James: Portrait of the Resurrected Life

The book of James is an example of what I hope for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida.

By that I do not mean, “I wish we would do these things, so let’s get to work.” Rather, I mean, “Let’s celebrate these things already present among us and keep going in this direction.”

James – who once did not believe his own brother – becomes a shepherd who widens the table beyond what the self-righteous demanded, lightens the load and calls the Church to a generous holiness. His story is a portrait of what the risen Christ can do in a person and, by grace, in a diocesan family like ours.

In Matthew and 2 Corinthians we see that Nazareth taught him skepticism, but Easter taught him hope. In Acts, when the law was used as a yoke, Jesus taught him to lift burdens. If the Church threatened to fracture, James taught us how to hold truth and holiness with a tone of charity.

That is my hope for us.

Nazareth: Familiarity Without Faith

Matthew 13 tells us that when Jesus returned to his hometown and taught in the synagogue, the people were “astonished” (v. 54) – but not in the way of worship. They said, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Aren’t his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And, Matthew adds, “they took offense at him” (v. 57a). A prophet, Jesus says, “is not without honor except in his hometown and his own household” (v. 57b). His next line is a sober one: “He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief” (v. 58).

They dismiss Jesus because he seems too ordinary, too near. Familiarity without faith breeds offense.

And this familiarity does not just come from those in Jesus’ hometown but from his own family. James grew up in the same house as Jesus. He knew his voice, his gestures, his work-worn hands. And yet, as John records with disarming honesty, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). In fact, they push him toward spectacle: “No one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world” (John 7:4). They wanted power on their terms, not a cruciform Messiah. If even James did not believe, what would it take to change him?

The Turning Point: “Then he appeared … to James”

Paul answers with the heartbeat of the gospel. “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time… then he appeared to James” (1 Cor. 15:3-7a).

I love that detail – “then he appeared to James.” The brother the family refused to honor is the Lord who comes to his brother in mercy. The risen Christ goes looking for former skeptics. Grace precedes command. Resurrection comes before reformation.

If Jesus found James, Jesus can find you. If grace could find James, grace can find us. This is the cadence I pray continues to shape each church in our diocese:

• Promise before exhortation.
• Mercy before metrics.
• Christ’s accomplishment before our activity.

The gospel does not say, “Obey, and you will live.” It says, “He died in our place. He rose to conquer Satan and death and sin. He lives and ascended to return again. Until then, he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell us, to pour God’s love into our hearts, and to empower us to walk in resurrection life.”

This is an invitation. You get to walk in newness of life. The risen Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. If grace could find James, grace can find you and me – and our churches, our vestries, our lay leaders, our clergy, our commissions, our Board, and our Conventions.

James the Pastor: Widening the Table, Lifting the Load

So, what does resurrection grace produce? Acts 15 brings us to the Jerusalem Council, where the Church wrestles with a live, painful question: “Must Gentile believers shoulder the full Mosaic yoke to belong?”

Some said yes as they demanded circumcision and all the ceremonial markers. Peter stands and reminds them of Cornelius and that God gave the Spirit to uncircumcised Gentiles by faith. Then he asks a key question: “Why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? … we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:10-11a).

Then James speaks, and I want us to hear his pastoral cadence:

• He listens.
• He opens scripture.
• He sees the promise – in the prophets such as Amos and Isaiah – that God would reclaim a people for his name from among the nations.
• He highlights, is led by and repeats God’s promise.

And then he reaches this decision: “We should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19b). Mark that: “not trouble those who are turning.”

He maintains moral clarity – abstain from sexual immorality – but removes ceremonial stumbling blocks that would keep Jewish and Gentile believers from table fellowship. Jesus Christ and his gospel have done the heavy lifting; the Church’s task is not to make grace heavier, but to make it clearer.

And when the Council’s letter goes out, Luke says the Gentile believers rejoice (see Acts 15:30-31). Of course they do. This is catholic grammar with a pastoral accent. It is doctrinal fidelity and hospitable welcome. It is truth with charity.

This is the echo of James’ ministry living in the lifeblood of our churches, and I pray for more and more of it. Not laxity, but liberty rightly used. Not a lack of boundaries, but boundaries that serve love. Because God first loved us, that love compels us to love God and our neighbors.

