St James - Following, failing and faith
Today in the church calendar is the Feast Day of St James - James was the Galilean Fisherman who, along with his brother John, was one of those called by Jesus to give up everything and follow him. He seems to have enjoyed a privileged position in the group as one of Jesus’ inner circle. He was one of the disciples chosen to be with Jesus at the Transfiguration, at the healing of Jairus’ daughter and also then at the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus awaited his arrest. It is believed that James was eventually put to death in the year 44AD on the instructions of Herod Agrippa who believed that by killing off the Christian leaders, he could kill off the spread of the Christian Faith. How foolish Herod was to think that a faith was just about the people. Had that been the case then I’m sure that Christianity would never have survived and prospered as it has over the past 2000 years. The Christian faith, whilst heavily reliant on each one of us to act as witnesses for Jesus, relies on