The Power of Holy Action

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds [mitzvah...holy action]? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by holy action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds [mitzvah].” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds [mitzvah] is useless. Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
……As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds [mitzvah] is dead.
James 2:14-26

These are famously problematic verses for Protestants.  It was verses like these that led Luther to dismiss James as “an epistle of straw”.  Thankfully, almost all commentators rightly say that Luther misunderstood James because he rather arbitrarily creating a canon within a canon around his particular reading of justification by faith alone.  James’ overt meanings clashed with his theological hermeneutic and was therefore effectively marginalized from Luther’s working canon of Scripture.  Apparently he had some problems with Jesus’s teachings as well (e.g. Matt.25). 

But this thinking still persists in so many circles.  Most protestants find it hard to talk meaningfully about the true meaning of goodness expressed variously through holy actions on our behalf.  We seldom call people to a life of good works.  And this in turn, affects how we view discipleship--the task of becoming actively and genuinely good people out of union with Christ and following in His Way.   

Luther and so many after him, have misunderstood the nature of Jewish faith and caricatured it is a crass works-righteousness.  While perhaps in the time of the NT, the Jewish religion was somewhat degraded and in need of renewal,  nothing could be further from the truth in relationship to Jewish theology itself.  In the passage above, James is simply reflecting what is already implicit in monotheism--the call to live according to a what I call Shema spirituality (loving God with heart, soul, mind, strength).  There is one God (not many) and we must learn to worship Him in and through every arena and aspect of life.  For monotheism, ethics is implied in belief, that’s why it is called ethical monotheism.  Or as Bonhoeffer said it, to encounter God is to change.  

I read the following in Abraham Heschel recently.  I think it helps us understand James’ consistent, and profoundly, biblical meaning. 

What is the Jewish way to God? It is not a way of ascending the ladder of speculation. Our understanding of God is not the triumphant outcome of an assault upon the riddles of the universe or a donation we receive in return for intellectual surrender. Our understanding comes by the way of mitzvah. By living as Jews we attain our faith as Jews. We do not have faith in deeds; we attain faith through deeds. 
When Moses recounted to the people the laws of the covenant with God, the people responded: “We will do and we will hear.” This statement was interpreted to mean: In doing we perceive
A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought: to surpass his needs, to do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does. In carrying out the word of the Torah he is ushered into the presence of spiritual meaning. Through the ecstasy of deeds he learns to be certain of the presence of God. 
(A.Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity)

It is pretty clear here as to what the center of Jewish faith is.  The mitzvah! -- a holy deed of goodness done from within a loving and obedient covenantal relationship to the God that commands.  A mitzvah is an act of obedience and is this also a means of unique spiritual insight. Obedience (and therefore obedient action) is a loving response to our Lord.   It is not, and was never meant to be the basis of salvation.  Salvation has always been an act of God’s sovereign grace..we simply respond.  But the mode of our response is primarily through obedience and active trust and not simply through a primarily intellectual affirmation of certain truths.  

So what I am saying that from a biblical perspective, faith is not primarily intellectual speculation, nor adopting a kind of philosophy, or even engaging in theological thinking.  Even believing itself--as a distinctly confessional act--is not central.  This treat says as much--even the Devil “believes” in this way, and shudders, but yet he still refuses to submit to God’s rule and obey.  Obedience is demonstrated faith or it is non biblical faith.  It is through loving obedience, by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, and living a life of intentional conformity to God and his commands, that we live an authentic life of faith-ful-ness.  

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my instructions, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” - John 8:31-32 [italics mine].

 

Leading with your life

It’s commonly understood that an extreme situation can call forth either cowardice or heroism from the very people you would least expect it. There’s nothing like a good crisis to reveal the character of the soul or an organization. When one is leading because one’s life, and the lives of others, depends on it, then perhaps the best qualities of leadership shine through. This is particularly true when it comes to the issue of leadership and leadership development—strategic areas of focus for the missional church.

