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Text: James 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18 W 17th Sunday after
Pentecost Playing
Favorites In
the name of him who loved us and gave himself for us, dear friends in
Christ: A couple weeks ago (since I
switched the readings around the last two Sundays), we began to look at the General
Letter of St. James to the Christian Church.
And what we saw is that James is very much concerned that we who confess
the name of Christ with our mouths also confess him with our actions. A true and living faith in Christ naturally
produces the good fruits of faith. “You
believe in God?” asks James, “You believe in Jesus? Well, so do the demons—but they’re still
demons, and they act like it.” Theirs is
a dead faith. We on the other hand,
professing ourselves to be followers of Jesus, should want to cultivate in
ourselves the sort of Christ-like attitudes and behaviors that show that Christ
is indeed living in us. With this in
mind, the specific subject we heard James take on today is the sin of showing
favoritism. To illustrate his point, he gives
an example that I’ve taken the liberty of updating just a bit. Suppose
some fine Sunday morning you’re the designated greeter. It’s your job to receive people at the door
and especially to welcome and help orient visitors to our church: let them know that we’re glad they came and
answer any questions they might have.
Now, as you’re dutifully carrying out the assigned task, you notice two
cars that turn into the parking lot. The
first is the latest model Hummer: shiny,
jet black with all the chrome appointments.
No one is ever going to take it off the road and go four-wheeling in it,
that’s for sure. It’s a vehicle that
just screams of its owner, “I have so much money that I really don’t know what
to do with all.” The second car is the
rusted remains of a ’74 Chevy Vega. It
is literally held together with bailing wire.
Its engine doesn’t exactly run, you can’t say that; it’s more of a
continuous bad cough. The vehicle is
shrouded in a cloud of black smoke that escapes not so much from the tailpipe
as from any number of other orifices that clearly were not part of its original
design. It staggers weakly into a
parking place and when the driver shuts it off, it shudders violently and then hacks
and wheezes a while before coming to what sounds like its last gasp. Okay.
From the Hummer there emerges the ideal American family: Dad, Mom, and the statistically correct 2.3
children. They are all impeccably
dressed in their Sunday morning finery, and together they just exude an
atmosphere of honor and dignity.
Meanwhile, after unhitching the external wire latch and exerting considerable
pushing effort, the Vega’s passenger door sags open. Out tumbles a teenaged boy who seems to have
taken his fashion ideas from Edward Scissorshands. He looks sullen and disinterested. He’s obviously here against his will. He is followed by a harried and haggard-looking
woman who had to climb across the console to escape the condemned vehicle through
the only working door. She is the boy’s
mother or possibly his grandmother. It’s
hard to tell which – she seems old beyond her years. Her simple dress is clean, but faded and
worn. It fits her poorly. Who knows, you think to yourself, maybe it
fit better on one of its previous owners. All
right, you’ve taken all this in now and you’ve come to some conclusions. You think, “Now, this Hummer family is
exactly the kind of people we need attending this church.” So when they come in through the door you
pour on the charm. You greet them warmly
and subtly begin to talk up the church a bit.
You let them know that you’d like to see them again real
soon. On the other hand, you’ve decided
that the Vega family is probably not going to feel at home around here. When you tell them, “We’re glad to meet you”
it sounds more like a question that a statement. You tell them how surprised you are that they
came; we so rarely get visitors, you know, what with all the problems we’re
having around here. You know, maybe in
the future you’d be more comfortable at the Baptist church. I hear things are really moving and shaking
over there. Now,
maybe you’re thinking that all that was overstated, and I’m willing to admit
that it was; but only to demonstrate the point.
If you could picture in your mind what I was attempting to illustrate,
then I’ll bet you found yourself naturally gravitating toward one family and
away from the other. That’s the
favoritism that James is talking about.
