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This Sunday, Bethany Lutheran Church will be "Walking with James." That may be confusing, since there is more than one person with that name in the New Testament, like James Zebedee, John's brother and one of the Twelve. Or the other Apostle named James. James of Jerusalem is the person we are walking with, this Sunday.
James is known as the "brother of the Lord." There is a divergence of Christian thinking as to whether that means born of Mary or a step brother or cousin of Jesus. That question is not as interesting to me as the fact that James and other brothers are said not to believe in Jesus (John 7:5) and yet, after Pentecost, James is an important leader in the Jerusalem church. Somewhere between these two times, it seems James has a conversation with the Resurrected Lord of all, who also is his brother.
In the first chapter of the letter of James, the church receives some important wisdom to live by. Much of the teaching in the letter lines up with the "Sermon on the Mount" preached by Jesus. The first chapter of the letter of James gives us a summary and a lot of inspiration for our daily walk of faith. Inspiration... and maybe a gut punch (as per the Bible Project's introduction to the letter).
The worship video below begins with the sermon:
