Day 79: Christian Wisdom

Here's a little secret:  Lutherans are not supposed to like the book of James, much.  It might be because the author seems to be arguing with the apostle Paul (someone Lutherans really love) regarding salvation by faith alone.  The author of James (and some people think he might have been James, the brother of Jesus) seems to be picking a fight with Paul, saying "Oh yeah?  Faith alone?  I say faith plus works!  Faith without works is DEAD!"

But the argument is overstated, I think.  If we think of faith the way Luther (and Paul) did, faith in Christ Jesus is what raises us from the dead.  And, people who are alive do things.  They act.  Because they are alive.  But the works do not save us.  They are just what we do because we are alive.

At least, that's what Paul would say.

Even though I'm Lutheran, and even though I'll grant that the book of James wouldn't be the one book of the Bible I'd take with me if I could only take one book, I still harbor a sort of fondness for it.  Maybe it's the picture James paints of the poor man and the rich man entering the church, and people fawning all over the rich man, and James saying, "Don't play favorites!"  Or maybe it's the image James paints of a poor beggar with his cup out, and people saying, "God bless you!" to the beggar, but not giving him a penny, or a sandwich or a coat to keep him warm.

Maybe it's the wise sayings about the power of the tongue (I've always liked those), or the advice about what to do if someone in your congregation is sick.

I think of James as Christian wisdom literature.  It's full of true sayings for how to live in Christian community.

Another scholar once told me that James is an example of the survival of the minority opinion in the church.  It's a small peek into what the piety of the Jewish Christian believers might have looked like.  We don't have much of their wisdom in the New Testament, but we have this letter.

So, what do you think of the letter of James?   Do you agree with Luther, that it is an "epistle of straw"? (which was not a compliment).  Or do you harbor a fondness?  If so, why?

Day 53: Wisdom and Foolishness, an Inside Look at a Real Congregation

I like the first letter to the Corinthians.  I think one of the reasons that I like it is that it's very clear, in this letter, that Paul knows these people, that Paul knows this congregation, and that he is responding to very specific issues that have arisen in the community.  Even though it's helpful to read background notes about the people in Corinth, you can figure out some of what is going on without doing any background reading, because you can just tell from the kinds of things Paul is talking about.  It's like reading other people's mail, something of course no one should do, but something perhaps we are tempted to do on occasion, just out of curiosity.

So, what's going on in Corinth?

People are fighting, for one thing.  People are playing  favorites, jockeying for position, saying "I'm a better Christian than you are because such-and-such baptized me."  There are factions based on leadership, and who is the best public speaker (possibly Apollos) or who is the best looking or who is the most "spiritual."

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

As the letter to the Corinthians goes on, we'll find out that the arguing and the factions and the one-upmanship is just the tip of the iceberg.  There many other things going on in Corinth.  It makes you wonder how Paul can keep his temper, because, one of the things people are questioning is whether Paul is such a great apostle after all.  They've had some flashier preachers come in since Paul left, and they've been wowing the crowds and telling them some different things....

All right, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Just for now, we're dealing with the church conflicts, and the arguing.

And Paul uses the occasion to do some great preaching about foolishness and wisdom, about how sometimes the things that look the most foolish are really wise (like the death of Jesus on the cross) and how sometimes the things that look wise to us are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Now while I am attracted to Paul's paradox about wisdom and foolishness, I need to say that I don't think Paul is advocating a sort of "know-nothing-ism."  I don't think that foolishness is the same as ignorance, or that he is advocating being stupid.  I think the wisdom that he is speaking of is a sort of "wisdom of the world", the sort of "if you are rich it must be because you are the smartest person in the world", or "the people who speak fluently are the ones we ought to trust" -- that sort of wisdom that looks at the surface of things and makes judgments.   If it is that sort of wisdom we are looking for, it certain is foolishness to follow Jesus, the one who was crucified, and everyone knows it.  We also believe that he was raised, but NOT everyone knows that.

In particular, Paul is interested in reminding them that when he came among them, all he preached and all he wanted them to know was "Christ crucified."  That was it.  No fancy words.  No secrets of the ages.  Just "Christ crucified", (not even Christ resurrected!) equally confounding to Jews and Gentiles, but powerful and wise to those who heard.

It makes me wonder, in church conflicts today, what would be the results if we began and ended with "Christ crucified."  If we decided to know nothing with each other but this:  "Christ and him crucified",  what would that mean?  If we looked at each other and saw people for whom Christ died, people in whom (by grace) Christ lives, what would that mean?

Would it make any difference?