St James. The name James seems to have linguistic links with Jacob. I think that we may have the baptism of a little boy called Jacob later in the year. Then, we had better not dwell on the fact that, in the Bible, Jacob was crafty. Eventually he was renamed Israel and had 12 sons, with the help of two wives and two other ladies. Jacob might not be altogether a role model for the little fellow! However, Jacob’s sons headed up the 12 tribes of Israel, and when Jesus founded his group of followers – the New Israel – he seemed to want it built on 12 apostles. 

St James the Great, then, a prominent member of the twelve. He and his brother John were – like several of the others – fishermen. Two others were the brothers Simon, whom Jesus called Peter, and Andrew, who originally brought Peter to meet Jesus. You might be a bit sad for Andrew, because his brother Simon Peter became the most prominent in the 12, the other fishing brothers, James and John, formed an inner group with Peter, and Andrew was left out of that. The inner group were at the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration, and on Maundy Thursday in Gethsemane. 

James and John, were hasty, and Jesus dubbed them ‘sons of thunder’. We see in our gospel that they, or their mother, - whichever account you read - had ambitions for them, and Jesus responds that Christian leadership is about sacrifice and service, not seeking status and power for yourself. 

Undoubtedly, as in our first reading from Acts, James was martyred, which is why, of course, our furnishings are red today. 

It can be tricky remembering the 12 apostles. They do not include important people like Luke the gentile missionary and major New Testament writer, or the great apostle Paul, whom Luke travelled with. There are even uncertainties about exactly who was in the 12, and we know little about some of them. 

Personally, I remember them in three groups of four. Firstly, the two lots of fishermen brothers. Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John. Secondly, the two less prominent pairs, who have to share their feast day. We don’t know very much about them. That is Philip and James the Less and another Simon, not Simon Peter, and Jude. It seems that this James is called The Less not to detract from him, but because he was younger or smaller. Then we have the third group, the four who are left. Matthew and Bartholomew and Thomas and…. Judas. Apart from Bartholomew, who seemed OK, that group had the more controversial ones, Thomas, Matthew, and Judas. Judas who messed up.

The Church knew that Jesus was keen to have 12, to lead his New Israel, so – you remember – they carefully designated Matthias to make up the number, when Judas had gone. 

Some years ago I showed my puzzle to the children. It went a bit like a lead balloon. You have 12 triangles of card each with the name of an apostle. They have symbols to prompt you to sort them out into the three groups. Each group of four would fit together to make a little star. You can envisage the fishermen brothers having something in common, fitting together. The four less prominent apostles might have hit it off together. The other group would be lively, with Matthew, the ex-tax collector being rather suspect, Thomas doing rather a lot of thinking for himself, Judas getting things wrong, and Bartholomew trying to make sense of them.

Yet Jesus did not call them to make three groups, but one. And the pieces of the puzzle will go on to form one big star. Jesus will put us in his Church, not just with those we would have initially chosen, but with those he gives us, in the hope we might all benefit in the end. 

What happened to St James is a good question. He was killed in 44AD in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa, as in the first reading today. An Armenian Cathedral in Jerusalem claims to have his head buried there, which seems reasonable. 

By the year 700, - a great deal later,-  the idea got around that James had preached as a missionary in Spain, before he was executed back in Jerusalem in the year 44. But he Church, on the whole, had not got as far as Spain by the time James died. St Paul doesn’t seem to have thought so, so it remains doubtful that James did visit Spain in those early years, before he was killed. The stories further say, that after his execution, James’s body got back to Spain by rather miraculous means, and is at Compostela, which – as we know – is a major pilgrimage site. 

But focusing on God whilst making a special big effort to travel on a pilgrimage with others is no doubt a worthwhile thing to do, whether or not human remains are there. God is there. 

St James was certainly there, in the Holy Land, chosen to be with Jesus, and then with the Church for well over a decade after the crucifixion, before he himself was executed. So it is right that we remember James.