Sunday, September 9, 2012

“Playing the Favorites”

James 2:1-12

Have you ever had a battle over what music is playing on the radio or stereo? There is music for everyone now and we can sure get picky about what kind of music we like. If you live long enough you may find that your taste in music will change over the years.

Music is not the only thing we are passionate about. Food, video games, and cars are just a few of the other things we like to pick our favorites. We develop these preferences because we believe they will give us something we want. Sometimes we are even magical in our thinking about a few of our favorite things.

Remember the “Sound of Music?”
These are just a few of my favorite things….

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

It is natural for everyone to have favorites, after all that is how we make choices. We go with those things that have given us positive payback over the years and with ones we hope will eventually give us what we long for in our hearts. We favor winning over loosing. We favor health over sickness. We favor prosperity over poverty. We favor good people over bad. We favor wisdom over foolishness. We favor love over hate. We favor beauty over the ugly. We favor holiness over sin.

Give that this is a virtue that keeps us moving towards compliance with God’s will, why then would the word of God say this:

1. My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.
James 2:1-12

We are going to play musical pews this morning, so get ready to move. When the music plays we are going to switch seats according to those things we favor over others. If you prefer prosperity over poverty, then move to the front of the Church. If you favor all of us being poorer, then move to the back of the church. Move now while the music plays.

Thank you…very well done. Now listen to this verse.

2. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4. have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
James 2:1-12

The Bible seems a bit harsh here don’t you think? Who here does not prefer prosperity over poverty? Do not the poor of this world wish they could be like the wealthy? Is it wrong to honor those who know how to make a dollar into two with business savvy and courage?

So why shouldn’t the successful be treated with a greater degree of honor and respect than those who are poor and desperate? Yet the Bible tells us that when we treat people in this way we are discriminating with “evil thoughts.” That is harsh…

Now… understand that the Bible is not saying that discrimination is wrong. In our culture we are running up against the conundrum of discrimination. We know we need to do it but we don’t like to do it. We have adopted the idea that any discrimination against another person is wrong, but we still need to protect ourselves against people and ideologies that threaten our lives and way of life. If we don’t discriminate we will find ourselves endangering the lives of others.

God is Himself discriminatory and judgmental towards people. He actually encourages us to tell the difference between evil and good. Consider that the Apostle James is being discriminatory and judgmental towards those in the church who are discriminatory and judgmental of others!

Yet this is the Word of God and if that is what we take away from this passage we have miss understood what God is trying to teach us. When we make discrimination a negative value in all cases we run into the conundrum described above. The Word of God shows us the way out by telling us that: “have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

What is the evil in our thoughts? We look on the appearance and trappings of an individual and we make a decision if they have anything we should value. Our evil thoughts flow from the idea that we can identify the value of a person based on their appearance. After all who would go to a poor man to learn how to be a business success?

I have stumbled on a TV series called “Hotel Hell” that seeks to save historic hotels that are in danger on closing. In the first episode the successful restaurateur checks in as a guest and evaluates the Hotel. To help the business succeed he helps the owners realize that the staff he under values actually hold the secrets to His success and saving the Hotel. He discriminates in a evil way based on pride and prejudice rather than on Godly wisdom and insight. The result would be bankruptcy if he did not change his ways.

The Word of God is warning us not to judge on the basis of evil motives but in a Godly and righteous way realizing another great truth found in the next passage. But before we get to this passage let me ask you to move one more time.

We are going to play musical pews again, so get ready to move. When the music plays we are going to switch seats according to those things we favor over others. If you prefer hardship over an easy life, then move to the front of the Church. If you favor a comfortable and untroubled life free of trials and tribulations, then move to the back of the church. Move now while the music plays.

Thank you…very well done. Now listen to this verse.

5. Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6. But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7. Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
James 2:1-12

Our favorites can keep us from discovering the better things in life. When we simply follow what we like and makes us feel good we may miss the life we really desire and loose some of our favorite things. When we give up some of our favorite things for the right reasons, we can discover the better things in life…but this is a risk, one that many are not willing to take very often.

The Word of God tells us that those who don’t have the advantaged of the wealthy must rely on faith in God rather than bank accounts and the services it can buy. Christ taught and demonstrated that a life filled with faith in God is a far better life than putting our faith in things and events. Although it may not seem like it to the rest of the world, those who are walking by faith may have more God given wisdom than those who have the symbols of success in their possession.

Christ taught…
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

We find it near impossible to be poor and reliant on God when we have so many other options and opportunities to trust in first. The Corinthian church was a successful congregation that knew a good economy and the luxuries of life but did not know much about a faith filled life. The Apostle Paul wrote them to tell them…

8. Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9. For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
1 Corinthians 4:8-13

The grace of God is often expressed by the less fortunate and the bravest of us are born out of trouble and turmoil. Royalty may be born into families with crests and endowments, but those who are born of the heaven inherit the same obscurity and neglect experience by prophets, apostles and by Christ Himself when He walked this earth.

38. the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrew 11:32-29

Some of the most royal of God’s children are the obscure and overlooked of this world. To know them you need to have a discerning heart. To some they seem like fools and very unfortunate. The fates seem pitted against them but what we often don’t see is how heaven watches over them. Angles walk with power over those that world overlooks. The least of this world receive great attention and hope of heaven.

We treat the easy life and a favorite simply because we don’t know at what cost easy is bought…

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
Revelation 3:17 NIV

By looking for the easy road, the less risky choice, and the safe bet we miss the adventures that God has in mind to make life worth living. In the same book of Revelations he tells those who suffer in the service to Christ:

I know your afflictions and your poverty--yet you are rich!
Revelation 2:9

We are going to play musical pews one more time, so get ready to move. When the music plays we are going to switch seats according to those things we favor over others. If you believe in your heart that God loves you personally, then move to the front of the Church. If you believe that God does not love you then move to the back of the church. Move now while the music plays.

Thank you…very well done. Now listen to this verse.

8. If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
12. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13. because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
James 2:1-12

There should be no one at the back of the Church this morning, but sad to say there are many who sit at the back not because it is the favorite place to be rejected by God, but because this is truly what they believe.

Although the word tells us no to discriminate and judge others out of evil notions like pride, and envy that is exactly what we do to ourselves everyday. I often find that people are merciful with others because they are cruel and unjust toward themselves in self condemnation. This is a problem that goes to the bone and the royal law of Scripture because meaningless: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is how God does not show favoritism to any one person. He loves everyone and wants them up here at the front of the Church believing in His love. Yet there are many who sit at the back shrinking from the Love of God in fear and dread.

This is the amazing mystery…God Loves you. Not the way you are, and how you intend to become. He loves you because He created you and has a purpose for you life before you were even born. You are His child whether you live that way or not. God loves all of us equally and longs to have all people everywhere repent of their sins and choose to become obedient sons and daughters of God.

Mercy does triumph over judgment and discrimination. If we are going to live in such away we must accept that mercy of God in our hearts that condemns us and judges without mercy. If harsh words come pouring out of your mouth towards those you should love, you are probably sitting in the back of the church finding it hard to approach the throne of God.

If you are gracious, patient, and forgiving towards others who are thorns and thistles, then you must have already embraced the mercy of God towards you in your heart. Surely you hold this mercy as your most favorite part of life. Like the great people of the Bible you have found that the love and mercy of God is more valuable than any other treasure on earth.

Receive His mercy, give his mercy and let the favoritism of God rest on your life.


32. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33. who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34. quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38. the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrew 11:32-29

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