Daily Devotion The Feast of St. James Psalm 34:3 “Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt his Name together.” I often wonder just how much scripture that the followers of Jesus knew by heart. I don’t know, did they have Jewish Youth Leagues that would spend the Sabbath night trying to outdo one another with peppy one liners from the Torah? Did they get their heads together and figure out exactly which verse would convince someone that Yahweh was indeed the one and only true God? I don’t know, but I wonder. The gospel lesson appointed for this Feast of St. James, the Greater, is from Mark. Now Mark’s narrative is sparse at the beginning. Jesus just sort of appears on the scene. Johnny B does some prep work, Jesus shows up, gets baptized, tempted, and then, BOOM, he starts telling folk in the Galilee Region that the time is now, “the kingdom of God has come near” and they better get right with the Lord. Then he calls the first four disciples, Simon and Andrew, James and John. James came from a better than well off family of commercial fishermen. We know that because Mark tells us that they had a hired hand in the boat. That meant that their enterprise was exceptional. I suppose that the money was good and they led a moderately comfortable life away from the boat. This is all conjecture on my part but how could they have hired a helper if this was not true given the culture and situation of the times. Yet along comes Jesus, who doesn’t have much of set-up in Mark, who calls out to James and his brother and they just drop what they are doing and walk away from the family business. I wonder how much scripture they, James, knew. I wonder what it was about Jesus that prompter such a radical answer to a preposterous invitation. I know, Jesus Son of God and all of that, but they didn’t know that. In fact “messiahs” seemed to be a dime-a-dozen during the era of Jesus. Maybe it was God. Maybe this piece of the psalms wafted through James’ subconscious and he just knew that Jesus was the real deal. Whatever the case, James followed and we remember him today. We remember James because he answered the call of Jesus to follow without any reservation. James was part of what has been called the “inner circle” of Jesus. Because, among other things, he and James and John were there on the Transfiguration Mountain, along with The Prophet and the Law Giver, where Jesus was transfigured and they were transformed. Yet even then James was only human. In spite of that event he asks Jesus to let him be at his side, “in your glory”. Human, just like me and just like you. James reminds us that we are called to follow Jesus with all of our faults and weaknesses and human proclivities. James is a shining example of how God uses what we have and who we are to let folk know that “the kingdom of God come near”. Where are you today? Are you in your “boat” fiddling with the nets? Listen closely. Can you hear the Master calling your name to get up and follow him? Can you hear verse 3 of the 34th Psalm flowing through your head? What will be your answer? Jesus is waiting. Peace, Fr. Reid
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 12:27:09 +0000
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