Claire…ification – Wisdom from the Book of James

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Session 3 (of 8) of the Two Year Academy for Spiritual Formation. “The Academy for Spiritual Formation creates transformative space to be in communion with God, self, others, and creation for the sake of the world.” It is intended for those who hunger for deep spiritual experience. And it delivers on all of the above. While we are gathered each time, in addition to prayer, silence, liturgy and rest, we spend time in study, always having two faculty members who teach us. This time one of our topics was New Testament Spirituality and Luke Timothy Johnson, our presenter, helped us take an in-depth look at the book of James. Here are a few of the notes I took:

¨ James is a book of wisdom. Wisdom is not about learning things; it has more to do with insight and acting on that insight.

¨ The New Testament compositions were intended to be read out loud and we are called to hear it not only for ourselves personally but also to hear what is being said to us as a community of faith.

¨ James is likely the brother of Jesus and probably is the one who wrote it.

¨ New believers should begin with the Gospel of Luke and then James.

¨ James writes from the perspective of the poor and oppressed people, making it unique. Chapter one is an outline, summarizing the contents of the book. The rest of the book includes short essays about different topics.

¨ James echos Jesus in several instances and is writing as one of the participants in the Jesus movement.

¨ James is a moral teacher. He’s interested in people changing their lives. He’s about doing things and is opposing talk with no action. We are not called to action to become saved; we are called to action coming out of our faith.

¨ If you don’t know how to pray, you may not get what you ask for. We need to pray with the right mindset, taking on the heart of God as demonstrated by Jesus.

¨ A classic image is the mirror. When we get angry, we should hold up a mirror and see what we look like. We need to self reflect.

¨ We are called to consider whether we can control our speech, or not! If we say that we are religious and all we do is blabber, then we are deceiving ourselves.

¨ Envy is the basis of all violence, war, and murder. Envy drives the world.

¨ The more we have, the more we have; the less we have, the more we are.

¨ When James talks about the world, it’s not God’s world, it’s the one we have created by our own voices.

¨ The word translated as “adulterers” means people who have broken covenant with God who are acting out of the logic of the world, not out of the logic of God. You have made yourself alien with God.

¨ James is writing not to people who are the worst people in the world, he’s writing to those who want to be friends with God and the world.

¨ James is talking to double minded people. We are not called to be double minded, we are called to view the world the way God does.

¨ If you discriminate, you are double minded. You are trying to be a Christian and you are loving the way of the world. You can’t do both.

¨ We need to speak and then act like people who want to be judged by our actions.

¨ Silence is a good thing. If you can’t be silent, be brief.

¨ Talking too much is associated with foolishness, drunkenness and/or old age. Wise people have control over their speech.

¨ How we use our possessions, envy and speech are key topics in James. Speech can be an instrument of envy.

¨ It’s important to do more listening than talking.

¨ James is concerned with people like us…Christians who talk. We are to walk it. We can’t be double-minded. We can’t pick and choose. This is not about works of the law. It’s about talking the talk and walking the walk. Profession is easy; living out our profession is what we are called to do.

For reflection:
Read the book of James, one chapter a day with an openness to what God might be saying to you and to the community of faith that you are apart of.

Peace y’all,