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The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17)
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The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
A Sermon by
Fr. Daniels
on
James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
✛
Grace and Good Works: The Premises of the Christian Faith
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First things first, this morning: a person cannot earn salvation. Salvation is given for free, in Christ, and received by faith. This is what we call grace. And it is grace alone that saves. First things first.
This can be a startling claim. An example, in another register. The parking garage across from our building has the exorbitant fees that one comes to expect from Manhattan garages: something like $50 an hour, plus your firstborn child, plus your second-born child, and a player to be named later. A rate that borders on the punitive, as if they’re angry at you for parking there.
However, I recently glimpsed there a sign of mercy, even in this extortionary environment, in the form of a little hand-written sign, taped to the rate board, which reads, “We grant a two-minute grace period.” This, it seems to me, is extraordinary. Think about it: a grace period! Only two minutes, but still. In at least one New York City garage, that unearned gift of two extra minutes can be found. It is a garage version of grace. Truly, to paraphrase a great American philosopher, if grace can make it there, grace can make it anywhere.
Indeed, this is the promise of the gospels: that grace can make it anywhere. God’s grace can overcome all depths of sin. That is why grace is so important: because we are sinners. If we were not sinners then we would not need to worry about grace. If we were not sinners, we could easily attain unto blessed eternal life because our very lives would make us worthy of it. If we were not sinners, nothing would have to be forgiven. But we are who we are, and so we cling to God’s grace, holding on for dear life, because that is the sinner’s only hope.
It is in light of this fact that the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in the nineteenth century referred to grace as the “major premise” of Christianity.[1] A major premise in an argument is the grounding of all the other terms and the basis of the argument itself. It’s the categorical proposition without which the rest does not follow. When you talk about Christianity, then, you are talking about unearned salvation through Christ, or you aren’t really talking about Christianity at all. I really believe this, and you’d have to argue with me for a pretty long time before I’d even consider thinking otherwise. As someone once said on this topic, “Here I stand and I can do no other.”
But to leave the matter there today would be incomplete, a melody without its harmony. Scripture and tradition have more to say about this matter of salvation, and some of it is said by James of Jerusalem in today’s epistle, and more, still, by Jesus himself in today’s Gospel. In both of our New Testament readings today, it is made clear that to receive the gift of grace, but to have the reception of that gift not be reflected in one’s life, is insufficient. If God’s grace has truly been received, then it will leave its mark on us, and that mark is one that changes the way we live.
That is why Saint James says in the very first chapter of his epistle that true followers of Christ must be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” After our encounter with the risen Christ, we cannot be the same people we were before meeting him. To follow Jesus is to face the imperative to change: patterning our lives after his life, our works after his works. Saint James makes it clear that a lack of charity toward the poor, a lack of peacefulness and gentleness and mercy in our actions, a partiality toward the rich and disdain of the poor: these are, and I quote, “devilish” behaviors (3:15). “Just as the body without the spirit is dead,” he says, “so faith without works is dead also” (2:26).
Jesus himself is no less clear on the matter, and, frankly, even more dramatic. To turn and follow Jesus is not only an expectation of external works—charity and meekness and so forth—but a matter of the transformation of the heart. To follow Jesus affects us profoundly, delving deeply into our inmost being. Jesus says in today’s gospel that even having “evil thoughts” is to be defiled. The very presence of evil thoughts, which are reflective of the contamination of the heart, makes impossible the practice of true worship. There is no true faith, Jesus says, if your life—if your heart—isn’t transformed by grace.
So Kierkegaard goes on to call good works the “minor premise” of Christianity. A minor premise complements, not contradicts, a major premise, and thus good works complement, they do not contradict, salvation by grace through faith. To call something a minor premise is not to say that it is unimportant—far from it—only that it is important in light of the major premise. Good works and a pure heart are important in light of God’s love for us because they are our testimony to that love. They are the harmony that enriches and makes beautiful the melody of grace. Musical harmony doesn’t make sense without its melody; melody lacks fullness without its harmony. Faith without works is dead.
The reason that this minor premise of good works is so important is, again, because we are all sinners. If we were not sinners, then we wouldn’t need to spend any time worrying about how we live, or the things we do, or the state of our hearts. If we were not sinners, then we would, for example, learn about God’s love for us, rejoice in it, and then just automatically do all the things that show our love for God. If we were not sinners, then doing good, all the time would be second nature to us. Not even second nature, in fact; it would be first nature. If we were not sinners, then good works and a pure heart would be first nature to us, and thus not something we had to spend much time thinking about.
It is only sinners, Kierkegaard says, that need to worry about the admonitions of the epistle of James; only sinners that need to attend closely to the imperative of the heart’s conversion. He distinguishes between two kinds of people: “honest souls” on the one hand, and “cunning fellows,” on the other. Honest souls do good works naturally; honest souls follow Christ automatically; in the heart of the honest soul is a purity that excludes sin.
But the cunning fellow finds excuses; the cunning fellow avoids judgment; he holds fast to a faith in his worldly cleverness while mocking the unsophisticated believers who take all of this Christianity stuff far too seriously. The cunning fellow conveniently and selectively overlooks the works of his hands and the thoughts of his heart. The cunning fellow may occasionally look in the mirror, but he quickly forgets what he sees.
The problem for Kierkegaard, he says, is that he himself is that cunning fellow about whom he writes. He would prefer to look around Denmark and say, “Look at all of you cunning fellows, while I am here, speaking truth, as the only honest soul among you.” But he knows that’s not true, and it really bothers him. It is because he knows that he is a cunning fellow, and not an honest soul, he pores over the words of James and of Jesus, reminding himself of his need for salvation and the requisite fullness of his response.
It is the case that Jesus meets every person exactly where he is. No surfeit of vice can keep him away, and no morass of sinful living repels his presence. We are never, ever, ever, beyond his reach. Grace can make it there; grace can make it anywhere. But having met us where we are, he then calls us away, calls us to follow him. Calls us not only to be recipients of God’s grace, but to follow him out of the land of sin to become citizens of his kingdom in an eternal “grace period.” Calls us to be doers of the word, and not hearers only.
Salvation is given by God’s grace in Christ, and in no other way. And, as we hear today, good works are the gifts we give in return, our sacrifice of thanksgiving
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[1] See his For Self-Examination.
