Children’s bulletin on playing favorites, Sadie reading James 2:1-8, Darren doing object lesson, singing Jesus loves the little children and Robyn Spratt playing offertory. Ushers – Brody Taylor, Terrick Taylor, paytontondell
Playing Favoritism
Introduction
Show video clip “history of racism in Canada” Just the first 45 seconds. (Start at 12 seconds, quit at 55)
A tad bit convicting isn’t it? I know it was for me. As someone who works hard at treating all men equal, I embarrassingly found my initial thoughts being that she was talking about drugs. Why? And would I have jumped to that same conclusion if it had been a white person talking? Or what if that white personwould have had long hair, maybe a nose ring and some tattoos? It’s pretty hard to not to see our bias isn’t it? Now probably most of us would never blatantly act out these kinds of thoughts , or would we?
Take a look around for a minute. How many non-white people do you see here this morning? Why not? Its not like we don’t have other ethnic groups within our community particularly first nations people. My guess is that most of us have limited connection with people of other ethnic backgrounds. And part of that is because we instinctively move towards people that are most like us, don’t we? We even do this among ourselves as white people. Again look around for a minute. I think its pretty safe to say most of us would fall into that lower to middle income bracket. And yet we all know there is a whole other group in our community that fall well below the middle income bracket. Where are they?
Or what about the mentally challenged? We have a number of group homes in our community and yet not a single one of those individuals is here either.
I know these areuncomfortable questions to wrestle with,and ones we may even feel we have “legitimate” explanations for, butI think the evidence tells us that we do in fact struggle with partiality by, at the very least, limiting our social interactions with those we are most comfortable with. Question – is that what Jesus meant the church of Jesus Christ to be? I want to suggest to you this morning that it’s the complete opposite.For there’s nothing that speaks louder to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit than diversity.Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 3:27, speaking to a group of Christians. He says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. There is neither Jew or Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ”. In other words, a visible spirit of oneness in the midst of diversity; of where even though they were NOT all the same, they were to see each other the same because they were all clothed with Christ.
Listen, there is a whole world out there that is different than us but that God wants to see part of His church. But in order for that to be a possibility we have to get honest about this issue of partiality.
So take your Bibles please and turn to the passage Sadie read for us earlier, James 2:1-13 and as you’re doing that let me say that as I was doing my research on this topic this past week, I came across a documentary done by Anderson Cooper a couple of years ago on how the idea of racism changes as we get older. Initially they asked a set of questions of a group of 6 years in regards to racism. And their answers were extremely positive and really didn’t even take much note of the different colors of skin. But when they asked the same set of questions of a group of teenagers, their answers became a whole lot less positive. Obviously they no longer were enjoying the innocence of a 6 year old.
Well we as Christians have the greatest motivation to live the “innocent” life of a 6 year old when it comes to people different than us, and that is God’s love for us and for all the peoples of this world.
Remember the children’s chorus we just sang – red, yellow, black, and white all are precious in his sight? That’s where we need to get to if we’re going to overcome the spirit of partiality that lies in all of us to some degree or other.
1. What actually is showing partiality or favoritism?(v.1)
It’s interesting that the word “partiality” in the Greek means “to see one’s face”. In other words it has to do with making judgment based on what we see and not on what we know about an individual. For example when we see someone different than us do we see them as another fellow human being who we haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet or do we find ourselves sizing them up and drawing certain conclusions about them? If our response is one of sizing them up, we are guilty of showing partiality.
And our partiality can happen a number of different ways. It can come in the way of showing preference to someone or can come in a way of where we see someone in a negative light.Either way it isshowing partiality.
Lets look at the idea of bias or preference
Bias or Preference – It is where we have a higher degree of comfortability with some people than others. And at one level I get that. We’re naturally pulled towards people who are more like us. But notice I used the word “naturally”. As Christians we have been given the ability to act “supernaturally”, meaning just as the One we worship is no respector of persons, so we too ought to treat all men equal.
Now, does that mean we shouldn’t have people in our lives that we enjoy hanging out with more than others? Of course not but it can’t be to the exclusion of others. It can’t be to the point of where others would not be considered welcome if the opportunity was to arise.
