Untitled Sermon (6)

RWANDA.

If you read Christian mission journals and textbooks from the 1980s, Rwanda is often held up as a model of evangelization in Africa. Nowhere else on the continent was Christianity so well received.

A revival movement spread throughout Rwanda in the latter half of the 20th century. Church growth was unprecedented.

In a country where over 85 percent of the population was Christian, almost everyone gathered on Easter Sunday in 1994 to remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet a week later an unimaginable darkness descended on Rwanda. The most Christianized country in Africa became the site of its worst genocide. A week after Easter Christians in Rwanda took up machetes, looked fellow church members in the face, and hacked their bodies to pieces.

The history of the church in Rwanda is a tragic historical case study which illustrates that the church which pledges allegiance to Jesus the prince of peace can also enact an allegiance to powers of racism and division,.

Between April and July 1994 , over a brief span of 100 days an estimated 800,000 .Most of the dead were of the Tutsis tribe, and most, although not all, of those who perpetrated the violence were of the Hutus tribe.

A church leader sent on behalf the pope asked the assembled church leaders, “Are you saying that the blood of tribalism is deeper than the waters of baptism?” One leader answered, “Yes, it is.”

Now it is easy easy to judge the church in Rwanda and the humans involved as being radically different from ourselves, displaying an unenlightened and uneducated attitude towards the “other”. We would never see these kind of attitudes churches within the western world.

Yet, this itself only points again to a colonial mindset which judges the outsider, looks down on those who are different. A mindset which if left unchecked feeds stereotypes and fuels violence.

We would to remind ourselves that it was in Europe in one of the most enlightened, cultured and educated nations which gave birth to National Socialism. And that that the church in this context, with notable exceptions, often colluded with the hate and oppression and refused to raise its voice in clear protest.

The reality is that prejudice, judgementalism and favouritism are ghosts which have haunted the church throughout its history and across continents.

Although we may renounce violence, the ghosst of partiality and preference to those who are like us may even in 2018 haunt out city, our church and even our hearts.

There are a number of reasons for this human capacity towards prejudice but it seems, as recent studies in evolutionary biology have shown, that human beings, whether they be from African, American, Asia or Europe have a tendency deep within to look down on the outsider, on those that are different than us.

Our ancestors lived in small social groups that were frequently in conflict with other groups, it was evolutionarily functional for them to view members of other groups as different and potentially dangerous Differentiating between “us” and “them” probably helped keep us safe and free from disease, and as a result, the human brain became very efficient in making these distinctions.

It seems that deep within us, as part of our human depravity, is a tendency for in-group favouritism which if unrecognised and unchecked means that we can implicitly and explicitly place walls between ourselves and the outsider,

we can fail to develop friendships with those who are different.

Within this evolutionarily trait of in-group favouritism we can too easily promote a culture where those who are like us gain honour, prestige and power and those are that are different to us do not gain honour, prestige and power….This tendency has the potential to show itself in churches, small groups and teams and in who we as a church seek to attract, invite to dinner, promote and celebrate.

And so to the text. In the rest of this sermon we will go through the text verse by verse and etc Complaint, Context, Challenge, Command and Call of God

Complaint

(TNIV)

1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.

The church of Jesus is called to be the most radical social institution which has ever existed.

We are all beautiful and broken and there is level ground as we kneel at the foot of the cross.

The Roman Empire had societal structures and norms in place that kept people apart. Yet the opposite was to be true for the church.

The jews had to relinquish their sense of spiritual and ethnic superiority arising for their special status in the Old testament.

Slaves were not to be treated differently because oft heir lack of freedom nd wealth.

Women were not to be treated as second class citizens on the grounds of their gender.

The church was to called embrace cultural and ethnic diversity as the advanced vanguard of the new creation in which day people from every tribe and tongue gather around the throne of God

Yet it seems though that this ancient congregation, given the command given by James, actually falls short of the calling that has been placed upon them. They claim to love Jesus and have faith in him but their attitudes speak otherwise.

Notice how James, talks about Jesus as the glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the glorious one who is God himself, God in the flesh. And there is scripture after scripture which demonstrate that God does not favour the male, the rich, or the powerful.

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing ().

Like father like son, Jesus is the glorious one who left the glory of heaven to take up the plight of humanity.

He is the one who made himself a servant and crossed the greatest cultural divide to seek and save the lost.

He is the one who chose to share his status, honour and power with the the broken and forsaken.

If we believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ then our actions must match his.

Whatever evolutionary traits we have towards prejudice must be nailed to cross, for in Jesus a new humanity with a new ethic has been formed.

(The Message)

14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.

Yet, this seems to be exactly what the church is doing?

CONTEXT

2 Suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the one who is poor, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”

In the ancient world, just as in the modern world clothing indicated ones role and status in society. We look on the outward appearance and make various judgment calls. The class system worked differently in Roman Times than in modern UK. 1% of the population lived in wealth and luxury, they were the ones with power, privilege and political leverage. The rest of the population lived in poverty without power privileges or political leverage.

The rich man is stereotype by his jewelry, he is wearing gold rings, he is a gold fingered man. This man gains honour and proximity.

However, this is to be contrasted with the poor man. He is prejudged by societies social strata, he is assigned a place of dishonour and distance.

James goes onto ask 5 rhetorical questions which serve as a prophetic challenge to the church of his day. And although the the class system and access to power, privilege and political leverage is different today this text serves as a challenge to us in how we live but also a challenge that we as a church ask difficult questions.

CHALLENGE

Number One:

4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James is leading the listener to answer this question in the affirmative.

He wants his congregation to be be able to answer Yes, in this situation as we preference the rich, in making judgement calls based on outward appearance we have brought disunity to the body of Christ. And in doing so we have become judges with evil hearts.

