This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:
Baby killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence 
James 1:1-15
THE LETTER OF
James
Salutation
1James, a servant* of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
Faith and Wisdom
2 My brothers and sisters,* whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,3because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance;4and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind;7, 8for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Poverty and Riches
9 Let the believer* who is lowly boast in being raised up,10and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field.11For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.
Trial and Temptation
12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord* has promised to those who love him.13No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it;15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.
Job; tempted by God?
James, the author, has a general theme to his letter, that we can call “wise encouragement for the Christian community”, but from sentence to sentence he tends to jump from one micro-subject to another. This is evident even within the short space of today’s extract. Present throughout these verses is an ambiguity which comes from the Greek word peirasmos which means both testing and temptation. Its basic sense is “being put under pressure”, whether by circumstance, the actions of others or one’s own wayward desires. The Lord’s prayer, which James probably knew, asks that God should not lead us into peirasmos. In the Jewish tradition, the people were held guilty of “testing” God in the wilderness by demanding proof of his care. The prophets and psalmists interpret suffering as God’s way of testing and refining his servants. James believes that testing / temptation never comes from God but only from our sinful desires or those of others, but it may be good for us, strengthening our resolve and helping us to grow in faith. Indeed, overcoming testing/ temptation is the goal of Christian character development, the crown of life.
(This clear message is the main import of these verses, but James adds advice to seek God’s gifts with expectant faith – don’t expect any gifts if you are a doubter!- and reminds the poor that they’ll be lifted up and the rich that they’ll be brought down so that there may be enough for all. Wealth in any case is unstable, James says, and likely to vanish.)
Perhaps the theme of testing and temptation has fallen into disuse in Christian thinking. There was a revolt in the 1960’s against the sort of puritanism which crippled believers’ self-worth, and which focused overmuch on sexual temptation. At the same time there was a challenge to the notion that difficult circumstances should be accepted as character – enhancing. Perhaps there were practical, scientific ways of alleviating the circumstances; or perhaps the difficulty was caused by oppression which should be opposed rather than accepted. There were valuable correctives in both these challenges. But the loss of confidence in traditional teaching about testing and temptation has led to a loss of discipline whereby many of us are ill-prepared to withstand suffering or to recognise any of our own desires as wrong. The shrewd, sober wisdom of James may be helpful.
Luke 15:1-2, 11-32
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
15Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother
11 Then Jesus* said, ‘There was a man who had two sons.12The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them.13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.16He would gladly have filled himself with* the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.17But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ”20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.21Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”*22But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.
25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.27He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.”28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.29But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”31Then the father* said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” ’
The father’s welcome: Rembrandt
Of course the precise wording of this parable is Luke’s, but in its cognitive dissonance, creation of character and brevity, we can surely hear the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a playful, shrewd, humorous and disturbing voice. In many ways the father looks foolish: he shouldn’t put up with the brutal impertinence of his younger son; and he certainly shouldn’t put half the family wealth at his disposal. In his indulgence of his dissident son he forgets both duty and dignity. And he doesn’t learn, we may think, for his behaviour when the son returns is equally culpable. Of course he should welcome him, but surely it might do the prodigal good if he was taken at his word and made to pay for his folly by becoming a household slave. The younger son is a selfish, cocksure idiot who only sees sense when he’s reduced to absolute poverty. It’s hard to warm to the older son but that’s because sober dutifulness is not the most exciting quality; but there can be few readers who don’t sympathise with his exasperated outburst at the father’s sloppy permissiveness. The storyteller also sympathises by giving him these passionate words.
But then, then, in only a sentence, the storyteller astounds us by turning the whole thing upside down: the father’s profound grasp of events reveals itself in the stark langauge he uses. lost/ found, dead/alive. These open up a realm where dignity, duty, even wisdom, are displaced from the centre of moral focus by love for a human person who may be lost or found, dead or alive. So the father was right all along, then? No, the father is criminally neglectful of his duty by any human standard but he expresses in his welcome to his returning son the scandalous love of God and something of God’s sublime indifference to anything less than life.
In the context of Luke chapter 15 it’s clear enough that Jesus is defending his friendship with “sinners”, whom we can see as the younger son, against the religious establishment. whom we can see as the elder son. But of course, Israel itself could be seen as the elder son and the gentile nations as the younger. At the heart of any interpretation however must be the appalling foolishness of God’s love for his children. St Paul expressed this when he wrote of the foolishness of God being wiser than the wisdom of men.
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