Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.

Welcome. My name is Jeremy, and it's always great to have you here with us. If you're here for the first time, then really great to meet you. But if you're joining us online as well, as most people are during the season, then we wanna welcome you here as well. It means a lot that you continue to journey with us in all of these different ways through this season.

We really don't take that for granted. So thank you. That said, today or last week we also wrapped up a series on Jesus' parables of the kingdom. And if I can just say for a moment, thank you for that. I love teaching through parables.

I think Jesus is just so incredibly creative and fascinating, particular when he's telling stories. And so every time I get a chance to come back to the parables, I love that opportunity because I always uncover new ways to think about these tales. And I just think the layers of meaning that Jesus builds into the parables are really remarkable. In fact, I think it's the layers that make the parables so beautiful. Jesus always has this very simple yet profound truth that we can grab a hold of on the surface of the story, and then there's always something to dig into below the surface that we can uncover if we dig into it.

And in fact, one of the parables that we looked at in the series was the parable of the treasure buried in the field. A story about the idea that the kingdom is buried right in front of us all the time if only we're willing to search. And so hopefully, in that series, we were able to give you some new ways to think about the parables, but also new ways to image the kingdom of God. So every time we cast seed indiscriminately like God, Every time we invest in everyone regardless of ROI, we image heaven on earth. Every time we tend to the weeds, and every time we trust that something beautiful can grow regardless of what we expect or see, we image heaven on earth.

Every time we believe that big things grow from small gestures and we set aside our pride for expansive welcome, every time we look for treasure around us and then trust that treasure is out there looking for us, Every time we become aware of God's hand moving through the world, scooping up everything, gathering up creation in order to be healed and saved and sorted, we image the kingdom of God in the earth. And when this happens, Jesus says, those of us who thought that we were teachers find out we are students and we find ourselves discovering truths both new and old to continue to learn from. And all of that comes from one remarkable sermon that Jesus gives us all of it in Matthew 13. So that was a lot of fun to work our way through to start the season. Today though, we are starting a new series.

It's one that will take us through to Advent. If you can believe it, we're talking about Christmas already. But this new series is called Faith at Work. And it's not about faith in your workplace. There is however, a theology of work course that we offer that talks through ideas around workplace and career and calling.

Scott teaches that and you can keep your eyes open for the next time it pops up on our schedule. Right now, Scott is wrapping up our bible roadmap course and in November, he'll be starting our Jesus centered theology course. So you can sign up for that right now at commons.life. These are short four week courses that dive into a particular topic and they run live here at the building, but they're also available live online if that's a better way for you to join. And honestly, they're fantastic, so you should sign up right now.

However, this series that we're about to begin today is not about any of that. It's not about career and work. It's all about the book of James. The reason that we've called this series Faith at Work is because the book of James is famous for being pretty into the work of faith. All the things that we do, the way that we live because of who we trust.

And Christianity has always had this sort of tension between believing and doing. Are we Christians because of what we think? Are we Christians because of the way that we live? How does the relationship between those two things work? And can you do something without believing it?

Can you believe something if you don't do it? Both are important. Does it really matter which one comes first for us? Well, in two thousand years now of Christianity, we still have not really figured this one out exactly. However, there was this guy Martin Luther who started the Protestant Reformation back in the fifteenth century.

He's why we have Lutherans around today. But he was pretty solidly on the believing matters most side. And to be fair, he had some pretty good points. Church in his day was literally out there trying to convince people they could buy their way into heaven at that point, so not cool. But it also meant that as Luther was out there trying to reorient the church, he also found himself not a particularly big fan of this book and even famously called James an epistle of straw.

Now the rumor is that James wanted or Luther wanted James kicked out of the Bible. That's not entirely true. Luther advocated for something more like demoting James to a second tier, sort of like a Bible b team if you will. And that might sound strange if you've never really considered that as a possibility, but in a lot of church traditions we already have something called the Apocrypha. It's a collection of books that have been traditionally considered not necessarily scripture, but also still incredibly helpful.

