James 2:1-13
Notes
Transcript
Intro 2
Stickers lined the side of his helmet
I don’t remember what was on the stickers because I really never got any
But these stickers meant everything
The coach’s son had a helmet full of stickers
He stood a couple inches taller than most of the team
He stood with that cocky smile and mouth guard showing
He stood with a helmet lined in stickers
I used to love football so much and could even see myself playing it for the rest of my life at the time
But obviously that didn’t happen.
I was 9, let a kid dream
I had practice nearly every day
While I was home I did my 50 push-ups, I broke toe-nails punting balls in my tennis shoes, and ran half way through plays in my head
And played several games every weekend
Still Looking at the coach’s son on the field, I was on the bench
You see, there were rules put in place for the purpose of protecting against certain kids getting more playing time than others
There was the common shuffle of parents walking up to the fence and calling the coach over
They would talk quietly as though we couldn’t hear them or know what they were talking about
It was almost shameful
“Could you please put my son in for some of the game? He hasn’t gotten much playing time”
“Yeah, Yeah, of course”
As the kids on the bench we would turn our heads slightly as though we could catch a glimpse without them noticing- a nonchalant puppy eyes kind of look
Begging for something, without looking too desperate or losing too much of our pride
We would normally get our playing time, coach was good at pleasing the parents for a bit
But the players with sticker covered helmets were never on the bench
These stickers were a system put in place to honor kids for doing well on the field,
I must have been day dreaming when the coach explained how to get the different ones, but I certainly figured out that touchdowns and sacks the way to get some.
The stickers received would go on the helmets of the player so that they could be proud of their accomplishments.
Well, no one really kept track, but certain positions really favored getting stickers.
Like the coach’s son’s position as quarterback consistently won him 3-5 stickers a game and coach made sure he got them.
All those touch downs, stickers, stickers, stickers,
Playing all game, every game, stickers, stickers, stickers
His helmet was glistening with stickers to show how great he really was
My helmet was bare
My helmet had a shameful newness about it
My helmet was not favored
Coach calls my name
“He’s putting me in”
What?
I’m in the heat of the game and with shock and amazement I found myself with the ball tucked in my arm and ran with fury to the endzone, I will get a sticker, I will get a sticker
I dived into the endzone- did I get a touchdown? I didn’t care. Did I get a sticker? I sure did
I had finally earned one measly sticker on the side of my adult medium helmet.
Every practice, Every game, what did it matter. My one sticker helmet still would never receive the same look as that helmet of the coach’s son
What a shame to sit on the bench
A place where even the instructions told everyone that we were still on equal ground’s and deserved fair treatment
A game that eventually I needed to quit anyways, but that a kid shouldn’t feel shame because his position on the field was different and that being on defense didn’t earn you stickers
As a 9 year old, I didn’t want a participation award, but I also didn’t want the feeling of shame that I was not the coach’s son
I didn’t need to be treated with honor, I don’t deserve like a pity participation award. Players who are better should be honored for their skills. However, the coach’s son was not that good. In fact, there were several other players who were probably better. But this kid was placed right where he needed to be to shine and to show his stuff. I never played football after that year, a lot of us quit and some returned years down the road.
In places where we should be treated fairly and given respect, we find ourselves disappointed and shameful about our position on the field
In the Church, we can find a struggle of distinction and shame when people have less stickers on their helmet
When people may seem less beneficial
When people may fit a stereotype or appearance, there is a quiet shame of benching our players
This Favoritism and Division is against the very idea and image of ourselves as the Church
So how do we stop it? What does it look like?
Turn with me to James 2:1-13
Here we find James bringing into question our faith with how we use our words and how we treat others
James holds no punches, but writes with purpose of striking us in the gut with the urgency and need to stop this Favoritism deal
So lets begin
James 2:1-7
1My brothers,a show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,3and 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,” 4have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, 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?6But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
Faith in Christ and active favoritism cannot continue to coexist
It’s hard for us to imagine and empathize with the image he gives because we have a room with enough chairs for everyone and anyone can sit anywhere
So imagine this place was packed, like past maximum occupancy
Imagine there’s only room for one more to fit in comfortably
Two people come in, one through each front door
The first one is Patrick Mahomes with his Super Bowl ring on and dressed from head to toe in supreme brand clothing
The other person is the ordinary homeless woman who walks past our building every Saturday night dressed in clothes they haven’t been able to change out of for a while, carrying Walmart bags of their possessions
What do we do?
