Louder than Words
We like to think we do a good job acting on our faith, but are our actions truly speaking louder than our words?
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill', and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. - James 2:14-17
If combating evil in the world requires action, what type of action are we talking about?
I used to think the acts James is talking about in his letter are exactly the types of things he mentions here, like feeding the hungry and giving clothes to the needy, but there are other actions that can help as well.
Last night we attended the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving service in Rye. This year the service was help at Community Synagogue and it was very moving.
Clergy from all the houses of worship in Rye led us in thoughts, prayer and song, each reading from another's tradition, and what was apparent was how much they enjoyed being together, serving and worshiping together.
You could feel the fact that we had become a community.
It wasn't always like that. For years the Rye Women's Interfaith Committee has dutifully met and put on programs to engage the clergy and the community in working together, and those acts of faith have paid off.
Now I say this not just because at the end of the service there was a collection of money and canned goods for Caritas, our soup kitchen and food pantry. I say it because there was true joy in the faces of all who attended, and we have come to know each other on a level that no one would have expected had we not started attending these services.
If there was a theme for the night, it was building bridges rather than trenches, taken from the Christmas truce from World War I, where enemies got out of the trenches and spent time with each other, exchanging gifts of cigarettes and chocolate and playing make-shift soccer.
The Christmas Truce in 1914, during World War I, as depicted by the Illustrated London News.
We all came away with the belief that we can do this, come together and build bridges to get to know each other better.
Maybe we can't do it on a large scale yet, but these small scale models are working, so why not do them?
More to come...