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Rev. David Horton 

James 1:1 

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings.

 

Reflection:

Today’s devotional is brought to you by Adele. James, too. But mostly Adele.

The singer and songwriter Adele released “Hello” in 2015. It’s a song about a lover who keeps calling her partner and leaving voicemails long after the two have broken up. They’re not together anymore but that doesn’t stop one of them, the singer, from reminiscing about what they used to have. The singer keeps calling the other person’s number. They never pick up, so she leaves what feels like a thousand messages, essentially saying, “Hello. It’s me. I can’t stop thinking about you. Do you ever think of me? I have things I should have told you a long time ago but I didn’t, so I guess I’ll leave them for you here, if you ever listen to these. At least I can say that I tried.”

           

Hello from the other side

I must’ve called a thousand times

To tell you I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done

But when I call, you never seem to be home

 

James is one of the brothers of Jesus. He led the church in Jerusalem after Peter left to plant more churches (see Acts 15). The church of Jesus Christ is in diaspora, meaning scattered. The scattering isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s a result of the gospel taking root in towns and cities “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) and the apostles starting churches wherever the Spirit carried them. The church had to scatter in order to grow.

But growth comes with a price. Whenever you scatter, you end up missing people. You wish you could see your friends and family, be in the same place and reconnect. This feeling became far too familiar in the pandemic. We were all in diaspora, we had to scatter to survive, and we missed our people. Add to that feeling the absence of smartphones, Internet, and cars, and you know how James feels. He misses his friends, and it would take days, if not months, to go and see them.

So James writes a letter, the ancient equivalent of leaving a voicemail. The letter is to the “twelve tribes”, a short-hand for all the churches in the scattered but not segmented body of Christ. This voicemail would have been forwarded from one church to the next, and in it, James says what he would like to say in person if they could all be together. He doesn’t know if anyone will ever read this. He doesn’t know if they’ll be at home to receive it and read it. But he has wisdom to give as a patriarch of the church. Will his voice be heard as what it is—instructive, constructive, and longing to be with his friends? Who knows? At least he can say that he tried.

 

Prayer:

Loving God, as we study the Book of James, give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hands to practice what your servant, James, has to say. These are wonderful words of life. Help us to receive them. In the name of Christ. Amen.