NEW TESTAMENT: James 5: 13 - 20 (RCL)

Jame 5:13 (NRSV) Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. 17 Eli'jah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 4: 13 - 17, 5: 7 - 11 (Can. BAS)
James 5: 1 - 6 (Roman Catholic)

Jame 4 (NRSV) 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. 5:1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. 4 Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.
7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

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v1. James directs his words to the rich, not to the wealthy as such, but to the unrighteous who, through their exploitation of the poor, have grown fat on the suffering of others. James tells them that they might as well start lamenting now because what goes around, comes around.
v2-3, James has a word of judgment for the unrighteous rich, a judgment that is even now beginning to bite. For a first century man the symbols of wealth were fine clothing and a bulging purse. Yet, wealth is transitory, it dissipates before our very eyes. Even worse, wealth stolen from the poor will condemn the rich in the coming day of judgment. Why hoard wealth for the a coming day when it will only serve as evidence for the prosecution?
v.4. In the following verses James details the charges against the arrogant rich, First, not only have they failed to show compassion toward the poor, they have actually exploited them. The evil rich have used the sweat of the poor to gain wealth for themselves. They have not paid just wages. The law of God demands a just recompense for a worker's expended effort. To do otherwise is to cause a hurt which, in the end, reaches the ear of God. The Scriptures are clear on this issue and thus the wealthy have no excuse. "He murders his neighbor who deprives him of his living, and he who defrauds a hireling of his wages is a shedder of blood"

erses 7-9: Three references to the coming of Christ stand in contrast to the preceding passage on seeking riches in vain. [NOAB]
Verse 7: “Be patient”: The verb indicates self-restraint, which enables the sufferer to refrain from retaliation or precipitous action. This phrase summarizes the whole section. Be patient not only when faced by outrageous injustice (vv. 4-6) but in the ordinary trials of life (vv. 9, 12-14, 19). [NJBC]
Verse 7: “the coming of the Lord”: For the second coming of the Lord, see also 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8-9; Matthew 24:3; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:28. [NJBC]
Verse 7: “the early and the late rains”: Deuteronomy 11:14 and Joel 2:23 mention both rainy seasons. [NJBC]
Verse 8: “Strengthen your hearts”: 1 Thessalonians 3:13 says :”... may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints”. [NJBC]
Verse 8: “the coming of the Lord is near”: See also Philippians 4:5 (“... The Lord is near”); Hebrews 10:25 (“as you see the Day approaching”), 37 (“... in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay”); 1 John 2:18 (“... it is the last hour! ...”); Revelation 22:10 (“... the time is near ...”), 12 (“I am coming soon”), 20. [NJBC]
Verse 9: Note the abrupt change to seeing the coming of the Lord as that of a judge. [NJBC]
Verse 10: “As an example ... take the prophets”: The prophets are represented as martyrs: see also Matthew 23:29-31. In Acts 7:42, Stephen quotes Amos: “‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?’”. [NJBC]

h/t montreal.anglican.org

GOSPEL: Mark 9: 38 - 50 (RCL)
Mark 9: 38 - 43, 45, 47 - 48 (Roman Catholic)

Mark 9:38 (NRSV) John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
42 "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
49 "For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."


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The disciples have argued over who of them is the greatest. Jesus has told them not to seek position or prestige. Now he rebukes them for attempting to stop an exorcist curing in his name. Jesus explains his tolerance (v. 39): such a person will be slow to speak ill of him. God does work through those who are not followers of Jesus. V. 40 generalizes this, in the form of a proverb. The “reward” (v. 41) is entry into the Kingdom and the blessed state of union with God awaiting us there. Those who treat Jesus’ followers with kindness will be so rewarded.

On the other hand, putting an obstacle (“stumbling block”, v. 42) in the way of immature Christians (“little ones”), causing them to sin, will lead to condemnation on Judgement Day. (The “great millstone” was drawn by a donkey in grinding wheat; “the sea” was the place of chaos.) Vv. 43-47 speak of actions by members of the community, the body. Anyone who shakes the faith of others (“causes you to stumble”), however he or she does it, should be cast out, for the sake of the community. Hell was seen as the place of unquenchable fire and “where their worm never dies” (v. 48), per Isaiah 66:24. Discipleship is demanding. In vv. 49-50, “salt” has three meanings:
# in v. 49, it means purified, as ore is purified to metal in a furnace; before Christ comes again, we will be purified through persecution and suffering;
# In v. 50a, “salt” is a seasoning agent; the disciples are the salt of the earth, the agents of spirituality; if we lose our effectiveness in proclaiming God’s word, what use are we?
# In v. 50b, “salt” is distinctive character: this matters, but so does harmony in the community.


Verse 42: “little ones”: This may be a reference to the child/servant of vv. 36-37 or to the exorcist.

Verse 43: “hell”: The Greek word is Gehenna. This was the valley of Hinnon (ge’Hinnon) outside Jerusalem where garbage (rubbish) was gathered and burned. According to 2 Kings 23:10, Hinnon had been the site of child sacrifice: see also Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5-6. It provided a physical reminder of the place of eternal punishment. See 1 Enoch 27:2; 90:24-26; 2 Esdras 7:36. [JBC]

Verses 43-47: Some scholars see these verses as referring to short-comings within an individual, rather than of the effect of members on the community. The “hand” is often the member of the body that does the wrong deed; the “foot” goes in the direction of temptation (in Jewish teaching, a moral life is spoken of as a journey); per Job 31:1, the eye can provoke one to sin. The message is: Do not fail to control your own actions and impulses; God will punish such undisciplined behaviour.

Verses 44, 46: In some manuscripts these verses are present and are the same as v. 48; however, they are omitted from the most reliable manuscripts. [JBC]

Verse 47: “to enter the kingdom of God” is to live. See 10:15, 23-25.




Note that the NRSV and most other modern translations omit vs. 44 & 46.