Saint James the Apostle
Saint James the Apostle
Saint James the Apostle
S. JAMES THE APOSTLE
Readings: Jeremiah 45: 1 -5; Acts 11:27- 12: 2; Matthew 20:20-28.
Jeremiah the prophet does not forget his friends. In this passage he is writing a word of support and encouragement to his faithful biographer, scribe and secretary Baruch who at this point is undergoing persecution at the hands of Jehoiakim. Baruch looks ahead and can see nothing but the certainty of more torture. Woe is me! Is this to be the reward for his years of faithful and honest service to the prophet? Like the disciples of Jesus he asks: What then shall we receive? (Mt. 19:27). Baruch doesn't go as far as James and John, but more of that later. Here he reveals his own soul, and here too Jeremiah reveals himself not just as a prophet to the nations, but also as a father-in-God, a guide and comforter to the tormented soul. It was a time of suffering for God himself who must destroy his own creation: ....for I am going to bring disaster upon all flesh. In the world we shall have tribulation, but God will keep and protect his own. Self-seeking must be renounced, but the way of sacrificial service will lead to the full life. That was the message to Baruch God will watch over him and he will not lose his reward. A message which remains gloriously true.
In the passage from Acts we find S. James the Apostle, whose life and witness we celebrate today, being killed by Herod. This was at the same time as a collection was being taken up as a gift from the Church in Antioch to the Jerusalem Church because of the approaching widespread famine. The years AD 46-48 were years of severe famine so we can assume that the death of James was most likely in 45 AD.. And why was he murdered by Herod? No particularly deep reason he found that it pleased the Jews, by which he probably meant the Sanhedrin and the leading Jewish businessmen. Many people today can easily be persuaded that unprincipled acts can be justified if it pleases the influential and wealthy.
And then we take a step back in time with the Gospel reading. The brothers, SS. James and John, with their mother Salome, approach Jesus. Salome kneels and asks Jesus to give these two disciples the most important places in the new kingdom. The sheer effrontery of it is surprising. But, was this a case of a mother's love and pride in her sons getting out of balance because there has to be balance in family loyalties and relationships too? Or did John and James put her up to it after all the Holy Tradition tells us that she was Jesus' aunt and so had some significance in the family: she would be listened to with due respect? This seems a little more likely because when Jesus responds he does not address her but James and John directly. But I do not want to deal with the rights and wrongs of the event, but rather let us see what this incident has to teach about prayer. When one thinks about this event it is clear that it is an illustration of prayer: a woman comes kneeling to ask Jesus for something. That is prayer. It is though the wrong kind of prayer it is a lesson in what prayer is not.
First, prayer is not bringing pressure to bear on God. Far too often we think it is, as SS. James and John thought it was, until they learned better. We think that if we can bring a lot of people together, the size of the group will have a bearing on its effectiveness like applying more prayer-pounds of pressure per square inch. And then there is what Jesus taught was a heathen approach to prayer. That is, thinking that God will be worn down to grant our wishes if we increase, not perhaps the number of people praying, but the length of time they pray. So we hear of prayers all night and chains of prayer. In Tibet they have the same thought in the use of 'prayer wheels', a mechanical device which it assumes will keep the prayers going. And there are those who think that they can exert some kind of psychological pressure if they 'claim' in their minds the answer to their prayers, falling back on the words of Jesus that when we pray we should believe we have the answers, and then we shall receive them. All this, however, amounts to a wrong conception of prayer. Prayer is never bringing pressure to bear on God.
We can encourage numbers of people to pray on a particular subject, but that is so the sphere of God's activity in co-operating minds can be extended. If we do pray all night, it is in order that our minds and beings may be more open to the divine mind. And when we 'claim' answers, it is because we know that prayer is always answered, and we claim an answer that is in accordance with his will, and not ours. It really does not matter how we pray, standing up, kneeling, intoning our prayers on the note of G, saying them in a natural voice, or singing them to a musical arrangement. All that matters is that it shall be an effective means for keeping our hearts and minds open to the leading of God's Spirit. Then things happen.
Secondly, we need to be aware that prayer is not made from a position of strength. This too is where this family prayer group went wrong. They thought that because they were related to Jesus, and that Salome was a senior family member, that that put them in a strong position. But we are never in a strong position when it comes to praying. We are in a very weak position. A major reason for this is that our knowledge of God's will is severely limited. Here is a mother requesting Jesus for the seats of authority for her sons in the coming kingdom. Had they known then what they came to know later, that coming into the kingdom for Jesus meant crucifixion with a robber at his right and another at his left, they might have had second thoughts about asking for those two particular places! No wonder Jesus tells them: You do not know what you are asking.
And nor do we in much of our specific prayer: prayer for success in this undertaking, prayer for recovery there. We do not know what we are asking we always pray from positions of weakness. But God knows and God understands what is best, even though all things are possible. So what we should do when we come to pray is put our weakness in God's strength, and our limited wisdom in God's infinite wisdom. Prayer has not failed when we receive the answer 'No'. Probably James and John and Salome thought that it had. There was not likely to be much lightness in their step as they retreated from this encounter with Jesus. But was it a failure? When S. Paul prayed that his thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, might be removed, had his prayer failed because he received a negative answer? I do not think so! He was a much greater Christian because he had to endure that trouble, because as he himself came to see, it tempered the self-glorying to which he could so easily become prone. When God says 'No' to our prayer, or sometimes 'not yet', these are answers. In the course of time it becomes clear to us that they are the right answers, even though it may have been bitterly disappointing at the time. We must remember that God guides with closed doors as well as with open doors. We must learn to take the answers that come, and not call prayer a failure because what we want does not always happen.
What then is prayer? We have been looking at some of the things it is not, but what is the positive answer? It is putting ourselves, putting some situation, putting someone else's need, into God's hands and leaving it there. If only Salome had come to Jesus with James and John saying: Here we are, do with us what you will... what rejoicing there would have been in the heart of the Lord that these willing channels for the flow of his grace were being made available. I am sure that they did learn this as they grew in the knowledge and love of God. S. James was martyred for his faith on the whim of one who found that such actions pleased his constituency. Salome had to bear the pain of this, but no doubt borne up by her own faith, and the prayers and love and support of her own Church family. We of course too can support each other in our pains and sorrow as we learn to stand at the place of humilityin prayer the only worthwhile place to be.
St Margaret's Budapest
Rev'd Canon Denis Moss
edited by Simon Harding
www.biblon.com
www.chronosconsulting.com
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