“Do Justice, Love Kindness, Show
Humility”
James 2:5-7 (The
Message): Listen, dear
friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates
quite differently? He chose the world’s
down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and
privileges. This kingdom is promised to
anyone who loves God. And here you are
abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it
the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name –
‘Christian’ – used in your baptisms?
[prayer]
The
title of today’s sermon, as well as today’s call to worship, is taken from
Micah 6:8. “What does the Lord
require of us?” asks the ancient prophet.
The answer is that we are to “do justice, love kindness, and walk
humbly with our God.” Amos and
Isaiah had similar exhortations for the children of Israel and Judah. Said Amos: “Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Preached Isaiah: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek
justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
Jesus
had some similar things to say: “… whoever wishes to be great among you must
be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your
slave…” [and] “Whoever becomes
humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” And who on the very night he was
betrayed, said, “So if I, your Lord
and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
What
does the Lord require of us? He requires
of us what has always been required of God’s people: justice, righteousness,
kindness, fairness, and compassion in all our dealings with one another,
especially in our dealings with those around us who are in any way vulnerable
or unable to fend for themselves.
And
humility. We are not to be arrogant or
condescending toward anyone. We are not
to use another’s wealth or social standing in calculating how we should treat
him or her. In fact, we are not supposed
to be doing that kind of calculating in any of our inter-personal
dealings. Nor are we to ever question
anyone’s motives for entering the sanctuary of this or any other church.
When
someone walks into the life and worship of the Body of Christ, whoever they
are, whatever their reason for coming, we are to make that person welcome. Not because of the color of his or her skin,
the make of car he or she drives, how he or she is dressed, how he or she may
smell, or how good his or her grammar might or might not be. And never, ever on the basis of how much they
might or might not put in the offering plate.
We welcome all people simply because they’ve chosen to come to our church. Maybe they’re lonely. Maybe they’re hurting. Maybe they need a new place to call their
church home. When they walk through that
door, at some level or another, they are coming to participate in the life of
not only Grace Presbyterian Church, but ultimately in Christ’s Body, his
Church.
The
methods by which we measure and are measured by one another in the secular
world are not to be employed in the life of the church. As Christians we’re not even supposed to
employ them in our secular pursuits. But
you and I know how hard it is to be in the world without becoming at least a
little bit of the world. It happens to
the best of us.
But
when we walk into this world - the house of God and the fellowship of God’s
people - we are to leave all such worldly stuff behind. It’s baggage we don’t need to carry into the
church, a sinfully hot potato that we need to drop post-haste. It does not belong here – ever.
But
more often than we like to admit, it infects our lives and the lives of our
churches. Prejudice creeps into the
church. Bigotry seeps in through the
cracks in our spiritual armor. Almost
unconsciously we look at folks and judge their worth in terms of the outward
signs of worldly success. Even as we
teach our children to sing “Jesus loves the little children, all the little
children in the world; red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in
his sight,” consciously or unconsciously, with subtlety or blatant
crudeness, we sometimes send the message that “our” church is just
another exclusive club. The real
arrogance there is forgetting that it is not “our” church but Christ’s.
Such
a message is never expressed in writing.
It’s not something we include in our by-laws. It is, in fact, prohibited by the
constitution of our denomination. But
the underlying message we sometimes send to those who visit our churches is: “Be
just like us, live up to our definition of appropriate, measure up to our
social and economic standards, or be gone.
You don’t belong here.”
The
terrible irony of that is, that as the living, breathing Body of Christ, we are
called to continue his work in the world: healing the sick, ministering to the
poor, and reaching out to those in need, whomever they might be. We have answered a call to make welcome those
upon whom the world turns its back, to accept those whom our society rejects
and despises, and to love even the most unlovable persons in our towns, our
schools, and our businesses. We are to
be proclaiming and living out the merciful, gracious, unbiased love of Jesus.
Another
terrible irony, the one that probably prompted that portion of God’s Word that
is today’s text from James, is that in the earliest days of the church, those
days when it spread like wild fire through Judea, Palestine, Asia Minor, and
then Europe, the church was the one place where social distinctions ceased to
exist. Slaves and masters worshipped
side by side. Jews and Gentiles broke down
the cultural barriers between them.
Women and children were afforded a value and standing unheard of in the
various cultures of that time and place.
The
church grew because people of every social and economic class were
welcomed. The church grew because it was
not for sale to the highest bidder.
God’s grace was always understood to be a free gift. It wasn’t something to be cheapened with a
price tag. Spiritual gifts were not
status symbols. Wealth, power, and
privilege were not the measuring sticks of discipleship. Servanthood, humility, and hospitality
defined church leaders, not political connections, powerful friends, or
personal wealth. A man or woman in rags
was just as welcome to the good seats up front as was the man or woman dressed
in fine clothes and adorned with much jewelry.
James
saw that this was beginning to change in the congregation he addressed in
today’s text. He saw the rich and
powerful being kow-towed to. He saw the
poor being slighted. He saw his fellow
Christians dealing with people in much the same manner as they were being dealt
with in the world. He observed certain
men and women being welcomed for the wrong reasons. He noticed that others were being ignored or
looked down on for those same wrong reasons.
And
he said, “Enough! Don’t do that
anymore. It’s a sin. It is unjust, unrighteous, and ungodly to
deal with people by worldly standards. It is totally non-Christlike. It displays a profound lack of love and
compassion. It replaces humility with
pride and arrogance. It shows an
economically and socially based bias. It
is a form of human judgment that will be judged harshly by God. It lacks the kind of mercy that God will
treat mercifully. Stop it, and stop it
today!”
That’s
what James said then. That’s what God’s
Word says now: “Stop it! Cut that
sort of stuff out of the life of the church.
End bigotry and bias of any sort.
Don’t drag the world’s attitudes and standards into this place. They don’t belong here. What does belong
here, what is it that is desired here? That we do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with our God.”
In
those words of James we hear echoes of the words of Jesus about the blessedness
of a poverty of spirit and an attitude of mercy. Or the words of David about the most
acceptable gift to God being a broken spirit and contrite heart. And these words from Paul about having within
us the same attitude displayed by Jesus: “And being found in human form, he
humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a
cross.” And the wisdom Peter
imparted to church leaders: “Do not lord it over those in your charge, but
be examples to the flock… you must clothe yourselves with humility in your
dealings with one another…” And the
words of the ninth verse of today’s text as translated by William Barclay: “But,
if you continue to allow snobbery to dictate your attitude to other people, you
are committing a sin…”
Justice,
righteousness, and humility: these are the things desired by God. These are the attributes our Lord requires of
us. Not snobbery. Not arrogance. Not judging others by the standards of the
world. But justice, righteousness, and
humility. Amen.