As we enter this fall season, counting down the weeks to the election, it can be challenging to navigate our way through all the political polemic and vitriol. The violence – and threats of violence – which now seem to have become a normal part of campaigning, should be a wake-up call for all of us to refocus our moral compass.
The Letter of James, which we have been reading throughout this month and will read again this Sunday, might have been written for this moment. In simple, straightforward language, it offers ethical and moral guidelines on how church communities can live together in a life-giving way. James writes that anger, deceit, arrogance, and envy are at the heart of the evils that can poison a community, and if left unchecked, can turn violent. In the passage we will hear on Sunday, he puts his finger on the root of the problem: “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts” (4:1-2). James makes a direct and immediate connection between not getting something we want and murder! A few years ago, I would have thought this was a far-fetched notion. Now, I’m prepared to believe it.
Instead, James instructs his readers, “let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. … Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves” (1:19-20, 22). And he tells them that the heart of their call as Christians is to “care for orphans and widows in their distress” (1:27).
Listen more. Speak less. Don’t rush to anger. Do not indulge in envy. Show mercy, gentleness, humility. Care for the most vulnerable. Excellent guidelines for any group of people trying to live together in community. For James, these are not just abstract ideas. They are practical realities that are essential to the thriving and well-being of all people. James calls the church to an active faith, one that puts into practice the word they have received, to be “doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” In short, James exhorts the churches to live up to the faith they claim. As we begin this busy fall season, and especially as we chart our course over the next two months, let us be “doers of the word,” too, and put into action the faith we claim.
The Reverend Meredith E. Ward
Associate Rector for Pastoral Care