Saint James Blog

James 2:1-17. The first section of this passage is about favoritism, about the church not showing favoritism towards people who have more wealth. Of course, common sense tells us that we’ll certainly reap more benefits from coddling the wealthier folks (they’ve got more to give to the church). We are not meant to be about such shallow interests. Each of us matters.

What about this passage says something to our faith community? Is there some kind of favoritism we show- financial, some other form?

I have found yet another challenge to doing no harm. The newness, the novelty, of paying attention to every action has worn a bit and so I completely forget that doing no harm is part of what I am trying to do (or not do as the case may be). This does not mean I will give up but it does mean that I am coming to understand more the need for accountability, a group of people to hold me to that standard. John Wesley had it right when he required people to be part of a small group setting and to hold one another to the standards of faith. No one is checking up on me but myself and while I try, I am not always being successful.

Reminders and accountability seem important to the process. So I must find a way to either be accountable and remember or I will have to be satisfied with only occasionally being aware enough to avoid doing harm.

It becomes clearer each day that doing no harm requires a real attentiveness to what’s going on in me. It also requires that I keep the “do-no-harm” thought before me. As I have noted before, I keep catching myself AFTER I have done harm, especially with my words and thoughts. I thought the “do-no-harm” plan was about catching myself BEFORE I did the harm.

And what about catching myself doing nothing when the situation requires action? Is it doing harm when I do nothing when something is called for? Those are more rhetorical questions than actual questions; I am coming to see that not doing something thought ought to be done is just as harmful as doing something that ought not to have been done. Ugh! So I am trying to pay attention to both my action and inaction, the words or lack thereof, and my thoughts (and non-thoughts?). Rather than getting easier over time, I am realizing just how complex it is to try and do no harm.

All this said, I am not giving up just realizing that sometimes what appears simple become more complex the deeper one goes.

Since I’ve challenged myself and everyone in the congregation to doing the first of Wesley’s general rules, I’ve found that it is not nearly as easy as it sounds. (Okay, I never thought that is was going to be easy but I didn’t anticipate the twists!) I reported previously that the first days seemed to be going just fine until the evening when I had an argument with my daughter which in and of itself is not harm; it was what I said toward the end of the argument that was harmful. Each successful days held its challenges but overall, the big challenge seemed to be to keep the rule, “Do no harm,” in my consciousness so I would be able to at least have a chance of not doing harm.

Here’s what I am discovering: the doing-no-harm-in-my-actions part is becoming a little better (with some notable relapses!). The doing-no-harm-in-my-words part is seemingly an off-and-off-again experience, at times being relatively easy and at at times being downright horrible. Being a communicator by nature and trade means that I can effectively use words to build up and evidently just as effectively to tear down- not good. I’ll keep at it.

What I am discovering that is most disburbing to me is the ease with which I do-harm-with-my-thoughts! I am dismayed by how easily a judgmental and ugly thought can jump in there. Oh I may refrain from saying that thought or doing the thought but it is still there. I was sitting in Stabucks the other day and I felt myself drowning in harmful thoughts and that is not good. So I am praying. I am trying to catch myself before I let my mind wonder to those mean places. I have not yet been able to rein in that behavior but by God’s grace (isn’t that always the key?!?!), I see an awareness rising and a transformation beginning.