and he can make that altar call or that extra novena or that extra Divine Liturgy and thus help himself to be saved.

This sounds good to the human ear, for you see, we all secretly like the idea that in some small way, we sort of help God to save us. Yet , nothing could be farther from the Biblical truth. In Colossians 2:13, Paul tells us:(Col 2:13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Please note the language: Not merely "sick", not merely having "the Imago Dei" (Image of God) in us tainted or obscured, so that we can stretch a sickly hand out of our spiritual sickbed for help, but, we are dead in our sins. It is not we who save ourselves. It is the Grace of God calling us, mysteriously, from the foundation of the world, to salvation. God knows whom He will call and He does it, calling us, who are dead in our sins, to eternal life with Him.

The question is, why are some called and others not? Why do some come to church, and receive the life-giving Body and Blood of Christ, while and others do not? Why do some exhibit Christian virtues and participate in the life of the Church and others do not? This is an old, old question.

Beloved, I confess that I don't know the answer. I simply don't know. Nor for a lack of thinking about it, but this humble priest admits with joy, that it is beyond me. It is a wonderful mystery hid in the Mind of God. Yet, far from engendering spiritual pride in me and you, our calling and participation in Christ should evoke a sense of overwhelming gratitude and humility. The question then becomes not "Why?", but "Why Me, Lord?" Sometimes, with childlike thanks, we simply accept the over flowing cup and don't ask why.

That being said, let's return to James for a minute. I personally do not believe that James was telling us that we are saved through works, that is, we are not justified before God by what we do. It should be obvious to most Christians, if we look at ourselves honestly, that we simply cannot earn our way into Heaven. All we can offer is a tainted sacrifice. We can, however, nurture and live the full life of faith by doing works "worthy of repentance." That is, our day-to-day faith is evidenced by our works, as we seek to "be" Christ to those around us as much as we can. This is St. James' point. It is a healthy reality check to an otherwise ethereal Gospel.

Good works are indeed the fruit of a Christian, fruit which we should produce joyfully and humbly. With all things human, we have to be on the lookout for that insidious stab of personal pride when doing our good works. The temptation is often two-fold: first, the martyr complex: "I'm the only one….(fill in the blank here.) It's easy to fall into this trap when others do not perform according to our expectations. The other trap is that of self-congratulation: "Look, look what I'm doing for the Kingdom of God…."

I'm sure that it's patently obvious how dangerous either one of these positions can be. Without the indwelling mind of Christ and our spiritual armor (cf. Eph. 6), our Enemy below will be sure to exploit them, hoping to sow the seeds of discord within the Body. So, does that mean that we simply let other folk do what needs to be done in the Church, thereby avoiding spiritual peril? As St. Paul says in his Epistles, using the strongest negative in Greek, "let is not be!" or "not even!"; we should not let this thing be done.

One of our offertory sentences says, from 2 Cor. 9:7: "God loves a cheerful giver." We are to give of our time, treasure, and talent freely, as a good-will, thanksgiving offering to God. We should do it out of love and gratitude, not self-gratification, or ego-strokes. This is obvious, so we'll move on.

One last comment about works is necessary here. Is it possible to give a "good witness", that is, to display good works and yet still be in possession of the spirit of Anti-Christ? Surely, if a person is doing the types of things a Christian should, he or she is good, yes? How could doing good works be at all bad? Don't we all have the same goal, to make the world a better place?

For example, let me reference a feature on NPR, which I affectionately call "National Peoples' Radio", that I heard this last Tuesday morning. It seems that the Pope, as well as the spiritual hierarchy of the Roman Church, is upset with certain bishops and priests in Brazil. The reason for their discomfort is that Brazil is still a hotbed of the now-dated concept of "liberation theology". This way of thinking portrays Jesus Christ as a "radical revolutionary", bent on changing the status quo and defending justice and truth against an oppressive society. Stemming from the 1960's and 1970's, this type of "practical theology" was very concerned with the deforestation of the Amazon, the encroachment of modernity on indigenous peoples like the Yanomamo, and the general destruction of the habitat. It is also very concerned about the treatment of the poor.

Well, looking at these issues, I confess that I am concerned about them as well. While, in no stretch of the imagination could one call me a "tree hugger", I confess to being deeply troubled about the misuse of Creation in certain parts of the world, as well as the exploitation of the poor. I believe that all of us, under the hand of God, should be excellent stewards of Creation. Here, however is the difference. We Christians should have a Christian worldview, not one tinged by Marxist-Leninist thought. Did you know, for example, that the early "liberation theology" hymnbooks had little hand grenades on the pages, where one usually finds breath marks and musical notations? What is the spirit here? It is definitely not Christian.

No doubt you get the point. We take our direction from Jesus Christ, who is not the "radical revolutionary" the Liberation Theologians claim that He was; yet he took radical positions such as "love thy neighbor as yourself" and "turn the other cheek." He said these things while advocating that we "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and render unto God the things that are God's." Is this liberation theology? I think not. Is it self-centered in any way? Again, I think not. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, untarnished by man's ego or involvement.

The whole upshot of this is that man must remove himself from the equation of salvation. We do not save ourselves. Only one, Jesus Christ the righteous, does and He is the propitiation for our sins. When we respond to God's Grace and open our hearts to Jesus Christ, we will experience joy and release from the burden of our fallen natures. Although we do not become less conscious of our fallen natures, but rather more so, the burden of guilt is removed. Only then can we move forward and produce good fruit. We know that we are the road to sanctification when this occurs. Bearing fruit for the Kingdom then becomes a joy, not an obligation; a privilege, not a penalty and a free-will offering, not a payment.

With grateful minds and joyful hearts, let us all pray that we will continue to bring forth good works, fruit of our salvation and evidence of our journey towards sanctification.

Ye shall not appear before the Lord empty; every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee.
(Deut.XVI 16,17)