Clearly, leading in a life-or-death situation is different from managing in more routine, or even in crisis, circumstances. US Marine Colonel Thomas Kolditz did a unique, long-term study on the nature of leadership in precisely such conditions. In spite of the extreme nature of the research, we believe that his findings on what he calls in extremis leaders has clear relevance for those of us who are involved in leading the church through times of massive upheaval and change. His insights are important affirmations as we factor adventure and liminality in the equation of leadership in the church. They include among others, that

  • In extremis leaders are inherently motivated because of the danger of the situations in which they’re working; therefore, leaders don’t need to use conventional motivational methods or cheerleading. ...
  • In extremis leaders embrace continuous learning, typically because they and their followers need to rapidly scan their environments to determine the level of threat and danger they’re facing. . . .
  • In extremis leaders share the risk their followers face. This isn’t just grandstanding; leaders truly share—and even take on greater— risks in in extremis situations. Leaders in other environments should keep this in mind: don’t ask your followers to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.
  • In extremis leaders share a common lifestyle with their followers. . . . all leaders should consider how much they truly have in common with the rest of their organization. [For instance, the issue of highly unequal pay scales does say something about the nature of leadership.] . . .
  • Dangerous situations demand a high level of mutual trust. In extremis leaders trust their team, and they themselves can be trusted. And even if someone’s life isn’t at stake in an organization, his or her livelihood may be, so do everything you can to be trustworthy and to trust your team to do what [they are chosen] to do.
  • High-risk environments demand mutual loyalty between leader and followers. . . . Leaders should do everything they can to foster a culture of mutual loyalty.

Extrapolating from this, we can say that in situations when our lives (or organizations or careers) are at risk, general principles from standard management practice need to be sharpened and their relative degree of importance modified. First, for Kolditz, the most crucial factor for the in extremis leader is to concentrate on the external environment and learn from it what action to take, rather than focus on motivating his/her team. 

From Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, The Faith of Leap (Baker) 41. 

The lifestyle choices of the heart

From time to time I will simply post unadorned reflections from my readings of Scripture

These are simply thoughts that arise from my own devotions and I don't want to make them into elaborate statements.  Please don't read them as if they are  perfectly worded or theologically precise.  When I do this I simply feel the learning worthy of sharing with friends.  Treat these as conversation starters.  Here is one on Rom.2.....

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” ~ Romans‬ ‭2:1-11‬ ‭ESV‬‬
  • Huge emphasis here on actions and choices that together form a spiritual lifestyle.
    • We are always disciples (of) one way or another.
      • We are (pre)scripted to live out certain life-styles.
      • Which in turn involves a way of seeing and interpreting the world.
        • A selective perception, a predisposition, and a orienting consciousness, mental model, by which we all negotiate our way through the world.
      • Paul follows the Jewish wisdom tradition in asserting that in the end there are actually only two ways...only two alternatives.  Either we are  disciples of righteousness (and therefore ultimately disciples of Jesus) or we are disciples of unrighteousness.
  • Then there is the emphasis on obeying the truth or obeying unrighteousness
    • Elements of what Lutherans call "tropological hermeneutics" here:
      • That is, it is only by obeying the truth that one can truly understand the truth itself. 
        • Disobedience on the other hand blocks one’s capacity to hear and understand God’s voice.
          • To choose to disobey effectively means eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil all over again as it sets the human as the judge of what is considered good and evil, thus displacing the Word of God.
        • Obedience to truth unlocks the meaning of truth while disobedience, as a fundamental rebellion against truth, leads to a hardened heart...the loss of God-awareness accompanied by a corresponding loss of self awareness and insight into the right order of things.
          • That we have to be precommitted/predisposed to the obedience of God's word to be able to access the meaning of that Word.
            • This is due to the prior suppression of the knowledge of God described in Romans 1:18ff
      • But how can one obey unrighteousness?
        • When ones lifestyle demands obedience by dictating both the orientation and the terms of the majority of one's choices
        • Unrighteousness acts like a moral and spiritual template, an ingrained habitus, that requires obedience.
          • We become "slaves of unrighteousness" (Rom.6).
        • Obeying the truth similarly a habitus comprised of sets of ritually framed ideas-that-are-true.
          • It is discipleship in the Way...the Jesus lifestyle....the Jesus template.
  • Then there is the idea of the hard and impenitent heart and how it plays a role in determining the way in which one walks.
    • Obedience always remains an option and depends directly on the nature of the inner life, the seat of choice, namely the heart.
      • The heart makes the choices one way of another
      • Elements of cognitive dissonance can be discerned in the lifestyle that the heart chooses.
        • The choice, once made and carried out in action will cause human rationalizations to set in....one way or another. Our heart will affirming the rightness of the choice we make...right or wrong. We have to feel--and to prove to ourselves--that what we have chosen to do is the right thing
    • Repentance is the means of keeping the judgemental and constantly sinning heart from becoming hard and unresponsive to the Voice of God.
      • The heart, unless it is completely subsumed into the demonic, always retains the possibility of choice
        • ...it can always turn.
      • This is attained through repentance. The turning towards God that starts in the heart and works its way into daily choices and lifestyle
        • A re-habituation for a righteous (rightly-related) life