James 1:17-27
Both the reading from James, with its emphasis on being doers of the word, and today's collect, with its hope for the "fruits of good works," remind us that being a Christian is as much about praxis as it is about belief. As Christians, we are defined and identified both by what we believe and also by what we do.
What we are called and inspired to do is found in the baptismal covenant (Book of Common Prayer, p. 304) and in this prayer by William Barclay, offered under the heading, "To Live as We Ought."
O God, tomorrow we go back to the world and to all its work and its activities. We remember that Jesus prayed, not that his friends should be taken out of the world but that they should be kept from the evil of the world. Help us to live in this world as we ought to live.
Help us...
To do the world's work faithfully and well;
To enjoy the world's pleasures wisely and temperately;
To value the world's goods, without becoming enslaved by them and without despising them;
To resist the world's temptations bravely and resolutely;
Always to remember that the greatest importance of the world is that it is the school and the training-ground for the still greater life which some day we shall live.
Help us to live in the world, not as those whose interest never look beyond the horizons of the world, but as those who always remember that in you we live and move and have our being, and that we are pledged to follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ (A Barclay Prayer Book.)
