Beginning James

City Church is starting a new sermon series on Sundays in the book of James. Those without church background will probably have the advantage in understanding this book because there is less unlearning to do.

For those of us with strong evangelical background, we may face a lot of triggers in James because of how it was forced into our Western, European-centric, “I think therefore I am” sort of systematized theology that really distorts the earthiness and practical nature of the book. For James, the core saying might be something like, “I do - therefore I believe.” And it’s far more communal in nature than most American churches emphasize. Ultimately, it’s more about orthopraxy than orthodoxy - living faithfully to Jesus instead of checking off the right ‘I believe’ statements.

James is in line with many Christian leaders today, who are urging us to move back towards practical concerns, toward an embodied faith that shows up in our actual lives together.

He starts off with these simple words: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings (James 1:1).

He doesn’t overstate his case - even though he could have said, “I was the frickin’ biological brother to Jesus! - he does not do so. Just a servant. And he’s writing to those early Jewish Christians who were scattered because of political events in Jerusalem around the time of the stoning of Stephen in Acts 9. He’s writing to real people with real culture with real issues (we’ll be unpacking those in the next few days) and he’s writing as a real person himself.

Do you give more time to fitting your beliefs together neat and clean or to working out what it means to follow Jesus in your daily life? And what in your life this week is one very practical issue that you’d like to wrestle with how to respond to more like Christ? Take these things before God.