When God is having a joke with you
And how Philip and James give you full permission to have a nice quiet sandwich
On 1st May, the Church of England remembers St Philip and St James. They are always paired together because their posthumous remains arrived at Rome on the same day. They are not paired in Scripture like James and John, who were brothers. Wait, sorry, bad example. This James is not that James. It was a different James.
Wait again. Sorry. Not James, as in Jesus’s brother, who was also called James. Let me start again.
There are three Jameses in the New Testament.
James #1 The Great
The first James is the brother of John. He is one of Jesus’s inner ring of three disciples, along with John and Peter (who was called Simon). Oddly, Simon Peter’s brother Andrew was not brought into this tight group. One has to wonder how he felt about that, or whether Peter found it rather awkward.
This James had the honour of witnessing the Transfiguration in Mark 9. He also had to live with the shame of asking to sit next to Jesus in glory, along with his brother John in Mark 10. He went on to be known as James the Great, which rather negates the lesson of Mark 10. He was then part of the early church until he was slaughtered by King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12).
This James is patron saint of Spain. His remains are said to be at Santiago de Compostela and he is celebrated in England, at least, on 25th July.
If your Church is called St James’, this is probably the James you are looking for. But it’s not our James from 1st May.
James #2 Brother of Jesus
Also known as James the Just, this is the James who is the brother of Jesus. He did not believe in Jesus until after the resurrection. He went on to become a leader in the early church and is then prominent in the book of Acts of the Apostles, presiding over the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). He is a strong candidate to be the author of the Epistle of James. According to the traditions, he was martyred by being stoned to death by the Pharisees on order of High Priest Ananus ben Ananus. But this is not our James from 1st May either.
Some say this James is the next James. Or that the next James wrote the Epistle of James. We just don’t know.
James #3 The Less
This James we celebrate on 1st May is James, Son of Alphaeus. He is in all the lists of disciples in the gospels. And that’s it. He doesn’t say anything. I’m sure he gasped at all the miracles and scratched his head at all the parables like the others. But this James has no recorded words in the gospels. Smart guy. Whenever the other disciples spoke, they only revealed their ignorance.
In England, James’s day has been totally overshadowed by May Day celebrations. One can’t help but feel that he would have preferred it that way. So why not celebrate the day of St James the Less by not saying anything? Not tweeting. Not posting on Facebook. Not having the last word. Listen. Think. And listen some more.
Philip and the Bread
You could also bake a loaf bread on 1st May. That’s how you could remember Philip who is often portrayed holding two loaves of bread. That’s because he is one of the Twelve and features in John’s version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand:
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Imagine having 5000 people coming over for dinner. And you’ve got nothing. And Jesus wonders if Tesco Express has enough to feed them. Jesus is messing with Philip here. I love that.
Do you ever feel like Jesus is messing with you? Or having a joke with you? Maybe he’s giggling.
When God Was Having a Joke with Me
I had one of those a few months ago. I was meant to be attending a very important Zoom meeting involving very senior people at the Church of England – and I had been called away to unblock someone’s drain to avoid some serious flooding. I managed to get the grate off the drain and clear some debris. But in the murky water, I misjudged the location of the drain and put my foot into the hole. It consumed much of my leg and all of my wellington boot. The water poured over into my boot and I was soaked on a whole new level. At that moment, it felt like God was having a joke with me.
Philip is always portrayed with a loaf of bread as a reminder of the story. So why not commemorate the day of St Philip and St James with a quiet sandwich and think about the last time you looked like a clown? Was Jesus having a joke with you?
Don’t confuse Philip the Apostle with Philip the Evangelist, who preached the gospel to the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts. Two different Philips. Wow, this is complicated, isn’t it? But you can listen to an amusing version of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch here from my book The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer. You’ll hear how God is messing with Philip:
You can buy a signed copy of The Gospel According to Sitcom Writer from me. That would be a nice thing to do. That would help a writer in the chronically unprofitable business of selling words for money. And why not get The Sacred Art of Joking while you’re there? At the moment, you also get free access to my Water into Wine show which also features the Feeding of the Thousand.
A while back, I did a few interviews with people about parts of the Bible that make us laugh, and reflect on when we felt God is having a joke with us. This is the one that stands out from that series in terms of finding yourself in a situation that’s so scary and weird, it’s almost funny:
Jonah is funny. He is the butt of his own tale - makes me laugh uncomfortably (and wonder am I like that too??)