You don’t know these people, you haven’t even met them; but based on
your observations you’d prefer one group to the other – and even if you might
not act out on it and display the preference like I described, the underlying
feeling itself is the problem. It’s favoritism; and it’s wrong. It isn’t nice to play favorites … or is it? As I
examined this text, I got to thinking, “Wait a minute. James is telling us not to do exactly what God
does all the time”. The Lord’s predilection
for showing favoritism to certain individuals or groups of people is a major
theme throughout the Bible. Think about
it: starting all the way back in
Genesis, we read that the Lord preferred the sacrifice of Abel to that of his
brother Cain. Now, they both brought
sacrifices: Cain brought the
first-fruits of his work as a farmer, and Abel brought a lamb from his work as
a shepherd. The Lord looked them over
and said, “I like this but not that.” We
know how it turned out too. Cain didn’t
appreciate the Lord’s favoritism, and in a jealous rage he murdered his
brother. But that doesn’t end it. As the story continues, and with Abel now
permanently out of commission, the Lord shifts his favor to another of Cain’s
brothers named Seth. And it
keeps on going that way. Just a couple
chapters later we read that the whole world is a mess. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees that
everyone has gone corrupt. There is no
one, we’re told—not a single person on the face of the earth who is not
constantly sinning from moment he or she is born. The Lord decides to wipe everyone out – and
yet he chooses to place his favor on a man named Noah. And let me make it clear that it wasn’t
because Noah was somehow less sinful than his neighbors. Regarding all people the Lord had already said that the
thoughts and inclinations of their hearts were only evil all the time—and that
includes Noah. And yet, because Noah was
God’s favorite, he was saved with his family in the ark. A few
chapters later, after many years have passed and the whole world had again
become corrupt and the people had slipped into one form of idolatry or another,
we’re told that the Lord decided to give his favor to man named Abram whom he
later renamed Abraham. And just so
there’s no doubt, let’s be clear about this again: before God called him, Abram was worshipping
idols with everyone else. And yet one
day the Lord came knocking and told him, “I’ve chosen you, Abram, and I’ve
decided to make your name great. I’m
going to make of you a great nation, and through you I’m going to bless all the
families on earth.” Abram
said (and I’m paraphrasing now), “Sounds pretty good to me” and off he went to
look over the land that the Lord had promised to give him as part of the deal. And what we see as the story continues is one
example of favoritism after another.
After some time, Abram has a son he names Ishmael. Abram loves Ishmael and wants him to be the
one who will inherit the promise God made to him. But the Lord comes along and says, “No, I
don’t want him. I’ll give you another
son. He will be the one who receives my
special blessing.” That son eventually
is born and he’s named Isaac. Then,
later, Isaac has two sons: twins named
Esau and Jacob. Though Isaac prefers
Esau, the rugged outdoorsman, the Lord favors Jacob – whom we find out is a bit
on the shady side. What happens in the
next generation is a veritable smorgasbord of favoritism. Jacob has two wives named Leah and Rachel. He hates Leah and gives his whole heart to
Rachel. Meanwhile, the Lord is favoring
Leah by giving her many sons and preventing Rachel from conceiving at all. After a long while, Rachel finally bears a
son. He’s named Joseph – and Jacob, his
father, loves him more than all his other sons put together. But as we read on, we find that the Lord’s
favorite is Judah, one of the sons of the despised Leah. Incidentally
it’s from Skipping
ahead to the time of the New Testament, we find that the Lord chose to place
his favor a young maiden named Mary. He
picks her out of only he knows how many other eligible Jewish women, and has
the angel say to her, “You are greatly favored in the eyes of the Lord.” And so she was, for she was chosen by God to
bear his Son and bring him into the world in the flesh. So
what are we to make of all of this? In
example after example we see the Lord clearly favoring certain individuals over
others. He plays favorites. But then, through James, he says, “Don’t you do
that.” What’s the deal? Well,
to begin with, we need to know that the Scripture uses a couple different words
that we translate into English as favor or favoritism. The word that James uses in
this morning’s passage can literally be translated “to receive faces” or “to
welcome faces”. The idea is that you base
your welcome for someone upon their outward appearance. You assign them a value on a scale in your
mind based upon what you see. If what
you see is appealing, they get a high score and you treat them nice. If what you see turns you off, they get a low
score and you don’t feel the need to exert yourself so much. And we can get a little more specific
here. When all is said and done, what
determines whether we view someone positively or negatively has to do mostly
with what we perceive the person might have to offer. The big question is: Is this person likely to be an asset or a
liability to me? And we make snap
judgments based on appearances – or perhaps on other information we might know
about them. In the example given before,
we perceive that a rich person is likely to share some of that wealth. It’ll take some of the burden off the rest of
us if they become part of our fellowship.
