PURE

Friday, July 28, 2023

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.  It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.  And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.  James 3:17-18

You know some people James describes.  Remember them right now…faces that evoke good memories, calm moments, full of reason and safety.  You know the things they’ve done for you, or someone else who didn’t deserve mercy.  You understand the strength of someone who doesn’t show favoritism, always to be counted upon for sincerity and truth.  You know a peacemaker or two…several if you’re favored with eyes to see.

James issues this descriptive love affair with wisdom, drawing on sweet memories of his older half-brother, Jesus.  James didn’t always recognize it, this wisdom.  Along with his siblings and mother he thought Jesus was a little crazy, what with all this radical preaching about new wine, loving your enemies, and camels squeezing through the eye of a needle.  But there were those other telltale signs of pure wisdom…good deeds, mercy, and gentleness.  Later, after the cross, burial, and resurrection, James began to understand what he’d witnessed.  The way his brother submitted to the powers that be, the nails, the spear in a lifeless side (which James couldn’t understand), these were all revealed to be the seeds of peace.  It was only when the great harvest of Pentecost appeared that James understood what his brother was doing; he finally saw wisdom in its holy purity.

I knew a man who walked like that, filled with wisdom that was gentle and led to peacemaking.  It was at a church I served as pastor many years ago.  He arrived at the church a few years after I got there.  I liked him the moment I saw him.  There was a gentleness about BobbyMac’s way of talking with a genuine unpretentious.  You felt calm next to him.  It wasn’t just me; others saw it too.

I can be deceived…easily.  I tend to trust people until they prove otherwise.  Some people come into your life for a reason.  Why Bobby Mac’s path crossed with mine became evident a few years after we met.  His gift of “peacemaking” in a church with a long history of contentiousness (particularly with firing preachers), was a welcome fresh breath of pure air.  The church was grateful for his presence and he was in leadership roles in no time.  Shortly after that his spiritual gift of sowing peace became necessary.  Some decisions I’d made as pastor stirred some memories of what former pastors had done, and a group within the church decided it was time to stir the pot of “pastor-change”.  It didn’t seem to matter what way I tried to reach out, to meet folks half-way….minds were made up, set in stone.  Enter the peacemaker…Bobby Mac.  Some of the words he used were exact duplicates of some of the things I’d said to try to fix the relationship of pastor and people.  But Bobby Mac said them differently; he sowed mercy with gentleness, and sincerely trusted the truth to plow through any favoritism from either the pastor-change group or my stubbornness.   

I cannot adequately describe just how Bobby did what he did without writing several books, but this one thing I can say:  God was all over that!  I felt like the Roman soldier who was staring at the way Jesus died on the cross:

“This man truly was the Son of God!”  Mark 15:39b

For You Today 

If you want the kind of wisdom that is pure, gentle, unbiased, peace-filled, and generating a harvest of peace-making, it’s available from the same One who is the Author of the peace that passes understanding:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

Pray for peace that way…and you’ll bump into pure wisdom from above as gently and favorably as Bobby Mac.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

 

The Jesus Church - Part 3: Ministry With the Poor

[1]

Listen to the sermon here

Choose a good reputation over great riches;    being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.
The rich and poor have this in common:    The Lord made them both.                  
Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster,    and their reign of terror will come to an end.Blessed are those who are generous,    because they feed the poor.                
Don’t rob the poor just because you can,    or exploit the needy in court.For the Lord is their defender.    He will ruin anyone who ruins them. 
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23^(NLT)My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?  For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes.  If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?  Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters.  Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith?  Aren’t they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?  But you dishonor the poor!  Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?  Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear?  Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures:  “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin.  You are guilty of breaking the law.  For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.  What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.  James 2:1-10, 14-17^(NLT)

Like a needle pulling thread, there is one overarching thought/word which runs through all Scripture concerning wealth and power – it is the undeniable connection between justice and wealth…in short – how the wealthy of the world treat the poor of the world; and vice-versa. Dishonoring others isn’t just rich snobbery; it can happen from either side, whether you’re poor or rich – you can be a poor or rich snob!

