"Family Favourites??" - James 2:1-13

Photo by G Lilly. Public Domain.

A young couple walk into a large and successful Church that attracts many students and professional people. The several hundred worshippers seem already to have their own group of friends and the newcomers feel as though they have mysteriously become invisible. Nobody bothers with them. Nobody talks to them.  Who are they anyway and what difference does it make?

Next Sunday, the same young couple visit another church. This one is smaller; to some extent its ministry is overshadowed by its more successful neighbour.  Here, our young couple are not just welcomed, they are "latched onto" and almost made to promise they will be back next week. Everyone notices they are there, everyone talks to them. Who are they?  Maybe they are the answer to our shortage of Sunday school teachers.  Maybe - given time -  they will be the answer to our shortage of Sunday School kids!

Another Church, another city. The service is about to begin when the congregation shudders as a guy in a dirty overcoat, and a knitted hat, with a couple of plastic bags and what looks lie a rolled up sleeping bag under his arm, comes in and stumbles to the very front. Who is he? What is he doing here?  In fact he is the visiting speaker, a man called Alan Berry, founder of the Bethany trust and he’s going to be challenging the congregation about the trust’s work among homeless people.

It happens over and again.  Whenever a new person is in Church, we're making judgements. Who is he? Will he fit in? What does he do?  Has he something to offer?  When we have a new person visit, we look at their clothes, their age, their general image

Doesn't it happen? When we have got to know someone, do we pigeonhole them according to race, gender, age, the job they do, and maybe who they know? And o we treat people differently? Do we defer to business or professional men of a certain age?  Do we have favourites? Are there folks we don't really like do we treat them differently? Do we let them know it?

James is quite clear: partiality, having favourites, "Snobbery" (NEB), happens and it is wrong. Interestingly, after introducing (in chapter 1) his theme of discipleship, what it means to follow Jesus, the very first thing, the very first thing that he unpacks, is about how we treat one another, in particular how we treat those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are poorer: those who are less resourced materially, less equipped intellectually, less capable physically or mentally, less resilient emotionally, less advantaged socially. If you allow such favouritism in, says James (v4) you are allowing distinctions (same word as in James 1. 6: it means wavering, doubting, deserting at the crucial moment) and becoming judges with evil thoughts. You're becoming two faced with God. Single-minded faith translates to single-minded love for God's people.  If we are going to be a Church of real disciples, and that is what we are committed to becoming, then we have to be a church that cherishes one another, irrespective of our natural instincts or, let's be blunt, prejudices.  And anything, anything that dishonours the poor - anything that pigeonholes people, anything that marginalize some or humiliates some - like the shenanigans at Communion that Paul describes in 1 Cor 11. 22 - is out.

That question, "Who is he? Who is she?" begs another question or two:  Who are we? And who is HE?

Who are we?  The answer to that question tells us why we can allow no favouritism...
We are those who hold the faith in Jesus  (v1).

• As God's sons and daughters we are heirs of the Kingdom of God, rich in Kingdom things because God has chosen us, just like he has chosen these poor people around you in church (v. 4). Sure, you asked Jesus to come into your life and be your saviour. But did you ever ask yourself what made it possible for you to do that?  It's not that you had anything special to offer God, but he chose you because he loves to choose small, broken, weak, damaged people and make something of them. His hobby is collecting broken people. We are called by the glorious Name of Jesus.  (v. 7)  So James says although it's daft to show favour to the rich and powerful because they are the ones who persecute you, it's even dafter because they speak contemptuously of the Name of Jesus... Our new position in Christ means that the blasphemy hurts more than the persecution...

Window image by A Fluegel.
In public Domain

• We are new creatures ...(See 2 Cor 5. 17) In verses 8ff James talks about keeping the Royal Law:  The Royal Law is the law of Jesus, the law of the Kingdom... We have a different citizenship: we no longer see people in a worldly way. We are subject to a different law and we can't pick and choose which bits of it we keep.   The law is like a sheet of glass. Break it, anywhere, and it is broken. Break it in one corner, and it is broken. There's no such thing as slightly broken glass.  It's no use saying, "It's only broken in one corner."  If I use it, it will let the wind through, and it will probably break some more. If you get stopped for speeding, it's no use telling the police officer, "Well officer, I know I as speeding; but I was speeding really carefully. I signalled before I overtook; I've not been drinking, and the car has just got a new MOT."  And you can't say to God "Lord, I love you with all my heart and soul and mind and strength: I just can't stand my neighbour!"

• But this law is also the law of liberty: in other words, precept becomes promise. It's not just rules to keep but an inner transformation.  A few years ago a man who had been a thief became a Christian and began to go to church. As he walked into Church he passed a wall plaque with the Ten Commandments on it. One jumped out at him: "You shall not steal."  But it read, "You shall not steal" He knew that was what God had done in him: he was a new person.

So, we are Kingdom Kids. We are free. We live in a process of transformation, under the new law of King Jesus.  A fundamental dynamic of the kingdom is mercy: generous, compassionate, forgiving, healing love.  We need to walk in that mercy with each other.  And we need to keep on receiving that mercy form our Heavenly Father.  Jesus said if you forgive, God will forgive you, and if you don't God won't forgive you. Not that mercy has purchasing power with God, but its absence has blocking power - because as a Christian mercy is there, and if you block it you block God's Kingdom. So this is who we are.

Who is He? And this, this grace, this habit of welcoming the poor and broken, this is who our God is... and if we want to be like our Father, we need to show love to all... "Be like your father"   Compassion for the needy roots back into the very nature of he Missionary God who chose and found us (says J A Motyer in his helpful little book on James.)

Rainbow At Maraetai Beach,
New_Zealand. Image Public Domain

But, such is the grace of God, that ultimately mercy triumphs over judgement.  In the end, Hallelujah, God will not allow his mercy to be thwarted. If that's what god does, that's what we do too.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012