2 northern teams reported on radio yesterday..

As a spokesman for the league said, "it is an annual nightmare scoring this match – but at least they only play each other twice a year."

Well today we celebrate the festival of St James and Crawley Church is dedicated to James.

Preachers dread Patronal festivals-

everyone has been preaching about the same thing every year before them and its all been said OR

because like St Bot. you have to admit something like ‘of whom little is known’..

Unfortunately with James its different because we’ve got the cricketing Patel scenario again….Which James?

Among the Apostles were two of them…. James son of Zebedee,(today’s reading?) and another James the son of Alphaeus.

My NIV= James = deceiver – STAND UP ALL THOSE CALLED JAMES…" (But of course they won’t…!)

So 2 James in the circle of apostles-but like Chris. Tarrant ‘I don’t wanna give you them’

Instead I’m going to talk about yet another James – James the brother of Jesus…… ‘of whom, I have to say, not a lot is said in the gospels.’ A remarkable thing for a borther of Jesus, you might think!

But he is in the Bible – if you look in NT twixt Heb and 1 Peter… 5 pages the Epistle of James.

Martin Luther HATED the epistle of James and many other Christians tend to dismiss it rather contemptuously…. Or even say it flies in the face of true Christianity……Why?

The problem arises when people contrast what James seems to say with what Paul says.

• The letter of James seems to lay great stress on ‘GOOD WORKS’… on doing things rather than on just believing.
• No mention of Holy Spirit
• Nothing about Christ’s redemption of the world
• Only mentions Christ’s name twice.

Paul on the other hands stresses these things over and over.

Paul also says that we cannot achieve eternal life by our own hard work. Faith is more important.

The two viewpoints of James and Paul seem absolute opposites – so who was right? Well a lot of Christians through the ages have plumped for what Paul seems to say. That our own efforts are worthless and that its only through God’s grace that we are saved for eternal life; and that all we can do is believe in that fact. Have faith.

But actually there isn’t a conflict at all-because the two writers are using the words FAITH and WORKS in different ways.

When Paul says that ‘works’ are futile he is writing about people struggling to gain their own salvation by observing the religious niceties and laws. They have an ulterior motive- saving their skin.

James uses the word ‘works’ to describe the committed practice of Christian behaviour by an individual day by day- in other words a ‘faithful’ life. No ulterior motive other than living the way Christ intended.

Paul gets a bit heavy here. He is talking about being so attached to Christ that you are liberated or saved.

But when James in his letter warns of the limitations of faith HE means simply having a shallow, theoretical belief… rather as many of us know the Creed inside out. But do we really believe the words? Do we understand them? Do we even think about what we are saying? Do we LIVE the words?

In the bible we hear that even Jesus was powerless to heal and save where there was no faith.

So there is no real conflict in what James and Paul say. They both call us to a Christian life.

You’ve probably realised then that James takes a very realistic view of what day to day life as a Christian involves. He stresses that a lot of what goes on in our lives is our responsibility. Its no good blaming the devil or God when things go wrong, when really the fault lies within us and our attitudes. There ar4e things we can control.

He says firmly that God does not deliberately inflict temptation and suffering on us as a means of somehow testing or improving us. James rejects that idea out of hand…. And so should we

A vision that we have been given a glorious freedom by God,

A vision that God wants us to realise the very best in our lives,

A vision that we seek good friends; that we become good friends…

What does he mean by good friend? He says a good friend is someone you can confess to. Someone who is not judgmental. Someone willing to listen and share your deepest joys, your fears, your hopes. Someone who is open and honest… those are the words he would use today.

James’s little epistle is a little gem tucked away in the bible. A recipe for practical Christian living. And its as valid now as it was 2000 years ago. And although it is called an epistle, it is also a gospel-because gospel means Good News. And James IS good news if you read it with understanding and application to your own life as a Christian.

Amen