Spiritual Hiccups - Dead Faith

I grew up in the Presbyterian tradition, which means I am a child of the Protestant Reformation.  For me this meant unquestioned assumptions about faith/belief as the foundation of any relationship with God, and about the Bible as the single authority for this faith.  These two are linchpins of Protestantism: justification by grace through faith and Sola scriptura (Latin for Scripture alone).

And so it is not all that startling to hear that Martin Luther supposedly wanted to exclude the book of James from the Bible.  After all, it said, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone," and Luther was the one who started the focus on grace and faith as the key. 

Personally, I'm glad Luther failed in his quest.  While I do hold to the the notion of right relationship with God being a gift, I regularly see the perversion James abhors at work among people of faith.  And so we need James to remind us that faith that bears no fruit is indeed dead.

Today's readings from Habakkuk, James, and Luke all point to a God who is extremely interested in the shape of society.  It is impossible to read such passages and conclude that religion is somehow unconcerned with politics.  God cares deeply about the plight of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the oppressed.  Biblically speaking, a private morality that does not share such concerns is not morality at all.  A faith that does not seek to redress systems that favor the rich over the poor is dead.

Looking at the Bible as a whole, there seem to be two big issues when it comes to humanity's relationship with God.  One is concerned with purity and God's holiness.  The other is concerned with a just society that cares for the most vulnerable.  In the Old Testament, larges sections of the law deal with each.  Purity laws address right worship, avoiding idolatry, sexual mores, and so on, while other laws require landowners to leave some of the harvest for the poor, mandate care for widows and orphans (the most vulnerable of the ancient world), and call for the regular cancellation of debts and return of land to original owners (the Jubilee year).  Some of the prophets worry more about the people's failure to maintain purity while others condemn the failure to maintain a just, compassionate society.

Among modern religious folks, there is a tendency for us to focus on one or the other of these.  Some see religion as primarily a matter of purity while others see it primarily about social justice.  And I wonder if this doesn't sometimes mirror the faith vs. works divide. 

I think we are always better off when we integrate both of these biblical concerns rather than choose one over the other.  Although it is worth noting that when Jesus finds himself in a situation where purity seems to conflict with social concern, he routinely ignores the purity rules.  He heals on the Sabbath, touches those who are unclean, or eats with sinners, never mind what the rules say.

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