The Hesitancy To Become Involved (2:14)

An 18-year-old girl was stripped and sexually abused by a gang of youths in a theater aisle during a rock concert, but hundreds of people in the audience ignored her pleas for help, police said.

A 17-year-old girlfriend of the victim said she begged a security guard at the International Amphitheater on the city's South Side for help, but he refused and went back to listening to music.

"They were just like animals.  Everybody was smoking marijuana," she told the Chicago Tribune.  "It's like when you have three dogs and put one piece of meat there and they all went after it."

About two dozen youths were involved in the attack early Wednesday on the woman and her two companions, who were also beaten and robbed.

Police said the 18-year-old victim was stripped naked, robbed of jewelry, beaten and abused sexually as other concert-goers in the theater looked on.  The soul music band on stage continued playing as the woman was assaulted.

"Nobody did anything," the 17-year-old girl said.

The victim was reported in fair condition after surgery at Mercy Hospital.

The attack came about 90 minutes after a couple from Gary, IN, were beaten and robbed by about a dozen youths at the Rhythm and Blues Holiday Jam II concert.  Four groups, Chocolate Milk, Sky, Roger Slade and Michael Henderson were on the bill.

Sgt. William Mikolitis said nine people were arrested on weapons and disorderly conduct charges at the concert, but no one was charged with the robberies or the sexual assault.

We hear these kinds of stories too many times and most of us are appalled that no one would step in and help.  Too many times the church holds the same posture relative to it’s community and the needs represented there.  We just don’t want to get involved.

Most professing Christians, from the liberals to the fundamentalists, remain practical atheists. They think the church is sustained by the services it provides or the amount of fellowship and good feeling in the congregation. This form of sentimentality has become the most detrimental corruption of the church and the ministry.

n      Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon in the Christian Century (March 15, 1989). Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 15.

It is relative to this posture that James challenges the person who does not act on his beliefs.  He makes no bones about the dead faith that this represents.  He asks the questions:

q       What good is it?  Snow blower Illustration.  It’ll blow like crazy – it just won’t go and as far as it’s worth as a snowblower – nil.  Many Christians are like that as well.  We’ll blow like crazy but we won’t budge.

Some Christians are so afraid of failure that they become reserved, overly cautious, and uninvolved in life.  They follow a policy of guarded living, holding back time, talents, and treasure from God's service.  Their motto is:  To keep from failing -- don't try!  On the other hand, those who are willing to make mistakes and risk failure are the ones who ultimately achieve great things.  Instead of being filled with fear, they go forward in faith.  Problems are challenges. While they may not all be solved, these courageous people would rather live with that reality than have a clean record of no failures and no accomplishments.  Benjamin Franklin said one time, "The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing nothing."

q       Can it save?  It would be a good thing to find that out before we step over the precipice of eternity.  A rope is tested and sold according to the weight that it will bear.  Somehow we ought to test the sufficiency of our faith here in this world. How do we do it – we subject it to weight and other conditions under which it might snap.  One of the greatest things that a person could discover in this life is that their faith is not sufficient.  It is the process of stepping out to confront our fears.  (Jean Jones has rappelled.)

The Hurdles To Be Overcome (2:15-19)

Perhaps many folk are hesitant to step in not so much for the situation at hand but for what may follow.  What does the Good Samaritan do when he gets the guy out of the ditch?  Then it is God’s job to get the ditch out of the guy.

James presents two common arguments that are alive and well today relative to faith and works.

q      Do Be Do Be Do.  Is it true that it is more important to be what I need to be or to do what I need to do?  According to James the answer is “yes”.  It’s never an “either or” but a  “both and”

While serving with Operation Mobilization in India in 1967, tuberculosis forced me into a sanitarium for several months. I did not yet speak the language, but I tried to give Christian literature written in their language to the patients, doctors, and nurses. Everyone politely refused. I sensed many weren't happy about a rich American (to them all Americans are rich) being in a free, government-run sanitarium. (They didn't know I was just as broke as they were!)

The first few nights I woke around 2:00 A.M. coughing. One morning during my coughing spell, I noticed one of the older and sicker patients across the aisle trying to get out of bed. He would sit up on the edge of the bed and try to stand, but in weakness would fall back into bed. I didn't understand what he was trying to do. He finally fell back into bed exhausted. I heard him crying softly.

The next morning I realized what the man had been trying to do. He had been trying to get up and walk to the bathroom! The stench in our ward was awful.  Other patients yelled insults at the man. Angry nurses moved him roughly from side to side as they cleaned up the mess. One nurse even slapped him. The old man curled into a ball and wept.  The next night I again woke up coughing. I noticed the man across the aisle sit up and again try to stand. Like the night before, he fell back whimpering.

