James 5: 1-6

  ¹ Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. ² Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. ⁴ Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

James’s rhetoric may be harsh to many modern readers who were raised in a Christianity which has made its peace with the capitalistic and consumeristic culture of the United States. Over a century ago, Walter Rauschenbusch, one of the primary thinkers behind the social gospel movement which attempted to bring faith and action on behalf of the vulnerable together could say that James, “pronounces an invective against the rich which would seem intolerably denunciatory in the mouth of a modern socialist preacher.” (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 166) Yet, James is not speaking in a language unusual to scripture. James’s language throughout his letter has been in concert with the law, wisdom literature, the prophets, and the teachings of Jesus. That it may seem “intolerably denunciatory” should give us pause. We may not inhabit a situation similar to the early Christians who James is writing to, but the discomfort should cause an honest dialogue about the world and the values we assume. Luke Timothy Johnson asks this question in an existential way when he states:

Perhaps the most serious question for Christianity in the present circumstance is whether it is any longer in a position to exercise the kind of prophetic critique of that outlook such as enunciated by James. Is it not the case that many churches are themselves so co-opted by the logic of envy and arrogance—if not strictly monetary terms, then in terms of membership and influence—that they cannot perceive that such is the way of the wisdom from below, which is earthbound, unspiritual, and demonic? (NIB XII:218)

From the very beginning of the story of Israel they were always intended to embody a different set of values and practices than Egypt and all the following empires of the world that surrounded them. The commandments, statutes and ordinances given to the Hebrew people were to create a society where the vulnerable were cared for. Many of the laws are specifically to limit the acquisition of excessive amounts of property and wealth at the expense of the neighbor. Throughout the letter, James has often referenced topics which mirror the language of Leviticus 19. Once again James speaks in concert with Leviticus 19:

You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. Leviticus 19:13

Likewise, Deuteronomy also states:

You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. Deuteronomy 24: 14-15

James’s tone is similar to the prophets and a person familiar with the language of the prophets will quickly pick up the language of the ‘day of the LORD’ utilized by the prophets even before the ‘last days’ are mentioned in verse three. Malachi is a good example of this language and in chapter three the oppression of hired workers and the vulnerable is tied with sorcerers, adulterers, and those whose words are false:

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:5

Yet, the strongest resonance with this passage is in the words of Jesus:

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Luke 6: 24-25

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6: 19-20

The scriptures may be speaking in the same key, but we may hear this as dissonant in our context. Many people in our time and in James’s time would look at wealth as a positive thing and there is a significant thread in scripture where God does want the people to prosper. Yet, one of the dangers to the health of the community was the acquisition of large amounts of wealth (primarily in the form of land, but also in terms of money) by a few at the expense of the rest of the community, particularly the most vulnerable members of the community. I have said before that in the United States one of our greatest idols is security, the desire to be able to ensure our own future without needing either God or the community. Wealth has become one of the most important ways of keeping score in our society and the acquisition of more wealth is often seen as a goal which surpasses all other goals. James’s counter voice is that the very wealth that we have utilized to attempt to secure our future is corroded and moth-eaten. Our bank balance sheets and acquisitive lifestyles testify against us. Those who lived in pleasure at the expense of their employees, whether landowners who failed to pay the harvester or corporations who increased their earnings while failing to pay a living wage, have now become the Pharoah and his taskmasters who the cries of the laborers testify to God against. And God hears these cries throughout the scriptures.

There has been a lively discussion on the identity of “the righteous one” James references. One common opinion is that the righteous one are the poor among the faithful who are perishing due to the injustice of their world. Another option is that the righteous one is Jesus and that the rich are somehow complicit in the crucifixion. I think it is likely that James is speaking in a manner reflected in Matthew 25: 31-46, where Jesus is met in the face of the vulnerable ones who are seen by the faithful but ignored by the unrighteous. These rich ones may feel like the world is being served to them as an all-you-can-eat banquet, but what James sees is a darker reality for those rich who live at the expense of others. They are like cattle in a feedlot being fattened for the day of slaughter. James believes, in concert with the rest of scripture, that the injustice practiced by the rich and powerful will be answered by God’s judgment.

James’s words are difficult to wrestle with in my context of an affluent suburb of Dallas, Texas but they also are important. We live in a time of increasing disparity between those at the top of the economic ladder and those at the bottom. James’s words will probably never have a hearing among those in our culture who utilize their wealth to manipulate the political or tax system to benefit their own business or bank balance, but these actions, for James, at the expense of the vulnerable in society are a form of violence and murder. For those who claim the letter of James as a part of their scriptures and a witness to faith it presents several challenges. It reminds us that our security is not to be found in laying aside silver, gold, currency or any other type of possession but in the God who hears the cries of the vulnerable. James, like the law and the prophets, sees faith as embodied throughout the entirety of life and that a faith without works on behalf of the neighbor is a dead faith. Most in my community would have been considered wealthy in James’s world, and we often underestimate the gifts we have been given to steward on behalf of the community. The scripture does has positive witnesses to wealth, for example Job mentioned in the next section, but the danger of wealth is that it becomes central to our identity and the score card by which we measure success is that it becomes possible to justify practices which may end up being legalized violence and even murder against the most vulnerable in society.

