Making Distinctions
Doers of the Word
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
September 5 2021
James points out the economic distinctions that we are all too likely to make in our hospitality ministry. But it wouldn’t be too big a leap to talk about racial and immigrant and gender and orientation distinctions at the same time. James 2:1-9, 14-17
Main Text: James points out the economic distinctions that we are all too likely to make in our hospitality ministry, the church has often been quick to judge folks this is one of the key issues for 21-century church death. But it wouldn’t be too big a leap to talk about racial and immigrant and gender and orientation distinctions at the same time.
James clearly builds on the final verse of chapter one: RR Real Religion saying Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27 NRSV) Left alone, we could all claim to be obedient to this.
So, James gives us a test case. If we’re honest, we have to squirm a little bit as he describes the scene. Of course, we’ve all done this; we’ve all shown partiality in this.
We hope we’re overcoming it; we hope we’re countering it;
we hope we’re better than that.
But our society has drilled into us to value people on outward appearances more than essential beings.
What is fascinating about James’s test case is that he seems to be talking to the poor – at least to the working class. Look a little later on when he says, “is it not the rich who oppress you?” (v.6).
He’s making a distinction between those folks out there who are rich and those who are poor.
So, this is also a hospitality issue. Who are you happier to see come through your door? The ones who can help you pay the bills or anyone?
This means, in part, that this comes back to who are you really looking out for? Are you really interested in yourselves and those who can help you realize your vision for the church?
Or are you interested in “seeing all the people,” as we say in Discipleship Ministries? Do you believe that every Body has a right to live as we say in the Poor People Campaign or Is it about the inward focus of the church or the outward mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? The world, notice, not the church.
The text of this week's Old and New Testament Bring to mind an old movie called Trading Places. Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for a commodities brokerage firm on wall street called Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now the Dukes are bickering about is whether it's a person's environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. The brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home, and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine ( a Black Conman Played by Eddie Murphy) was given Winthorpe's job. Would the two men turn out to be that much different? In other words, if you gave the poor Black Man the Same head start the middle-class white guy had could they flip places.
I wonder sometimes as we look at society how simple it would be for some people to trade places. So when the text in James says to be careful how you judge the rich man and the poor man when they come into worship it is indeed hitting on a lot of relevant issues. I wonder if some of you listening to this message today if born in a different family if having to deal with a different credit score if having had more or less parental involvement in your life would have made you a different person. If No one had ever brought you to church or made you learn a Christmas or easter speech how much different your life would be. If you had to Trade Places!
1) The Church Is No Place For Acts Of Favoritism
Favoritism may be illegal if it takes the form of discrimination, harassment, or another mistreatment.
Favoritism happens when people dole out the benefits based on who they like, rather than who is doing the best job for the company.
Favoritism is inconsistent with God’s character. Impartiality is an attribute of God. He is absolutely and totally impartial in dealing with people. God doesn’t let your stuff determine God's Stuff.
2) Favoritism Is Contrary To God’s Values.
James addressed a situation in which believers gave preferential treatment to the rich (2:2-3). What would motivate this kind of behavior? Is it not because these believers valued the rich more than they valued the poor? They would rather have the rich attend their church than the poor, and their treatment of the rich and of the poor reflected their values.
James reminded his readers that their values were not God’s values: “Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? Yet you have dishonored the poor” (2:5-6). They were acting in a way that was contrary to God’s values.
We tend to put everyone in some kind of stratified category, higher or lower than other people.
a) It has to do with their looks.
b) It has to do with their wardrobe.
c) It has to do with the kind of car they drive, the kind of house they live in;
d) sometimes it has to do with their race,
e) sometimes with their social status,
f) sometimes outward characteristics of personality.
All of those things with God are non-issues. They are of no significance at all. They mean absolutely nothing to The God we Serve and Celebrate.
3) Favoritism Is Sin.
James makes clear that favoritism is not simply disrespectful of people; it is sin against God. “If … you show favoritism, you commit sin” (Jas. 2:9). It is sin because it is contrary to the character and command of God.
Because favoritism is sin, there is no place for it in the hearts of God’s people, and certainly no place for it in the church.
This brings to mind what some call John Wesley’s Manifesto
1. Reduce the gap between rich people and poor people
2. Help everyone to have a job
3. Help the poorest, including introducing a living wage
4. Offer the best possible education
5. Help everyone to feel they can make a difference
6. Promote tolerance
7. Promote equal treatment for women
8. Create a society based on values and not on profits and consumerism
9. End all forms of slavery
10. Avoid getting into wars
11. Share the love of God with everyone
12. Care for the environment
This list while it may not have been written directly by Wesley shows that We Methodists have always had an understanding of what it is to treat people fairly and not favor some over others Wesley Chapel will you do your best to treat all the people as God would have us and not just love some. James wants nothing to do with such a false divide. With your acts, we see what you really believe. You can say you believe all kinds of things, but your life will bear witness to your beliefs, says James. For James, then, at the heart of believing is how we view and then treat others. He isn’t saying that we are saved by our works. That has always been the warning in the midst of this. But that isn’t James’s argument. Instead, he is saying that true faith has to come out in words and in deeds. It isn’t just about what resides in our heads but what comes out through our hands. “Doers of the Word”: that’s our theme for this series.
Footnote: In late 2019 and early 2020, readers asked us about the authenticity of a purported “manifesto” written by the 18th-century theologian John Wesley, which was shared widely in the form of a social media meme. In reality, the list posted in various versions of the same meme was not written by Wesley himself and was not a manifesto, in the sense of being a discrete, original, written-down list of principles. Rather, the meme was a simplified version of a list of principles compiled in 2017 by Gary Best, a historical consultant at the New Room in Bristol, England, which is a Methodist chapel and museum built by Wesley himself in 1739. The original list is exhibited in the museum at the New Room, where it is described as “John Wesley’s principles in the 18th century,” with the sub-heading “A Political Manifesto for Today?”
