A homily on James 2.1-13 (ESV):

“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

The verse immediately preceding this morning’s lesson, James 1:27, says this:

“religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

So, purity from the world on one hand, social justice for the oppressed on the other. And yet, in a world which is stained by rampant injustice, these are not two different pursuits, but different facets of the same agenda. Just as we must not allow the manifold sins of the world to stain our souls, we must take care to not allow the deathly and selfish perspectives of the world to stain our vision!

The world says that this [slaps Bible] is just a book. We disagree, and see much more.

The world says that this [slaps altar] is just a table. Just bread. Just wine. We disagree, and see much more.

This [gestures to room] is more than mere meditation. Our God is more than a divinized delusion.

We have wiped the world’s mud out of our eyes, to see more clearly.

Very good!

The world says that a poor, homeless, drug-addled woman is a broken human being. We agree.

The world says that a rich, well-dressed, influential man is a less-broken human being, or at least broken in a more comfortable way.

We agree. Or at least we’re constantly tempted to in the everyday moments of our lives! Sure, theoretically, in the midst of a homily perhaps, we’d give the right answer. But practically, brothers and sisters, we’re partial. Our vision is still stained.

We’ve been wooed by the world’s wisdom.

We allow the stratified contents and contours of the world around us to dictate the distinctions among us.

We make evil judgments – very subtle, to be sure, but just so, that much more evil judgments! – based on the way things are.

We are naïve newcomers to the law of liberty – to the law which gives freedom from the way things are, from the way things have been as long as we can remember, and freedom for the way things once were, in a garden unstained by Sin and Death. A freedom for the way things ought to be, and will be in a city illuminated by Christ himself.

Christ himself, the One of whom Isaiah spoke thus:

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

“And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins” (Isaiah 11:1-5).

Friends, the rich are not inherently evil because of their possessions. We know this. They, we, have their own pains and problems, which we will need to address thoughtfully as a church providentially located in one of the world’s most affluent communities – and this is no easy task.

But it would be easy for us to allow the stratified realities around us to stain our vision, to keep us short-sighted, to keep us complacent that it would be just as unusual for the homeless and shabbily-clothed to join our community (really join us, not just visit), as it would be for the rich and well-dressed to have joined the earliest Christians, or many of our impoverished brothers and sisters around the world today.

Let us fight hard against this subtle temptation.

Let us consider how we should best love and welcome those the world calls, and treats, and sees as “the least.”

Let us disagree! And see much more!

Let us treat them as “the loved.”

Amen.