James 5: 7-12

  ⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸ You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ⁹ Brothers and sisters, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! ¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about, for the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
  ¹² Above all, brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

James now returns to the brothers and sisters of his community to encourage them to stand fast and endure as they await the coming of the Lord. These final two sections are full of proverbs for the community attempting to live faithfully in the world. The world is unjust and there are rich whose actions endanger the vulnerable in the community, but James trusts that God’s judgement is near. Patience may not be the best word for the Greek makrothymia. Translators have suggested endure, persist, withstand, or stand fast as possible alternatives which capture the more active sense of the word. James utilizes two images for endurance in parallel: a farmer waiting on the growing crop and the biblical image of Job. The long wait from planting to harvest would be a part of the life of the majority of people in James’s world and there is a reason for the prevalence of this image throughout the scriptures. This is the only utilization of Job in the New Testament, and Job, like Abraham and Rahab earlier and Elijah in the following section, is utilized as a representative figure for an idea. Job may not have been passive in dealing with his situation in the narrative of Job, but he does endure and the Lord rewarded Job for his endurance.

James echoes the saying of Jesus also reflected in Matthew 5: 33-37. I think many people would long for a world where truthful speech was the norm and one of the struggles of our digitally pluralistic society is that truthful speech may be indistinguishable from partial truths, obfuscations and maliciously told lies. As I think about the issues facing society: immigration, global warming, poverty, discrimination, and many others, it is amazing the number of both conspiracy theories and misinformation that are given equal space to information that is well thought out and accepted by those working in the various fields. Perhaps reflecting on the untruth operating on his own society in the mid-1930s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer could comment in Discipleship:

There is no truth towards Jesus without truth toward other people. Lying destroys community. But truth rends false community and founds genuine fellowship. There is no following Jesus without living in the truth unveiled before God and other people. (DBWE 4: 131)

Yet even churches and communities of faith can easily become places that do not value truth but rather seek either easy accommodation or avoiding controversial topics of conversation. Even organizations that expressly claim to value truth in their mission or value statements may, by their actions demonstrate a preference for a convenient lie.

James and Jesus imagine a world where truthful speech is the norm and God has drawn near. It may take patience to see the fruit of this trust, it may involve the endurance of Job, and yet underlying the faith of Christianity is a God who values truth, who protects the vulnerable, and judges the unrighteous. James attempts to strengthen his brothers and sisters scattered throughout the world who are attempting to live truthfully and persistently awaiting the promised harvest of God’s fields.

James 5: 13-20

  ¹³ Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a human like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded its harvest.
  ¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, ²⁰ you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James continues with a set of final proverbs to encourage the community in their journey. Prayer is an overarching theme of the verses thirteen through eighteen and it is both the prayers of the individual and the community which enter James’s reflection. The suffering ones should pray, and asking God for what is necessary has appeared as a topic previously in James (1:5,6; 4: 2-3). It is likely that both the suffering and the cheerful are undergoing some struggles and it may be that in some cases the suffering are those who have not ‘taken courage’ while the cheerful have (McKnight, 2011, p. 433) but there will always be those whose suffering is more acute and those whose troubles are lighter. The individual may pray or sing songs of praise based on their circumstances, but the community also has a role in helping those in need. Those who are sick or carrying sins are to call the elders in the community. Much like the friends who carried the paralytic to Jesus (Mark 2: 1-12 and parallels) the elders carry the sick body or the sin sick soul to God that it may be healed. The fact that James can appeal to four people from the story of Israel (Abraham, Rahab, Job, and now Elijah) may be related to the Jewish nature of his community. Paul, whose primary audience was Gentile, can appeal to Abraham and Adam, universal figures, but James may have a fuller catalog of faithful figures he can reference by name and have a story associated with them. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 195) Elijah is portrayed as a character whose faithful witness and prayer did incredible things like the three and a half years without rain or the raising of the widow’s son. Yet, Elijah is also ‘human like us.’ In prayer the incredible things of Elijah are accessible to the faithful one asking for God’s healing or forgiveness for a member of the community.

The God who James witnesses to is a God who desires the return of the wanderer. James’s letter may continue to reference Leviticus 19:

 “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. Leviticus 19:17

Or may be following Proverbs, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” (Proverbs 10:12) or simply the desire of God expressed throughout the law, the prophets, the story of Israel, the psalms, and the words of Jesus that express the desire for the prodigal people to return to their God. There is always a place for redemption among the people of God. As Jesus said after the parable of the lost sheep, there is more joy in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance (Luke 15:7).