Today, the texts present me with a bit of a challenge. While I find it pretty easy to get behind the reading from Deuteronomy, it is more difficult for me to swallow James. I’ll get there, but let it be said: it is not because I am an antinomian or against works.

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸ who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. ¹⁹ You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear theLord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹ He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. ²² Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now theLord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

Deuteromony seems to solidly remind the people of Israel the reason why they do the things they do. They provide care for the stranger, the orphan and the widow because God cares for the stranger, the orphan and the widow. They care for slaves because they themselves were once slaves. At the end, they are reminded that God has kept God’s promise to make their people as numerous as the stars. It is largely about what God is doing in them, through them, and for them.

James is a bit more challenging. It sets my teeth on edge. “21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?” Actually, no, James, he wasn’t. “Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” It was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness when he believed, not when he was about to deliver Isaac (and Abraham). Deliverance, to be sure, happened as he was about to sacrifice his son, but is important to be clear where the justification happens. It happens when we believe, however imperfectly, however much we balk in our society of what it is to believe in another, to put our faith in another, to put our trust in another.

To be certain, it is important to care for those who are hungry, indeed it does them (and us) no good to say, “Be well, be well-fed,” and walk along the other side of the road. What is crucial is that we do not become confused of why we do these things. We do not do these things because they are involved in our salvation. We care for those around us because God cares for those around us. We behave toward our neighbor not because it is good for us, but because it is good for them. We cannot love God our neighbor perfectly enough. How fortunate for us our salvation does not depend on our ability to love, but on the love we have received!