06.28.2009 James 2 - Showing Partiality (NOT!)

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July 18 – Family Fun day

Lord, we thank You for this day – You are a gracious God – as we sing, it is because of Your love and what You have done for us – You have put a new song in our heart – not the same songs we sang becore we knew You. We are so grateful that You have come that we might have life and a relationshipwith You – to be saved from our sin and into relationship with the God who loves us. Touch our hearts,; speak to our hearts – we desire to be different – every day – every step. In Your name we pray.
Today – we will look at James 2.
My brother works for an airfreight shipping company – and has lots of frequent flier miles. He flew us to our parents. Going through security – was really backed up. He has some special status – where they could just blitz through the security. Wow – that’s cool – you could get used to that.

Think about going to a Cavs game. If you bought your ticket – you are about 400 feet up. The tickets right by the floor cost about a months salary. Then you have the club seats. Then you have the boxes. They have televisions! If the game is boring, you can watch something more interesting. Even though we don’t have a class/caste system – we have divided people up by status.
This convertible comes flying by – HRDWRK – letting everyone know how he got it. Thursday Farrah Fawcett died. But then Friday – Michael Jackson died – and that is all that has been on the news since then.
Yesterday, I went to the Celebration of Life for Riley Russell – Carol Reynolds’ dad.

Class envy –
James 2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism. 2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ]

In James’ day – it was different from today – there was extreme poverty and those who had extreme wealth; we have a huge middle class – they did not have that.
In the world, 55% live on less than $2/day.
In America, the average American lives on $105/day. Look at the difference. We make up less than 10% of the world’s population. In James – it was more similar to that. The culture bestowed honor and power to the rich – shame and oppression to the poor. Attitudes of culture begin to infiltrate the church. There is a class system developing that James needs to deal with – the development of the cultural class system taking place in the church.

2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with [an attitude of] personal favoritism.
Don’t receive someone according to their face – making judgments based on external appearance. How often do we do that? Based on outward appearance? The car they drive? The clothes they wear – tattoos they do or don’t have. The church should be the place we leave our social status at the door – there are to be no distinctions. A person’s financial ability and resources – cultural – is left outside and we don’t see one another based on those things. In reality – even though we don’t have a class system in the US – it is easy to look at people based on cultural status.

James is talking about the guy who comes in with fine clothes – and a gold ring – flaunting it. And he talks about one in dirty clothes – it is all he has. Then you pay special attention to the rich one…you sit here! How often do we do it in our hearts? “sit at my footstool” – shows subjection to someone – it was making the poor feel of less value – a system of control.

2: 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Distinctions – separated people based on different issues. We probably don’t do it as much with financial issues – but what are the ways that we make distinctions in the church? When we do that, we are judges with evil motives – that is convicting. People looking for personal gain. If we get this guy in our church, we could build a new church building. Or reputation – the rich have influence – you want to rub shoulders because it makes you feel important. It is an attitude of superiority. We think, “I am a better Christian because of this´- We are looking for ways to make ourselves superior – and God condemns and condemns it. James is going after it – a judge with evil motives –t here is not an indifference.

5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

In James’ day – the overwhelming number of those in the church were poor. Today, the majority are upper-to middle-class. Even large churches in the inner city – it is the upper middle class coming in to that service. But when you look at the whole world – the overwhelming majority are poor – because the come from China, Africa, Central and South America…
Cindy and I have been reading “The Hole in Your Gospel” – by the president of World Vision (?) – the statistics are shocking
Jesus’ gospel – his first comments – declaring good news to the poor, marginalized – those on the edge. That is how the church has been until recently
James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?

There is something here that we don’t get so much – there is an oppression that wealth brings – this doesn’t mean that all rich people are oppressive – but there is something about wealth that brings oppression. People with wealth have to be cautious because it creates an attitude of control.

My friend Larry is in a church in Cincinnati – there is a man in the church - an elder who literally built the church. Literally – his construction company and his money. He is very wealthy. Having built the church – he feels like he owns the church. He uses that to control the church. Larry is a man of righteousness – “I’ve started noticing – there are those leaving the church” – and he discovered that this wealthy gentleman did not like some things going on in the church – so the wealthy man was sitting down with the volunteers and being critical of them. So Larry sat down with the wealthy man – no one has ever confronted him – so now the wealthy man wants Larry out!

