"Poverty and Partiality"

September 9, 2012

James 2:1-10, 14-17

¹My 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.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and 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? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Sermon: “Poverty and Partiality”

·     Do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?

·     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?

·     What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?

·     Can faith save you?

·      If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 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?

Good grief, that James sure asks a lot of questions.

And they’re not nice, polite, “How was your day?” sort of questions: they’re the blunt kind that make us avoid eye contact and shift nervously in our seats.  Like when your Mom asked you when you really received that homework assignment.  Or when a good friend, who knows the truth, asks you if you’re all right, and you know the answer isn’t yes.

All of James’ uncomfortable questions lead us in the same direction: putting our faith into works of compassion for those who are poor.  The half-brother of Jesus and early-church preacher claims that we should seek the welfare of the poor because God has chosen them to be rich in faith. 

In seminary-speak, this is called “God’s Preferential Option for the Poor.”  It’s there throughout scripture, when the test of faithfulness for the people of Israel was whether they left enough crops in their fields to feed the orphan, widow and foreigner. 

When Mary’s song of praise for being Jesus’ mother proclaimed: “the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

Or when her son Jesus echoed that song through the words of Isaiah, saying, “'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'  And when he said, 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 'Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”

God’s preferential option for the poor: it’s here, in these pages, and it’s in our hearts when we feel God’s Spirit lead us to serve the least of these.  It is an essential theme in our Christian faith.  But I can’t help but feel like preaching this same message is just too easy.

You see, it’s easy for me to say that God prefers the poor, and to feel enlightened for having said so.  But even that statement comes from a place of privilege.  Even though it’s right there, black-and-white in James’ letter, it sure feels presumptuous to declare who God likes best.

And suddenly I realize that most of the people I’ve heard preach about this have been over-educated, anglo, middle and upper-middle class Americans.  That describes some of us.  (Myself included.)  And I wonder if preaching this gospel of God’s preference for the poor grows, not out of a passion for those on the margins, but out of a sense of guilt that makes us as uneasy as those pointed questions of James.

If it is guilt that leads us to repeat this poverty gospel, to claim these words as our own, then we are missing the point. 

Take a moment and think about the most significant relationship you have with someone in your life.  I’m betting that relationship is not founded on guilt.

Our abiding faith in God and our authentic relationship with our neighbors who are struggling cannot be based on guilt.  They must be founded on so much more than that: on love for those who might be suspicious of our motives, on compassion for those who may not always say thank you, on justice for those who rarely get to contribute to conversations about their well being. 

Faith without works is dead.  Or as Rich Mullins put it, it’s “like a screen door on a submarine.”

But works without love are meaningless.  Justice without acknowledging that we need to change the way we live our own lives is superficial.  Mission without relationship does nothing to break down the barriers between the powerful and the powerless.

I am glad James asked such uncomfortable questions.  They each serve to wake us up to the reality that the spiritual and the physical and inextricable. 

That a prayer for God to meet the needs of those who see no way out of poverty must be accompanied by works of advocacy and education.

 

That a declaration of God’s special care for the poor must be accompanied by us not just walking by someone asking for change, but by learning their story and equipping them to better their life. 

That talk about the very real gap between rich and poor in our world must be accompanied by doing something: like buying fair-trade coffee here at church, believing that people who work hard should be able to earn enough to live on.

That a Rally Day to celebrate all God is doing in the life of our church must be about everyday mission and outreach as much as it is about wonderful Sunday School and youth programs, inspiring music and rich fellowship together.

We do not do these everyday acts of service because we feel guilty.  We do not do them because they make us feel good.  We serve those who are poor in things and rich in spirit because this is what God calls us to do, not only for their salvation from systems that perpetuate poverty, but for our own.   Thanks be to the God who gathers all of us (rich and poor and somewhere in between) into a global family, the Savior who shows us the way of compassionate works and the Spirit who fills us with an active, living faith. Amen.