How James Would Encourage Us on Election Day?
The day after the election, my friends woke up with a challenge: Get through this day.
A man who’s been noted as particularly anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-women’s rights, and supportive of racist oppression will soon be the most powerful man in the world.
Since many of my friends hold the New Testament in high regard, my thoughts turn to a message of encouragement we’ve misunderstood for years. That’s how I will get through this day: I will share that message with you.
The Epistle of James is in my mind the most misunderstood book in the Bible. Many have discarded it because they see a message of perform-for-acceptance and do-better-or-else. If that’s you, let me smile and say:
You might be doing it wrong.
Two important observations about James to flip the script we’ve been battered with over the years. First, James was written to people who, after announcing a new identity, were exiled from their families, ejected from their religious institutions, looked down on by the government (especially in legal areas they experienced severe inequity), and treated as second-class workers by employers. It got so bad for many of them they were close to starvation and homelessness.
Sound like anyone you know?
Second: James was written about how those oppressed people could make it through – one more day. While many – most, even – use James as a litmus test for “true” saving faith, that was nowhere near his purpose. He said so in the very first sentence of the epistle (letter) after the greeting:
“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy” (NRSV)
It’s not surprising that the richest, most powerful society in the history of the world (specifically America, in general, Western culture) would misunderstand James as a manual on how to be accepted by God rather than what it is: A letter of encouragement to panicked, weary people on the brink of destruction.
Keep this in mind as you read a bit of James Chapter 5 from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” about the oppressors:
“All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.”
Rather than a condemnation of the rich (they weren’t reading this letter), James is saying God sees us, the oppressed, and sees the injustices we’re facing. We don’t need to seek revenge; God’s on our side already in the midst of our oppression.
Our encouragement comes next:
“Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.”
This isn’t the time to give up. It’s the time to stay the course. That begs the question,
What’s “the course”?
Advice in James is about putting feet to our faith to help us make it through our struggles. The question isn’t “how do I know I’m a child of God?” Instead, the question is, “how do I survive when it seems like everything and everyone is against me?”
The answer James gives is to lean on your spiritual siblings. Encourage each other. Be gentle with each other. Practice mercy Treat each other with dignity and honor. Don’t bad mouth each other – we’ve got enough of that from our oppressors.
James, or “James the Just” as he was known back then, said that mercy triumphs over judgment. Let’s practice that together.
Our strength from God comes from and through our spiritual siblings – people experiencing the same pain, the same fear, and the same injustices. Today, let’s think about how we can strengthen each other in love, mercy, and kindness.
Finally, the silver bullet in James, that many of us have heard and read so often:
” What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it?”
James wants us to know that acts of mercy, kindness and love can save us during times of trial – and I believe the trials we face today are prime examples of what James had in mind when he wrote this message.