The Proverb writer stated the obvious (to people of faith), that God made both the rich and poor people, and to dishonor either is to go contrary to God’s intention and will.

James takes the case a bit farther, giving us his practical eye on relationships between those on either end of the economic spectrum, and especially the high standard of impartiality the church must set in being as impartial as God when it comes to the way we treat others.

Impartiality

Impartiality becomes the buzz word for this whole subject; God’s people are to be as impartial as God.  A person’s economic standing (high or low) is not to interfere with how that person sees others, or is seen by others.

James uses the word favoring when it comes to seating the rich and poor at the church dinner-on-the-grounds.  It means to lift the face.  The picture here is someone reaching out an up-turned hand to lift up your chin, perhaps to get a better view of your features – to get some more light on the subject, so they can decide if you’re acceptable enough to sit in a prominent place. 

How is that person judging?  Superficially!  He is judging by what he sees, and that is the whole point;

·        What you can see is a wrinkled old face, or a smooth new one. 

·        What you can see is designer jeans or work-stained overalls.

·        What you can see is a palace or a shanty.

·        What you can see is a Lexus or a lemon.

What you can’t see is the inside of another person. 

And that is all that God chooses to see when it comes to judging that person.  In picking-out the first king of Israel, God warned the prophet Samuel not to look for some regal appearance:

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7^(NLT)

With this clear-cut line between superficial judging and simply judging character, we can better understand God’s anger over partiality – particularly on the part of those who claim to know and serve Him.

One source[2] I read gave these reasons why showing favoritism is wrong:

Why is it wrong to show favoritism to the wealthy?

·        It is inconsistent with Christ’s teachings.

·        It results from evil thoughts.

·        It insults people made in God’s image.

·        It is a by-product of selfish motives.

·        It goes against the biblical definition of love.

·        It shows a lack of mercy to those less fortunate.

·        It is hypocritical.

·        It is sin.

The Reason Churches Die

Favoritism (a lack of impartiality) is one of the reasons churches die…and ought to!

A lack of impartiality exists when we refuse to bend the knee to the Spirit and rather choose to bow at the altar of culture.

What I mean by that is when we judge another by their outward signs, we miss the inward bearing witness of the Holy Spirit.  If we fail to see the Christ in someone else, simply because we’re too busy eyeballing the outside of that person, we can begin to set ourselves in a way that will harden us to what God wants to do with us.

A church I served more than 25 years ago was once a large church with more than 500 attending every week.  That was in the post WW2 baby boom era.  The church was located in the suburbs of Jacksonville, Florida, an area of white, upper middle-class, relatively affluent, white collar and middle management families. 

Somewhere in the 1960’s the neighborhood began to shift.  The city was home to a port, and international influence started creeping into the neighborhood. 

By the time I arrived at that church the neighborhood had gone from church-going Anglo who manicured their lawns to multicultural and more poverty than anyone wanted to admit.  The drug culture moved in; gangs became prevalent and English became the second language.

The result of “favoritism” in that church came to be the commonly accepted understanding among the residents/members that there was an us and there was a them.

One of my colleagues wrote about this concept:

It’s hard to share the Good News of Jesus Christ when the neighborhood has changed and the church hasn’t.[3]

And here’s the reason why, for that church, death was on the horizon:  The them in the community became those poor people who needed our money and help.  

Now, to a degree that sounds Biblical – mission dollars at work!  But it was really favoritism in reverse; these were people to be served – not fellow image of God-stamped on their souls persons with whom we could worship and work and care for our neighborhood.

Those people weren’t the future of the church with whom we would celebrate the Kingdom and goodness of Christ together – they were them – not to be confused with us!  With every self-righteous effort to minister to those poor people, we insulted the Christ who died for us all.

