Sermon
26th July 26
There is more than one St James, so we need to be sure whose feast we are celebrating today. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus called four fishermen whom he met at the Sea of Galilee. They were two pairs of brothers: Simon Peter and his brother Andrew; and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Three of these go on to form an inner circle. It is they who are closest to Jesus and whose presence is described in the Gospels at two of the most significant events in Jesus’ ministry. Thus, when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain top, we are told that he is accompanied by Peter, James and John. Similarly, the accounts of his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane record the same three with him, albeit unable to stay awake!
Our first reading describes the beheading of James by King Herod Agrippa the first around 44AD. Because he was one of the first disciples to respond to Jesus’ call “Follow me”, because he was one of that inner circle closest to Jesus and, because he was presumably the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom, he is known as “St James the Great”.
This is the stuff of which we can be certain. However, lots of stories were subsequently told about him. In some of them, he spends time in Spain on a spectacularly unsuccessful mission: winning seven converts by one account, and only one by another! Furthermore, it is claimed that his body is ultimately brought for burial in north west Spain. St James in Spanish is Sant’ Iago, and you may have heard of, or even visited, Santiago di Compostela.
It has become one of the most famous pilgrimage destinations in Christendom. To this day, thousands walk or cycle the “camino”, using various approved pilgrimage routes, often setting out from France. Indeed, nowadays, it is a pilgrimage made not just by Christians but by all sorts and conditions of folk. A few days ago, a nurse at St Thomas’s told me about her recent camino.
Pilgrims have often brought back souvenirs: initially to prove that they had successfully completed their journey. After Compostela, pilgrims might continue walking westward along the Camino Finisterre until they arrived at the coast as Fisterra, once believed to be the end of the world, where they would collect a scallop shell from the beach. And that scallop shell became the symbol of pilgrimage.
Thus, St James became the Patron Saint of pilgrims. Several years ago, I worked with others on a set of seven windows, depicting saints that were linked in various ways with my then Parish. With our regular Parish pilgrimages, which sadly never included Compostela, I chose to include St James, representing him with the scallop shell, the pilgrims’ stick, and water bottle.
It is to this theme of pilgrimage, in our case to Assisi, that we shall return over the next few weeks as we prepare to mark the 800th anniversary of our Patron, St Francis.
Amen