Howeverthat said,let me caution us that our attitude of bias or preference is not merely a cloakingof prejudice. And what am I talking about when I say prejudice?
Prejudice is having a preconceived idea about someone as a result of what we’ve been told and/or experienced. Like the video clip I showed at the beginning of the message. I jumped to a certain conclusion about what she was talking about.
Now prejudice could be based on the color of someone’s skin, it could be the way someone dresses, it could be their size, it could be someone’s ethnicity, it could be someone’s sexual preference, or it could be something as simple as which side of town they come from.
Preference causes us to search out those people we are more comfortable with and prejudice causes us to avoid those we are less comfortable with. Both are forms of partiality and are the foundation of discrimination which is the word James uses in v. 4.when talking about the way the people in his story treated the poor man. It says they told the poor man to sit at their feet, communicating that he wasn’t worthy to have the same place of honor as the rich man, to which James said you are being discriminatory.
And I think most of us here this morning would agree that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. But let me ask you a question. What if our premier Brad Wall showed up in church next Sunday and then the following Sunday a person off the street who wasn’t dressed very nice and maybe didn’t even smell very good showed up, would our actions be any different? If they would James would call that being discriminatory. Or lets bring it even closer to home. What if premier Brad Wall showed up at your house one day and the person off the street another day, would you welcome them in the same way?
Now I know some of you are right away thinking, of course I would. I mean just think about the potential safety issuesalone !!
Interesting you say that because Jesus told a story about that kind of response in Luke 10. It’s called the Good Samaritan parable. Only one person was willing to take the risk to reach out and help the man, to which Jesus said he is the only one who truly understands the law of loving your neighbor as yourself.
Listen I’m not trying to be judgmental when I say these things but rather to wake us all up to the fact that partiality is far more alive in us than we want to admit.
James reminds us in our text today that as believers, our faith in Jesus calls us to a much higher standard .
2. Example(s) of partiality (v.2-3)
Let’s now look at James’ example of partiality
Rich vs the poor (retell the story) - usher came around and tripped over himself to help the rich. The poor made him stay at the back against the wall.
A. Let’s first of all look at the Partiality Toward the Rich - Most of the Christians of that time were not at all rich. Many were poor due to persecution. And so, in contrast with most believers a rich man in their assembly would likely have been an unusual occurrence.
Notice two things are said about the rich man in v.2. First it says he was dressed “in fine apparel.” Now obviously there’s nothing wrong with coming to church dressed up but this man did not just come to church well dressed. The word translated “fine” (lampros) in this case means “splendid, magnificent.” In other words his clothes caught the people’s attention. He was dressed so to draw attention to himself. It says he was also wearing several gold rings which was a highly prized symbol of wealth in that day. And it says when they saw all this the people began to show favoritism toward him. Now no doubt there were those that looked at him with envy but many looked at him with delight that such a wealthy and important individual would visit their church. And James called that showing favoritism. Well actually he goes further than that, he calls them judges with evil thoughtsl!!
B. An Illustration of Discrimination Against the Poor – The word James uses here for “poor” (ptochos) describes a person who was so poor that they would often have to beg just for their daily necessities. He probably came in shabby, dirty clothes, not being able to afford anything nicer. And many probably wanted to ignore him. In fact they wouldn’t even offer the poor man a regular seat! They wanted the poor visitor to stand up forthe whole worship service in the back, or on a side wall. And if that wasn’t suitable, he could sit at someone’s feet, clearlya sign of inferiority. To which James responds by saying, “you [emphatic] have dishonored the poor man.” You have discriminated against him.
This is what James is talking about when he’s talking about the sin partiality. One side of it involves showing favoritism and the other side is being prejudice, discriminating against someone.
And I think most of us here this morning would agree that its wrong. But why is it wrong?
3. What is wrong with partiality? (v.1,5,6)
James says in v. 1 “as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism”. Why not? Because its not consistent with who our leader Jesus was.