This is the tension James is getting at
What do we do?
I mean it’s Patrick Mahomes.. he’s got huge influence, he’s a legend in this area of the country, if I became his friend maybe I’d get into games for free, be close to a celebrity, maybe I could encourage him to ask whataburger to hurry up on opening that location in KC, man with the 400 million dollar contract he just signed he could really help our Church expand and and and…
But that homeless woman, she has nothing to offer, she lost custody to her kids and she has been living off the graces of others for years, she has no major influence or presence in the country or state or even the town, she has nothing to offer…
So what do we do?
Most of us would be crowding around Patrick Mahomes and never even see the woman
We would offer Mahomes a place up front and even make other people move out of the way
Waiting.. waiting.. the woman stands there, “do they care about people like me?” She wonders
The service goes on and we hurry to please the needs of our beloved celebrity.
We go through the songs and the message and the communion and the woman leaves before the end because she has neither been recognized or respected, but left standing in the lobby wondering, “do they care about people like me?”
I recognize this is an exaggeration, it’s so that you can feel the tension. Clearly we hold some kind of “profitability = worth as a human being” kind of favoritism
Maybe it’s not a packed house, but just ordinary situations where we neglect the needs of poor people, marginalized people, minorities, or people of different sexual orientations, people that annoy us, or maybe somebody who doesn’t have an influence because we have made a passive but oh so clear distinction between people.
Where in attempts to score a date, we desperately serve all the needs of that person we find attractive, funny, talented, and admirable while neglecting those who are less attractive to us, less funny, less talented, or admirable
This image is exactly the way the world looks. We are called to be something different, something more.
The problem is not with how we treat a prominent and influential figure, but the problem is with how we treat those who are not
In this position, We have become evil in our hearts, yeah, evil
I know, that’s difficult for me to take too. I know I’m right there doing these things, most the time not even thinking about it.
But it’s evil- it’s against the desires of God
James says we make ourselves the judges, we deny God to be the judge of all people and begin to make ourselves judges who judge with favoritism
the good news is that our God is consistently and loyally a Judge that does not make distinctions between people
God sees us all equally in a way that no human can ever look at another
James states “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?6But you have dishonored the poor man”
You see, God looks to those of us who look like “less”, that seem “less profitable”, and has made them rich in faith and given them all the glory, honor, and wealth they are missing in the life everlasting and in the restoration of their hearts and souls.
God gives the same to each and every person who loves him and trusts hum, no matter who they are, how much money they make, how attractive they look, how loved by people they are.
God pours out generously and makes no distinctions. He would not give any differently to Patrick Mahomes as for the Poor Woman, they both stand as equals before Him
During Jesus’ life He was a poor man himself and made friends with those who were less fortunate and outcasted by the world.
In our attempt to be Christ-like the image we usually portray is that of just fundraisers and not also of love givers.
There is love and respect for both, but we need no help or message about loving those who are naturally appealing to us
we don’t do this equal treatment thing very well, at least most of us
we look a lot like the world in the way we treat those who are less than us. We need to change
see verse 8
8If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11For 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. 12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” - we love that statement and we should
but in loving the statement, we cannot forget to love people
I know how easy it is to get caught believing this whole heartedly and saying it, but not doing it in the way that I value other people
This whole thing is about Love. Loving people. As God poured out His mercy and love for us even though He is the Judge, we must be merciful and loving as well.
If we live under the impression that we can continue to live in this faith in Christ and yet disrespect the value of other human beings for our own benefit, we ask for a judgment without mercy.
