James 2:1-13, Luke 6:20-26

Nate Hosler

This is the third sermon in our sermon series on the book of James. You can find the audio for this sermon here: https://soundcloud.com/washingtoncitycob/youre-my-favorite-or-bland-neutrality-october-8-2017. *Note* The audio differs from the text.

Jenn rightly noted that Martin Luther, the Reformer, disliked James. His big thing was faith and the grace of God. James was an “epistle of straw.” He felt that James obviously contradicting other parts of the Bible. Protestants are the heirs of the Reformation. Church of the Brethren, a part of the Anabaptists (what some have called the left wing of the reformation) however, were really into (that is the technical theological term) James. So, not only did I think it was a good idea for us to focus on James as a congregation but it was also a good ecumenical joke to study James on the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation.

Our passages today was one of those that was likely irritating. Directly before our passage James says real religion leads to a bridling of the tongue, being untainted by the world and caring for widow and orphan—the most at risk. Micah, our beloved Quaker preacher, called these tangible acts of compassion. James very forthrightly challenges acts of favoritism, particularly how the church folk greeted and welcomed others into their gathering. Particularly he challenges differentiating between those who are visually wealthy and those who are not.

One note on reading: the question of welcome is one closely connected to privilege. How we understand welcome and how we welcome is largely connected to our privilege and power (or lack thereof). Last time I preached on this text (in 2015) I focused on Syrian refugees. This debate revolves around who, how, and where one is allowed to travel and what they need to prove. Much of this runs through and is formed by our imaginations being formed by (and forming) entertainment (a classic American movie villain used to be a Russian and now is typically a Middle Eastern Muslim terrorist—or at least one part of this). The question of privilege and power in welcome also shows up in dominant language—travel and you expect someone to speak English. This is also very pertinent for us since tomorrow is marked as Columbus Day [ See my reflection on this here: http://blog.brethren.org/2017/reflections-on-land-and-columbus-day/ ]. The dominant often determine welcome or set the terms for it.

Katie Cannon observes this in what she terms “dominant ethics.” She writes:  

“Dominant ethics also assumes that a moral agent is to a considerable degree free and self-directing. Each person possesses self-determining power. For instance, one is free to choose whether or not she/he wants to suffer and make sacrifices as a principle of action or as a voluntary vocational pledge of crossbearing. In dominant ethics a person is free to make suffering a desirable moral norm. This is not so for Blacks. For the masses of Black people, suffering is the normal state of affairs. Mental anguish, physical abuses, and straitened circumstances. Due to the extraneous forces and entrenched bulwark of white supremacy and male superiority which pervade this society, Blacks and whites, women and men are forced to live with very different ranges of freedom. As long as the white-male experience continues to be established as the ethical norm, Black women, Black men and others will suffer unequivocal oppression” (Katie G. Cannon, Black Womanist Ethics, (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 2-3).

This extends beyond ethical reflection to theological as well institutional access.

I note this on privilege and power in welcome because it very clearly affects how we read this particular passage. Presumably such friendliness could be profitable. Though there is little external data about the recipients of this writing from the text one notices that the community is likely primarily marginal laborers in a divided society. Partiality to the wealthy is then a matter of survival. (R.W.Wall, “Letter of James,” (Dictionary of the Later New Testament and its Developments), 548-549.

We read, “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 

Some Christians say just believe these: 1, 2, 3, and you are set. James complicates this. While we still are in need of the grace of God our actions are quite relevant.

² For 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, ³ and 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,”^[c] 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 

Making distinctions is a fundamental undermining of one’s faith.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.^[d] 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?

The beatitudes that are often quoted are the Matthew version—“Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. While this is challenging it is also kind of nice. It is hard to judge such a spiritual state. Luke 6 has a bit more discomforting punch (at least to the well off). To my earlier point of reading location and privilege—I first wrote that Luke 6 is discomforting and didn’t include the qualification.

²⁰ Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled….
“²² “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you^[d] on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Here things get real. Of course, it is hard to know what being blessed is when one is poor or hungry or hated. This does not feel particularly blessed. But I, of course, don’t really know what it means to be hungry, poor, or hated. When I’ve been hungry I always have the relatively near prospect of food. Though not wealthy or free to buy anything I happen to want I am certainly not poor—not really hated. So, when I read this it is critical that I read it with a broader body of people. Reading as a group and trying to teach a loving the enemies passage changed when in the vicinity of Boko Haram and other targeted violence. Though we didn’t have Bible studies there this is also one of the losses for this congregation of not having the Brethren Nutrition Program soup kitchen.

The first challenge to this favoritism is solidly theological. Is it possible for you to be one with Jesus if you demonstrate favoritism? The second is much more practical.

 ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

The first argument is that favoritism goes against a basic and central teaching of Jesus—it goes against what Jesus put at the very basis of the entirety of the law. The second line of argument is much more practical—why do you give preference to the very people that hurt you and offend your God.

⁸ You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Partiality is a definitive breaking of the commandment that Jesus listed as the most important.

 ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 

¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

(NIV)  Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom

Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free.

 ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

The Brethren Nutrition Program closed last week. We, as a congregation are in a time of discernment in which we aim to determine what is next. If there is an active next or a sabbath next. It closed in large part because the neighborhood changed. So, if there are many fewer people who were coming in need of food and housing prices are way up, what does it mean for us as a church to minister to and in our community? There are other considerations, that it might be a good political move to get the more powerful and rich folks to hang out with us. This seems to have been a core problem with the recipients of the letter of James. They were inclined to preference and give deference to those with wealth or power as a survival strategy. James doesn’t say that they should mistreat the wealthy. He just says don’t give partiality to them over others.

Today we will celebrate the Love Feast. Love Feast is a time where we eat and participate in the suffering and modeled service of Jesus. We will eat the broken body and shed blood. Remembering that Jesus has called us to take up our cross.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer—theologian who resisted tyranny—wrote in the Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”