1. Its inconsistent with our faith in Christ v. 1
Example 1 – The Samaritan woman in John 4. The Samaritan was taken aback by Jesus even acknowledging her and says, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink”. Jesus had violated the code of Jewish conduct on two fronts – first talking to a Samaritan and secondly a woman. And yet Jesus did it because he showed no partiality towards ethnicity or gender.
Example 2 – In Mark 2 the Pharisees accused him of being friends with tax collectors and sinners. Again totally against what a Jewish leader would do.
In fact so much was this Jesus’ lifestyle that some Pharisees came to Him in Mark 12 and said, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are….” What a powerful statement of impartiality! You pay no attention to who they are but rather treat everyone the same.
In other words Jesus was not impressed with riches or social status. Everybody was important to Jesus, including the little child, the poor, the outcast. And the same is true of God the Father. The first thing which Peter said after hearing Cornelius’ story was, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons”. In Ephesians 6:9 Paul says, “Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him”.
The Gospel is for all people, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor. Jesus came into the world and died on the cross for all. The inclusive gospel which we have received, cannot be shared by an exclusive people.
Jesus, our Savior, our leader, was all about rescuing souls regardless of their status in life and we as his followers are asked to do the same.
2. It sets us up as judges v.4
“have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts/motives”?
There’s something unique about the way in which James use the word “judge” here. Because it is being used in a negative context it is saying you are making a rendering about someone or something of which you don’t have all the facts.
Again like the video I showed in the beginning of my message. Some of us made a judgment without having all the facts and as a result we came to the wrong conclusion.
Ie. Look at James’ example again. They had no idea how this guy got rich. He may have inherited it or took advantage of employees by paying them poorly or got it through illegal means such as selling drugs. They had no clue. And yet he automatically got a pass to the front of the class because he had the appearance of being successful.
Or what about the poor man? What if he was that way because he lost everything through an investment deal he made with some rich guy? What if he had nothing because his health was such that he couldn’t hold down on a job? Or what if he just happened to be born into an extremely poor family? Or here’s an interesting scenario -what if he had been a Job who God was testing? Can you imagine Job walking into church, clothes ragged, boils all over his body, not a penny to his name? And yet just a few weeks earlier he could very easily have been that rich man.
The point James is making here is we just don’t know so stop showing partiality, stop judging people based on what you see.
3. It discredits the sovereignty of God v. 5
“has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith…”?
First of all let me make it clear that James is not teaching by this statement that God chooses all poor men for salvation and passes over all rich men. Rather, he was simply making an observation about what was actually happening during the time of the early church in that many more poor people had trusted in Christ for salvation than rich people. There were some - Zaccheus, Nicodemus, Barnabas, Philemon, to name a few, but the numbers were definitely slanted toward the poor.
And that’s because poor people tend to realize quicker their need of someone beyond themselves than the rich do. Jesus talked about this in his encounter with the rich young ruler. He said it is hard for the wealthy to get into God’s kingdom, because their riches tend to take the place that belongs to God alone (Mark 10:17-27). It is those who are poor materially who are also often poor in spirit, recognizing their need for God’s grace (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20).
But that said the point James was making here was that when we show partiality we are overruling the sovereignty of God. WE are determining which people are acceptable to God. I know that sounds bizarre and we would never think ourselves of doing that but when we choose to ignore certain people and embrace others James says that’s exactly what we are doing.
God has called us be the salt and light on this earth and when we decide who we will be salt and light to by ignoring certain people, we are overruling the sovereignty of God.
3. It dishonors the human race and their Creator v. 6
“But you have insulted the poor…” Proverbs 14:21 says, “those who oppress the poor insult their maker”.
Every single one of us has been created in the image of God with equal value and dignity before God. From the very beginning God designed a human family that would originate from one father and one mother.
In fact Paul spoke to this when addressing the philosophers in Athens. He said, “From one man God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth…”
And so when we don’t see/treat everyone equal we are actually insulting the human race and the One who created us.
It doesn’t matter what country one is born in or to what race, we are all equal in the eyes of God. We are all people for whom Christ died.