God has called His Church to something far greater than a insincere belief that we should love our neighbors
As James points out, Love is to recognize a total love of every person. In the same way that Murder completely defiles love for neighbor and how having sex outside of your own marriage destroys real love, Favoritism and Partiality is a sin against our brothers and sisters. When we treat people unfairly, actively or passively, intentionally or unintentionally, and put those who are already on top at a higher status, we wrong others, not love them.
This message doesn’t feel like the common warm hug and kiss message we get, and its because it isn’t.
The severity of what is being said should be felt. If we cannot love those in front of us, how are we really lovers of God. And if we aren’t treating people with equal respect and decide to make distinctions, we break that royal law of love.
we cannot hang the banner on our walls and speak it on our lips in sincerity if we cannot live it out in the way we treat both the have’s and the have nots, the Patrick Mahomes and the homeless, the attractive and the unattractive, the enjoyable and the annoying, the person who looks like you and the person who doesn’t
I’m standing in the sports complex of a YMCA on the south side of Wichita
There were these big banners on the walls that read different principles of a good athlete
The one that stuck in my mind is
Good sportsmanship
A principle to nearly every competitive activity we are involved in
Something we say and profess and silently agree to as a cultural norm
I swear I won’t cuss out, punch someone on the other team, or argue with the ref- good sportsmanship
I used to hear this term a lot- good sportsmanship
But here I am standing in this huge sports complex nervously walking back and forth to the bathroom
And to the court where I was about to begin a game.
Looking up, I avoided eye contact or connection with anyone and saw this big banner reading “Good Sportsmanship”
I knew what that meant, but it just felt like a fake ideal that everyone said and never practiced
You see, I was on a inner city league basketball team and the last thing we experienced was good sportsmanship
There were a number of silent, yet apparent distinctions on my team
As a 12 year old, I didn’t think to much of them, but now I realize why there was little to no good sportsmanship
My team was formed by my rec league joining a city league of some of my family friends
I didn’t think much of these distinctions, but my rec league team seemed to be quickly distinct from the city team
You see my rec team was all white nerdy kids and the city team was all black athletic kids
There’s nothing wrong with either group until we were on one team- both groups were my friends, but both groups were not each others friends.
It was no longer rec team and city team, but just city team
We were one by name- “mustangs” we were called
But our team struggled the whole two seasons we played
We won very few games
Why?
We made distinctions between us on the things people normally distinguish themselves by- the color of our skin and the way we spoke to each other
As a team, we struggled to work together
It hardly was spoken of and at the time I really didn’t realize it
All of my teammates were my friends, both groups, but on the court it felt like the handshakes and Buddy buddy was left on the bench
We never passed the ball between each other or communicated very well.
we lost most of our games because “good sportsmanship” was not a thing between us or other teams
We fell apart and never got back together after that year
I had never felt so discouraged playing sports
And so I looked up and I saw that banner “good sportsmanship” and wandered, why do we say that all the time and yet I never experience that
We certainly said it a lot, but never practiced it very well
Both teams merged to one by name, but remained separated because we couldn’t live the words we professed
We could say to each other “I will treat you fairly and practice good sportsmanship” but on the court play a whole different way.
We have a lot of words we speak as people in Church, but few actions that follow them.
We have banners that show our values and beliefs, but many many people wondering the meaning of them
Our top shelf teaching we say all the time, “love your neighbor as yourself” becomes as useless as a banner saying “good sportsmanship” when we refuse to play the game as a united team.
When we make these senseless distinctions and treat people differently because of them, we disgrace our banner of love
So as we stand as a unified team, as we merge together, a diverse group of people, to be the body of Christ. We have to match our play with our banners of “good sportsmanship”. Now is the time to look at our brothers and sisters that we have treated with partiality and unfairness and give mercy and love as we have been given mercy and love by God
I don’t know who will come through those doors, or who it is here tonight, or who is in your classes, or who is in your family, or who is in your neighborhood that needs a player on God’s team to start living the banner of love and mercy rather than passive judgment, but they need you. they desperately need a Church that abandons the favoritism, division way of our world. So lets go, lets work together and give mercy. lets respect those who are disrespected by the world. Lets love the unlovable. As a Church, lets live up to our words.
God deeply desires us to give mercy, not divide ourselves