It is possible to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to be baptised , to join enthustiaclaly in corporate worship and yet exhibit behaviour which stems from an evil tendency deep within us.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit is calling us tonight , through the voice of James, to examine ourselves. If we are in this category let us be those who reocgnise the evil in our hearts, repent of it and return to Jesus who can clean us up, forgive us and lead us forward.

Number Two

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

Using warm and affectionate terms ‘my dear brothers and sisters’ James pulls the rug from underneath their prejudices. You look down on the poor but in the eyes of God they are rich in faith. They may not have have two pennies to rub together, but they have riches and wealth within them. Clearly not all people in poverty are rich in faith but there is a trend which is highlighted by James that those who are live in poverty often have a richness in faith.

It was Jesus who said ‘Blessed are the poor for they will inherit the earth’. It is relatively easy to trust in Jesus for your daily bread if your fridges and cupboards are full. It takes faith to be a followers of Jesus living in poverty and to pray each day ‘give us this day our daily bread.’

It was Jesus who said come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and it is the often the poor and the marginalised who bring the most burdens to him.

At Lighthosue we are finding that those battered and bruised by the storms of life, struggling with poverty and mental health, are those who are actively pursuing and passionately striving after Jesus.

Number Three

6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you?

James now looks beyond the particular incident in church and instead talks about the exploitation of the poor but he rich. He asks his readers to look beyond the outward appearance of the individual and instead look at the structural injustice which is at play.

The rich, James indicates rich, who in turn are often in the places of power, are the ones who are oppressing the poor. In the ancient world it is the rich which drive an economy based on slavery, it is the rich who are fuelling wars of conquest and suppression.

Thats the ancient world. What about the world we live in. Let me briefly reflect on 3 ways that modern capitalism and consumerism oppresses the poor.

(1) 1.2 billion people int he world live in extreme poverty (live on less that $1.25 a day). A recent survey of factories in Philippines and Sri Lanka, Indonesia by the International Garment and Leather workers federation found that not one of the 100,000 strong workforce were paid a living wage. This is directly connected to wealth and consumption patterns of the western world.

It is a fact that some of the business leaders, of the products we love to consume, are praying on those already in poverty by paying minimum wages. It is the rich, and the powers of the big brands and the consumers who purchase them, which are often the ones putting people before profit.

James points to the injustice which is present in the structures of wider society. In our day and age we would do well to listen for it is those with access to money who most drive the wheels of consumerism, and it is consumerism itself, with the help of large multi-nationals and their board of governance and share holders, which in turn are creating economies which require a labour force to make products at rock bottom prices.

(2) Unrestrained capitalism is causing widespread environmental damage in which the poor suffer the most. Unless things drastically change in the way the global economic system works temperatures are set to increase by 4% in the next 100 years. This will cause widespread problems and it is very likely the poor who will suffer the most.

“I think the answer is far more simple than many have led us to believe: we have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis. We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe—and would benefit the vast majority—are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.”

― Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

(3) Unrestrained capitalism means that as a nation and individual business leaders make money from the arms industry which sells weapons which can be used in conflicts by oppressive regimes , and in these conflicts the poor suffer the most.

Take for instance the sale of 4.6 billions worth of weaponry to Saudi Arabia who are engaged in a war in Yemen. A country which itself is impoverished and is facing famine. A country in which 8.4 million people do not know how they will obtain their next meal. Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people – three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian aid and protection.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

It seems that in our day and age through Minimum Wages, Environmental Issues and Arms Trade that James’ words still hold truth. Is it not the rich (or we may say unrestrained capitalism and consumerism) which are oppressing the poor?

Let me quote to your from a Jeremy Cushing.

Unrestrained (“free”) capitalism has no more morals than a tsunami. Its main thrust derives from individual ambition and competition: put together, they relentlessly search out ways of increasing wealth. Unfortunately, they also search for ways by which individuals and organisations can plunder society’s resources and exploit the weak and defenceless. This is not because capitalism is wrong, it’s just the way it works.

In the first century James asks questions which sound a prophetic critique to those with wealth and privilege whereas in the evangelical world of which we are part, with a few exceptions, we implicitly celebrate wealth and consumerism.

Blessed are the Rich, Blessed are the Rich is the Gospel of Unstrained Capitalism and Consumerism.

Yet part of the proclamation of Jesus as found in Luke’s Gospel is Woe to you who are Rich!

We may indeed want to echo the words of Jesus’ Woe to you who are rich, but we may find that this echo is amplified in the caverns of our own souls.

We, and in this I include myself for I am in many ways complacent and complicit with a global system of oppression and injustice.

Number Four and Number 5

Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

We don’t know why poor people are being dragged into court, but we can ascertain from this that James is keen to not only speak generally about justice but is also able to talk about and critique the way the law system works in his day and age.

Perhaps God is calling some of us to be journalist, lawyers and business leader who seek to expose structural injustice in the world.

Number Five

Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8

James is saying here that the rich in the society in which he is placed are blaspheming the name of Jesus. They take not he name of Jesus, but do not look like. They take on the name of him who was a friend of the poor and broken but but do not embody this in their own lives.

COMMAND

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

In closing this paragraph James remidns us that as follows of Jesus we are to keep the royal law. The law of King Jesus that we are to love our neighbours as ourselves.

It is by this law, a command and call to mercy, which most undergird all we do.

It is this law, a command and call to mercy, which must cause us to speak truth to power and stand beside the poor

It this law, a command and call to mercy, which should inform our spending habits, consumer choice and voting record.

So sticking with C’s I want to ask us three things.

We will be complacent?

Will be be Complicit?

Or will we heed the command and call of God.. to love our neighbours as ourselves.