St. James Day III

Comfortable Words

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

— 1 Corinthians 15:3

When I encountered these words from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, I was immediately transported nearly fifty years into the past, to St. James Episcopal Church in Dexter, Michigan, where I served as organist from 1977 to 1980. I remember the beautiful consistency of the Sunday morning services, the familiar prayers, the responses, and the passages of Scripture repeated week after week. Those words became part of me. Long after I moved on to other churches and other forms of worship, they remained embedded in my Christian understanding. And this morning, Paul's declaration that Christ died for our sins brought back one of those familiar passages, although I couldn't immediately remember exactly where it appeared. It would begin with (and yes . . . I remember this after all this time): "Hear the word of God to all who truly turn to Him."

As it turns out, the words I remembered come from another of Paul's letters: “This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). In the traditional Episcopal liturgy, this is one of several passages known as the Comfortable Words, proclaimed following the confession of sin and absolution as the congregation prepares to celebrate Holy Communion. What an extraordinary assurance to hear, Sunday after Sunday! Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Not simply to teach, inspire, or establish a religious institution, but to save. And what an extraordinary privilege it was for a young organist to become so familiar with those words that they would remain with him for a lifetime.

During those years I enjoyed many conversations with the rector, Fr. Harry Schaefer, an excellent teacher and mentor. I remember him observing that Christians are constantly proclaiming, “Jesus saves!” But what, he wondered, does someone outside the faith make of that declaration? Jesus saves us—from what? Fr. Harry didn't always provide the answers to his questions. He wanted me to think, to wrestle with them, and to develop an understanding of my own. It was a lesson in teaching as well as theology, and one that has stayed with me ever since. We Christians can become so accustomed to our familiar expressions that we forget how puzzling they may sound to someone who hasn't spent years hearing them.

And today's reading provides a remarkable answer. Paul doesn't stop with the declaration that Christ died for our sins. He goes on to proclaim that Christ was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to Peter, the Twelve, more than five hundred believers, and then James, before appearing to the other apostles and finally to Paul himself. Here is the James whose feast we are observing, the brother of Jesus who became a leader of the Jerusalem church. We aren't told the details of his encounter with the risen Christ, but Paul considered it important enough to include in his account. And later in this same chapter, Paul identifies death as the last enemy to be destroyed. Christ came to save sinners, yes—but the Resurrection reveals the astonishing reach of that salvation. Death itself will not have the final word.

Consider what this meant for James and the earliest Christian community. Their message wasn't merely a collection of moral instructions or a new set of religious requirements. They proclaimed that Jesus, who had been crucified, was alive. The Resurrection was central to the good news they carried into the world. And perhaps this helps explain James's concern, which we considered earlier this week, that Gentiles turning toward God should not be burdened with unnecessary requirements. The Church existed to bear witness to something far greater than its own customs. It had been entrusted with the news that God was reconciling humanity to himself through Christ, and that even death could not defeat his purposes.

I wonder how often I lose sight of that extraordinary message amid the familiar routines of Christian life. How often do I allow disagreements about doctrine, worship, morality, or politics to become more prominent than the good news that brought us together in the first place? And when I tell someone that Jesus saves, am I prepared to explain what I mean, or have I simply repeated words that have become comfortable through familiarity? Fr. Harry's question still deserves an answer. For me, the comfort of those ancient words is not merely that my sins may be forgiven, but that the God who raised Jesus from the dead has promised a future beyond death itself. That is good news worth handing on.

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