37—Forty Days with James: James the Prophet

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.James is a “pillar of the church” (Gal 2:9), brother of the Lord, and highly respected leader. But he also speaks prophetically—his tongue dipped in the white-hot fire of God’s justice and righteous indignation.Try to feel the strength, the conviction, the vehemence of his words (ten selections from the NAB, adapted and abbreviated). Listen closely. Let these direct and challenging words sink in (1:6-8, 9-11, 22, 26; 2:19-20; 4:3-4, 8-9, 12, 14-16; 5:1-5).“No New Testament document… Has such a socially sensitized conscience and so explicitly champions the cause of the economically disadvantaged, the victims of oppression or unjust wage agreements, and the poor who are seen in the widows and orphans who have no legal defender to speak up for their rights. The rich merchants and luxury-loving agricultural magnates are held up to a withering and scornful reproach. Not only are their practices condemned as part of their profound attitude that forgets God and boasts in proud achievement. Their treatment of the workers and the needy is just as forthrightly exposed. And, to cap it all, James directs his shafts not simply at their amassing of wealth, nor even at the wealth itself – represented in the grain and the gold and the garments that were their trademark – which is doomed to be blighted. The rich people themselves will share the fate of their possessions. This indictment marks one of the Bible’s most thoroughgoing judgments on wealth and its possessors.” (Ralph P. Martin, James in the WBC, lxvii).Questions for you and me:When do we get indignant? When our rights are infringed, or when we see the powerful taking advantage of the powerless?Are we regularly reading the prophetic portions of Scripture, or do we neglect them? (Highly recommended: Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets.)Are we speaking up—in church, at work, wherever there is injustice—or holding silent?Are we sharing our wealth with the needy, or giving in order to alleviate their pain and suffering?Next: James the Peacemaker