Scripture says we are to be imitators of Christ:

 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.  John 13:15^(NLT)

Suppose Jesus had decided on an “us” and “them” mentality. 

Would he have left heaven and his divinity behind to become one of us?  Instead of a cross and forgiveness and a home forever with Christ, he might have sent us enough money to enroll in a self-help book club, majoring on how to live your best life now.

But Jesus opted for incarnation - taking on human flesh; he was tempted like we are, experienced all we experience – and he lived among us.  There was no us and him; it was God with us!

This is why in the United Methodist Church we say ministry WITH the poor, not ministry TO the poor.  It takes the favoritism out of the equation, and puts us all together.

So, to help us think a little more about just what may sometimes sneak up on us and cause us to lose our impartiality, consider a few questions that might keep you awake tonight…

·        Does this church look like this neighborhood?

·        Who would we favor walking through that front door?

·        Would poor people feel comfortable here?  Would rich people?

·        What can we do to remove any last vestige of favoritism from our daily living, so we can imitate the impartial God who treats everyone the same?

You wrestle with the answers for a while, and see if God shows up.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit![4]

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[1] Title Image: Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Life Application Bible Commentary: James, © 1997 by The Livingstone Corporation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois.

[3] Dr. Dawn Chesser, DiscipleshipMinistries.org

[4] Life Application Bible Commentary: James, © 1997 by The Livingstone Corporation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois. 

The Royal Law of Love

¹My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?  ²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.  Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?  ⁶But you have dishonored the poor.  Is it not the rich who oppress you?  Is it not they who drag you into court?  ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?  ⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.  ¹¹For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.”  Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.  ¹³For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.       James 2:1 - 13 (NRSV)

This morning we are going to continue with James’ helpful, practical letter of advice to the followers of Jesus Christ.  We are going to look into the ugly face of prejudice and favoritism.

James was a blue-collar kind of pastor; his knees were callused from praying.  I think James would have liked Hettie Green.  Hettie Green was a millionaire.  She lived in seclusion; she was a hermit.  She had only a few friends and an ugly mongrel dog that kept biting the few friends she did have.  One of them said, "You've got to get rid of that dog."  Hettie refused.  She said, "That dog loves me and he doesn't even know how rich I am." [1]

Prejudice, whether it is towards a mongrel dog, pedigree cat, the rich or poor, young or old is not a pretty sight.  It is also not an acceptable trait for someone who claims the name Christian. 

The Problem of Favoritism 

Reading the passage is simple enough.  James says a church service is in progress.  Two guys show up at the same time; one is a winner, the other a loser!   Which one gets the attention? 

Evidently, the church in Jerusalem, pastored by James, was having a problem understanding that catering to the rich and powerful, while neglecting the needy was wrong in the sight of God. 

What exactly IS wrong with it?  Note the problems of favoritism:

#1. favoritism Shames the Poor

There were not many chairs in the synagogues.  To offer someone a chair, with a footstool, was a high honor.  To make someone sit on the floor under the footstool was a slap in the face.  It said you considered that person to be of little value.  How inappropriate in a setting where the gatherers were all people for whom Jesus died.  Jesus doesn’t consider any of us worthless!

One day Jesus sat watching people go into worship.[2]  In that culture the offering was given as you walked into the synagogue.  There were huge jars at the entrance, and you were supposed to throw in your coins.  Jesus could tell when the widow put in her two cents.  The little coins made a distinctive sound – very different from the clanging of a rich man’s huge gold coins.  Their method of receiving tithes and offerings was designed to allow the rich to brag, and to shame the poor to remind them of their place.  It is a form of prejudice and oppression.  It’s still going on today. 

A second problem…

#2. favoritism stunts spiritual growth

Calling attention to a person’s wealth – or lack of wealth – in any way is a detriment to Christian growth.   In Matthew (26.11) Jesus informed us we would always have the poor to which we must minister.  It is the churches calling to help the needy.

Today there are preachers of the PROSPERITY GOSPEL who will inform you that it is God’s WILL for you to be healthy, rich and wise (especially if you send them a hundred bucks for their prosperity!). 

