Monday Morning: Day Late, Dollar Short

Homespun theology from James continues this week.  How do we tackle the question of “class favoritism” in church?  “Class”?  Do I mean like my favorite grade in school?  Or is this some odd application of Marxist thought about class warfare?  Or is it simpler than that? 

We are starting up a new worship in a community, inviting people in to come join us, and we show favoritism to the more obviously well-to-do, because they are the better donors, the more influential, the better heeled in the community?

This is an uncomfortable topic.  Do churches really judge people based on their outward appearance?  Well, James certainly believes that we do.  And he is not shy about speaking up on the subject, “Do you, with your acts of favoritism, really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?”  Whoa, James is questioning the faith of someone who makes these kinds of judgments about people? 

Seriously, the poor, smelly person that I would prefer to be upwind from, over and against the well dressed, socially appropriate individual?  James is actually saying that the validity of our faith is on the line based on how we treat people differently?  Dirty clothes versus fine clothes?  What about their language?  What if they are ‘foreign’?  Immigrant?  Addict?  What about the color of their skin?  Their accent? 

Yah, so James is pretty direct in his words.  The law: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Then, verse 9: ‘⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.’  And if you break one piece of the law, you break the whole thing.  In the eyes of God, this puts the person who shows partiality on par with adulterers and murders.

Homespun theology, straightforward thinking about God.  It also carries with it an uncomfortable directness.  Does James really say all that?  The passage is below, James 2: 1-13:

“My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? ²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

To sound colloquial in a way my parents did, “How about them apples?”

Peace

Pastor Peter