And even if we listen to the way the bible speaks about itself, we already have something like this going on. The writer of second Timothy says that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking so that all of us can be equipped to do good work. So everything in there is useful, but the Bible also declares that Jesus is the very word of God among us. So God has given us all kinds of words to help, to guide us, useful words that point us to Jesus, but the final word of God, capital w period at the end of it all, what we actually follow as Christians is Jesus. This is why in the Eastern Church whenever the gospels are read they get their own entrance.

This big procession where they are walked from the back of the room to the front of the church with all kinds of pomp and circumstance. Because they're reminding themselves that all scripture is sacred, but the stories of Jesus are the very center of our faith. So we have the bible that points us to Jesus and then we have Jesus, the word who reveals God to us. And interestingly, yes, Luther had some objections to James focus on doing good works, but actually if you read his critiques, one of his biggest complaints is that James doesn't talk enough specifically about Jesus. Now I'm gonna defend James here in this series.

I think that James actually gets Jesus in a really powerful way. A way that transcends name drops. But I do appreciate that what Luther was really pointing towards was the centrality of Jesus above all else for the Christian faith. Now over time Luther ended up dropping his objections to James. In the second printing of his bible translation, he dropped that epistle of straw insult.

But still, what is endlessly fascinating to me about all of this is that for a book that we almost took a punt on, most of church history has also accepted that this book was written by the brother of Jesus. And there's at least a little irony in coming along fifteen hundred years later and saying, look bro, you don't know Jesus the way that I do. Regardless, today, we need to look at who James was and what James did, and all of that will then set us up nicely for the rest of this series to come. First though, let's pray. Good and gracious God who is the object of our faith.

Would you be present today in our heart, in our minds, in our spirits as we speak and listen and read. As your grace takes root. And your imagination takes hold of us as your way in the world slowly becomes ours. Might all that we believe about the universe find expression in the way we live here in your world. Might we wrestle with big questions about what comes first and how our theology evolves, how to think more clearly about one who transcends all of our language.

But might all of that always come through in how we love each other. How we care for one another. How we express your grace in our homes and our neighborhood. Your faith come to work within us, to learn with us, to walk and play and sing and dance with us. More than anything, would our trust in you lead us to look like your son in the world.

To choose love and to put all that we believe to work today in our lives. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Okay. As I said today, we just are gonna dip our toes into this letter and talk about some of the background to James.

But to do that, we want to cover who James was, linguistic fluency, a few name drops, and finally family stories. But the thing is, I've already given away the punchline here. Right? Because most of church tradition has accepted that the writer of this letter was in fact the very brother of Jesus. Now my parents were in town this week.

It was amazing to see them. Because of COVID, this was their first chance that they have had to come and visit and meet our daughter that we adopted a couple years ago. You guys are watching. Love you mom and dad. But even with all the grandparents here in town, my son knew he was in fine form all week long.

And so he brought out some of his best material, all the classic jokes and that meant all of us had to play our parts. At one point, everyone gathered around the table and he said, grandpa, watch this. And he turned to me and he asked, hey dad, is your fridge running? Classic. Right?

So I said, hope not. Otherwise, I'd have to go catch it. And that did not go over well because I ruined the punch line here and therefore I was instructed to start all over again and this time say my lines properly. All this talk about ruining punchlines and arguing about responses and performing for the grandparents even, all of that is pretty fascinating to imagine within the context of the household Jesus grew up in. I mean, as a sibling.

Am I right? I've told you about some of the early church fan fiction that was written about Jesus' childhood. And we've always been pretty fascinated by what this must have been like. But try to imagine how fascinating it must have been to be a brother or sister of Jesus. Here's a couple photos of my daughter who is very interested in everything that her brother is doing these days which is absolutely the norm.

