Faith without Works Is Dead

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, September 8, 2024
James 2:1-17

    For several decades now, my parents have had two peach trees in their backyard.  Omaha, Nebraska is about as far north as peaches can grow, and because of this, their average peach tree lifespan is maybe 10-15 years – not long.  Last year was a good peach season, but a strong windstorm split the older peach tree’s trunk almost in half, heavy-laden with underripe fruit.  My dad creatively set up a kind of splint-stand to keep the branches alive for a few more weeks until the peaches were ripe.  It worked! The tree hung in there to produce delicious, juicy peaches, but then pretty quickly after the peach harvest, the leaves started withering on the branches and one whole side of the tree was kind of black and dry.  It was time to dig up that peach tree and plant a new one.
    In our second reading for today, James infamously writes, “Faith without works is dead.”  I’m not much of a gardener and certainly no arborist, but I could tell that peach tree was dead when I visited in the aftermath.  As we begin fall in just a few weeks, gardens will go fallow, fruits and vegetables will stop producing, deciduous trees’ leaves will turn from green to the beautiful autumn colors of red, orange, yellow, and brown and then fall to the ground, leaving the branches bare.  When it comes to plants and even animals, we know what dead looks like, but what does a dead faith look like?  James paints a picture for us in the second chapter of his letter today.
    Now, first a caveat:  even people who don’t know much about Martin Luther may know that he did not like the letter of James.  He notoriously called it an “epistle of straw.” As the Reformers were assembling this new Protestant Church in the 1500s, he argued that the letter of James should not be included in the canon of the New Testament – an argument he did not win.  His reasons for this were that James hardly mentions Jesus Christ and does not include anything explicitly about Jesus’ death and resurrection (the core of the gospel).  Then, there’s the sticking point of this little verse, James 2:17, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  Lutheranism at its core is anti-works; we are radically reliant on God’s grace alone, not good works, for our salvation.  It is God in Jesus Christ who saves us, not the good that we do.  We do not get into heaven by being good people.  Martin Luther felt that James contradicted this belief here in our passage for today.  However, many Lutherans have reclaimed the letter of James in more recent years because if we read it in context, like we have today, we see that James is not talking about doing good works get into heaven, but to practice what we preach, to be a positive witness to Christ through our actions.  In fact, the tagline of the ELCA, our denomination, is “God’s Work, Our Hands.”  I think THIS is what James is encouraging us to do in his letter here – not to save ourselves by doing good, but to do God’s work with our hands and bear fruit with a living, not a dead, faith, for the sake of Christ.
So, what does a dead faith look like?  Well, James illustrates a dead faith with a few examples:  when we practice favoritism by essentially upgrading some wealthy-looking people to “first-class” in our church while ignoring or dismissing others who appear poor or dirty.  We say every Sunday, “All are welcome…” but are ALL truly welcome?  James continues the illustrations of dead faith:  when we fail to love our neighbors as ourselves.  When we break one commandment and think it’s not as bad as breaking a different commandment.  When we say empty words to people who are in desperate need “Go in peace:  Keep warm and eat your fill!” but do nothing to provide clothing, shelter, and food to those who need it.  When we essentially ignore the responsibility we have to be the partial answer to our prayers for others.  This is what dead faith looks like – we are not walking the walk but just talking the talk, paying lip service to others and to God.  Like a broken, old peach tree, we are not bearing fruit by sharing God’s love in word and deed and witnessing to the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
But of course, there’s also a more hopeful question, “What does a living faith look like?”  My dad managed to help salvage that old peach tree to keep bearing good, ripe fruit until it couldn’t anymore.  In John 10, Jesus tells us he is the vine and we are the branches.  The image of our faith lives can be like a tree – maybe we recognize in ourselves times when we could have been more welcoming and less judgmental of others in or outside of church.  Certainly, we know there have been times we’ve minimized breaking a commandment or failed to love our neighbor as ourself.  Our faith has been dead – without good works – at times.  This is true for every single one of us.  This is why we need Jesus.  Thanks be to God, even James the guy who emphasizes good works says today in 2:13 that “mercy triumphs over judgment.”  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s mercy triumphs over the judgment of the ways in which our faith is dead.
If we acknowledge we all have a dead faith branch or two to remove in our lives, what are the branches of our faith lives that are bearing fruit?  How are we doing God’s work with our hands?  The beginning of fall activities is another kind of “new year’s resolution” opportunity for us to think about how to live out our faith in positive ways and bear fruit.  Teaching Sunday School or being a parent, grandparent, or godparent.  Giving generously to help people in need.  Volunteering time to serve our community.  Being a listening ear with an encouraging word and prayer for someone going through hard time.  We are here today because we want our faith to be living and active, just like our God!  In our gospel for today, Jesus is not afraid to get his hands dirty.  He puts his fingers in the man’s ears, spits, and touches his tongue.  It’s kind of gross, actually.  Jesus does not just have nice, pious but empty words, Jesus is God’s Word in action.  Jesus heals the rich, the poor, the outcast, the Syrophoenician as well as the Gentile and Jew.  And during this particular healing, he says, “Be opened.”  The healing mercy of God through Jesus Christ opens us to others. It opens us to a living faith where we can actually see the Holy Spirit working through us.  A living faith opens us to see how and where God might be leading us to do God’s work with our hands.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.