Today we are celebrating the namesake of our church. In fancy church language we are celebrating our Patronal Feast. A Patronal Feast is the occasion on which a parish annually honors the saint who was chosen as the Patron of the parish, in our case, St. James the Apostle.

James was the son of Zebedee and the brother to John the Evangelist. We know a little bit about James' early life. Scripture tells us that he was a fisherman when our Lord called him to be a disciple. Matthew's Gospel tells us that James and John were mending nets when they were called. Mark's account of the story gives us a little more insight. Mark describes the scene much the same way as Matthew does, however Mark mentions that James and John "left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men."¹ The fact that they had hired help meant that they were no ordinary fishermen. James seems to have come from a family that was wealthier than most in their community. But when Jesus called to James and John, they both left the lives they knew and were presumably somewhat successful at, and followed a man they barely knew.

The story of James' calling seems to be a theme for him on several different levels. First James seems to be full of zeal and ready to act at a moment's notice. He leaves his life of relative comfort to become a disciple to a man who tells his disciples that they would have to give up everything, even their lives, to follow him. So there must have been something about Jesus calling out to James. Something that must have said, "this guy is different, he is special."

But we also know that James' willingness to act was not always seen as a good thing. Jesus gave James and John the nickname "Boanerges"², which translated into the "Sons of Thunder."³ While James and his brother John were always ready to act, sometimes their plans weren't always thought all the way the through.

In Luke's Gospel, James asks for Jesus' permission to call down a rain of fire on a Samaritan village, after they had refused to receive Jesus and his disciples. We don't get to hear what Jesus' response to James was, but I wonder. I am sure that the Church, former seminary professors, and former Sunday school teachers would like me to say that Jesus calmly turned to James and patiently explained why he wouldn't do that. However, I have a picture in my head of Jesus looking at James with a dumbfounded look upon his face that seems to say, "have you not been listening to a word that I have been saying all this time!?" "Of course I'm not going to rain down fire on these people." And this seems to be another theme with James; he doesn't seem to always grasp what he is being told.

Our Gospel reading this morning is a good example of James simply not quite getting it. James' mother asks Jesus if her two sons can sit at the places of honor in the kingdom. At a table or other formal situations during this time period, the most important person was in the center. The 2nd most important person would sit on his right hand, followed in importance by the person sitting on the left. This is what James' mother is asking for. She wants Jesus to tell her, "Yes, your sons are my most important followers."

But Jesus directs his response back to James and John rather than their mother. "You don't really know what you are asking for." Jesus asks them if they are able to drink from the cup that he is drinking from. "We are able" is their response. They are looking to gain power, and their fellow Apostles become angry with them.

Jesus sees right through their power play, and uses wonderful foreshadowing in this passage to set them in their place. In Eucharistic imagery that is familiar to us, the cup that Jesus is referring to is the suffering that both He and the disciples will share. He is telling James and John that the place of honor, and really even the simple choice to follow him comes with a price, a price that James will eventually pay. The place of honor is not something to be asked for lightly.

It is interesting to note that we have this same story in Mark, but Mark has Jesus mention not only the cup, but also his baptism. Jesus asks the brothers if they are willing to be baptized into the same baptism he has been baptized into. Jesus seems to be saying that James, John and the other disciples will be sharing his current ministry of teaching, healing, and liberating⁴, and not only in his persecution and death.

And somewhere along the way, James gets it. We don't hear any more stories of James making silly requests like raining fire down on people, or seemingly not understanding totally what he is asking for. James appears to become one of Jesus' closest disciples, along with his brother John and Peter. The three were the only disciples that were present with our Lord at the Transfiguration as well as being present with Jesus during his final agony in Gethsemane.⁵

We don't hear much from Scripture about James after the death and Resurrection of Jesus. There are many legends centered around James, as is par for the course if you are a saint. Many legends have James being sent to Spain to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ there. Some biblical scholars believe that there may be some truth to this legend, citing Paul's reluctance to go somewhere where a church had already been established.

But what we do know is that James did eventually drink from the same cup that Christ had alluded to in our Gospel reading. Even though we don't get much background, we learn of James' death in the reading we heard from the Acts of the Apostles today. James died at the hands of King Herod for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for being a disciple of the Son of God. James became the first martyr of King Herod's suppression of the Palestine Christians.⁶

One legend states that James had come back to Jerusalem after being in Spain for some time. He was arrested after an accuser had turned him in for being a Christian. Of course being an Apostle he didn't recount his faith, but rather started preaching faith in Jesus Christ right then and there. He was ordered to be killed by beheading and his guards and accuser marched him to the place where he was going to die. On the way there, his accuser heard something that touched his heart, and James converted him. As James knelt waiting for the death blow to be struck, his accuser knelt beside him, confessed that he too now believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and kissed him on the cheek. The guard then killed them both with one slash of the sword.

The legend goes on to say that his body was taken up by angels and sailed on an unmanned boat back to Spain, where a rock sprung up and enclosed his relics. These relics were later found and carried to Saintiago de Compostela. In the Medieval period, Compostela was one of the three most holy and important pilgrimages that one could make. Many people today still flock there to see the relics of the Apostle.

Now we can never be certain of whether these legends are true or not, but we can see how a grain of truth is at the center of these stories. James was obviously a gifted preacher and touched many people who heard him speak about Jesus Christ.

We can see a lot of truth in the saint whose name we bear today. By his example we can see how God still acts in the world today. Even though James was sometimes full of misplaced zeal for his cause, as we saw in his asking for the rain of fire from heaven, God still used him. Yes, saints are holy people, but they are also people like you and I, full of contradictions and misgivings. We can look to the saints to be an example to us.

In his failed attempt to gain more power by asking for the place of honor, Jesus tells him that it is not in having power that is important. It is using that power for good that is important. "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not be to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."⁷ We, like James, are called to serve our God. We are called to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ, both in word and in action, something James can serve as a great example for us to follow.

A saint is not simply a canonized person who has been dead for hundreds of years, or an "elite" Christian whose faith we can never hope to replicate in our own lives. We can look to the saints in Lesser Feasts and Fasts as pillars of our faith, but saints are also every good and faithful Christian. We are surrounded by them at this very moment. Throughout the New Testament, the term "saints" meant all good and faithful Christians, not simply those who had been martyred or preceded us in death.

Paul addresses the saints in his letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, and Philippians, even when he was upset with them, he still calls them saints. Saints were, and continue to be not quite so perfect, but nor does God expected them to be perfect. Our look at St. James shows us exactly that. It is our belief in Christ makes us all saints as we are washed, sanctified, and justified "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11).⁸

Today, may we remember the example of Blessed James, and remember that it is we who are also called to be saints and to do the work of Christ in the world, now and always.

Amen

¹ Mark 1:20
² Mark 3:17
³ Dogget, Bill. "James the Elder, Apostle" New Proclamation: Commentary of Feasts, Holy Days, and Other Celebrations. (Fortress Press: Minneapolis: 2007), 151
⁴ Dogget, 153
⁵ Dogget, 151
⁶ Dogget, 152
⁷ Matthew 20:27-28
⁸ Armentrout