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ANOTHER LOOK AT FAITH AND WORKS
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? (James 2:14)
On the strength of over 40 years in pastoral ministry, I would like to make an affirmation this morning which I have come to believe to be true, as heretical as it may sound on first hearing. It is this: The doctrine of justification by faith alone, as critically important as it is, is not psychologically sufficient for our peace of mind. Let me give you a single instance why I believe this to be true. In a previous church I made a pastoral call on a wonderful woman who was nearing the end of her life. Let me just tell you a little bit about Rosie! She taught a Sunday School class for about 20 years on Presbyterian history and doctrines which was very popular; sang in the choir, served meals to the hungry at a downtown shelter, assisted homeless in their transition to living in the shelter, was an Elder and a Deacon, and moderated a circle for PW, Presbyterian Women. Here at the end of her life she made a statement to me which I found astounding. She said, "I hope, Jack, that I have done enough of the right things that God will let me into heaven!" As I recall, I responded by saying, "Rosie, if God won't let you into heaven, then we are all in big time trouble." Here was a gal who had taught the Presbyterian understanding of justification by faith, but at the end wasn't exactly sure if her works had been sufficient. At her bedside I almost launched into a mini spiel to the effect that we are made righteous (acceptable to God) through faith alone, but of course that was clearly not the time or place. The point is, no matter how secure we are in the belief that we are made right with God not by our works but by faith, psychologically we all want to know if what we have done with our life is enough.
Having said that, not for a moment would I minimize what our Presbyterian heritage has bequeathed to us, especially in the work of Reformers like Calvin and Luther, who freed up the Christian church from a joyless "works righteousness." The church at that time had interposed itself as a broker of God's grace. Indulgences which Roland Bainton describes as "the bingo of the 16th century," were rife in Luther's day.
"The just shall live by faith." This was the watchword of the Reformation. This conviction seized Martin Luther as an Augustinian monk when his studies for a doctorate took him deep into Paul's letters, especially Romans and Galatians, which were an answer to an even deeper problem, his anxiety about his own salvation. The routine of the religious life at his Augustinian monastery failed to bring him confidence and relief which led him at last to give up such of his regular religious duties as the daily celebration of Mass and the recital of the Divine Office. About the year 1512 came the so called "Turmer-lebnis," tower experience, when from Romans and Galatians he became convinced of the essence of the Gospel, namely that faith alone justifies without works, and gave him a belief destined to become the cornerstone of the Reformation.
This recovered truth fell on a less than excited Christendom like a long-awaited benediction. God is not some master computer keeping running accounts of our credits and debits. Rapture has attended the proclamation of this truth everywhere. To what can we compare this experience? It's like being lost, then found. It's like being in the darkest night and discovering light too bright for telling. It's like being in jail and suddenly released. It's like being dead and brought to life again. It's like being born a second time and finding all things new. The primacy of faith is what sets the carillon ringing in the NT. God be praised for any and all who have preserved that truth for our believing.
BUT, what I want to convey today is, that's not the whole story. The other half is, God wants us to live useful and productive lives. It falls primarily to the Epistle of James to make this counterpoint in the NT. "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?" Protestantism under the influence of Calvin and Luther has not dealt adequately with the point James makes here. Psychologically, in the end game, we all inwardly ask, did I do it well enough for God to wish me well at heaven's gate! The importance of seeing good works as good, and not antithetical to justification by faith alone, shows itself in a least two ways.
I am concerned that we give inordinate attention to how one becomes a Christian and insufficient attention to what one is to do once one is a Christian. Evangelical Christianity celebrates with ecstasy the entrance into the Christian life. It has a fixation at the starting gate. It is more interested in obstetrics than pediatrics or geriatrics! That is, it is more interested in how new life begins than how it matures or ages. It is fascinated more by the dynamics of guilt and forgiveness than the dynamics of command and obedience.
There are tens of thousands of Christians in this land who fully believe that they are justified by faith, but their behavior makes no commensurate difference in the ongoing life this world. Christianity is not primarily a decision but a life. God's purpose in forgiving us is to return to our true vocation as God's fellow workers here in God's good creation.
That's why I celebrate with you the mission dimension of this church; from Housing for New Hope to Transition House to Habitat for Humanity to Hurricane Disaster relief to Meals on Wheels to Mexico Mission trips to Durham Congregations in Actions, this church, in concert with other ecumenical agencies, cares! All the action isn't at the starting gate. It is a daily, life long way of being a Christian. Thank you Haywood, for steering us in the right direction!
I remember a cartoon that showed a returned Prodigal Son sitting down with his family to a sumptuous feast. The single tag line was given to the father: "Son, this is the third fatted calf we've killed for you, when are you going to settle down?" In Jesus' parable, when the Prodigal returned he wanted to work. "Make me as one of your hired servants." The father, however, received him back as a son. But can you imagine what would have happened to him, to his brother, to his father and to all the others, if he had simply gone around the farm shouting, "I'm back, I'm back." "So, you're back." In time he'd have to milk those cows, wouldn't he? Or press some olives. Or get the barley in! Redemption is tied to creation. It is not God's interest to simply collect souls out of the world, but to see the whole of life redeemed.
One last thought on this need to make room for works in our theological system. Every Sunday we offer together a prayer of confession, and then hear a word of forgiveness in the assurance of pardon. For years I have personally felt uncomfortable with this easy assurance of pardon, feeling that it boarders on what Bonheoffer called "cheap grace." What I'm saying here is that however adequate it may be theologically for us to confess our sins and be absolved by an assurance of pardon, it is seldom enough psychologically. Once again, with over 40 years in the pastorate, I'm convinced that when people confess some deeply troubling problem, or sin, they need something more than a word. They need to be directed to some course of action that will help to make things right. And, this may sound heretical to our Presbyterian ears, because it sounds like what our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters call Penance! But hear me out with just two examples.
Here is a man in his early fifties who is utterly thoughtless of his mother and careless of her welfare. While charging toward the top in his chosen profession he simply has no time for her. His mother dies. He is stricken with all kinds of remorse. The pastor can tell him to commit it all to God, forgiveness is verbally pronounced, so go on and forget it. But how about this? The pastor suggests that he ought to go out and adopt an elderly woman in his mother's place and be a son to her. Do you see anything wrong with that?
Or how about this, from a man at the top of the line? George Buttrick, for many years Senior Minister at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in NYC, who from there went to be the preacher at Harvard University, tells of a wealthy woman in his church in NY who by her own admission was a mean and quarrelsome and selfish women through most of her early and middle life. She confessed her wretchedness of soul. George Buttrick spoke the forgiving word but he also said to this woman, "I want you to find out which of our members are in the hospital, and I want you to visit every one of them, and, where possible, take them some flowers." She did it. She did it week after week and year after year until toward the end she was known as "the little lady of the hospitals." Do you see anything wrong with that?
We are not saved BY DEEDS. To be sure Paul and, later, the Reformers got that right. But we are saved FOR DEEDS. The Heidelberg Catechism, which I have come to love over the years, has three sections, the three G's. Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. Most of us certainly know what guilt is. And, I'm sure, we know what it is to experience grace. So then what? Then comes gratitude, doing good works and good deeds in order to express our thankfulness. That's where we come in! And, as Mark Jacobson would say, "for all the right reasons!"
The reformers had it right. As Luther put it:
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Where not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he, Lord Sabaoth his name;
From age to age the same, and he must win the battle.
And how is he going to win the battle? Through us!
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith, but do not have good works?
PRAYER
Dear God, help us to put it all together, lest in loving you we neglect our neighbor, or in meeting our neighbor's need, our faith in you falls short. Amen.