25 July 2021
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
On the feast day of St James the Greater, we came together at 10 am for a Parish Eucharist and for the first time in many months we had the joy of singing God's praises together as the congregation can now sing, and the choir was back to nearly full strength. What a wonderful sound to hear the church filled with voices raised! All this despite a very rainy day, much needed after the recent hot spell, but it did not dampen the enthusiasm, of the congregation, who remaining cautious continued to wear masks, use the hand sanitiser, and spread out over the pews in the church.
Father Roger was the celebrant, and in his sermon he talked about St James and the other Apostles and how as the gospel tells us working together is the way of the Kingdom, not looking for a position of authority.
The Choir sang the Alleluias of St James in the form of a communion hymn. The Sunday School has now finished for the summer. We were also treated to some beautiful flowers which had been part of the Wedding on Saturday.
Acts 11:27-12.2
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
One of them named Agabus stood up
and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world;
and this took place during the reign of Claudius.
The disciples determined that according to their ability,
each would send relief to the believers living in Judea;
this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
About that time King Herod laid violent hands
upon some who belonged to the church.
He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.
Matthew 20:20-28
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
The mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons,
and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him.
And he said to her,
“What do you want?”
She said to him,
“Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
But Jesus answered,
“You do not know what you are asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”
They said to him, “We are able.”
He said to them,
“You will indeed drink my cup,
but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant,
but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers.
But Jesus called them to him and said,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their great ones are tyrants over them.
It will not be so among you;
but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave;
just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Collect
Merciful God,
whose holy apostle Saint James,
leaving his father and all that he had,
was obedient to the calling of your Son Jesus Christ
and followed him even unto death:
help us, forsaking the false attractions of the world,,
to be ready at all times to answer your call without delay;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Sermon
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.
Fr Roger
