Faith & Works

I've been preaching my way through the letter of St. James at Palo and it has reminded me that the Church has come a long way in the last 2,000 plus years.  In some ways, we've remained amazingly consistant with what the Apostles and Early Church Fathers intended.  In other ways, we've let inertia and reaction to other Christian groups (Catholics not wanting to emphasize that they aren't Protestans and vice versa; along with countless other such action/reactions) take us in directions that we aren't even fully aware of.
The letter of James has a section in Chapter 2 that focuses on the absolute necessity of keeping Faith & Works (the KJV word for it; deeds, actions, etc.) TOGETHER.  James makes it very clear that he believes that "faith without works is dead"....And yet, in response to the corruption of the Church of the Middle Ages, Martin Luther felt it was necessary to emphasize "sola fide" (faith alone); in response, the Catholic Church was pushed (or pushed itself) even further in the direction of working for salvation.  In both cases, the danger of divorcing Faith from Works was very real (and in some circles remains so today)...Neither vision of Christianity is correct.  We cannot be Christ-like simply by what we believe (Faith alone) and we cannot be justified before God without faith in Christ (Works alone)...Much of the debate and animosity within the Church (universal; that includes Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic) arises from our failure to understand that we've spent the last 500 years emphasizing the two NECESSARY aspects of Christian faith.  We've acted as if the two can be torn apart and get us to Heaven on their own.  In doing so we've lost sight of the warning of James, No man can be justified by works alone, and faith without deeds is dead.