So it’s, “Sit down, and make yourself at home”. The poor person, on the other hand, is
perceived as being likely to become just another burden upon us. And we sure don’t need anymore of those. The point is that ultimately it’s our own
selfishness that’s driving our thinking.
And that’s why this kind of favoritism is so wrong. It’s driven by our sinful love of self above
all others. God’s
favoritism is different. Obviously, it’s
not based on outward appearance. We’ve
already seen that. Going through the
Bible, there doesn’t seem to be any discernable pattern as to why he chooses
one person over another. And the mistake
people often make is to assume that since he doesn’t seem to show his
preference on outward things, it must be that he does so based on something he
sees within them. The idea is that God
sees into the heart and decides to place his special favor upon those who are
predisposed to doing good and serving him. They are more spiritual than others, perhaps,
or somehow less inclined toward sin. The
truth is that the Lord himself emphatically denies this. Speaking to the nation of And
that’s the point. God distributes his
favor based upon his grace, his love, and his mercy. It has nothing to do with anything about the
receiver of his favor and everything to do with his own gracious heart. He’s not in it for himself. He’s in it for you and me. And that really is the purpose of showing us
example after example of his placing his favor on certain individuals over and
above what seem to be more qualified candidates. They all point to the ultimate display of his
favoritism: when he took the One who was
truly righteous, his only begotten Son, the only One who was truly serving him
and worthy of his favor – and he rejected him in favor of you. He placed your sins upon him and damned him
in your place so that he could play favorites with you. And
you have been favored. The vast majority
of you were blessed with Christian parents who raised you in Christian
homes. While you were yet infants, the
Lord placed his favor on you in the water of Holy Baptism. When that happened, he called
you out of this dark and dying world and he put his mark on you saying, “You. I’ve chosen you. I’m calling you by name and making you my own
child. I’m washing away your sins in the
blood of my Son. For his sake, you are
now among my favorites.” For some of us,
of course, it happened later in life; but in many cases this only highlights
the favoritism God showed. People who
were spiritually far off were called near by God and given the same grace he
showed to those born naturally into the family. And still today, the Lord continues to bless
us with his gracious favor. In his Word
and Sacraments he comes here each week to assure us that we are still his
favorites – that despite our unworthiness and our sin, for the sake of his Son
he still forgives and he still loves us.
In fact, we are especially favored to be part of a fellowship in which
this simple message is kept front and center, and in which the saving Gospel is
kept so clear and pure. You really are
God’s favorites; the trouble is that we are so used to God’s favoritism for us that
we don’t even think about it most of the time. In
this morning’s text, St. James tells us not to play favorites – and he’s right,
of course: it’s wrong the way we
normally do it. And so it’s appropriate
that we examine ourselves and see how we have been guilty of this in the past –
and that we remain aware of it because if we’re honest, we’ll see that it keeps
happening all the time. That should only
prove to us how sinful and selfish we really are. And it should lead us to confess and repent –
and even more to appreciate the favoritism God has for us that we do not
deserve. And then, having confessed and received
again our Lord’s forgiveness, let’s resolve to play favorites the way he
does. In mercy he sees us not as we are,
either externally or internally; but rather for Jesus’ sake he sees us as those
he favored above his Son and for whom he gave his Son to die. That’s how we should see each other—and not
just those of us here in the church, but all people. They are all God’s favorites because he gave
his Son for all. The trouble is most of
them don’t know it.
So let’s play God’s favorites, so that through our words and actions
they may come to discover this amazing and life-giving truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |
