Following like James, one step at a time

This week we are celebrating the saint, the apostle, the man, James, after whom our church and community are named. We remember that on an ordinary working day, James, the son of Zebedee and Salome, born in Bethsaida in Galilee, the brother of John, a fisherman by trade, encounters Jesus. His encounter with Jesus would begin a thrilling journey, a new path and direction for his life. One step at a time.

Leaving his family and his fishing nets behind, James would follow Jesus, remaining constantly at his side. He listened to his words, saw his actions, talked with him, laughed with him. He shared bread and wine with him and his life would never be the same again. James was part of it all. He must have witnessed the sick being healed, the blind having their sight restored, the deaf hearing for the first time. He must have seen those who were paralyzed by guilt and fear, released, the lame walking, the guilty going free. He learned about justice for the poor, that God was interested in the marginalised and excluded in society, as he was for the rich and powerful. He saw that there were no barriers to Jesus’ love for people and that Jesus was prepared to eat with those who others would not. The sinners, the tax collectors and the prostitutes. He saw the rapturous reactions of the crowds, the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish and the growing anger of those who opposed Jesus or felt under threat by his outrageously generous hospitality and his unconditional love and acceptance. James was with Jesus on the mountain top, the transfiguration, when Jesus shone with rays of light from heaven and was revealed to be God’s son by a voice from heaven and he was with him in the garden of Gethsemane in the agony and suffering on the night before Jesus died. Believed to be one of the first disciples of Jesus, James was there until the end.

The name James comes from Aramaic and means ‘follower of God’. James followed Jesus in life and in death, to the top of the mountain, in a boat on the lake, in the upper room, in the garden, through the city streets and to the cross. He would continue for the rest of his life to tell others about the one he followed, to share with them that God, who he had known in Jesus, is love, is rich in mercy and slow to anger, forgives sinners and sets them free. The God he had met in Jesus, brings freedom, healing, hope and justice to the world and he learned that those who follow this God must seek to love others as they love themselves. James believed that this love, a love more powerful than death, that he had experienced in his encounters with Jesus and in meeting Jesus risen from the dead, could transform the world as it had transformed his life.

In our church community, dedicated to St James, we boldly say that whoever we are and wherever we are from, whatever the circumstances of our life, we are all welcome here. You and I are welcome here because we are made and loved by God. God wants to meet us and eat with us. God wants to show us how much we are loved, just as we are, as God has made us. God wants each and every one of us to join the trilling adventure of showing others that they are loved too. God wants us to help to transform the world with love with generous acts of hospitality and kindness along the way. This means to stand up for the poor and marginalised in our society, to seek justice and peace and to help to bring healing where there is pain and division.

In our church community, we are fellow pilgrims on the journey of life, inspired by the love of God that we meet in the person of Jesus, as James was inspired.  Some of us are well on the way, some of us are lagging behind, some are running ahead, others of us have stones in our shoes and the way is difficult.  Some of us are tired and need to rest, some of us are being carried by others along the way, but we are all seeking, we are all following. We are here for one another.  We are seeking to know Jesus and to follow him.

The feast day of our patron St James, can be a new beginning and a change of direction. This is the good news that Jesus and then James and many other saints proclaimed. God invites us all to begin again on a thrilling journey, a new path and a new direction for our lives if we will simply answer his call to, ‘Follow me’.  One step at a time.