October 23, 2003
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (NRSV)
James 2:14–17

We can think about faith as a call to think or feel or indeed to believe certain things. This passage however, raises a far higher expectation by asking that our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs create tangible results. Maybe it is God’s way of challenging us by asking a question: “What have you done for the world lately?”

Faith is less about what we do for ourselves, but rather an active faith shows how we commit our time, talent, and financial resources for the benefit of others. We can believe in the value of a good education for all or we can tutor a child from the inner city. We can think about how important it is to feed hungry people or we can volunteer to cook for the homeless. We can be proud of all that Fourth Church does in the community or we can dedicate our time and money to enable the church and its members to do even more.

Right now we have a significant opportunity with Project Light to make the vision for the future of Fourth Church a reality. We can choose to support the Capital Campaign for Project Light as part of our personal plan to make our faith an action-oriented one.

Dear heavenly Father, open our eyes to the many opportunities for serving all members of our community. Help us to be brave to do things that we haven’t considered doing before. Guide us as we struggle to make our faith an active faith. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Written by Jan Feldman, Lay Leader