Faith In The Everyday World III : Favoritism Forbidden

Faith In The Everyday World (3) – Favoritism Forbidden
James 2:1-8
 
The Have and Have-Not’s
James can really grate on your nerves and get under your skin.   He has a way of upsetting the apple cart and throwing a monkey wrench into the mix.
His comments about the rich and the poor are especially unsettling, to say the least. 
In fact, James devotes more time to the topic of riches and poverty than he does to any topic in his letter.  He keeps coming back to it time and time again.
He says things such as:
9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 
                                                                                      James 1:9-10
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27
15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? James 2:15, 16
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days…. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.  James 5:1-3, 5-6
 
Obviously this was a huge problem in that church.  Apparently not all had done well.
You might recall these people and their descendants were refugees who had fled for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs and maybe a suitcase or two in their hands.
Judging by these comments some of this poverty became a lingering poverty, maybe even systemic or generational.
The point is that within the same church were the have’s of this world, as well as the have-not’s of this world.
Each had issues and struggles unique to their situation. The trials and temptations of James 1 applied to both the rich and the poor.
If you read James carefully, you will notice how he speaks to each group about their struggles.  Let me give you some examples of this.
The poor would, at times, have struggles of shame to which James says:  “to take pride in their high position.”    James 1:9
The rich would sometimes trust in their riches, to which James says: “the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.”     1:11
Sometimes poor people can become angry and given to Jihad against their oppressors, to which James says: “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”  1:20
Sometimes the rich become arrogant and oppressive who make their wealth on the backs of the poor in human sweat shops, to which James says: “The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”    5:4
In fact, James has more to say about the rich and their arrogance than he does about the poor and their anger.
 
Hearing this might very well make us uncomfortable because in relation to the rest of the world we are the superrich of our days.  James finds a way to get under our skin.   No wonder Luther banished this little book to the back of his Bible.  Maybe it irritated him as much as it does us. 
The point is that we have a huge obligation before God toward the poor of this world.
There is just no way that we can live self indulgent, luxurious and indifferent lives without – as James says – “fattening yourselves in the day of slaughter.”
Clearly we have the dual obligation of righteousness and holiness on the one side and justice and compassion on the other:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”   James 1:27
In our case, this takes on many different forms, ranging from providing MCC hygiene kits, to digging deep in our wallets to finance our international outreach, sending community kids to camp, sponsoring a child, providing relief when someone is destitute and a hands-up when someone needs to rebuild.    
It means opening our arms to those struggling in our communities or those coming here from abroad looking for new opportunities. 
It means withholding judgment and biting the tongue. 
It means hitching our wagon to the dual juggernaut of righteousness and justice for if we do then our star will rise for that is “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless.”
 
Welcoming the Dalit
All of this brings me to what James says in his second chapter, which the NIV has entitled Favoritism Forbidden and where he, in essence, says not to show favoritism!
 
“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”        
James 2:1-4
Making distinctions between people based on appearances, status, name or fame may be out there but it cannot be in here.
The world may well be divided between have and have-nots but none of it applies in here. 
There can be no caste system inside the church and whatever differences might exist between people in the world stays at the doors of the church.
Boss and worker out there?  That is all fine and dandy, but brother and sister in here!  
Rich and poor out there, equals in here!  
Haves’ and have not’s out there, only haves in here! 
Rich and famous out there, all equals in here!
Privileged royalty and aristocracy out there, brothers and sisters with all in here!  
Street person and homeless out there, a kings kid in here!
Whatever distinctions are made in this life fall away in the church.  James clearly says: “Don’t show favoritism.”
You say what does favoritism even mean?   Serendipity calls it  “the act of paying special attention to someone because he or she is rich, important, famous or powerful.”
Key here is not that we pay special attention.  We are to pay special attention to some but not because they are rich, important, famous or powerful.
 
This is precisely what was happening in their church!  As Eugene Peterson paraphrases:
If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?
And I can hear them thinking now, “That’s not all that bad; at least we are letting them in.”  In a day and age when the poor were not let in anywhere, they were at least letting the poor into the church.
As Serendipity points out:  “The church was one of the few institutions where traditional social barriers had been dropped. It would have been quite possible for a wealthy landowner to belong to the same Christian assembly as would one of his slaves” 
It must have been quite a dynamic.  It would be like two worlds colliding. 
Roman Aristocracy with their “gold ring and fine clothes” in the same place as “the poor man” or the untouchables of their day; just like the Dalit of India are today.
So who are the Dalit, the Untouchable in our mind if not the pierced, the tattooed, the transgendered, the gay and lesbian, the divorced, the shacked up, the alcoholic, the mentally disturbed, gang banger, street person and the many others who are either at the bottom rung in society or someone whose lifestyle deeply offends us.
These are the Dalit or the Untouchables in our mind.  
At least in their mind they were letting them in which they thought was good enough. 
In fact, I can hear them now, self-congratulating for allowing the poor person to stand in the back corner or sit on the floor by their feet.
 