James the Epistle: ‘He gives more grace’

What does grace produce? Grateful obedience. To explore that, let’s look at the Epistle of James to learn about the power of grace. Some of you are thinking: “Have you read James? It is not what you would call soft.” Exactly. The Epistle of James contains 59 imperatives in 108 verses.

James 1:26–27 sketches three marks of “true religion”: bridle the tongue, care for orphans and widows and keep oneself unstained from the world. And then James promptly shows how all of us fail.

• We must control the tongue, yet “no one can tame the tongue” (3:8).
• We must care for the needy, yet we too easily say “go in peace” without lifting a finger (2:15–17).
• We must avoid worldliness, yet our envies and quarrels expose friendship with the world (4:1–4). In other words, if religion is measured merely by command-keeping, no one stands. Without the gospel, that is a crushing weight. Which is why James sings a deeper note: “He gives more grace” (4:6).
• Mercy “triumphs over judgment” (2:13).
• The Father who gives every good gift (1:17) gives wisdom to those who ask (1:5) and saving grace to the humble (4:6, 10).

The risen Christ exalts the humble and forgives the penitent. He forms a people who “do the word” because they have first been done good by the Word made flesh.

James’s famous “royal law” – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (2:8) – reaches its fullest extent in the Acts 15 decision. Resurrection grace expands the neighbor until the nations sit at one table. The law’s moral core remains, but the ceremonial fences fall before the crucified and risen King who is building one new family. James doesn’t make grace cheaper; he makes it clearer.

Imitation Grounded in Grace

We recently celebrated St. James’ feast day. Yet we honor him not by admiration alone but by imitation grounded in grace. Let me say plainly what I hope for us, echoing James. These are all things we are doing already; I celebrate them and hope for more.

• From spectacle to service. Our age prizes visibility, platforms, outcomes we can count. James began by urging Jesus to “show yourself to the world” (John 7:4b). But post-Easter James shows himself to widows, orphans, the poor and those formerly rejected but newly welcomed to the table. We are a diocese glad to be ordinary in the world’s eyes because it means being faithful in Jesus’ eyes: seeing needs, bending low, staying near. Our people are eager to serve, love and give sacrificially.
• From yoke to rest. The rabbis spoke of the law as a yoke; Peter named it unbearable when used as a ladder to heaven (Acts 15:10). But Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). We are a diocese where people lighten loads rather than add weights. We are clear on the gospel, lavish with mercy and serious about holiness – because we are serious about grace.
• From gatekeeping to table-setting. “We should not trouble those who are turning to God.” As our churches are welcoming unchurched and dechurched, and as there are baptisms galore, we are becoming experts at making it easy to be welcomed and included in the community.  We keep central what Christ and his apostles kept central: “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11a).
• From scarcity to “more grace.” Budgets matter, buildings matter, strategy matters. But James insists that what sustains the Church are the Father’s gifts, which are wisdom for those asking for it and grace for the humble. Let’s continue to be quick to ask, quick to kneel, quick to expect that the risen Christ still meets former skeptics and makes them servants who lead.

None of this is possible if we start with ourselves. But we don’t start there.  We begin where Paul begins – “of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3a): Christ crucified for our sins, buried, raised, revealed. And Christ’s ministry continues to “Then he appeared to James” (1 Cor. 15:7a).

Resurrection cultivates obedience in James. The same Jesus is alive and at work among us and in us. Now we can live what James calls us to live.

A Final Word From James Himself

This is what I hope for our diocese:

• That more former skeptics become servants.
• That more burdens become lighter because Jesus’ yoke is easy.
• That the table becomes wider and the fellowship deeper.
• That our speech remains clean and our love remains strong.
• That our holiness looks like mercy with a backbone.

Let James speak the last words into our life together:

• “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well” (James 2:8).
• “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13b).
• “He gives more grace” (James 4:6a).
• “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10).

James is not an icon of moralism. He is a witness to resurrection grace that produces a generous holiness.

Pray with me: Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who sought out your brother James and made him a brother to many: give us more grace. Give us the wisdom from above – pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits. Bridle our tongues. Turn our hearts toward widows and orphans. Keep us unstained from the world. Make us quick to remove obstacles from those turning to God and eager to bear one another’s burdens. May mercy triumph over judgment and may your royal law widen our love. We ask this for your Church and for the glory of your name. Amen.