Mercy Triumphs

 A sermon based upon James 2: 1-13

By Charles J. Tomlin, DMin;

September 19th, 2021, Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Book of James, 4/12

 

James 2:1–13 (NRSV)

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For 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, 3 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,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, 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? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For 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. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

 

During a weekend revival meeting, as the service was starting, a young man with long, unkempt hair and worn-out clothing came into the sanctuary.  As he walked to the front to take his seat you could practically hear people mumbling about either his hair in particular, or his dress in general.

      Not long after the service began, people where shocked when the worship leader called the young man forward to play the piano.  For the next several minutes the entire congregation was mesmerized by his musical gifts and talents.  After the service concluded, people were crowding him and praising him.  No one seemed to notice his hair or his choice of clothing any longer.  It was now all about his talent. 

What happened in that church service is common in human communities and churches too.   We humans are quick to make judgments or become prejudiced.    It was so obvious in James situation that he felt he had to address the matter.   In fact, James comes close to questioning the validity of their Christian faith.

           

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE?

     James picks up where he left off earlier writing about those who deceive themselves by hearing the word without doing it (1: 22).   When faith does not lead to action, he says, you end up with a religion that is worthless (26).   This is why James questioned so intensely: Is your faith real?  Do you really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? Are we worshipping the same Jesus?  James seldom invoke the name of Jesus but he does here.   

     What disturbed James so much were certain acts of favoritism that were taking place in the church.   He saw this as a distinct violation of the royal law of Scripture.  By royal law James means a part of the law that holds the rest of the law together.   If you fail to follow the law in this one point, he explains, you have failed in every other part of it too (vs. 10).   That is a profoundly serious charge, is it not?

         This royal law James refers to is expressed most clearly in the book of Leviticus.   Although Leviticus is filled with ancient rules and regulations intended for priests, we also find there some critical teachings that go straight to the heart of who the people of God are supposed to be.   As Leviticus 19 opens,  the people are called to be holy, as the LORD God is holy.   This call to holiness dominates the details of Leviticus 19 and some scholars suggest that James was holding the Leviticus scroll open before him when he referred what he named royal law which Jesus named part of the greatest commandment that says you shall love your neighbor, as yourself (vs18).   Just before this law above all other laws, it also says:   You 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 (19:15-16).         

What Leviticus forbade is what James saw happening around him.    As he graphically describes in our text, the people were showing favoritism to the rich and well-dressed in a way that they were putting the poor among them at a great disadvantage.  Seeing this grave discrimination, James questions Do you really believe in our glorious Lord?’

In the New Testament, such questioning of the authenticity of faith often happens in conjunction with economic injustice.  It was that way in the teaching of Jesus. Just recall Jesus scorching parable in Luke 16 about the rich man who died and went to hell and the poor man Lazarus, who also died and was resting in the bosom of Abraham.  In the same spirit Jesus warned how hard it is for those who are wealthy and rich to enter the kingdom (Matt. 19:23).  When it comes to Paul, who can forget the most quoted warning of Paul, where he wrote to Timothy saying: For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil; it is through their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains (1 Tim. 6:10).   

As we consider series warnings like this, we immediately understand where James was coming from.    It is through the eagerness to be rich that not only are the rich preferred, but the poor are misjudged and discriminated against.   In other words, following the logic of Paul, James knows that the desire and love for money corrupts human love and relationships.    When we crave riches, we fail to learn contentment (Phil. 4:11) and without contentment, we do not desire godliness (1 Tim. 6:6ff.) and without a desire to for godliness, we can succumb to temptation and become trapped in the snare of senseless and hurtful desires which can bring ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9).      

The late pastor, Ray Stedman said that the proof that riches are deceiving is in the truth ‘that we came into the world with nothing, and we can take nothing out of it.  Think about it.  What do we have when we are born?  Nothing. We come into the world a little red-faced, squally, naked baby. We do not have anything; even our diaper has to be furnished. What do we have when we leave this world?  Nothing. We leave it all behind.  We take nothing with us in death, not even our bodies.    Pastor Stedman went on to describe how he once picked up a young hitchhiker.  As he was telling about himself, the Hitchhicker said, "My uncle died a millionaire."