I don't like bad smells, and I didn't want to become involved, but I got out of bed and went over to him. When I touched his shoulder, his eyes opened wide with fear. I smiled, put my arms under him, and picked him up.  He was very light due to old age and advanced TB. I carried him to the washroom, which was just a filthy, small room with a hole in the floor. I stood behind him with my arms under his armpits as he took care of himself. After he finished, I picked him up, and carried him back to his bed. As I laid him down, he kissed me on the cheek, smiled, and said something I couldn't understand.

The next morning another patient woke me and handed me a steaming cup of tea. He motioned with his hands that he wanted a tract.  As the sun rose, other patients approached and indicated they also wanted the booklets I had tried to distribute before. Throughout the day nurses, interns, and doctors asked for literature.

Weeks later an evangelist who spoke the language visited me, and as he talked to others he discovered that several had put their trust in Christ as Savior as a result of reading the literature.  What did it take to reach these people with the gospel? It wasn't health, the ability to speak their language, or a persuasive talk. I simply took a trip to the bathroom.

Doug Nichols, Bothell, Washington.  Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2.

Billy Graham had this to say about faith and works and their relationship to each other:

There really is no conflict between faith and works.  In the Christian life they go together like inhaling and exhaling. Faith is taking the Gospel in; works is taking the Gospel out. Actually, what James is saying is:  you can't have one without the other.

The book of James balances off this matter of faith and works, and reminds us that the Christian must have both.  True, we are not saved by works, but James reminds us also that we are not saved if good works do not follow.  Some people argue this point so vehemently that it almost becomes like the old argument of which comes first, the chicken or the egg.  The word "believe" comes from two words, "be" and "live".  Faith helps us to "be," spiritually.  But after we receive life, it is to find expression in Christian works and deeds.  To show that there is no conflict in the Scriptures between the two, Paul, the advocate of faith speaks of "being rich in works," and James, the exponent of works, says, "rich in faith."  Why be content with either when God has provided for, and says we must have both.

q      I believe and that’s enough.  It is your belief that saves you and brings you into a right relationship with God, it is your life and your deeds that bears testimony to this experience and brings you into a right relationship with others.

How do you determine whether or not to continue to help someone?

In More than You and Me, Kevin and Karen Miller write of the power of a God-given vision:

One couple lived in London 130 years ago. For the first 10 years of their marriage, William Booth, especially, was in a quandary: What was God calling him to do?

Then his wife, Catherine, a skillful Bible teacher, was invited to preach in London. While they were there, William took a late-night walk through the slums of London's East End. Every fifth building was a pub. Most had steps at the counter so little children could climb up and order gin. That night he told Catherine, "I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, 'Where can you go and find such heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labors?' Darling, I have found my destiny!"

Later that year, 1865, the couple opened the "Christian Mission" in London's slums. Their life vision: to reach the "down and outers" that other Christians ignored. That simple vision of two people grew into the Salvation Army, which now ministers through 3 million members in 91 countries.

Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.

There are many of us who have asked this question repeatedly.  How long do I continue to help someone who makes no forward progress?

We all need to learn right away that there are no free rides. Along with help should come expectation – it is there in every other area of life.  Expectation is as important as the help that you give.  The monetary help is temporary the other is something that can change their future more significantly than anything that you can give. Short-term need may be food or clothing – but that is only the short term.  The long-term blessing is to be able to supply oneself.  A person who will not take that step is enabled by those who persist in providing for them..

q      Look for a change in the way that people think. Listen for the victim mentality thought pattern – or it’s not my fault.  The failure to accept responsibility is something that will forever paralyze a person.

q      It is what we require of people more than what we give them that is the greatest benefit.

q      We are no more in the business of meeting people’s wants than God is.

q      People who want help must demonstrate the awareness of what personal sacrifice is all about.

q      There ARE people with very legitimate needs and we have to address them.  Often these people are the least vocal.

q      There are times when our faith will require many different kinds of actions. Benevolence, confrontation, evangelical proclamation . . . all equally important

The Harmony Of Faith And Action (2:20-26)

It produces an authentic faith.  It earned Abraham the title, “God’s friend”

What do I have to do in order to be real?

q       I have to treat all people the same.

q       I have to consistently choose my reactions to situations and circumstances.

q       I have to mean what I say and say what I mean.

q       My actions must mesh with my words.

q       I have to learn that there are certain questions that have no answers and cease trying to manufacture answers

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others.  He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.  He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else.  For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

   "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

   "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse.  "It's a thing that happens to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real."

   "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

   "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

   "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

   "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse.  "You become. It takes a long time.  That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.  Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

   -- Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit 

      New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958, pp. 16-17