FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD

Sermon for 24th Sunday of the Year, cycle B, Sep 13-14, 1997

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

Isaiah 50: 4-9

Psalm 116: 1-9

James 2: 14-18

Mark 8: 27-35

Is there anybody here who doesn’t know how to swim? Living here in Florida, with the ocean and the river, and every other house with a swimming pool, we’d think it pretty unusual not to know how to swim. But there are millions of people who don’t. Many of them have never been near enough water to even try. Pretend you’re one of those people. The most water you’ve ever been in was in a bathtub. Now you decide you want to learn to swim, but the only pool available is ten feet deep everywhere; there is no shallow end. I think you’d be a little reluctant to just dive in.

I could tell you that the water would support you, that you would float. I could show you in an encyclopedia that the density of the human body is ever so slightly less than that of water. I could explain Bernoulli’s laws and Pascal’s laws, and Archimedes’ principle, so that you would become intellectually convinced that your body would float. ... Now are you going to jump in? Probably not. You believe me when I tell you that you can float. But you’re not ready to act on it yet.

You can tell me that you have absolute faith in what I have told you. You can quote back to me all the scientific details. You can study books on swimming, and quote them back to me word for word, chapter and verse. You can tell me how much you love swimming. But until you get wet, it doesn’t mean a thing. Faith without works is dead.

That’s what James says in the Epistle. And this passage from scripture is probably the most controversial in the whole Bible. So much so that Martin Luther considered throwing the whole book of James out of the Bible. He didn’t, of course, for which all Protestants can be thankful. There was nothing wrong with what James said. But there was a great deal wrong with what the church of the 16th century did. When he was still a Roman Catholic priest, Luther had people coming to him for confession who weren’t the least bit sorry for their sins. They had in their possession written indulgences which they had purchased, wiping away the penalty for their sins, and they expected Luther to give them absolution. In some cases, they hadn’t even committed the sin yet, but were on their way to do so. They had purchased a license to sin. In the medievel church, you had to work your way into heaven. But if you couldn’t do that, you could always buy your way in. It’s no wonder the Reformation happened. The split in the church, though sad, was used by God to bring about the reforms sought by Luther. The sale of indulgences was banned by the Council of Trent. Other reforms were made at Vatican II. Almost all of what Luther asked for has come about in the Roman Catholic Church. Today, we are on the verge of a new reformation, not just in the Roman Catholic Church, but throughout Christianity. And once again, it will come about because of the descent of the church into legalism.

You can’t work your way into heaven. And you can’t sin your way into hell. That’s what Luther was really worried about. He was a very devout, pious monk. But no matter how he mortified himself, he could not achieve perfection; he could not escape sinfulness; he could not make himself worthy of God and heaven. Finally, he saw in the Bible the truth that he didn’t have to. Christ had done it for him. Christ covers his imperfection with perfection. Suddenly he felt as if he had been born again.

In the first centuries of the church, there was no such thing as Confession. Once you were baptized and received the Holy Spirit, that was it. You were saved. Eventually, some Christians fell into apostasy. They denied Christ and swore allegiance to the Emperor and the Roman gods. Then some had second thoughts and came back. What was the church to do with them? They couldn’t be baptized all over again. So the early church invented a procedure of public confession and penance, followed by reconciliation. Gradually this procedure came to be used for other sins, such as murder. Centuries later, the church is requiring you to go to confession all the time. The list of mortal sins grew and grew until nobody could ever be sure if they were in the "state of grace." Nobody was sure of their salvation. That’s not what Jesus intended. Nobody is going to be cut off from the Body of Christ, separated from the grace of God, and be cast into hell because they masturbated, or had an impure thought, or swiped paper clips from the office. That simply is not the same as publicly renouncing God and starting to worship Baal or Jupiter.

Now some churches multiply rules: you can’t drink, you can’t smoke, you can’t go to movies, you can’t dance, you can’t wear makeup, ... But others take Luther’s realization to mean that, "Now that I’m a Christian and recited the magic words, I’ve got it made, and it doesn’t matter what I do. I can be as mean and nasty as I want. I’m saved." Have you ever met anyone like that? ... Uh-huh, I have too.

And of course, that’s not right either. This is where the words of James are so important. Faith without works is dead. It’s not enough to learn about swimming from a book and recite the swimmers creed. You have to go in the water.

As Christians, we are freed from the law and the petty rules and legalisms. As Paul says, "The law kills, but the Spirit gives life." ... New life. So if we are Christians, then we will exhibit the fruits of the Holy spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

But this doesn’t happen just because we say we believe in Jesus. Our faith is a free unmerited gift of God; but it’s not magic. We must accept God’s grace, and let it work in us. It’s not enough to say we believe in Jesus. We must accept him as our Lord and Savior and Master. That means committing our lives to him. It means committing to following his example, as best we can.

Christianity is not a book. It’s not a set of rules. It’s more like a swimming pool. It’s not enough to sit on the side and think about it. You have to jump in feet first. Let yourself be immersed in it. Let God’s love flow around you and cover you and support you and buoy you up. Then your faith will be a living faith. And it will change you. Oh, you won’t be perfect. But you won’t have to worry about it. And as the Spirit works in you, you will find that you’re much closer to that elusive perfection than you ever were before.

Maybe you’ve always had it. Maybe you have that peace which passes all understanding, that comes from knowing that you are in God’s hands, and that nothing can separate you from his love.

But if you’ve never had that feeling. If you’ve never really committed yourself to Christ, I invite you to do so now.

Let us pray:

Lord, we know that faith is more than believing in you; it’s committing to you. We’re ready to do that now. We’re tired of being poolside Christians. We want to jump in. We want to be cleansed by you, refreshed by you, buoyed up by you, made new by you. Feet first, head first, heart first, jackknife, double somersault, we’re coming in, Lord. ... Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the waters of baptism. Thank you for the waters of life. You are the living water. Thank you for immersing us in your love. We will never be the same again!

And all God’s people said, "Amen!"

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