The pastor answered, "No, he didn't."

"What do you mean?" the young Hitchhiker asked. "You don't know my uncle."  

Dr Stedman countered: "Well, who's got the million now?"  

"Oh," the Hitchhiker said, "I see what you mean."   

The pastor was right.  Nobody dies a millionaire. We all die paupers; we leave it all behind.

So, if riches are so deceiving, why are so many people fooled?   Why do we feel drawn to the rich and famous in ways that can cause us to favor the wealthy who don’t need us and to overlook our human and Christian responsibilities toward the poor who do?   

 

YOU HAVE DISHONORED THE POOR

     This favoritism toward the rich and total disregard for the poor makes no sense in a church that claims to follow a Jesus who had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58).   James reminds his readers that since it is the rich who oppress them, who hold all the power, and who have almost no reverence for God, the rich do not deserve to be favored at church.   This would only reveal that now, the church itself is negating the riches of faith which God freely gives to the poor (2:5).  

Where did James get an idea like this, that God gives most freely to the poor?   Interestingly, James was not only getting his perspective about this sin of economic and spiritual partiality (v. 9) from Leviticus, but he is also getting it from Jesus.  James is echoing a statement Jesus once gave to his dinner host:

When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14: 12-14).

In this advice, Jesus revealed why God favors the poor.  It is not because God loves the poor more than the rich, but it is because the rich, through their love for money, exclude themselves from the riches God has to give   This is clarified further in the parable Jesus tells next about a man who gave a great dinner and invited lots of people in the town.   Unfortunately, most everyone declined his invitation because they were already preoccupied. 

However, since the dinner was already prepared the host sent his servant to go out on the streets to invite the crippled, the blind and the lame.  Those are the ones who come because they were in need of the attention and were free to accept his invitation.  After these guests arrived and since there was still room at the table, the host of the banquet sent his servants out once again, but this time they are told to go out on the roads and lanes and to compel even more people to come and fill his house (Lk 14:23).   The point that Jesus is making is simple:  God has so much to offer and gives freely and abundantly to anyone, but it is only those who are open to the invitation who actually receive the offer.  Unfortunately, the healthy and the wealthy often miss the banquet of love because their hearts are already preoccupied as they think they have something better to do.

         This parable from Jesus helps us understand the problem James saw in his church.   By preferring and distinguishing the rich, the people of God were missing the party of faith, hope, and love, because they dishonored and neglected the poor.  While no one knows the exact economic situation of that time, what James saw happening can still happen.   Not only are the poor still being dishonored and neglected, the rich and wealthy, along with those still being lured by the riches of this world, still miss sharing in the kingdom of love that is rich in faith (2:5).

         Back in 1987, Teresa and I visited the Mounte Horbe Brazilian church, located in one of the poorest areas of Sao Paulo.  While visiting many of the members and exploring the city, we encountered a kind of poverty we had never experienced in our lives.   We found people living in one room concrete structures.   We visited a school where sewage ran in the middle of the street.  We even stepped over orphaned children, sleeping on newspaper lying on sidewalks of city streets.   We were even offered a child to bring home ourselves, but laws made it an impossible task.   But in that most impoverished city, the atmosphere of worship and fellowship in the church and the Christian community was electrifying and captivating.  They were a church filled with the crippled, the blind, and the lame, and they had surely accepted the invitation to the table of faith, hope, and love.  

 

MERCY ...OVER JUDGEMENT

         When it comes to being rich in faith (v. 5), fulfilling the royal law of love (v.8), especially when it comes to honoring (v. 8) and showing mercy (v.13) to the poor in the world (v. 5), James concludes his warning about unjust partiality and playing favorites at church with a reminder of our human accountability to both the written and to the unwritten law of God.  

         As to the law of God, James says whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point, has become accountable for all of it (v. 10).  Now that sounds like a very stiff, strict, and seemingly unjust enforcement of law, does it not?  How can God hold a person accountable for breaking all the law when they have only broken one law?   Is this fair? 

