One Person to Another... Revisited--March 24, 2022

One Person To Another... Revisited--March 24, 2022

"My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." [James 5:19-20]

It's funny to me how often our time with biblical writers brings us full circle, but here we are again, with one person leading another back onto a good path.  That's where things started for us in this devotional journey through James, which we began just at the turn of the calendar year.  In the opening verse of this open letter, James presented himself just as one person like us, an older sibling in the faith so to speak, leading his readers to follow Jesus more closely.  And now, in a sense, James is handing the baton to us as well--now we are the ones invited to help lead people to follow Jesus more closely and to "walk in his ways," as the old confession liturgy puts it.  We who have been directed with James as our guide are now entrusted with the ongoing work of helping to guide others to follow after Jesus, too.  

It's not that we're infallible experts or will never mess up ourselves, and it's not like you only ever move in one direction in the life of faith from student to teacher.  We keep teaching each other, and we keep getting brought back by one another as well when we're the ones who get derailed down a wrong track.  And to be sure, it takes some humility for each of us to recognize that even when we've been living the Christian life for a very long time, we need others around us who can see the flaws and vices we can't (or choose not to) see, who can then help pull us back on course.  It takes the courage to admit we can be wrong, not just in the hypothetical, but when actual instances arise when someone can offer us helpful critique to nudge us into more Christ-like love.  It takes the confidence, too, to know that even when we mess up and have to be shown our mistakes, our sins, and our wrong-turns, we are still beloved.  In fact, knowing that we are beloved all the while is often what gives us the security to be brave enough to face our mess-ups.

That's where James meets us today.  Today is that milestone marker that notes the next leg of the relay where we will keep on going, while James stands to watch us and cheer us on.  He has taught us what he has to teach us, and now he sends us out to keep following Jesus in the context and circumstances of our day, our situation, and our culture.  His goal has never been to try to get us to recreate his first-century setting or the composition of his congregations, and so that cannot be our goal, either.  Like Master Yoda tells fellow Master teacher Luke Skywalker, "We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters." We face different terrain, different people, different challenges, different needs, and different culture, and James has just been pointing us in the direction of Jesus' footsteps with his best advice for navigating the terrain.  

It's Jesus who remains the same, whom we both follow, James and us alike.  It's the truth, the way of love, the Reign of God, that we have in common, even if our circumstances are rather different from James' in ways he could not have imagined.  (For one, in an affluent culture like ours in 21st century America, James would look at all of us and see us as "the rich"--we who have roofs over our head, who have such a thing as "disposable income" at all, who possess more clothing, shoes, technology, and food than we know what to do with. And we may just have to squirm for a while as we sit with that truth.)

But as we continue leading and guiding one another to more closely walk the way of Jesus, it's going to be in simple, humble interactions of one person to another, just as James mentored us. So if we want to honor the time James has spent with us, we'll pay attention to the same things he helped us to see: we'll be concerned with avoiding empty talk or hollow gestures when real faith should be showing up in action.  We'll be watchful not to let our possessions possess us, and we'll be on the lookout for how money or power can get a stranglehold on us without our realizing it.  We'll keep holding each other accountable not to slide into the rotten game of selfish ambition where we only do things that will benefit ourselves.  And we'll keep praying for another--while we let that prayer lead us to action in line with what we pray.  (Like Miroslav Volf says, "There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.")  James has helped to identify some of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks on this path, not only so that we can avoid them ourselves, but so that we can help to pull one another from the verge of disaster when they get close to the edge of a cliff, too. And we'll do all of that knowing that God's love is not our destination--as though we don't already have it--but rather that we already start from a place of belonging, and that the living God goes with us on the journey.

So today, keep your eyes on Jesus, just like James has taught us to do.  But also, let's keep our eyes on one another for the moment we will be called upon to help with an outstretched arm for someone slipping down the slope or to help someone spot Jesus' footsteps where the way is unclear.  After all, this whole life of following Jesus is something we do together--with saints and sinners who have gone before us, with more of the same (since we're both at the same time) at our side now, and with the living Jesus on the way with us, too--all the way home.

Lord God, help us on this life's journey, not only to follow the way of Jesus in a world full of selfishness, meanness, hypocrisy, and empty gestures, but also to help the people you have put at our side along the way, as we all walk where you lead.