A significant temptation comes with wealth – to try to rule and control others.

James 2: 8 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.
This is interesting – the Golden Rule and all that… but look at what he says:
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin [and] are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Having favorites/being partial/making distinctions – is a rejection of “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
James takes Jesus’ foremost commandment – and says, in practicality – if you are sizing someone up, you are not obeying the Great Commandment. When we do this – we are not leaving our status at the door. If we are not leaving our status at the door, then the church is not the church and fulfilling the purpose of the church. That is what is unique about the church. The most unique thing about the church – for the first time in history, people are one. Neither slave nor free, male or female – we are of the same value. Nothing diminishes that. No one is less than the other.
At the conference – it was a bit different – instead of main speakers giving messages trying to rally the troops – Panels of pastors shared about what God was doing in their church. One of them is our daughter/sister church – TheRockCleveland – up in Garfield Heights - about 1.5 blocks from the city of Cleveland – and they have done a lot to reach out. They open up their basketball courts to neighbors – but they have to have the police out often.
Tues/Thur – they have bread available. And they have dozens of people lining up and they come in and give them the bread and a little message.
The USPS has a food drive and it is given to their church to distribute. They have all these programs to give to those in need.
There was another guy who had moved near downtown Minneapolis – and they have taken in troubled teens with their family.
If you have your Bible open – the verse right before chapter 2…
James 1: 27 This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of [our] God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, [and] to keep oneself unstained by the world.
This is what it means to be a Christian: to help people in need.
Our neighborhood is different from Dave’s neighborhood. Many of you go to Urban Vision or Haven of Rest. But know that our neighborhood has significant and real needs. Sometimes we are unable to open our eyes to those needs.
One is the area of single parents. It is an opportunity. I’d like to put forth a challenge – we need people who are willing to step up to this – it has to come from within the church for you to recognize a need and then the church can come along and support it. It has to be a vision – a desire, a calling- in your heart. In the church here we have a lot of single parents.
One church had a special Car Maintenance Day for single moms – for them to get their car serviced and they can pamper the single moms – giving them a gift bag. In our community, that is a significant need.
How do you do it? There is a church in Seattle – the pastors said, “Someone recognizes a need – comes to the pastoral staff – and we tell them to come back in a month with a vision and method of how you would like us to help.”

Chris Martin has a few sons – and they got involved as Big Brothers. One of the kids they were working with – had to testify against his dad. They were disappointed when the dad only got 7 years.

Tuesday night we did Prayer on the Porch.
For me – it was an elderly neighborhood – and they were all 80 year old women in their nightgowns – it was awkward (for both!). But I was faithful.

But there were some amazing stories from this time – like the woman who lost her husband a few months ago in Iraq. Another – a husband had just lost his job.

We are going to be judged by “love your neighbor as yourself” – Yes, there is the salvation by faith thing – and James gets into it. We say, we are saved by Grace – not by works, so I don’t have to work. But this is why James is in the Bible! We need a balance.
13 For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mercy is the emotion that overwhelms us when we witness significant human need.
There are 2 responses we have to significant human need
1) We become judges – we think someone must have done something wrong to be in that situation. “I got this because of HRDWRK – if they worked hard, they wouldn’t be in that situation.” We need to show mercy. We don’t like to see – because we don’t like the feeling that moves us to do something.

St. Francis of Assisi – Found the sight and smell of lepers to be repulsive. Normally, he could spot them from afar and give them a wide berth. But once – he came upon a roadside leper and something entirely different occurred. We all have lepers in our lives – and we tend to avoid them. Compassion rose from within - he felt compelled to embrace the wretched man, sores, smells, and all, and giving him alms and even giving a holy kiss. This is what mercy is – seeing it and feeling it and acting. Climbing back into his saddle - Turning back into his saddle – to bid the leper ado – he discovered that the leper was gone – he realized he had encountered Christ Himself in leprous disguise. St. Francis then became a champion to the poor. He had seen the kingdom in the face of God.

It all begins by being able to open our eyes to the need- to be stirred so much in our hearts to act.

Lord, there are many, many needs in our world – we cannot meet them all, but you have placed us that we might meet the ones You have for us to meet. Help us to learn from James and not set him aside. Teach us as a church how we can fulfill the royal law – to love our neighbors as ourselves. In Your name we pray – amen.