And then there's my son being mildly annoyed that this little person has invaded his bubble yet again. But try to imagine moments like these in Jesus childhood home. James locks his door and then Jesus just appears on the other side of it. And James says leave me alone and Jesus says I'm not touching you as he force chokes him. By the way, Jesus would not do that.

So forget I said it. I'm sorry. Anyway, these these questions about Jesus childhood have always been a source of speculation. Especially when we consider that one of his siblings actually wrote a letter we can read. Remember we don't have any direct writing from Jesus.

All we have are shared memories but his brother wrote something for us. So let's start there. Was James really the brother of Jesus? And there's actually a few ways we can break this question down. First of all, let's just start with the name James in the New Testament.

There are some wonderful James or James's if you prefer in there. There was a disciple named Judas, not the Judas who betrayed Jesus, another Judas and his dad's name was James. He gets dropped in Luke six. There's a James who was the son of Mary and the wife of Cleopas. He shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

He sometimes gets referred to as James the Lesser, which is just an awful nickname. Come on guys, you can do better than that. But then again, he's called the Lesser because that's all we know about him. He's comes up in a list once. There are two more James within the 12 disciples.

There's James the son of Elpheus and there's James the son of Zebedee. And now as far as the son of Elpheus goes, literally the only thing we know about him is that he shows up in a list of disciples. And James the son of Zebedee gets a lot more attention. Unfortunately though, he was executed by Herod Agrippa the first in Acts chapter 12. Which means he wasn't around by the time this letter was written.

And so that leaves James the brother of Jesus. And this James we read about in the gospels as well. Both Matthew and Mark record a story where the people are asking about Jesus and they say isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Sisters here with us now?

So from this we know that Jesus was actually one of at least seven kids. He's got four brothers and he's got at least two sisters and that sounds like a lot and frankly I mean it is. Rachel and I have learned now that two children is at least three times much work as one. I have no idea how the math works out for seven. I'm not sure I actually do want to know.

But seven children in the ancient world was sort of par for the ancient course. So not entirely surprising here. However, we also have a reference from Paul who writes in Galatians about his time in Jerusalem and he says, he saw none of the other apostles only James the Lord's brother. So we know Jesus had siblings. We know that James was one of them.

We know from John seven that there was a period at least when the brothers did not buy into the hype around Jesus. But we also know that by the time Paul has encountered the Christ at least one of those brothers James has become a leader. Paul even calls him an apostle in this early Jesus community. Unfortunately, what we can't say for sure is whether that James wrote this letter. Now it seems quite plausible considering how early this letter was adopted and considered authoritative in the church.

For example, Irenaeus is already quoting James in the second century. But scholars tend to line up in two camps here. Either one, the author is James the actual brother of Jesus or two, the author is someone claiming to write on behalf of James, the brother of Jesus. Those are basically the two hypotheses. And a quick note here on pseudonymous writing.

Today, if you were to write a letter and sign someone else's name at the bottom of that would not be cool. That would be considered deceptive and you should not do that. In the ancient world though, things were a little different. Writing in someone's name wasn't necessarily deceptive, it was often actually a way of honoring them. And it was a way for you to continue a mentor's work or even to show how much they had influenced you.

Think of it like an ancient form of citation. These aren't my ideas, I got them from James. So we shouldn't necessarily immediately throw the idea of a pseudonymous writer. It's not a problem for biblical consistency. It's not lying or cheating like it would be today.

It's certainly possible here in this situation. However, for a number of reasons, I'm not convinced that's what's going on here. And so we're gonna spend a little time looking at the three biggest questions about authorship and how I read them. And as we work our way through that, that's gonna give us a little bit of background on James as a person that then we can use for the rest of this series. Now, most common objection to the brother of James as the author of this letter is the very well written Greek of the letter.

