James 2 1-18
Pentecost 17
James 2: 1-5, 8-10, 14-18
October 5, 2003
“Knowing Your Place”
Introduction: We have all heard the saying that a child, at the dinner table, “should be seen and not heard.” In other words they “need to know their place” and act accordingly.
“Knowing your place” is not always a cute thing. It has been a sign of repression, bigotry, and partiality towards one segment of our society or another. Only 50 years ago it was considered proper for black people to know their place. Their place was separate from white people, separate businesses, separate schools, bathrooms, drinking fountains and perhaps especially separate churches. For all intents and purposes black people are still taught to know their place, not by law, but by attitudes. Black people have returned the disfavor. Attitudes of mistrust and misunderstanding continue to separate black people from white people as we teach each other that we are not welcome in our communities, neighborhoods and even our churches. Partiality divides. It divides one culture from another and it divides people within their own cultures. It divides our families and our relationships with each other here in church. One group is divided from another. Old members, the old guard as some have called them, look with fear and contempt upon newer members, after all they haven’t put in their blood sweat and tears and money to build this church into what it is today. They fear that they will change things from how they have always been done. The new members and their families in turn look at the old guard with distrust, feeling unaccepted and unwelcome, where their own heritages are disregarded and not respected. Partiality divides. It divides one person from another based on whom a person is, what a person has done, can do or does differently from how we think it should be done. It divides people based on who they are. The divisions take place within our culture, our church, and even within our families as we are continually tempted to show partiality towards each other. The Apostle James writes, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
Addressing the issue of partiality, in this instance recognizing how the rich are treated verses the poor, James directs us immediately to Jesus Christ, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. For this is in exact opposition to the teaching and attitudes of our Lord Jesus. For though he was the manifestation of God’s glory, the Shekinah of God, Jesus humbled himself in the form of a servant. Though He was rich he became poor.
The problem that James is addressing in this early Christian congregation is that they were paying more attention to those, who by their very appearance and dress, were seen as wealthy, than to those whose clothes identified them as poor. It is easy to understand such behavior, for the rich person would be seen to be in a better position to fulfill Christian obligations in support of the church and its ministry. It is still that way today. We look to wealthy people so that we can build churches and seminaries. These are the people that we look to for mission dollars. These are the people that we look to pay off the debt of the church. For James though, and rightly so by example of our Lord and His poverty, the poor should hold the higher position and the place of honor within the church.
By their flagrant discrimination they directly contradicted the faith that they had been taught by Jesus and the apostles. While Jesus treated all men alike, this congregation went against His word. They assumed that wealth was a sign of God’s approval. They made the poor sit on the floor like stools for their feet. Their actions held them in contempt of the Lord who became the poorest of men and who criticized those who grabbed the best places for themselves. After all Jesus said that it was harder for a rich man to enter heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
For it was God who choose the poor to be rich, as James said, Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him.” And Our Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor in spirit are those who have put their total reliance on God and who do not place their confidence in anything that this world has to offer. These are the ones that have been chosen to share Christ’s glory. The poor whom these Christians are despising are the very ones that God has designated to be the heirs of His kingdom. This kingdom is not earned, but promised to men by virtues of His Word for the sake of what Jesus did on the cross.
Jesus became poor so that we could be rich. He became humble and submitted Himself to die by crucifixion. Poverty, and humility find there central focus in Jesus Christ. Christians are recognized as belonging to Christ by reflecting these attitudes in their lives. As they do this they join with Him as the champion of the poor and oppressed those who had been divided from God by sin, death and the Devils dominion.
This is the place of dishonor that we all have shared, all people, having been separated and divided from God. This is truly “knowing our place” that because of sin, because all of us have fallen short of the glory of God we deserve the place of God’s curse, death, and ultimately hell. James goes right to the point. He writes, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture that is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. The sin if partiality is no small matter. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. It is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the Law.” Breaking any one part of the Law is the same as indulging in the more serious sins, for the Law is like a balloon: Stick a pin in one part and the whole thing breaks. Scriptures go on, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Because of what Jesus has done we know that Christ has made a place for us with God, reconciled to Him through Jesus atoning sacrifice. For His sake we have been given a place of honor. But it is not a place of honor earned by us or anything we have done. Heaven is not given to us because we have lived Christian lives or tried to be good. It has not been given to us because we are rich and have contributed so generously to the church. It is not given to us because we are materially poor. We have nothing to boast about except for Jesus Christ our Lord and what He has done for us. Our place with God, our salvation, our eternal life is the free gift of God which we receive through faith and that not of ourselves lest we should boast.
Now that we know are place, God call us to bear witness to our faith in Jesus Christ. We are called on to not discriminate against each other based on our differences; but to live together in harmony. If there is a place of honor among us, let us reserve it for our brothers and sisters around us; let us humble ourselves in service to each other. Let us give up our places of honor, those positions where we feel we deserve respect, because that is what Jesus did for us, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And Jesus said in today’s gospel text, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” There is a tradition that is practiced in many churches, and of which we follow. I have to say it is extremely noticeable as I stand up here. Each Sunday as we come into church, many of us sit in the exact same place week in and week out. It’s our place and we know it well. I know that there are times when we have come to church, and upon seeing a person in our pew, we are tempted to think, “Hey, you’re in my place.” Giving up our place of honor means watching out for each other, instead of ourselves, it means watching out especially for those people that are least respected, for what ever reason. On December 2, 2000, William Wallace Brown Jr., a homeless man was buried in the prestigious cemetery of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., across from the White House. This is the church of the presidents. Since 1808, the time of James Madison’s presidency, nearly every U.S. leader worshiped there. So how is it that a homeless man of the street, William Brown, is laid to rest in their prominent garden? It began one Sunday morning when William Brown spotted George H. W. Bush entering the church. He asked the president to pray for him. Bush looked at him for a moment and said, “No, come inside with us and pray for your self.” And so he did. He became a permanent part of the services, and every week he placed a crumpled dollar bill in the silver collection plate. During his funeral in the church one speaker said that in the eyes of God “the homeless and the most important are one and the same.” That’s clearly true when we see that Christ became poor and homeless in order that we might be welcomed into God’s eternal mansions. When we treat each other as the honored guest, looking down on no one, this is the mind of Christ and the Spirit of Christ working within us. These are the actions of faith as James say, “Faith alone, if it in not accompanied by action, is dead. Show me your faith without deed, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
This is the example that our Lord has given us. He didn’t merely say that he loved us. He showed his love in every action. He did not just say I am the Savior of the world; he quietly walked to the cross, in all humility, and suffered and died in our place. For this reason, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We too will share in His glory. This is the glory that he has prepared for you and me, not in this world but in the world to come. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.