A couple of days ago I saw a news item about the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. Specifically, the reporter was visiting with managers of the most expensive and exclusive hotels in Toronto about their preparations for visiting celebrities. All of the hotel people were very hush-hush about which celebrities they were planning to host, or had hosted in previous years, but were happy to tell what lengths they had gone to in order to cater to every whim of their important guests, everything from bringing in special mattresses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to knocking out walls and completely redoing suites so they would meet the specific demands of the pampered. One of the hoteliers said the key sentence in the whole report: “the answer No doesn’t even enter the equation.” For entertainers and athletes, captains of industry and rulers of nations, the red carpet is ALWAYS rolled out.
With
that as our backdrop, hear once more these words from the letter of James (2:
1-4). “Sisters and brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your
assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also come in, and you pay attention
to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘have a seat here, please,’
while you say to the poor man, ‘stand there’ or ‘sit at my feet,’ have you not
made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” Haruko Nawata Ward (p.42) makes the point
that within the social environment of the day, if you saw a man wearing a gold
ring you could be quite certain you were looking at a government official; and
since Christ-followers were prohibited from practicing their religion on fear
of death in the Roman Empire, you’d think that a gathering of believers would
want to do everything in their power not to anger or disrespect someone who
held their fate in his hands. Yet, even
with such extraordinary consequences, these words from 2000 years ago make it
clear: within the community of Christ there will be no pandering to the airs of
the rich and powerful.
Why
would this be such a big deal? Why would
Christ-followers be called to die on this particular hill?
·
Some of it relates to the deep
tradition within Judaism, of paying special attention to the needs of the
poor. James is writing primarily to Jews
who had chosen to follow Jesus, and in reminding them not to pay special
attention to the rich he is simply reminding them of something they already
knew. With God, if anyone is to get
special treatment, it is the poor, not the rich; James wants to make sure that these early
gatherings of Jesus people are not being distracted by the flash of a rich
man’s bling, for there is to be no partiality among those who follow Jesus.
·
Some of James’ insistence on
this matter is related to the courage needed to follow Jesus. If we assume that indeed, a man wearing gold
rings was either a government official, or at least someone who travelled in
high enough circles that he could tattle on these Christ-worshippers , you could say that as soon as the man entered
the assembly of believers they were already in deep trouble. Whether they treated him like royalty, or
simply invited him to join them on the same basis as everyone else, he could
still identify them, and have them crucified by speaking one word to the right
person. With that sickening reality
acknowledged, James urges these gatherings not to sell their souls to the rich
and influential. Welcome all, equally,
in the name of Christ, James implored them, and if someone turns you in to the
authorities, at least you will know you did not compromise yourselves along the
way. The important thing is to believe
that in Jesus, we are all equal, and partiality has no place, even with mortal
consequences.
·
And some of James’ strong
words emanated from a context that is quite foreign to us. Typically, when we as 21st century
Canadians picture James’ story about a rich man and a poor man walking into
worship, we are likely to view the scenario through upper-middle-class
eyes. The rich man is above us; the poor
man is well below us. But for the
earliest gatherings of those who followed the path of Jesus, the poor man would
have been just another guy like the rest of them, for those most strongly drawn
to Jesus were those who had nothing: slaves,
women, labourers, beggars. The
appearance of a rich man would be unusual and hopeful, while the arrival of a
poor man would be one more person at the same level as the rest of them, one
more mouth to feed from their already meager resources. Don’t resent the arrival of one more poor
person to join the rest of you poor people, James would scold, and don’t make a big deal of another just
because he has money. Show no
partiality – we are all equal in Christ’s sight.
I want
you to hold on to that idea for a moment.
I want you to embrace the worldview of those early, impoverished
Christ-followers. See the world from
ground level, as it were, rather than from any angle of advantage. Hear Christ’s words about love and power,
faithfulness and forgiveness as if you had no possessions and no
status. Hear his words of eternal life,
with the knowledge that you had already taken the very dangerous step of
committing your very life to him.
And
take one step further back in history:
to the days of Jesus himself, as recounted in the gospel of Mark,
chapter 6. Jesus was building quite a
following with his wonderful parables and powerful healings, but before
expanding his work it was time to go home and preach in his local synagogue. Rather
than enjoying a hero’s welcome back in his home town, he met his staunchest
rejection – “they took offense at him” says Mark 6:3 - and this clearly caught
him off guard. As stated in Mark 6:8-9,
“he could do no mighty works there…and he marveled because of their unbelief.”
I
don’t know about you, but I can certainly think of times when I have been one
of those folks in the crowd, hearing that someone from my neighbourhood had
made good, and a sense of local pride totally overshadowed by resentment and
envy. I hear these words ringing in my
ears: “How did HE get an Ivy League
scholarship? He cheated off everyone in
junior high.” Or, “How did HE get so rich? He wasn’t THAT much smarter than me
in grade 12 chemistry.” Or my personal
favourite, “Hey, MY kid’s curveball is as good as that kid’s, how come MY kid
had to try out with 50 other kids for the all-star team but THAT kid made it
without a tryout?” In those comments of
mine there is not one smidgeon of “waytago”, “congratulations” or “it’s great
that one of my old buddies is doing so well,” but there’s a whole bunch of Mark
6: 2-3 “where did this man get all this?
What is the wisdom given to him?
Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?”
