James: Preference and Prejudice

James – Faith and Works

Preference and Prejudice

James 2:1-13

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this amazing day that the Lord has made. I am so glad you have chosen to worship together today. Do you realize that this is the only today you will get? I once heard it said that “Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.” You will not get another opportunity at today – So, let’s make the best of it! Amen?

We are in the middle of our series on the letter written by James, the brother of Jesus. We are looking at the different themes that we find throughout the Letter that James shared with the believers scattered beyond Jerusalem some 2000 years ago. The amazing thing about this 2000-year-old letter is that it is so relevant to our lives today. We’ve already looked at Testing and Persevering – that we will face troubles and hardships, but through the grace of God we will persevere. Then, last week we looked at Listening and Doing, how we need to be doers of the Word, not just hearers.

This week, we are moving on to chapter 2 and we are going to consider Preferences and Prejudices.

Sermon Slide

Who remembers Baskin Robbins and their 31 flavors? Did you realize they actually created over 1400 flavors? I know!

Here’s the thing. People are like Ice Cream. We come in all different flavors, right.

And, we all have our favorite flavors. We can walk into Baskin Robbins, or better yet, we go down to the corner of Fisk and Baker Street and look at all the flavors at Over The Rainbow. It doesn’t matter how many flavors there are, we are almost always going to revert back to what we like. For me, it’s almost always something with coffee and chocolate. You may be a Pralines and Cream kinda person, or a Mint Chocolate Chip, or maybe an Ol’ Fashioned Vanilla.

You have your preference, and then you make a judgement about the others.

We do the same thing with people. We judge based on our experience with people like them. We may have never met them, but we immediately judge them based on a past experience with someone like them. The ‘Those Type of People’ plays out across the board. It can be a racial thing, it can have to do with Socio-Economics, it can be about mental health… you name it. Anything that differentiates us from others, we can use to prejudge.

But, we can break that pattern… and that is what James is talking about here.

After the Civil War was over, it was once reported that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was in Washington DC and attended worship on a Sunday Morning. When he came forward for Communion, he knelt at the altar next to a Black man, received his communion, then returned to his seat. After worship he was confronted by one of the others in attendance and asked how he could stand to kneel next to the black man, to which Gen. Lee replied,

“All ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

The Foot of the Cross is not just found in church, or in worship. As followers of Jesus Christ, we live at the Foot of the Cross. The Foot of the Cross is at the ball field, or at the grocery store, or at work, or at the restaurant. We live at the Foot of the Cross. How we live outside the church is as, if not more, important than how we live inside these 4 walls.

Sermon Slide

So, today we are going to touch on Preference and Prejudice and how God’s great mercy is a part of that, because that is what James is talking about here.

James 2:1-13

My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear?

Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law.

So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Prayer.

Sermon Slide

Have you ever been watching the news and a story about some natural disaster, or some bad wreck, or something is on the news and wonder where they find these people to interview? Right. I mean, they may be missing their lower teeth, wearing a wife-beater shirt – (A-Shirt/sleeveless undershirt/tanktop…) they might sound like someone right out of deliverance. You know what I’m talking about.

I was watching a news story about a bad wreck in DFW not long , and low and behold, there he was. Standing there being interviewed… same ol’ story. Young guy with greasy hair in a wife-beater, tattoo’s up his arm being interviewed by the news. I think I even said something to Renee about, “Where do they find these people?”

Then, as I listened to the story unfold, it turns out he was the first on the scene. He pulled one survivor from the wreck and gave his blazer to them. Then he used his dress shirt to cover another victim as he was treating them for shock. His hair wasn’t greasy, he just had some of the oil and water from the wreck in his hair and he had pushed it back as he worked with the victims.

And, since I’m confessing, here’s another story. I was serving at another church very similar to this one. We had just finished the early service and people were arriving for Sunday School when one of our members said that there was someone looking for a pastor. The description told me all I needed to know. They were coming by for “gas money” and knew that we wouldn’t be able to vet them and would likely just give them a $20 so they would move on along. I’d dealt with it dozens of times at that church and churches prior, so I went and met them in the office.

When I arrived I said, “So, how can I help you?” trying not to sound too sarcastic.

The gentleman hemmed and hawed for a second, then he said, “I was part of the crew that resealed and painted your building a few years ago… and while I was working on the building, I came in to get a drink of water. I saw a stack of cash on that desk right there, and I took it. I really didn’t think about it, I needed money, it was there, and I took it. I’ve lived with that sin for years. I’m a believer now, and I have to make it right…” He handed me an envelope full of cash and said, “I don’t know how much I took, but I hope this covers it.” And turned to leave.

I stopped him, I tried to get him to stay for worship, I prayed with him… and then he left. He left me there to stew in my own prejudice.

Am I prejudiced? Yes, I prejudge all the time. Maybe it’s the Psychology Degree, maybe it’s the Law Enforcement focus I had in school, maybe it’s my time as a Claims Investigator… maybe it’s just human nature, but Yes, I am biased.

And, I dare say that so are you. We try not to be, but often we are. And James was dealing with the same thing back then, except it was even more pronounced.

In the early church, few of the wealthy were part of the house churches. Many of the members of the early church came from working classes, servants, or even slaves. The crazy thing was, when a wealthy person converted to Christianity and came to worship, he very well may be ministered to by his slave, or the servant of a neighbor, or a gentile that he would have never come in contact with before.

As William Barclay puts it, “The Church was the only place in the ancient world where social distinctions did not exist.”

Then, as the church began to grow, even the early church, prejudice began to slip in… “Oh, let’s pay special attention to him, we need more like him in our fellowship.”

If James allowed that to happen, then it wouldn’t be long before the Church looked more like the world beyond the church than the place of God’s New kingdom built on Jesus Christ. James was so forceful about this that he actually said that their prejudices were guided by evil motives.

James 2:3-4

For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. 3 If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, 4 doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

How then, do we overcome our tendency toward our preferences? How do we live beyond our prejudices?

The answer is love.

James 2:8

Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is a paraphrase of Leviticus 19:18 that tells us not to seek revenge or hold a grudge against our fellow believers, but to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I can pull plenty of example from my life of when I failed to live up to this verse, but I think a better use of our time would be to give an example of what it means to love our neighbor. And I can think of no one better to tell the story of loving our neighbor than Jesus himself.

Turn with me to Luke 10. Jesus is being questioned by the Pharisees… again… and they are trying to trap him in what he says… again.

Luke 10:25-37

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

The man answered, “ ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Jesus is making the Pharisees acknowledge that the Samaritan – the despised and hated Samaritan is his neighbor…

I can just see James as he is writing this letter… thinking back over this story and others like it that Jesus shared. I can see James thinking, “If we follow the law… I mean really follow the Law, then we would be doing this… but we don’t… we haven’t… and that’s why my brother, Jesus, was here. He was more than my brother, he is my Savior… and it is because of the Grace of God and the Mercy of God that I am still here.”

And he wraps up his thought with this,

James 2:12-13

So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Friends. We have a long way to go to be all that we were created to be.

James tells us just before this final verse, that if we don’t commit adultery, but we murder someone, then we have still broken the Law.

Let me put it another way… If you have coveted something, but you haven’t stolen it… You have still broken the Law of God.

Jesus told us that, it is good that we no commit adultery, but if you have lusted for someone other than your spouse, then you have already committed adultery in your heart.

It’s good that we not murder, but if we have hate toward someone, we have done as bad as murder, because it is in our heart.

What James is reminding his readers, including us today, is that we can keep almost all the laws, and only break one, and we are still a Law Breaker, we are still a sinner.

And so,

James 2:12-13

So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Closing prayer