SAINT JAMES THE APOSTLE

July 25, 2010

St. Augustine Anglican Church

“And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.”

The Rev. Gerald Parks +

          The lives of our Lord’s Apostles are for the most part historical matters of supposition and speculation.  Other than a few tantalizing mentions of their names in the New Testament, little is certain of how they lived, where they preached or how they died.  We think all of them, with the possible exception of St. John the brother of St. James – the sons of Zebedee – were killed by reason of their preaching the “good news” of Jesus to the Gentile world, but that is principally based on tradition rather than on provable facts.  But St. James is different.  He is different because through the testimony of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we know where he worked and what he did; we know that he was killed, and how; and we know when he was killed, and by whom.

          St. James was the leader of the Church at Jerusalem, and near Easter, probably in April in the year 43 or 44 AD, he was killed by King Herod Agrippa I, with a sword.  All of that is known of St. James through the testimony of witnesses to his martyrdom, and is recorded for us in the Book of Acts (11:27 – 12:3).  As pitifully small as it is, when compared to what we know for sure of most of the other Apostles, it is a wealth of information.  In the first century, it was perfectly acceptable and legal for a king to take the life of anyone he chose, and especially so if they were followers of Jesus, which is proven by the cryptic comment that ends today’s Epistle, “And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also.” (Acts 12:3)

          The death of St. James was by all definitions an execution, with King Herod acting as judge, jury and executioner.  As far as we know, James was not really guilty of anything other than being a follower of Christ, but that was enough to condemn him, and he met a brutal end at the hands of a tyrant.  He was the first of the Apostles of Jesus to find martyrdom, the “baptism of blood” our Lord promised to His followers.

          We know that all the societies of men, from the earliest of times down to the present, have provided for punishment of wrongdoers, often resulting in the death of the accused, who has been found guilty, hopefully “beyond shadow of doubt,” by a judge and/or jury of some sort.  These can be brutal affairs – or humane – depending on location and times; but they always end the same way: someone dies.  It is society’s way of protecting itself from itself, we know; but we also know that another term for it should very probably be that of “legalized murder.”

          I am constantly amazed by the clarity of the language of the Book of Common Prayer.  The sixth Commandment of the Decalogue is usually rendered as “Thou shalt not kill” by most Christians; and while that is similar to the Prayer Book, it is also very general in nature.  The old English of the Book of Common Prayer is much more specific: “Thou shalt do no murder” – not any of it, none of it at all.  There can be no real doubt about what that means; yet, we know people are legally “murdered” every day, as was St. James.  Does man’s law, then, usurp Divine Law?  Are we under no compunction to obey God if courts say otherwise?  And finally, is God’s Law absolute, or is it only a matter of interpretation or definition?  What is “murder,” after all?

          The subject of abortion is one that deeply divides this nation, including, sad to say, many Christians.  That it is murder, albeit of the unborn, can hardly be denied; yet, it is legal because the courts say it is.  The injunction against murder is one that most people understand and recognize, but the fact remains that millions of the innocent unborn have been “executed” in this manner, making abortion a very efficient (if heinous) form of birth control.  Proponents of abortion have defended their position by trying to redefine what constitutes human life, and saying that it can’t be understood as murder because life begins only at birth and not at conception.  And the courts have upheld this “end run” around the sixth Commandment up to this point, but one wonders how the highest and only final authority judges this sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, who is “the Lord and giver of life.”

          Another attack against the sixth Commandment is being waged by those who advocate legalizing so called “assisted suicide,” which one or two jurisdictions have already approved.  Unlike abortion, which targets the young; this kind of murder targets the elderly and the sick, who have lost their desire to live.  “My life, my Death, my Choice” is the name associated with this latest version of “Doctor Death,” and they have a website, but that it too promotes a kind of execution should be obvious.

          There is another issue, though, which should be considered in all this: A society that approves the random murder of helpless infants on demand, and approves termination of the lives of the weak and sick among us, again on demand, can only be a few steps away from defining which lives are beneficial to society, and which lives are not – which lives are deserving of life and which lives are deserving of death.  It is an abyss of endless grief and confusion, and we approach it only at our own very grave risk.

          “And he killed James the brother of John with the sword;” it is a simple statement of a terrible fact.  But it is more than that.  It is the recounting of defiance to the laws of God by a man who considered himself to be so superior to that law that he could, in effect, play God.  The beginnings of life in the womb, as well as the cessation of that life at its natural end, have nothing to do with the choices or the self-proclaimed rights that we humans are so fond of stating.  All life is sacred to God: it comes from Him and it returns to Him.  And when we violate His law and commit an act of murder – when we take human life – we place ourselves in a state of defiant arrogance to Him.  At that point our “rights” as well as our “choices” become irrelevant; for we will have committed an offense against the Holy Spirit, “the Lord and giver of life,” for which blasphemy there is no defense and no forgiveness. (Luke 12:10)  “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.”