Midweek Devotion 23 October 2024

Reading

Acts 15:12-14

All the apostles and elders kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name...." 

Devotion

Public domain picture

Today is the Feast Day of St. James of Jerusalem.  Today's painting is Peter Paul Ruben's portrait of James from his collection of paintings of the apostles for the Duke of Lerma.  Ruben completed this work in 1613.  It currently resides in the Museo Del Prado in Madrid.  To be honest I'm not sure if this is James, son of Zebedee, the brother of John who was one of the 'sons of thunder' or James the brother of the Lord whose feast day it is.  I'm sure one of you can correct me!  Regardless, the regal nature of the person portrayed, and their staff, seems in line with the character of James the Just presented in Acts.

This James had the difficult challenge of presiding over the first recorded council of the church.  As the leader of the Christians of Jerusalem, most of whom if not all were Jewish, he had to deal with the ardent missionary impulse of Paul, formerly Saul, who insisted that the Good News was for all people, i.e., Gentiles.  The main question was whether male Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be saved.  You can read the rest of the story in Acts 15.

I am prompted to ponder how permeable are any spiritual community's boundaries?  We need justice, we need integrity, we need cohesion, we need a sense of belonging and connectedness.   These are all things that draw us together.  There is another energy though that pushes outward, with curiosity and perhaps whimsy and certainly passion seeking to engage with those beyond the current boundaries of community life.  Jame's gift to us is the example of one who did, to the best of his ability, seek to reconcile those forces within the early Church.  I wonder, dear reader, where you might encounter those forces today?  What does reconciliation look like in your life?  In our common life?

Prayer

Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, your Church may give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)