Well, it would not be fair if the law were just about laws, but that is certainly not the case.   In the Bible, the law is never only about the law itself, but it is about fulfilling the intent of the law.   This is how a single law is always related ever other law.   All the laws of God are always connected to the greatest law, which James refers to as the royal law—the law (or should we say the spirit of the law) that holds all the rest of the law together.   To clarify this, James renames this royal law (v.8) as the law of liberty (v. 12); a law that liberates.  This royal law of love is now expressed as the law that can both holds us accountable but also frees and liberates us for life and living too.  

 Following this progression of law to love and liberation, we should now understand even more fully how the royal law of love holds us all accountable.   The law of God holds us all accountable in how we show mercy to others (v. 13).  By showing mercy, especially as we show mercy toward those who need it most, we are being accountable to all the law. 

Everything James has against showing favoritism is remedied in how we show mercy---in how mercy triumphs; mercy wins!   Do you see it?  James ends in a most typical Hebrew way of expressing wisdom with both a warning and a blessing--two sides of the same coin of liberating love. 

As a warning James reminds us that if we pass judgement in ways that goes against or neglects others, we are only hurting ourselves.  In other words, when we show no mercy, we receive no mercy.   The unwritten law we live by is the law that judges us. 

On the other hand, James offers a blessing to anyone who would show mercy.  To those who are merciful; God will be merciful.   This is implied throughout Scripture and is most simply expressed as what you give is what you get.   In this James echoes Jesus in Luke 6: 37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Lk. 6:37-38 NRS).

Again, when we show mercy, we are being judged by the law of liberty (v.12).   That sounds strange, but by overcoming our human tendency to play favorites and express negative prejudice against others, everyone wins---the poor win, the rich win---the law wins, and of course, mercy wins.   And because mercy wins, everyone is winner!   Do you like the sound of that?   

Surprisingly, however, some people still do not like to hear about mercy.  Some people take joy in a world where some lose and others win; were a few have everything, and many are left with too little.   But in the coming kingdom of God—a kingdom that is still coming—this kind favoritism or partiality will not work. 

Years ago, in the West Indies, what now is known as the United States territory of the Virgin Islands, Lutheran Missionaries ministered to the Danish landlords who ruled the islands.  One of the missionary pastors saw that the Danish were only serving the white people.  The missionary pastor asked, "What of the Negro slaves in the fields?  Who ministers to them?"  He was told, "If you want to preach to them, go out into the fields where they work.  We don't want them in our church."  The pastor did so, and today large Lutheran congregations in the Virgin Islands testify to the pioneer missionary pastor who went into the fields and into the slaves quarters to preach the freedom and hope that Christ brings. 

In this story we see judgement at its worst—in prejudice, oppression and slavery.  But we also see mercy at its best—with promise, justice and liberation.  Life fills up every day with countless opportunities to have mercy on others. Sometimes we may be challenged to take a stand on an issue of social justice.  We all have opportunities to encourage someone who has been dealt a raw deal in life.   The grace of God shown toward us should enable us to share and show grace to others and to have mercy on our neighbor.

Dr. Paul Brand,  a former missionary surgeon wrote: “During my life as a missionary surgeon in India and now as a member of the tiny chapel on the grounds of the Carville leprosy hospital, I have seen my share of unlikely seekers after God.  And I must admit that most of my worship in the last thirty years has not taken place among people who have shared my tastes in music, speech, or even thought.  But over those years I have been profoundly -- and humbly -- impressed that I find God in the faces of my fellow worshipers by sharing with people who are shockingly different from each other and from me.”

Out of much the same kind of experience of  appreciating and trying to understand, C. S. Lewis recounted that when he first started going to church he disliked the hymns, which he considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music.   But as he continued going to church, he said, "I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots.  That gets you out of your solitary conceit”

Folks, our scripture text is clear.   As believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, we will not show favoritism or remain prejudiced against others.  True faith in Jesus Christ leaves no room for favoritism, partiality or discrimination.  The only way God works among humans in this world is when everyone gets a chance to win.   This means you and will get a chance to win too.  When we live in in liberating love of mercy, we will win and cannot lose.  We win because the mercy that flows out of the royal law can save us all.      Amen.