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Dr. George A. Purnell
September 6, 2009
“Where Do You Want Me to Sit?”
James 2:1-10, 14-17; Revelation 3:15-17
In preparing for today’s message, I came across a modern example of the lesson James is teaching his readers today. Not long ago, a candidate for President of the United States was staying overnight on a Saturday in a mid sized city. On Sunday morning one of the candidate’s advance staff called a large church in the city – a church whose 11 AM worship service was broadcast live on television to stations covering one third of the state’s population – to ask if the church would be willing to have the candidate attend worship.
The call came in about 10:00 AM and an usher answered the phone. Somewhat flustered by the nature of the call, all the usher could think to say was that the next service was at 11 AM and everyone was welcome. The candidate did not come to the service.
Word got back to the pastor that the advance staffer was put off by the remark, “everyone was welcome.” The campaign people had expected the church to be more eager to have such an important person attend the worship service. They thought that at the very least the candidate would be recognized from the pulpit by the preacher, and perhaps invited to step forward and say something.
But when the usher acted as if the candidate would be just another worshipper, the decision was made to go somewhere else.
‘Show no partiality, no favoritism to the rich or famous in worship’…These words from James are as relevant to us in the twenty-first century as to his readers in the late first century.
Since we usually speak and write out of our own experiences, I often wonder what prompted the writers of the Bible to write what they wrote. What was going on in Paul’s churches, for example, to make him write some of the scolding things he wrote?
Clearly the Corinthian Church was dividing into factions, and Paul is upset that the church there is not unified in following Jesus. And people in Galatia are falling away and beginning to follow another religious promoter.
James writes from his experience here, apparently about an incident he observed in worship that upset him. Someone dressed in shabby clothes must have come into worship and the ushers told him to stand up or sit on the floor, while others dressed in fine clothing and wearing gold rings came in and were escorted to the best seats. Witnessing this prompts James to scold his contemporaries for making distinctions.
It would seem from the tone of that we read here that James is tired of people saying they have faith in Christ, but acting in ways contrary to Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus’ teachings about treatment of the poor were probably fresh in his mind as James watched the way people were treated as they came in for worship. (Jesus had interesting things to say about seating arrangements!)
James’ emphasis on works has put him at odds with Christian apologists over the centuries; who have argued, using Paul’s writings as “proof,” that “a person is justified by faith, apart from works of the Law.” (Romans 3:28)
But James questions the efficacy of faith that has no outward manifestation in good works. And actually, this position seems compatible with Paul’s own, when he writes:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Eph. 2:8-10)
Jesus frequently said that works were essential to the life of faith:
Other New Testament writers speak of the emptiness of faith without works, none more graphically than in Revelation 3, where the spirit of God says to the church at Laodicea: “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-16)
The next verse in that reading from Revelation, in fact, adds: “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” So, according to this writer, anyone who has a lukewarm faith makes God sick enough that God wants to spit them out.
The New Testament does not offer cheap grace. Following the gospel of Christ is costly. It calls us to surrender our whole lives, and to live in accordance with what Jesus says is the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37 ff)
James writes today to tell those who are greeting people coming into the assembly: “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
When I have gone to congregations as the new pastor, I am quickly told about the members who belong. The CEO of a national pharmaceutical firm, the owner of a business that employs many people, the surgeon, the dean or college professor, the bank president, the lawyer…I am not told about the table waiter, the trash collector, or the person who works the cash register at CVS.)
I understand this, because we are conditioned to think of executives and professionals as important people. So, when executives, professionals, and other community leaders are members of our church the church becomes important by association.
There is no question but that some congregations are better at being welcoming to all who come through their doors for worship than are others. I celebrate the fact that The Open Door is not just a name, but is also a place that is welcoming to everyone who comes in for coffee and worship on Sunday morning.
But unless we want to be pious and claim to be without blemish, I think we can confess our own failings in treating everyone alike. We can only “claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection,” to borrow the wisdom of the original 12 step recovery program.
Sunday morning continues to be the most segregated hour in America sociologists tell us. People worship with others who share their racial, ethnic, economic and social heritage and background. There are black churches in Bloomington and in other American communities. There are churches where poor people attend…where Spanish speaking people attend…where Korean people attend…where charismatic people attend…
Indeed, entire denominations have identities along ethnic, economic, educational, and racial lines. Historically, for example, Episcopal and Presbyterian Christians were affluent, professional, and well connected in the community, while Methodists were lower on the social ladder, and poorer people tended to be Pentecostal and certain strains of Baptists. African Americans had their own denominational affiliations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and others.
(In fact, African American churches in many towns were numbered beneath their white denominational counterpart in town. The Second Baptist Church here in Bloomington is a black church, as is the Second Baptist Church in the hometown of my youth. Presumably, the “First Church” could not be black.)
As in the apostolic days when James wrote, the church today needs to continually be conscious of how we invite and receive all people. Our words may be the same to the person who has not bathed in days and to the person we see at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings, but how we establish and nurture relationships – in the worship hour and beyond – may say something different.
As we go into the day, and to the week it begins, a helpful question we might ask is this: who are our poor? We have friends here….people we work out with at the Y…or whose children are involved with ours in school activities…There are people here whose company we enjoy, in part because we think alike about politics and religion.
But who are the people we greet politely but are otherwise indifferent towards? There is one that needs a helping hand. I see him. He has walked into the theater lobby and is getting a cup of coffee. He is alone, and is staying away from others. He looks confused, even afraid, like he might turn around and walk right back. He needs a friend to come up and say, ‘welcome, why don’t you sit with me?’ Amen
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