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Black
Raspberry Chocolate Truffle from Brusters, Cherry Garcia from Ben and
Jerry’s or Hand-churned Homemade Vanilla from Mayfield? What is your
favorite? To which one are you partial?
Would you prefer to spend a weekend shopping in New York City, skiing in
Aspen, or spent quietly in a quaint Bed and Breakfast in Maine? What is your
favorite? To which one are you partial?
Cabernet, Merlot or Syrah? Bordeaux, Burgundy or Australian? Chardonnay,
Pinot Grigiot or Sauvignon Blanc? What’s your favorite? To which one are
you partial?
There are times and occasions when it is okay to have favorites, to be
partial to one thought or idea or product over any others. No one is likely
to get too upset at you because you go for Cherry Garcia and Cabernet while
skiing in Aspen. But if you put it out there that you are a Bulldog or a
Yellow Jacket or a Volunteer or a Tiger (from Auburn) or a Tiger (from
Clemson) or a Tiger from Dakota Wesleyan University or from DePauw
University or from LSU or from Tennessee State or from Missouri!! (In
passing: Why is Tiger so cheap and common?) If you put it out there for your
team, then likely someone will be more than happy
to share with you exactly who they have as their favorites!
The issue of favoritism is one of the two major issue addressed in the
section of the Letter of James
that we read today. Being good detectives, we can
rightly deduce that since this issue is addressed by James that he knows
that in the church communities with which he was familiar, there were a
variety of people, people of more and less means, some richer in the goods
of this world than others. But James is very clear.
Such distinctions must not divide the church
community. No one was to be more welcome because they were financially and
materially wealthy. The best seats, whether they
were way in the back or up front, were not for
sale to those with the deepest pockets. James makes this case on the basis
that God has a special devotion to the poor, and therefore if the church was
partial to the rich and powerful over others this would reveal a lack of
basic faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
The consistent stance towards the poor adopted by Jesus in the Gospels
reflects God’s partiality toward those who are neediest. The Psalms often
declare God’s special care for those who are poor, weak and needy. The
prophets declare that the blessings of the Messiah will first come to those
who are oppressed, broken-hearted and poor while at the same time denouncing
those who surround themselves with wealth, thereby
cutting themselves off from God, ignoring the poorest and the weakest.
This partiality of God is akin to that of parents who love all their
children equally, yet must attend most to the one who has the greatest
needs. God has love enough for all, and all of us blessed and inspired by
that love must, MUST share God’s compassion for the most vulnerable
of God’s children, our sisters and brothers.
As I see it, to be partial to and make a fuss over
the wealthy makes a mockery of the entire church community. It places the
wealthy in an isolated and undignified position; it shows no respect for
those who are monetarily poor. It requires that some make judgments about
their fellow-believers; ushering some to the good
seats and others to the corner. Who would ever volunteer to usher at Northminster
Presbyterian Church
if they were asked to so judge and discriminate? In such a community,
everyone loses, everyone suffers, the fabric of the church is torn, the
unity of the community is shredded and deathly barriers frustrate the
development of open friendships and caring fellowship.
What is needed is in fact the very opposite of this. Partial faith is to be
sought and nurtured and practiced. Partial faith is to be expressed not
towards those who are well-off in worldly goods but to those who lack such
security and means, to the poor. This partial faith results from the partial
God, the God who is biased towards the poor and the weak and the oppressed.
Let me also underline what we heard: that God
is partial to those who show mercy.
That since God judges with mercy, we need to be
merciful or ourselves be victims of our own faulty judgments.
The second aspect of the challenge of these
words from James
today comes to the fore in the statement that God,
partial to all and partial to the poor, is also
partial to those whose faith is lived out in their actions. As we read from
the NRSV: “14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you
have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or
sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in
peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily
needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works,
is dead.” In the modern version, The Message: “14 Dear friends, do
you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but
never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person
really has it? 15 For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags
and half-starved 16 and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be
filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a
coat or a cup of soup - where does that get you? 17 Isn't it obvious that
God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?”
God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense!!
Please note this is not the same as what we often say, “Actions speaks
louder than words”. What it does say is that we must bring together and hold
together our proclamation and action. Christian action is good, true and
beautiful when and as it coheres with its divine origin in the Word. When
the divine Script takes shape and is embodied in our “living performance,”
there is a graceful “rehearsal” of the truth of what it means that God
became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. For us,
in us, through us, the
living Word is no longer restricted to the page;
now it is enacted on the world stage!
God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense!!