Rather
than being stymied by his rejection,
Jesus proceeded with spreading the word. The twelve disciples, who know his message
best of all, were sent out to the countryside with these instructions: “[take no bread, no bag, no money, no extra
clothes]… and if any place will not receive you and they refuse to hear you,
when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your [sandals] for a testimony
against them.” Once more, we have a
picture of ordinary folks going to speak with ordinary folks – there was nothing
expensive or superior about this mission.
Yet as far as we can tell, the
mission of the twelve – all twelve, even Judas Iscariot – was successful (cf.
Powery). Although the line about
“shaking the dust from our sandals” is still an expression we use when we’re
not having success convincing someone of something, I get the impression that the 12 disciples
didn’t have to shake the dust off their sandals very often. Mark 6:14 summarizes it by saying, “they cast
out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them” and
they had enough success that the powers-that-be started to be wary of the
growing influence of this Jesus person and those who believed in him.
In
this whole scene: of Jesus returning home and being snubbed, and his twelve disciples
spreading his healing love from home to
home, we see once more, as we did in the letter of James, Christ’s mission for
the poor and with the poor. It’s not
that Jesus and his disciples were lowering themselves in a kind gesture toward
the poor; they had nothing themselves. And
from that position of poverty, they were able to show their faith, through a
complete trust that God would provide all they needed.
Jim
Wallis, Christian activist and founder of Sojourners
magazine, did an interesting exercise when he was in his first year of seminary. He and his friends went through the Bible to
find every verse in the Bible that deals with the poor and social
injustice. They came up with thousands –
in the first three Gospels one out of ten verses, in Luke one out of
seven! [Yet] they could not recall a
single sermon on the poor in their home churches. “ (Jones, p.43)
Last
week I spoke about the need for Churches to “authentically engage” the social
realities of their communities. Today’s
readings from James and Mark would certainly not take us away from that agenda
– as James said, “faith without works is dead” and authentic engagement of our
local needs is definitely the kind of “works” that James would endorse. But I would like to add to this one
important thought from today’s readings, and that is a call for us to embrace
our poverty before God.
Earlier
in this sermon I put forward the idea that when we hear the Bible speaking
about the poor, we pretty much automatically take on a downward gaze – we may
not see ourselves as rich but we most definitely do not see ourselves as
poor. Particularly in a global sense,
that’s absolutely appropriate: as individuals and as a congregation, we have
assets at our disposal that entire towns in some nations could not even dream
of, and there is no question that we are called to share that material wealth
with a world in need. Yet, that self-perception
of ourselves as people who “possess” things, whether those things are material
things that we have, or knowledge that we have accumulated, will be a huge stumbling block as we try to
find our way forward from here.
We
need to embrace not our possessions, and our pride in possessing them, but our
poverty. (As an aside: in the Bible,
terms like “poor”, “poor in spirit”, “simple” and “humble” are all intertwined,
in a concept similar to what other religions would refer to as
“non-attachment.”) The greatest growth I
have personally seen in United Church congregations is growth that has been
brought in by people active in twelve-step programs, who begin with the
understanding that their only path to wholeness is through entrusting
everything to God. Not by acquiring
things or by being strong, but by purging oneself of a self-image that says “I
am powerful” or “I have it made.” For when we get rid of that self-importance,
and embrace our utter helplessness apart from the saving guidance of Christ, we
become more able to offer something authentic to those around us. When we all face toward Christ, clear that we
are totally dependent on him, and when we acknowledge that we are all “seekers”
rather than “experts” in our Christian journey, we can legitimately invite
others to join us.
That
embrace of our poverty before God is, to me, the essence of what both James and
Mark are describing. Relating to another
person without any sense of pretence or judgment, but as fellow travellers on
the road who BOTH need to rely on Jesus if we are going to get anywhere. Embracing the poor, not out of pity but out
of our common humanity, and from an understanding that we ALWAYS learn from the
diversity of another’s experiences.
Learning from those who have nothing, for, as Jesus said in the beatitudes,
those who have nothing and rely on God for everything are those who are the
most open to receive the blessings of God.
I am
pleased to say that much of what I saw coming out of General Council 41 showed
this humility. Time and again I
perceived our Church understanding that the flow of power is not top-down, from
the Church down to society, but rather a level flow of love and invitation
between the Church and our neighbours.
And so, as a denomination, we
respond to calls for justice; we
initiate actions that include works and not just words; we acknowledge past wrongs from a time when
we did understand ourselves as “better than”; and we acknowledge the need to let go of an
outdated, early 20th century self-image in order to address 21st
century needs. For the first time in I
can’t remember how long, I feel that we as the United Church of Canada are
starting to “let go and let God” – we are starting to embrace our poverty, and
trust instead in the loving, redeeming power of God.
Although
a call to embrace one’s poverty may seem strange when so many individuals and
congregations and societies are rightly concerned about running out of money, I
believe it is Christ’s word for us on this day. May we, in response to Christ, see the world
from ground level, rather than from any angle of advantage. May we set aside any presumption of personal
status, and hear the good news Christ’s words about love and power,
faithfulness and forgiveness. May we embrace
his words of eternal life, as a call to committing to him all that we have, all
that we are, all that we will be.
To
Christ be all honour and glory.
Amen.
Works cited:
Bartlett,
David L and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds.
Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 4.
Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2009. pp. 38-43, contributed by Peter Rhea Jones,
Archie Smith Jr., Aaron L. Uitti, and Haruko Nawata Ward.
Powery,
Emerson, commentary on Mark 6: 1-13 at http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/8/2012
© 2012 Rev.
Greg Wooley, Ralph Connor Memorial United Church, Canmore AB
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