That (so-called) “theology” teaches that you are somehow deficient in faith if you’re poor.  That is a severe hindrance to genuine spiritual growth.  It smells like smoke because it came right out of the pits of hell!

The unquestioned teaching of Jesus is that it is the poor who have to walk by faith a whole lot more than any of us with money in the bank!  The poor aren’t busted in faith, just in money!  Calling attention to wealth leads people to believe they’re of less value in Christ if their portfolio is puny.  A third problem…

#3. favoritism Divides the Body of Christ 

In the days of the early church, Peter went down to check out the Galatian believers.  Most of them were Gentiles; Peter was a Jew.  Jews normally considered Gentiles on a par with pond scum.   Peter, however found a great revival going on, and stayed to enjoy the fellowship.  He joined right in the party and celebrated.

But when the church folks back home in Jerusalem sent a delegation to check on Peter, suddenly his Jewish bone kicked-in, and he withdrew from fellowshipping with the Gentiles, the Goyim.  He flip-flopped with his favorite-playing, and it split the church!

Playing favorites will do that!  Like circus elephants, we’re all tied together, tail-to-trunk!  You run one over with a truck and you will affect the whole herd! 

Remember – the church is ONE body, and the body of Christ was not meant to be divided!

It is possible to be a believer and not act like it…and that is sin!  And that is the problem with favoritism, prejudice and selfishness.

What does the Lord say to do about it?  He told his half-brother James to remind us about the Royal Law of Love. 

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  James 2:8  (NRSV)

This is the substance of James’ thesis, and that so-called “royal law” runs throughout the scripture: 

² The rich and the poor have this in common:

the LORD is the maker of them all.   Proverbs 22:2 (NRSV)

¹⁵You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.                    Leviticus 19:15 (NRSV)

So…what does it look like when we live according to the royal law of love?  Consider:

The Demands of “Royal Law” Living

Jesus taught the royal law with a story recorded in Luke 10:30-37.   It is the story of the Good Samaritan.  We lose some of the force of the phrase “Good Samaritan” because, in our culture, Samaritans are always good.  You do something nice for someone stuck on the side of the road and you’re a Good Samaritan. 

In Jesus’ culture, however, Samaritans were not good people, they were considered mongrels – half-Jewish, half-Arab; they were hated by both Jews and Arabs.  You weren’t even supposed to look at a Samaritan.  Yet Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman at a well; by Jewish standards she was a loose-living, sexually-“liberated” mongrel. 

But Luke records this little story of a GOOD Samaritan.  Jesus makes the mongrel a hero, and the religious Jewish leaders are the mongrels!  What does that teach us?  It teaches us at least four lessons about loving under the “royal law” of Jesus…

#1. Love People Even When It’s Unpopular

In Jesus’ story, a Jewish man travelling to Jerusalem is robbed, beaten, thrown in a ditch and left for dead.  Two very religious people (in fact preachers) on the way to temple, notice their Jewish brother in the ditch.  Both of them concoct good religious reasons why they can’t do anything for the poor guy, and just walk on by, leaving the man in his pool of blood, broken bones and bruises.  A Samaritan man is the last to come by, and, without a pause, goes more than the extra mile to help the Jewish victim. 

Now, in our culture the Samaritan is a hero, but nobody hearing Jesus tell that story would have cheered for the Samaritan; at best they would be confused.  The Jews would’ve hated the Samaritan just on general principles – just for being alive; he was a filthy Samaritan!  The Samaritans would have despised him for having anything to do with Jewish bigots; a little like if Jesse Jackson decided to join the Ku Klux Klan! 

So, there isn’t really a hero with a white hat in Jesus’ story; just a guy who helps a stranger when his friends wouldn’t, and Jesus’ strange question – who was the victim’s neighbor?  Simple, right?

