The Church of England celebrates Philip and James on the 1st May, so I’m two days late in posting this, but as it happens the Roman Catholic Church have actually moved their celebrations to 3rd May anyway. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I must admit I had quite a few questions up front before I got to the work of reflecting on Philip and James and you might have the same questions yourself:

First of all, which James are we celebrating today?

There are a few in the New Testament and the simplest answer is “all of them except John’s brother, the son of Zebedee.” This is because the three other James’s mentioned in the New Testament, viz. James ‘the younger/the less’ (Mark 15:40), James the Son of Alphaeus (who is mentioned in all the lists of Apostles) and James the brother of the Lord (understood in the broader sense of ‘relative’) have, for most of Church history, been understood to be one and the same person. To be honest, I need to do a bit more thinking about that, but I’ve always assumed that James the son of Alphaeus and James the brother of the Lord were two different people. I gave thanks for both on Monday.*

Why do Philip and James share a day?

Well, according to EWTN, a Roman Catholic news agency, their relics were brought to Rome at the same time and put in the same basilica – so if not in life then at least in death they are associated with one another and share a day.

This is perhaps not the most auspicious reason from a Reformed perspective, especially if, like me, you doubt that the purported relics are all they are made out to be. But don’t despair, because in God’s providence there’s one more link that Richard Bauckham notices in his work on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. In a nutshell, while the various lists of the Apostles in the New Testament don’t stick to the same order, they do consistently seem to list them in three groups of four, with Philip and James always in 5th and 9th place. So Philip and James may have led their respective fours.

These preliminary questions aside, what does Scripture show us about Philip and James? The readings for the day highlight several facets of the Apostolic legacy which are precious and worth gratefully reflecting upon.

At morning prayer, we remember the call of Philip. Except that when you read John 1:43-51, you get at least as much about the call of Nathaniel as you do Philip. This is because Philip, upon being called, immediately finds Nathaniel to share the news with him. Philip, then, is an Apostle whose witness reminds us of the importance of evangelism. His evangelism appears to be the natural overflow of his excitement at his own conversion and his love for Nathaniel (implied, I think, in the way he specifically seeks him out). His encouragement to Nathaniel to ‘Come and see’ models our evangelistic goal, not simply of winning people to a creed or a way of life, but to bring them to the source of those things, an encounter with the Lord Jesus.

If Philip encourages Nathaniel to come and see, sight also takes centre stage in the Evening Prayer reading, John 14:8-14. Here, it seems, Philip does not realise what he has already seen. He longs to be shown the Father – and is gently rebuked by the Lord. Anyone who has seen him has seen the Father. This is a more contemplative angle on Philip’s character. He longs for what has subsequently been termed the beatific vision, the joy of seeing the beauty of the Lord which is, in Christian tradition, the highest conceivable good. The juxtaposition is a challenge to the church. As an evangelist, Philip is not trying to win people to a threadbare gospel summary and a life of evangelistic activism – he thirsts for a soul satisfying contemplation of God. Equally, he is not so absorbed in contemplation that he loses the desire to spread the Gospel. He longs to share Christ and to contemplate him together with those he loves.

James is represented by the opening to his letter.** This letter, while deeply theological, is especially known and loved for its practical wisdom and concern that faith is expressed through works. So alongside the evangelistic and contemplative aspects of the apostolic witness, we also have a commitment to the active life of virtue and good works.

These key emphases of evangelism, contemplation of God and the active life of good works blend together to form a rich whole that few churches manage to live up to. But this feast day, on the surface a random throwing together of disparate elements, reminds us that all three are united in the apostolic witness.

O ALMIGHTY God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

*There are, of course, at least two Philips in the New Testament, but it’s much less confusing. We’re definitely remembering the Apostle Philip, who definitely isn’t the same person as the Deacon in the book of Acts.

**To add extra complexity, while most people who distinguish the Apostle from the brother of the Lord seem to attribute the letter to the brother, Calvin attributes it to the Apostle.