All Is One and One Is All

Text: James 2:1-17

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One of my favorite stories that I’ve read in the last couple years is the story of the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I learned that the musketeers had a famous slogan. Can any of you shout out that famous slogan? [All for One, and One for All!] Right, now, someone else, tell us what that slogan means. [Each one battles for and supports the whole, and we all together defend each one.]

It reminds me of a couple Star Trek movies. In one movie, Spock, the logical fellow with pointed ears, tells Captain Kirk several times, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.” And near the end of the movie, when Spock has sacrificed himself for the sake of ship and crew, he says again as he dies, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.”

But then, in the next movie, Captain Kirk and his crew risk themselves to save Spock, who has wonderfully regenerated. Spock comes up to Kirk to ask why he would risk so many lives just for him. And Captain Kirk responds, “Because the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many.” And Spock walks away puzzled.

It seems a bit odd, and illogical, to say that the needs of the one or few could outweigh the many, doesn’t it? But that reflects one of the most critical values and struggles we have in American democracy. We do believe in something called “majority rule.” But, at the same time, we believe that we must protect, listen to and value the voice and needs of the minority. Alexis de Toqueville, a French political commentator wrote a book after the American Revolution titled, Democracy in America. He warned that we must value and protect the voice and needs of the minority or else we land right back into a tyranny, the “tyranny of the majority.”

Sometimes the needs of the few or the one need to outweigh the needs of the many. Why? Because at anytime that minority, that few or one person, might be you. And at that moment, how we treat or value you will represent how we value the whole, and even how we value ourselves.

Nowhere is this more clear than in God’s value system. The Bible says that Christ died to save whom? [All of us; the whole world.] He did; it’s true! But I proclaim to you that if you alone individually needed saving—the only one in all creation—Christ would have done it! You and you alone, in his value system, were worth the death of God! That’s what it means to say, “Christ died for me.”

All is One and One is All. We can find all our values and morals in how we treat one, and that one person can be everything. That one person can represent Christ, everything!

All is One and One is All: There are so many ways that we can find that idea in the Letter of James. Take a pencil and circle or underline the scripture lesson beginning at verse eight: “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture. [The ‘royal law,’ here it is:] ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law [the whole law] as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” All is One and One is All.

One commentator, Douglas Moo, says that James calls it the “royal law” because it is talking about the kingdom, or the law that the King gives which summarizes “all the laws and the prophets.” Whenever James speaks of the “law,” know that he is talking about the “love commandment,” loving the neighbor. He means it in the same way that Jesus did, that love is more than feelings for your neighbor, “Whenever you clothed, fed or visited me.” I think it is also what Paul meant when he wrote that “I might have faith that can move mountains, but if I have no love, I have nothing.”

If I obey all commands, but show partiality, I have nothing. And this goes for the way we treat the rich and the poor. If we show partiality or contempt for anyone from Joe Schmoe to Billy Gates, then we stand convicted by the whole law. All people are found in the One, and the One represents All. All law is found in each law, and each law represents the whole. No partiality. No favoritism. No selectivity. All is One and One is All. And we stand convicted! We stand convicted. I am judged by my actions, or my lack of actions. I stand before you today: convicted.

James’ letter preaches—more than theologically teaching—it preaches. More than St. Paul in his letters, and more than our name’s sake, Martin Luther and his reforming theology, James was preaching. I will tell you to whom he was preaching to in just a bit. But first, listen to what some call a contradiction in our Bible.

It happens at the end of our lesson. James wrote, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” In verse twenty-four, after your lesson, he was even stronger. He wrote, “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

Now, listen carefully to what St. Paul once told the Romans, and this summarized what he wrote at length: “We hold that a person a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

St. Paul and Martin Luther: “Faith alone!” James: “Not by faith alone!” Wow, sounds different, eh?

I think we need to keep in mind that these fellows were preaching to different crowds. Over here, St. Paul and Martin Luther were talking to people who were worrying over, “What do we need to do to earn salvation? What more? What more? When’s enough?” There are times in our life—much of our life—that we need Paul and Luther to assure us of the power of God’s forgiveness through Christ, that trusting our Baptism and leaning on the promises of Christ through Holy Communion, leaning on the “everlasting arms” of God’s love is enough to save us! It is enough!

But James was preaching to a different crowd. I think he, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was preaching to us! More than the people in Martin Luther’s day, we need James to disturb and offend our relaxed theology with his harsh preaching. The people in James’ day were not worried about whether they were doing enough. In fact, they were so sure that the simple declaration was enough that they absently listened to the words of forgiveness and salvation, made a simple, “Ya sure! I believe dat!” and went on there ways. Since good works didn’t save them, why bother? Does this problem ring a bell with us? Ya sure, you betcha!

See, when Paul spoke of “works,” he was talking about “credit.” Your works do not give you “credit” for salvation. Christ alone gives salvation, and faith alone grasps it. For James, “works” are the fruits from salvation. Faith in God’s forgiveness and mercy: if you really hear it, grasp it and believe it, then it will produce fruits; it will produce good works.

James knows that God sees through all facades. He tells the people, “You say you believe it, but I don’t see any results.” So James questions if they have any real faith to start with. Faith, without fruits, is not. It is a faith that has withered and died. It is like Paul said, “I can claim a faith that moves mountains, but if I have no love [if no loving actions flow from it] then I have nothing.” Not even faith.

[At 8:30 contemporary service only: Listen to two verses of a song by Rich Mullins. It’s called, “Screen Door” based on the Letter of James. The words are printed in your bulletin so you can follow along.

It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine:

Faith without works, it just ain’t happenin’.

One is your left hand; one is your right;

It’ll take two strong arms to hold on tight.

Some folks cut off their nose just to spite their face;

I think you need some works to show for your alleged faith.

Well, there’s a difference, you know, b’tween having faith and playing make believe.

One will make you grow; the other one just makes you sleep.

Talk about it, but I really think you oughtta

Take a leap off the ship before you claim to walk on water.

Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing;

It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.[1]]

So then, how do we act? Well there’s the “royal law” we talked about. Love your neighbor. But James offered another law. Did you catch it? He called it the “law of liberty.” “Speak and act,” he wrote, “as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to those who show none; [underline this:] mercy triumphs over judgment.”

“Speak and act like those judged by the law of liberty.” In other words, live like people that have been shown a lot of mercy, and—in response—show mercy. Live like a person who has been shown great love and impartial acceptance. Let that humble you enough to show to others the love and acceptance that you have already been given. Because, the truth is, when you just say that you have faith, but are not actively living it, then you feel something dying, giving over to cynicism, guilt and passive resignation. We have all felt that at times. And something is dying: faith is dying.

Early in this message I said that even if you were the only one who needed to be saved, Christ would have died for you and you alone. In your case, God’s mercy triumphed over his judgment. God felt that you were worth the sacrifice of the Son, of God himself. Don’t argue with God on that point. Accept this tremendous impartial love and mercy and let it influence the way you feel, treat and act towards others—knowing that God feels and did exactly the same for them.

Accept and represent that mercy from God in your life. Act liberated! I promise that as you act out your liberation by showing impartial acceptance, you will experience your eternal life in Christ here and now: blessings and joy even from the hardest of tasks. And you will believe all the more in the power of God to work through people one by one by one. I have seen and felt it, and I want that for each of you. When you encounter each one and show them the mercy you’ve been given, then you will find Christ in them; you will find everything.

All is One and One is All. Amen.

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