 
Has Not God Chosen the Poor?
When, in reality, not only is the beggar as important as the aristocrat, in some ways the beggar may actually be ahead of the aristocrat! 
Do not only let them in but give them places of honor and not only because they have never had places of honor in life, but because something about them makes their hearts be more open to the Gospel of grace than the hearts of the rich and famous.
Notice what James says:  “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”  James 2:5
Again, Peterson nails it on the head with his Paraphrase:
“Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God.”
And who are those who love God most easily and most readily if not those who have had nothing all their lives?
Many of the poor of this world are richer in the things of God than most rich people.    
“Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”
Why?  Some say to turn the tables or to provide a level playing field. 
I don’t know if that is really so, although a part of me would love to see the Dalit and the have-not’s come to a place of having!   Maybe justice does require the turning the tables.
 
But there is something else at play here.  If God were to favor the poor only because they are poor, then many of us would be in trouble because most are not poor.  
AND many poor people live their lives intentionally far away from God.  How would it be fair that the godless poor should somehow be blessed and inherit the kingdom? 
Something else is at play here, friends.  What’s at play is that the poor have a tendency to cry out to God more easily and desperately than those who have everything.
God favors those who cry out to him and live lives of dependence on God. 
How else do you explain the incredibly rich spiritual lives of our brothers and sisters in the have-not world who see God intervene in response to their desperate cry to him?
“The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”  James 5:4
God uses poverty to stir up our great need for God.
You see, there is nothing honorable in poverty.  It is not a badge of honor to God.  
He doesn’t single you out because you are poor anymore than he pushes you away because you are rich.
God favors anyone who mourns and becomes meek because of their spiritual poverty and as a result begins to hunger and thirst for the spiritual fullness that only God can give.
It doesn’t matter who you are.  You can be rich and still recognize your spiritual poverty, or you can be poor and sometimes more readily see it.
Just because you are poor doesn’t mean that you are aware of your spiritual poverty any more than just because you are rich you can never see your spiritual poverty.
In fact, the rich who recognize their poverty are much further ahead than the poor who all they see is their entitlement.
 
So never ever stereotype, by slotting the poor into the category of seeking after God and the rich into the category of self-reliance and arrogance.
I have known a good number of poor people who were anything but hungering after God, and I have known wealthy people who were humble seekers of God.
Some people exploit their poverty, have huge chips on their shoulders, and feel that everyone owes them. 
I have known poor people who were dishonest and fraudulent and who knew how to milk the system designed to help them. 
I have known poor people who have borrowed money with no intention of ever repaying.   Even though they are poor, they have not recognized their own spiritual poverty. 
I tell you that God does not favor those people.
I also have known poor people who are honest, hardworking, God-fearing people who don’t like their poverty and who don’t have a chip on their shoulder nor a sense of entitlement, and in their poverty cry out to God for even the basics of life.
This is what James 2:5 means:  “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”
By the way, I have also known wealthy people who were not showy or arrogant and who didn’t make their money on the backs of the poor; who were private, discreet and above all hungry and thirsty for God because they saw their own spiritual poverty!
 
Final Thoughts
As we wrap it up, there are a couple of things I want to say yet.
First of all, this is the kind of church I dream about.  This is so down my alley and the kind of thing that gives me a spring in my step.
 
I have always dreamed of a community that is inclusive, where those who do not know Jesus yet are loved and treated with dignity and respect regardless of status, orientation or gender.
A church where all followers of Jesus are equals regardless of struggles and status.
A church that doesn’t dis others, isn’t judgmental nor given to stupid prejudice. 
A church that not only makes room but also seeks out the broken and the have-not’s of this life and gives them places of honor!
That’s the hill I want to die on and the cause I want to give my life to.
The last thing I want to say is that anyone that feels as though they are a have-not in this world; in this church you do not have to stand in the back or sit at anyone’s feet.
That you can stand tall and proud as you reach your hands up to heaven.
“Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”