“The Gospel of James – Malcolm, that is!”

James Malcom 03/03/2024

Readings -

As I start writing this sermon I’m not sure where it will lead. Some years ago Bill Loader led us in a Lenten series on the books that didn’t make it into the Bible. Let me add to the list and offer you the Gospel of James – Malcolm, that is!

You do not have to include this in your Bible if it makes you feel uncomfortable – though from the Gospels that made it into the Bible it is clear that Jesus believed in making people feel uncomfortable.

For some time I’ve been wanting to address how I can still claim to be a follower of Jesus when, if I was tested against the so-called essentials of Christian belief I would fail utterly.

It calls to mind one of my favorite fictional characters, Horace Rumpole. In a story called “the Penge Bungalow Murders” he explains:-

 “My father, the Reverend Wilfred Rumpole, had charge of a church (St Botolph’s Without) in the neighbouring suburb of Croydon. My old father was not entirely happy in his work. He had serious doubts, he once told me, about most of the Thirty-Nine Articles; but his training had not equipped him for any other job, so he was compelled to soldier on at St Botolph’s.”

Like the Rev Wilfred, I would struggle with most of the 39 Articles or whatever list of required beliefs you might put before me, but I still believe that the good news that Jesus spoke of is the only hope for mankind.

Let’s put it all in its space/time context, and it is rather mind-blowing. According to those who know much more than me, this universe started with a Big Bang some 14 billion years ago. Life first appeared on earth about 3 or 4 billion years ago but it was not until about 2 million years ago that our early human ancestors appeared.

Then, looking into the future, the experts tell us that life on earth has only got another billion years to go and that earth will eventually be absorbed into the sun in about 7.5 billion years’ time. So

Of course you can keep all of that scientific mumbo jumbo out of your Bible if you wish, but I’m a scientist and I’m trained to trust the accumulated wisdom of scientists, while accepting that all scientific theories are open to challenge and refinement.

What that context means for me is that the existence of humans is just a blip on the in the history of the universe so we can reasonable ask what does it all matter? We humans, with our ability to think and reason are not the ultimate purpose of the universe and it will continue long after we are gone.

But why should that surprise you? That is the nature of life here on Earth. Each of us is here for a short time. It’s strange, isn’t it? We know our life is finite but we act as if it will go on forever, and we think that should apply to our universe too.  The fact is that this is my one chance to live my life as best I can.

What do I mean by “the best I can”? What is the Gospel of James? I suppose, and this won’t surprise those who know me, it is summed up in that four-letter word “love”.

I can’t live my life alone. I must live with at least some of the 7 billion other people here on earth. I depend on them for my existence. But how should I interact with them? It seems to me that the world will be a better place if my relationships with others are based less on what is good for me, and more on what is good for others.

I’m reminded of the Mahalia Jackson song “If I can help somebody, as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain.”

And, of course, it’s not the Gospel of James. I didn’t invent it. Many before me have found it. Leviticus 19 verse 18 says “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” And similar principles are found in most of the world’s religions.

People who have spent a lot longer than me thinking about these things over thousands of years have come to the conclusion that life works best for everyone, including me, if I live my life based on love.

Remember that to love your neighbour as yourself implies that you already love yourself. If you don’t feel good about yourself it’s hard to reach out to others.

Jesus’ law of love had two parts “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself”. 

As a scientist I know that the existence of God cannot be proved. When you think about it everyone who has ever lived has had to live with that uncertainty. We can’t prove whether or not God exists, but meanwhile we each have to decide how we will live our life. The question is whether we choose to live life as if God exists or not.

For us in Wembley Downs it is a bit easier. Have you ever wondered what is behind our communion liturgy where we refer to God as the “ground of our being”? Theologians and philosophers have mused for millennia about how to describe God. Last century Paul Tillich puzzled over how we could imagine God as just another being, like us and still be the source of our being.

Tillich argued that if God is Being, even if the highest Being, God cannot properly called the source of all being, and the question can of course then be posed as to why God exists, who created God, when God’s beginning is, and so on. I’m quoting here from that impeccable source, Wikipedia, by the way. Tillich’s solution to this puzzle was to say that God is the ground of Being-Itself. None of this proves that God exists, but it is a way of understanding God that fits with our understanding from science.

This fits too with Jesus saying “I am in the Father and the Father in me”. If God is the ground of our being there’s no way we can be apart from God’s presence. So the Psalmist could say “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”

But if God is the ground of my being, how do I begin to love God with all my heart, soul mind and strength? For me it seems the only way to make loving God more than an internal thing is by loving other people. And this makes sense if God is the ground of their being too.

Given that space-time context I talked about and the relative insignificance of us humans you might be tempted to ask “Why bother?” My answer is the same as the young man throwing starfish – each time I live out God’s love to someone else it makes a difference to them, and that’s enough.

Let me finish with a quote from Bishop Spong. Spong summed up the demands of the gospel in the phrase “live fully, love wastefully and be all that you can be”. When someone asked how he might do that, Spong replied:

“Living fully, loving wastefully and being all that we can be” is my definition of seeing the presence of God in human life. To live for another is to escape the natural human drive to survive and to enable us to live for others, to give ourselves away in love for another. It means placing someone beside ourselves at the centre of our affections. It is to recognize that God is part of who we are and that we are part of who or what God is.”

Isn’t that an awesome concept? Amen