It is a “God act” for us as a church to become a community that is
consistent with God’s purposes. It is a “God act” when we refuse to defer to
the rich, when we seek the wisdom of the poor and when we enter into
solidarity with the poor. “God acts” include such behaviors and attitudes;
“God acts” include showing mercy. As a congregation,
our “God acts” must express our deepest values of covenantal responsibility
to God and to our neighbors. The contrast is not between faith and works,
but between living faith and lifeless faith.
All of us, disciples of Jesus Christ, are called
by God to be vigilant in taking action on behalf of God’s justice. God is
asking us to strive for downward mobility.
To find just ways of identifying ourselves with
the poor, seeking to identify with them, to learn from them, at the same
time as we work to alleviate the oppression they face. But you might be
saying, "Who is poor?"
Exactly who is it that God want us to treat as special favorites, “rich in
faith”? I offer three categories of persons, each posing different dilemmas
for pastors and for congregations.
The first is the scruffy or unclean and unknown stranger, James’ own
example. This is the person who comes past the church asking for food or
more usually for money. This person often appears as Mr. or Ms. Pathetic,
and usually the story they tell is full of twists and turns and frankly
sometimes just amazing imagination. Our responses to such situations vary,
on the basis of where we are at the time, who is with us and other factors
that come to light. Sometimes, we really do want to offer help if we can get
a fix on the real problem. Other times we help and then come to regret our
lack of clear limits. Some may believe that it is always our obligation to
give, regardless of how often or how blatantly we are ripped off. On the
other hand, there is an argument for good stewardship of finite resources
not just money or food but also pastoral time. In the life and ministry of
Northminster each month we send some of your contributions to North Fulton
Community Charities, and believing that the folks there have the best handle
on all the needs and resources we direct our strangers there.
A second person who needs our care and attention is the one with
obvious “special needs.” The person facing disability, who need wheelchair
space, the blind person with their seeing-eye dogs or those who struggle
with emotional or mental challenges. To have persons present and valued who
are varied in their abilities, and may look and act differently from some
assumed norm, is a strong witness to the inclusion of the poor and of all of
us into the kingdom of God. Such “diversity and inclusion” pre-figures God’s
welcome to all of us, differently-enabled as we are and will be.
The third group with whom we will have contact each Sunday are those
who don’t quite seem to understand our Order of Worship or the cultural
norms that may come easily to those of us who grew up in the church,
but may be foreign to those who have not worshipped in a community of faith
ever or for a very long time! They may bring their coffee to worship or
their children or their cell phone. Such people are not to be isolated. If
they sense this, they will never return.
Instead they need to be welcomed, offered help and
assistance, and as much love, care and attention as they require. Yes, to
include everyone may mean that some of our other values, such as “good
order” and a contemplative atmosphere, may lose some ground, but only in the
cause of welcoming the poor, of expressing our God-talk in God-acts.
In North American church and society today there is a growing sense of
separation between believing and belonging. Many
organizations have seen membership roles dwindle. While many people consider
themselves to be “spiritual” persons, they are
unaffiliated in any meaningful way with a church community. The book,
“Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of Civic Commitment in America”
helped draw attention to this phenomenon. It concludes that, “we are
becoming a nation of loners who are losing a sense of caring for the wider
good.”
As Christian people, any separating of our
believing from the community of that believing and belonging is a grave
menace to our spiritual growth. Standing aside or apart from the community
greatly increases the risk that we will become hearers of the word only.
Only within the community, only by being active in the community, can we
best link our God-talk and our God-acts. In my reading last week,
I came across what I think is a very helpful way of framing a conversation
with our friends and neighbors as we seek to try and invite them to share in
the life of our congregation. Rather than asking them if they belong to a
church, we might better ask them “Do you attend
any particular church on a regular basis?” Those last four words, “on a
regular basis”, are crucial, and may open ways for us to invite them
here.
Jesus sought to knit the first disciples together in a profound unity,
both with Him as their leader and with each other. This unity, which
Jesus still seeks in and for His Church, is based on God-talk and God-acts.
There were in the fist century and there always will be other groups and
teams, other than Team Jesus, who then and now seek to express their
cohesiveness by building an exclusive elite. But this was not and
is not
the way of Jesus, this was not and is not to be the way in Team Jesus.
In this church, we are not building an exclusive
club, but we are about building a Team which can
meet the needs of other people, especially the
poor. One result of this will likely be that we can increase the size of
Team Jesus. This cannot ever be the prime motivation for our life as a
church. Jesus never says, “Be successful” but Jesus always says, “Be
faithful.” We speak and act as we do not to be successful as the world
might see it, but to be faithful because this is what lasts and what
matters.
God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense!!
As companions together with Jesus, we are all sent
out into this new week to speak and act that all can find God’s love and
mercy for themselves. And
in that finding, discover that in this community
there is a place for all to find encouragement in being Team Jesus Together. Amen. |