It's not particularly poetic. It is pretty straightforward, but it's also grammatically clear and correct. So it's obviously written by someone who had a good grasp of the Greek language. And the objection here is that this could not possibly have been written by a brother of a carpenter from Nazareth. Now I'll grant that's a fair question, but the image of rural Jewish people in ancient Palestine is uneducated Hicks.

This probably has more to do with unoriented stereotypes in our own modern world than it does with the ancient world. Certainly, there was stigma attached to the rural areas of Judea. Remember that line from John one, can anything good come from Nazareth? So there was a certain snobbishness in the ancient world same as ours. However, if you've ever talked to a trades person about math or seen a framer work with fractions, you know that the skills we use the most daily are the ones that get developed.

In the ancient world, multiple languages were must. There was a saying in the Roman Empire, you learned Hebrew for worship, Aramaic for friendship, Greek for commerce, and Latin for politics. And if James comes from a family of carpenters that are doing business with a lot of different people across the area, the idea of developing a functional if straightforward grasp of Greek is actually not surprising at all. In fact, it was probably a necessary part of doing business in that world. And to be honest, our perception of ancient peoples as uneducated or unintelligent probably has more to do with our own arrogance than it actually does history.

Today, you and I we have access to millennia's of stored up human knowledge that's been passed down to us, but our brains are not functionally any bigger than they were at the dawn of civilization. So functional Greek isn't really an issue here. In fact, outside of Canada and The US today most of the world probably speaks multiple languages fluently. Far more common than we realize. It certainly has been throughout human history.

Okay. So next question. What about the introduction here? The letter begins this way. James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And some people have argued, well look if this is really the brother of Jesus wouldn't they almost certainly try to grab a little clout here by mentioning that? I mean who doesn't use the chance to name drop the Messiah in a letter? I met Nenshi once and I told everyone for a month. Except, what's interesting here is that one of the very few stories we have about Jesus family, one where his brothers are mentioned explicitly happens in Mark three. Now, we actually talked about this one back in the summer, but what's happening here is that the crowds are getting bigger and it's becoming a little uncomfortable for Jesus family.

He's getting a lot of attention and a little too famous for their liking. And so at one point while he's teaching they decide they want to pull him aside and tell him to chill. But they can't get his attention. And so one of the disciples flags him down and says look your brothers are here they want to talk to you. And Jesus says in front of the crowd, who are my brothers?

Here is my family everyone who does the will of God is my sibling. Now, pretty interesting moment, might betray some of the tension that we find later when John explains that the brothers don't buy into everything Jesus is saying about himself. But you can imagine, if James comes to finally see Jesus as Messiah after his death and resurrection, perhaps part of his awakening is also this embrace of the extended family Jesus invites us to consider with the kingdom. And look, family of origin is important to Jesus too. He goes out of his way to ensure that his mother is looked after before his death.

So he's not saying family doesn't matter. What he's saying here is that in the kingdom there is more to family than just household and blood. And personally, I actually think it's pretty neat that when James comes around to the idea of Jesus as part of that, he seems to embrace this generous expansive view of family as well. His voice, for whatever it's worth in the church, will be a of the way that he continues the way of Jesus in the world, not his proximity to power or his ability to name drop his way into influence in the church. Look, if there's a word for the church today, full of powerful pastors who build their platforms by patting each other on the back then I don't know what is beside this.

Because again if I'm being perfectly honest here, I know that most of the opportunities that I got early in my career came from being in the right places and knowing the right people, and I'm convinced that we can do all of that differently here at Commons and in the church. So no, I don't think it's a problem that James doesn't name drop his brother here. In fact, I think it's actually kind of profound. And I think the way that we follow Jesus should always be more important to us than how many times we use his name like a talisman. Oh, and by the way, if someone was trying to write a letter in the name of James they'd almost certainly want to mention that he was the brother of Jesus.

So I actually think that's one more in our favor here. Okay. Last one. Let's talk about the lack of Jesus in James. After all that's the one that initially sparked Martin Luther's ire.

