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Sermon: The Festival of Saint James the Great - 25th July 2010
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 & 10am
Readings: Jeremiah 45 Psalm 126 Acts 11:27-12:3 Matthew 20:20-28
Throughout Europe there are pilgrim routes that lead to, to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in northwest Spain. The pilgrim routes make up what is called, “ El Camino de Santiago” or as it is translated in English “The Way of Saint James”. It has existed for over a thousand years. To travel the Way of Saint James, was one of the three most important Christian pilgrimages to be made during medieval times. Rome and Jerusalem being the others.
The Way can take one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, as with most pilgrimages, the Way of Saint James began at one's home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly travelled. However, the Black Plague, the Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. In recent years “The Way of Saint James” has gained in popularity. Many Christians of differing denominations have taken up the challenge of walking the Camino. In 2008, 125,141 pilgrims registered as having completed the final 100 km walk (200 km by bicycle) to Santiago to qualify for a Compostela. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route and it was also named a World Heritage site.
People who travel the Camino say that it is a very spiritual experience. Walking, praying and meeting others a long the Way that has been walked by believers for over a century: a process that strips away the veneers that we put up between God and us. In 1995 Christine and I went there, but we did the easy way. We went by train. Our journey was spirituality on the cheap! Last year in southern France we saw many people making the Way. One nurse was making her Camino from Germany, in stages. She was undertaking a little bit of the journey along the Way, every year. Even if you do not walk the Camino, there it is well worth the visit to Santiago de Compostella.
The Cathedral is exquisite. It offers the opportunity to worship with pilgrims from all around the word. It is a beautiful building, stunning carvings and other beautiful art, and it has the biggest thurible in the world. In fact there are two of them. A thurible is the pot in which incense is burned. The thurible in the Cathedral would be a metre and a half high and instead of being swung by one person, it is swung on a pulley, attached to the ceiling, across the transept of the cathedral, pulled by a number of assistants.
The symbol of Saint James is the scallop shell. Pilgrims often wore a scallop shell symbol on their hat or clothes. The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with them, and would present themselves at churches, castles, abbeys, where they could expect to be given as much sustenance as they could pick up with one scoop. Thus even the poorest household could give charity without being overburdened.
You may ask, but what has this to do with our service this morning? Well, you see the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella is said to be the resting place of the remains of the martyr, Saint James the Great, who we remember today. The legend of St James has two propositions central to it. First, that St James preached the gospel in Iberia/Spain as well as in the Holy Land. Second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa 1, his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they took it inland for burial at Santiago de Compostella.
The movement of his relics from Judea to Spain was effected, in legend by a series of miraculous happenings. Decapitated in Jerusalem with a sword by Herod Agrippa himself, his body was taken up by angels, and sailed in a rudderless, unattended boat to Iberia, where a massive rock closed around his relics, which were later removed to Compostella. An even later tradition states that he miraculously appeared to fight for the Christian army during the battle of Clavijo and was henceforth called. Santiago y cierra España, "Saint James and strike for Spain", has been the traditional battle cry of Spanish armies.
James the son of Zebedee and his brother John were among the twelve disciples of our Lord. They, together with Peter, were privileged to behold the Transfiguration, to witness the healing of Peter's mother-in-law and the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and to be called aside to watch and pray with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before His death.
James and John were apparently from a higher social level than the average fisherman. Their father could afford hired servants, and John, assuming him to be identical with the "beloved disciple", had connections with the high priest. Jesus nicknamed the two brothers "sons of thunder", perhaps meaning that they were headstrong, hot-tempered and impulsive; and so they seem to be in two incidents reported in the Gospels. On one occasion, Jesus and the disciples were refused the hospitality of a Samaritan village and James and John proposed to call down fire from heaven on the offenders. On another occasion, they asked Jesus for a special place of honour in the Kingdom and were told that the place of honour is the place of suffering.
Finally, about AD 42, shortly before Passover, James was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa 1. The King was grandson of Herod the Great, who tried to kill the infant Jesus. He was a nephew of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist and examined Jesus on Good Friday. He was father of Herod Agrippa 2, the Herod who heard the defence of Paul before Festus. James was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom and the only one of the Twelve whose death is recorded in the New Testament. James is often called James the Great, to distinguish him from other New Testament persons called James.
The reason that James was put to the sword and Peter was arrested, is not given in the accounts found in Acts, which we read this morning. Herod was, it seemed, playing to the crowd. He saw that it pleased a group of people, called the Jews, whoever they may have been.
Later this morning, we will be baptising a young girl, Charli. We are doing so because as the Baptism service says:
“Jesus commanded his followers to go and make disciples of all nations”.
And,
“In baptism, the promises of God are visibly signed and sealed for us. We are joined to Christ, and made members of his body, the Church universal”.
In addition, the newly baptised are told,
“Live as a disciple of Christ: fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith.”
These words remind us the to be a Christian does not mean that we will have a trouble free life. It does not mean that we will be rich or famous as some Christian groups preach. It means that, like Saint James and Jesus before him, and many Christians since, we may be called to loose everything for our faith. God forbid that any of us here have such a fate befall us, but martyrdom and suffering do still impinge upon the lives of many Christians today. Yes, if we follow the teachings of Jesus, then we maybe able to avoid some of the problems of life, but the fact remains, that as Dietrich Bonheoffer found out, grace is not cheap. If we accept the grace so God’s forgiveness so freely given, then we like him, are called to stand up and be counted in the big and the little activities of our lives, at work and play. Bonheoffer stood up against the Nazis and was martyred for his faith. As the hymn by Isaac Watts says:
"When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
This sermon prepared using the resources of www.justus.anglican.org/resources, www.newadvent.org, and The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol X, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2002.