The point is, no matter if it’s popular or unpopular, love people anyway.  Someone will always disapprove; they can only see through prejudiced eyes.  But God will approve because He sees your heart.  Love people even if it’s unpopular, and…

#2. Love People Even When It’s Inconvenient

There is no “good” time for ministry.  The opportunity to minister and love others is something that comes upon you.  The Samaritan was on a business trip.  He was in the land of people who hated him but found it convenient to do business with him.  He was there to make money, not help the local Jews who were tossed into the ditch by bad guys.  This ministry opportunity looked an awful lot like a detour, an inconvenient interruption in his business day.

The religious leaders saw it that way; they had to be somewhere else – church meetings, whatever.  Both had stuff to do too – the Samaritan was just a bit more ready to love.  If you’re going to live by the royal law of love, you need to be ready when God is! 

Love people when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, and…

#3. Love People Even When It’s Unprofitable

It cost the Samaritan to care for the man in the ditch. 

·        He put the Jew first; he walked and his victim rode. 

·        When they got to town, the Samaritan paid for the man’s room at the inn and medical care. 

·        He even promised to pay more if that’s what it took.

Love is costly; if it isn’t, it isn’t love!  And great love is very costly.  If you doubt that, go back to the Gospels and check out the cross.  It cost God a whole lot to love your sin away.

We love when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, unprofitable, and…

#4. Love People Even When It’s Uncomfortable.

The Samaritan could not have been very comfortable with what he did when he took the first step towards that ditch.  I can imagine the conflict unfolding in his mind –

·        What am I doing here?  I don’t even know this guy.

·        Man, this Jew smells…don’t they ever wash?

·        My wife is gonna kill me, this money was for her new coat.

But this is when the royal law of love kicked-in.  The Samaritan must have looked in the man’s eyes.  He didn’t see a Jew, or the cost; he saw a man – a fellow human being who was going to die unless someone helped.  He looked past what human reasoning would dictate about how a Samaritan should treat a Jew; he thought about how one human being should treat another.

Favoritism and prejudice are sinfully wrong.  It shames the poor, divides the church and stunts spiritual growth.  Living as a follower of Jesus Christ means a higher road, looking up, loving.  It means loving according to the royal law – when it’s unpopular, inconvenient, unprofitable and uncomfortable.

how can you live like that?

Can we talk?  You and I have our “comfort zones”.  In all candor the Samaritan’s comfort zone most likely meant he did not LIKE the Jew; but he did LOVE him.  But then, Jesus never said you must “like” one another.  In fact, he said we must LOVE one another.  This is a difference as big as the Grand Canyon.  We must be more like the Samaritan who risked all to love someone who – by all rights in that culture – would normally be his enemy.

We get it wrong in the church when we confuse “loving” with “liking”.  Jesus never said you would “like” the church either!  In fact, he said just the opposite; he said that in this world we would have trouble[3] and that following him would be like picking up a cross[4], picking up your electric chair and walking into the death chamber.  That doesn’t sound like a picnic, does it?

But then, why are so many church people nice, and winsome and kind?  It’s what happens when you choose to live by the royal law of LOVE; not the royal law of LIKE.  People love, and it changes them.  More appropriately, you choose God, and when you let God love others through you, God changes things; and the first thing he changes is you.  It’s the way He set things up in this universe.  That’s what James was telling us – mercy (God’s mercy…and ours, if we will live by the royal law of love) triumphs over judgment. 

If mercy is ever to triumph over judgment in your life, it will not happen because you’re good, or you do good stuff.  It will be because you stop trying to be so nice and do what everybody wants you to do, and you throw yourself unconditionally under the bus of God’s grace and forgiveness.  Let his mercy triumph!

And then….and only then, you will begin to love unconditionally – no matter the cost.  And you will see how God changes you and you’ll see the difference – in you AND in other people around you. 

Let mercy have you.  And then watch mercy triumph! 

May it be so in your life!

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[1] Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).

[2] Mark 12

[3] John 16:33

[4] Matthew 16:24