And the truth is it is only this opening line and then one more time in James two one where Jesus is ever mentioned by name in this letter. Fact, James doesn't carry a lot of theology at all. Instead he focuses it on things like how we should talk to each other. How we should care for the least among us. How we should avoid showing favoritism and he even goes as far as to say that as far as he concerned, pure religion comes down to this.

To look after orphans and widows in their distress. That's all we need. And I wanna say two things about this. First, this idea that the kind of theological speculation that someone like Paul engages in, the kind of stuff that I really like. This wondering about how to make sense of God and how we image the divine in the world.

The idea that that type of work should be set over and against the practical outworking of our faith and how we care for each other. Not only is this a false dichotomy, I actually think it's honestly pretty unhealthy. Look, I love theology. And I love studying and writing and thinking about God. I am here for all of the books and lectures I can get my hands on.

But I am also under no illusions that when I am gone none of my words will be remembered. The only thing that will outlive you and I is the way that we love the people near us and we inspire more grace around us. And the fact that James comes to Jesus but expresses that primarily in his concern for neighbor says to me that, yeah, maybe James did less thinking about Jesus than Paul, but maybe he actually did see more of Jesus than most of us. And again I I love theology but I can't help but notice that even when I focus myself on the Jesus of the Gospels I find myself reminded of just how simple faith really is. Love God, love people, there's not much more to it than that.

And so here's the second thing that I think of when I reflect on the focus of James letter. We don't know a lot about Jesus' upbringing. Most of it as we've talked about is speculation after all. But there is a fairly big gap in the story that kinda screams at us. We know Jesus' father from the Christmas narratives, and we know Joseph is around when Jesus is a young boy in the temple.

But then after that, it's it's always Jesus' mother and brothers, his sisters that encircle him. On the cross Jesus is worried about his mother. Who's going to look after her and he tasks his disciples to that cause. And I wonder if like all of us James theology isn't really his biography. He's the younger brother in a family of eight, brothers and sisters, mother, and at some point, no dad around.

And he knows what it's like to miss that voice in his life, to struggle to get by, to look after his siblings and care for his mom, and eventually to trust his brother. And so for me, to see that kind of life, that story reflected in the way James talks about the way to care for widows and orphans like himself and his family, how he turns his faith toward community and compassion. How he comes to see maybe his own pain and frustration reflected back in his brother's advocacy for the poor. For me to imagine the way that James teaches us to trust Jesus being a reflection of the family and the story that he lived. That actually fills me with a profound hope for all of us.

Because here's the thing, our lives are more than just preamble to the moment we encounter Jesus. Our stories, everything that we live, everything that we experience, this is how we come to see and understand Jesus. And what I see in James when I read his letter is this reminder that maybe all of us can find our way to Jesus, but maybe when we get there, the way that we get there will be as unique and beautiful as the lives that we've lived. The Jesus we encounter will be a reflection of who we have been. Because all theology is biography.

And the fact that James reads Jesus differently than Paul is part of the reason that we actually need to hear voices like his in the church today. And thankfully, we've got four more weeks to do that in this series. Let's pray. God who comes to us in all of the very different ways that our lives have brought us to this moment. Who uses every experience and encounter, every moment of pain and frustration, and you build that into a story that looks like your son.

We really recognize that every choice that we've made, every encounter that we've had, every struggle that we have made our way through, and every victory, all of this you have been present near us and with us guiding and walking beside us. That in that moment when we encounter you, all of that reaches its fulfillment. Because how we see you will be a reflection of the life that we've lived. And it will be good and beautiful because you embrace it all. God as we move through this world.

One step closer to you trying to keep ourselves in step with spirit as it guides. Would you help us to look back on everything that has been to find the beauty and the learning in it so that we can face into every encounter, every person that we meet with more grace, more love, more acceptance for the journey they have found themselves on as well. God, may James invite us to think about you in new ways. And in that, may we truly learn what it means to love God and a neighbor. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.

Amen.