St John Baptist, 25.7.10, St James by Revd Jan van der Lely

Now I want some volunteers. Would you put your hand up if you are willing to volunteer please – we are going to need at least 6 people…
(No-one puts up their hand)  oh, no-one seems willing –I wonder why – maybe you want to know what’s involved before committing yourself?
Because usually we are quite risk averse aren’t we. After all I could be asking for volunteers to set out the tables for lunch. Or to man the shop at the weekend. Or to start up a new Sunday School age group. Or to abseil down the church tower for the Campaign Appeal. Or – anything really. Could be a brief simple thing or a really big commitment. So we normally do exercise some caution, we do a quick inner risk assessment, and once the size of the issue is known, we then count the cost before committing.
I wonder how far James understood what he was getting himself into when he responded to Jesus’ call – follow me’ – and immediately left his nets and followed Jesus A total change of lifestyle, a huge risk. Probably not much, at least he got more than he bargained for. And when Jesus started talking about suffering and dying James seems to have lost it rather.
‘Ah well I was meaning to ask – me and my brother John, we are special to you, right? Almost the first you called, so –well, we will get a special place in heaven, in the kingdom, won’t we?’
Ironically Matthew places this conversation just after the parable of the vineyard, where Jesus says the first will be last and the last first, it’s about God’s ranking system being somewhat different to ours, even opposite to ours. Then Jesus started talking about his expectation of arrest and torture and death – and what he gets back is this request to sit on his right and left in the kingdom. It really emphasises how isolated he was and how little the disciples understood at the time.
By the way, in Matthew it’s their mother who voices the request but that is almost certainly a literary device – Jesus replies to the two men themselves, and in Mark, the brothers make the request themselves. 
‘You will indeed drink my cup’ Jesus told them. We know how this came true for James. As Acts tells us, he was executed under Herod Agrippa, in about AD44 – just 11 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. So we can surely assume that James had come a very long way, spiritually, in between those events. To move from his preoccupation with hierarchy and position, to the point where he gave his life for his faith.
Maybe he went a long way geographically as well! According to tradition, after the resurrection James went to Spain to spread the gospel there, and it was on his return to Jerusalem that he was put to death. Spain was part of the Roman Empire so it would have been a possible journey though a very long one.
Then legend has it that after his death, his followers placed his body in a boat in the sea, and it was carried, by wind and angels around to Finisterre at the far point of Spain. From there local people carried his body to a tomb nearby. The site was rediscovered some centuries later and by the early middle ages, the shrine of Santiago de Compostela was an important place of pilgrimage, ranking close to Rome and Jerusalem.
There is not much evidence for the truth of any of this story but the pilgrimage to Santiago has had a revival in recent years and is very popular today. Between 100.000 and 150,000 walk the Camino to Santiago each year – there are many different routes and different lengths but the official rule is that you must walk the last 100km, or cycle the last 200kms to qualify for a certificate as a pilgrim.  
James is patron saint of pilgrims, and the scallop shell, said to have been used to scoop water from streams by pilgrims, is his symbol.
We use a scallop shell in baptisms; the start of our spiritual pilgrimage of life. The Feast of St James is an appropriate time to think about where we each are on that pilgrimage. How far we have travelled; whether we are still travelling, or maybe have got stuck, or maybe going round in circles. What exactly is going on in our spiritual journey.
Speaking of going round in circles, I can’t resist a little plug at this point for the labyrinth. This is a form of pilgrimage, and in fact in medieval times, cathedral labyrinths were used as  pilgrimage for those who could not afford to go as far as Santiago or Jerusalem. The journey is the thing, rather than the arrival, on a pilgrimage, hence the labyrinth winds in and out taking a long time to reach the centre, although you could stride across that floor space in no time. If you have not yet walked our labyrinth, do take the time to do so. It is a lot more manageable than 100km walk to Santiago!  It has inspired a lot of interest from our visitors; the leaflets disappear at a rapid rate and the comments in the book show how much people have gained from it.
A labyrinth encourages us to reflect on where we are, what direction we are travelling in, whether we are moving towards God or further away, to take an overview of what is going on for us, looking back and looking forward. The symbols used in the labyrinth have many possible meanings, and the leaflet provided suggests some but you may find a symbol speaks to you in another way.
A pilgrimage is a good way to learn the humility that James had to learn. It’s a leveller – all suffer from blisters, share the same simple accommodation, walk the same paths. It is not a race, with winners and losers. The journey is the thing; travelling slowly and reflectively gets you further than racing off and burning out. And the spiritual journey is like that too. It’s not about competition, being first in the kingdom, and so on. Sitting quietly in the labyrinth contemplating a stone or a bowl of water may bring us to an insight that we would never get in years of rushing about. As I am a prime rusher –about, I am telling you just what I need to hear. But probably most of us make the mistake of not spending enough time sitting quietly contemplating, and valuing the process as well as the result.
 James wanted an assurance of the end result before he had travelled the road very far. He wasn’t given it: he had to do a lot more travelling; and so do we. Let us continue on the Way together.