The Book of James

As of yesterday, I’ve begun a sermon series on the Book of James. Tradition holds that it was written by James, the brother of Jesus. Some scholars call this into question. Regardless, the book is written as a surviving and devoted brother would have. This short letter to the Jews in Diaspora applies Jesus’ teaching to the lives at hand, after his death and resurrection, in the first century of the Holy Roman Empire. Some of the topics James covers are: overcoming temptation, taming the tongue, treating people in different ways according to their appearances and the power of prayer within the Christian community. In studying scripture I am continually struck at how relevant the issues of a first century world are with us today. Human nature is as it always has been. We still have our bent to sinning, and we’ve seen it take us down and yet in our more honest moments, most of us want desperately to please God and to be in relationship with him. As that often quoted passage from St. Augustine reads, “We will not find our rest until we find our rest in thee.”

I hope our time spent with James leads us to that rest, for ourselves and our communities. In Bible talk James is known as Wisdom literature, sacred literature about living life to its fullest.

To prepare yourself for Sunday morning worship I encourage you to read the Book of James. It’s not long. A careful reading won’t take more than a half hour. For those of us new to the Bible it’s in the New Testament, just after Hebrews and not too far ahead of Revelation. I’ll be riding in the MS Bike Ride this weekend and Amy Burton will deliver the message. Come and support her. The following Sunday (9/24) my text will be James 2:1-10. And buck the Methodist trend and bring your Bible to church so you can read along. The preaching will stay close to the text.

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