James Wednesday (Proper 11 Year 1)
Today’s assigned readings:
AM Jeremiah 16:14-21, Mark 1:14-20
PM Jeremiah 26:1-15, Matthew 10:16-32
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31
When I was last in NYC for church - five years ago? - this reading came up. I was visiting the church of St Mary Magdalen and Fr Yakov preached a sermon that opened with this image of comfort… “We’re worth more than sparrows.”
Of course, he said, we’re not talking pets here. Sparrows were sold, “two for a penny” on skewers, roasted over a fire.
Don’t worry: you’re worth more than snack food.
We all laughed kind of uncomfortably. It was Lent and it was the Sunday where on we commemorated St Mary of Egypt about whom are told so many stories that she gets three feast days. They are all in Lent… and the stories are all of an ascetic nature. We get needlessly hung up, I think, on asceticism: for some it can be the end all and be all of the faith. But I like the idea that we’re worth more than snack food because, today let’s face it: we blow a lot on snack food. And it means as much to us now as it ever did - yet we seem to value our snacks more than humans sometimes.
I’m mindful just now of how snippy I can be before caffeination. Or how grumpy I can be if I’m hungry. I know all the ways I can place “snacks” before people and I’m including as “snacks” any of the little indulgences I have - cigarettes, instant messages, cell phone calls. How many times do I place one of these sorts of things in front of flesh and blood people? I have to work very hard, when I’m talking to someone, to not be distracted by the computer. Even when I’m talking to my mother on the phone, I need to be reminded to get up from the computer and go sit down in the lawn chair - or else I shall soon be clicking on webpages and paying her no attention at all.
Other things come to mind: of placing doctrine and dogma before people - something even Jesus did not do. Of placing liturgical (etc) correctitude before people - something for which Jesus would have loudly condemned me. I’ve spent some part of the last few years thinking asceticism was more important than love. And I wonder if there is any hope at all.
Today we celebrate James the Apostle, “James, the Greater” as he is called. This is a different James than the one that wrote the Epistle, “the Brother of Jesus.” he’s considered one of the Twelve. They - like all of us - were sent out by Jesus with the same teaching: the Kingdom of God is among us. We are *all* worth more than snack food. That’s the message of this very human gospel: it’s so important that only humans can carry it out. God doesn’t stand on hill tops trumpeting this nor does she bellow in our individual ears. Rather 12 (and then other) humans are sent out with the entirely human message that, to borrow a paraphrase, “All you need is love.”
O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.