Sermon Tone Analysis

Let’s take to silence to celebrate the Bengals.

Take your Bibles.

Lift them high and repeat after me.

This is my Bible.

It is word of God.

I will hind its words in my heart, that I might not sin against God.

Lets review.

Two weeks ago we began a study of the book of James.

I suggested three qualifications that James had that gave him the authority to speak into our lives.

Do you remember one of those qualifications?

Jesus half-brother

Leader in the early church

Servant or slave of God.

Great.

Then in chapter one he said there are three things to remember when going through trials and temptations.

Be Steadfast

Be Wise

Be Generous

Last week we continued in chapter one and discovered how to treat others.

What were the three suggestions James made for dealing with others.

Listen Up

Shut Up

Slow Down

Fantastic.

Now James continues talking about relating to others and this time he address favoritism.

Favoritism or partiality hides behind many different masks.

The masks used are Prejudice, discrimination, racism, bigotry, and xenophobia (don’t let that word scare you it comes from Xeno the Greek meaning nations, and Phobia or fear.

So it is the fear of other nations.) to name a few.

What do they all have in common, they make a judgement that one person is better than someone else.

Although partiality is a problem in our society, it should not be in the church.

(Amen)

As NT Wright points out in his book:

Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John and Judah (James 2:1–13: No Favourites!)

In every society, unless it takes scrupulous care, the rich can operate the ‘justice’ system to their own advantage.

They can hire the best lawyers; they can, perhaps, even bribe the judges.

They can get their way, and the poor have to put up with it.

But I suggest that should not be true in the church.

That is the problem that James is dealing with here in our text.

It was a problem I faced head on.

I was sent by the Bishop to pastor a church in this area.

I was invited to the local ministerial association meeting.

It was meeting in the building that also housed a food pantry.

An man pulled up on a Harley Davidson just before the meeting was to start.

He was dressed in old blue jeans, long hair, long bread almost to his waist, black leather jacket, and biker billfold, complete in chain.

He was just standing there, so I asked the host pastor if they could take care of his needs before we began.

Here is what he said to me, “We have trying to take care of him for years, let me introduce you to Father Steve, the catholic priest.

Father Steve had taken a vow to God to not cut his hair or his beard.

James tells us there are three traps of partiality, and I had fallen into all three.

Two people have come to worship that morning, a man dripping with wealth and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes.

We were told how both were recieved.

The rich man, who from his dress and rings may have been a politician, was ushered to the finest seat, while tbe poor man was told to set on the floor out of the way.

The usher fell into three traps.

Trap of putting yourself in the Place of GOD

When we begin to judge people, we put ourselves in the place of God.

When you decide that someone is less than you, you are saying, “God, you make a mistake concerning the person.

You should have given them blond hair, or a thin body, or a lighter skin color.

God you got the melanin wrong on this one.”

But you are not just saying you got it wrong God.

You are saying, I don’t have time to get to know this person, make in your image God, so I am going to put them in a box.

You see Partiality in all its forms is laziness.

Let me repeat that partiality, prejudice, in all its forms and under all its masks is pure laziness.

We are too lazy to do the hard work of getting to know people, it is easier to shut them anyway in a box and forget about them.

So society has the black box, and Jew box, and white box, and Chinese box, and on and on it goes.

We just keep stacking boxes upon boxes, so we never have to learn and about and deal with real people with real issues.

We put ourselves in the place of God and decide who is, “in,” and who is, “out.”

It makes our lives so much easier.

But what does God say about this.

How did this work its way out in the early church.

In some parts of the early church they had a rule that if a regular member of the congregation came into church the usher would look after them, but that if a stranger came in, particularly a poor stranger, the bishop himself would leave his chair and go to the door to welcome the newcomer.

I have often wished I had the courage to do that.

We judge people according to their race, their nationality, their ethnic background.

I heard about a black man who went to a church in the south and was trying to get in.

It was full of bigots and they wouldn't let him in.

He went to the pastor and told him.

The pastor said, "You just need to pray about it."

About three weeks later the pastor saw him and asked, "Did you talk to the Lord about it?"

The man said, "Yes, and God said, `Don't worry, I've been trying to get in that church 20 years and I still can't get in.'

The first trap is the trap that will we put oursleves in the place of God.

The second trap is just as bad.

Trap of working against GOD

When we show partiality we not only put ourselves in God’s place but we can find ourselves working against God.

There is nothing that can hurt the Kingdom of Christ and the work of our Lord more than snobbishness in a church

Let me repeat that: There is nothing that can hurt the Kingdom of Christ and the work of our Lord more than snobbishness in a church

Remember Christ came into our world not in a palace, but a stable.

He did not set at the table with Kings, but with 12 ordinary men.

He did not live a life of wealth and power, but of obedience and prayer.

But everything he did was working with God.

How many opportunities has the church lost over the years because we had place someone in box.

Bill Graham began as a son of a dirty farmer.

DL Moody was a lowly shoe salesman.

Four of the disciples were smelly fishermen.

One disciple was a hated tax-collector.

But Jesus saw something in each of them.

Just as he saw something in each of you.

My excitement is who will Jesus bring through our doors next.

It may be a rich man, or it may be a poor man.

How will we response like he might be the next Billy Graham?

He could be, you know.

Or maybe the next Joyce Meyers is hear now, listening to this message.

Will we work with God to nurture them, or against God and push them away.