St. James the Elder, Apostle. 2010                                           Christ Church , York

When a person dies and I am asked to do the funeral service, regardless of whether they are a member of this congregation or not, I sit down with the family to talk about that service – the hymns to be sung, the readings to be read and whether anyone from the family will speak. Finally I come to the point where I ask the family members to tell me what they remember about their loved one. Some of the things they tell me are funny while others are sad; some are very personal while others are widely known in their circle of family and friends. But as I sit and listen to such families talking about their loved one, I am often led to wonder just what my family might say about me at some point in the future and how I will be remembered by those I love. And as I think about this I have to be honest and admit to myself that while they may say a number of complimentary things about me, not everything they say will be good. Over my 62 years I have offended some people, disappointed others and angered more than a few and so their remembrance of me may not be completely glowing. But then the same could be said for most of us sitting here this morning. None of us is perfect; all of us make mistakes, sin and fall short of the glory of God. In short none of us is a saint. And that goes even for the saint that we commemorate today, St. James the Elder, an apostle and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today our liturgical calendar calls for us to remember this man who is called a saint. But how is he to be remembered?

Well first we remember that James is the second half of the brother team of James and John and it is James who usually follows along in the shadow of his brother, much like their friends Peter and Andrew, with Andrew often overshadowed by his big brother Peter. When Jesus issued an invitation to follow Him, James was one of those four who immediately responded, leaving behind not only his business but also his father Zebedee. James then was among those first disciples who saw in Jesus someone for whom he was willing to risk a life changing experience.

But all of us whether saint or not, have some rough spots in life and our Gospel story today recounts one such time in the life of James and his brother John. They come to Jesus with what appears to be a suggestion but in reality was nothing more than a crude power play. They talk privately with Jesus and ask for this small favor – that one to sit on the right and one on the left when Jesus comes into His kingdom. In the culture of that time such seats on either side of the king were reserved for the most powerful people in the kingdom. It was a place of honor and great power.

Even in our culture today filled as it is with those who wield great power, such an unseemly power grab is not something easily overlooked. It doesn’t matter whether someone is trying to climb the corporate ladder, be elected to an influential office or even influence a decision to be made at a congregational meeting. Power seekers don’t attract a lot of friends and such was the case for James and John. The other disciples quickly get wind of what was taking place and whether these other disciples saw themselves as being nudged out of line by this action or  whether they envisioned themselves sitting in those same seats that James and John had gone after, they become angry with the brothers and upbraid them. Dissension is now rife in the ranks and so Jesus is forced to remind all of them that they are not to be like the rich and the famous, the influential and the powerful. Rather their role is to be that of servant and servants do not sit at either the right hand or the left.

If the story ended there perhaps James the Elder would be little remembered and remained only a footnote in our story of faith. For we know very little about what happened to him after this event, only that Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that James continued as one of those apostles and undertook the work to which Jesus had called him. In short, James, in spite of this error in judgment, remained faithful to his mission of following Christ. And that was not easy. For it was only a few more years before Herod Agrippa called for an all out persecution of the followers of Jesus and, as part of that reign of terror, Herod had James captured and beheaded. So James is remembered today not only as an Apostle but also a martyr, one who died witnessing to his love and loyalty for Christ. The word martyr comes from the Greek word which means witness. Therefore a martyr is one who gives his or her life as a testimony to their unwavering love for and commitment to Jesus Christ. Today there are many suicide bombers who, while blowing themselves up thereby killing or maiming others in the process, also call themselves martyrs. But the great Jewish philosopher Elie Weisel once remarked that the difference between a martyr and a terrorist is that the martyr would never take the life of another person. So it was that, with his own free will, James the Elder offered his life as a martyr for his Lord and remained to the very end a faithful witness to his faith. For this witness and faithfulness James the Elder is remembered today and for as long as the Church on earth exists.

But that brings us back to the original question, how will I be remembered or how will any of us gathered here today be remembered? Since it seems unlikely in our current age and culture that we will end up being martyrs for the faith like James and therefore faithfulness witnesses, for what will we be remembered in our service of the Lord? Perhaps it will be for the making of dumb moves such as James and John did! We may not be so bold as to ask for seats of honor or power in the kingdom of God , but none of us escapes this life without making at least one dumb move. James and John made their dumb move in the Gospel story we heard this morning and it is our own similar dumb move or, more likely dumb moves that we acknowledge every time we gather in worship and take the time to confess that we have erred. We call this the Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness. What we confess are sins but what they really are is a grab for power. Think about it this way - our sins, any one of them, are really our own feeble attempt to take control of our lives even though a power, higher and greater than us, has issued a commandment against it. These commandments deal with our relationship with God, with our family and with our neighbor. Good order is not possible in a society in which there is no foundation based on the solid structure of law and family. Life in community cannot happen if the sacred relationship of marriage is not protected and if life itself is not held sacred and we will never be safe if value is not placed on life or limb or property. No matter how small, when these commandments are ignored, when we take matters into our own hands, we are trying to wrestle power and control from the hands of the One who gave them to us. Many are the mighty who have fallen because they have forgotten this and so presidents, politicians, businessmen and women and even religious leaders have all faced disgrace. Our own failures may not have been on such a large scale, but then the fall from grace is not measured by degrees. A sin is a sin no matter how great or how small!

But the good news is that when we make the wrong move, like James, we are not remembered just for that. For our Confession of sin has a second part called the Assurance of Pardon. After their dumb move Jesus didn’t keep reminding James and John of that day when they crossed the line, just as Jesus didn’t keep reminding Peter that he denied his master three times  or rub Thomas’ nose in it when he doubted his Lord. Jesus didn’t do these things but rather through the love and forgiveness of their Lord the disciples found that they were able to rise above their shortcomings. And Jesus does the same for us. We too have made a mess of things at times in our lives and there is probably enough in our lives to keep us on our knees in shame before the Lord. But He takes us by the hand and says “Your sins are forgiven.” When we hear these words we can move on, assured that our sins are behind us and a new start is before us.

So how will we be remembered? We may not make any significant or influential mark on this world in our life. We may not be remembered for being a faithful martyr or an apostle. But most of us will seek to live our lives as best we can, succeeding sometimes and failing at others. We will sin in our lives, sometimes occasionally; sometimes often; sometimes hidden and sometimes confessed. As a result of this messy confused life we have led, most of don’t really know how we will be remembered by our family, our neighbors, our friends. But in the end that’s not really important because in the end what really matters is that in spite of our faults and failings, we seek to live our lives in faithfulness, serving the Lord Jesus as one of His followers with all our heart, mind and soul and by being faithful in small as well as larger things. For like James we too have been called to follow the Master; like James we have been called into discipleship; like James we have been called to be a child of God through our baptism. So perhaps in the end we will be remembered not for what we have done or failed to do, not for the dumb moves or stupid actions we have made. Rather we shall be remembered as a child of God who was called and saved, loved and forgiven by that same Lord Jesus who remembered James as one of His own and who still remembers us this day as well. And for that we say thanks to be God. Amen.