SERMON: ONE MAN’S JUNK

ONE MAN'S JUNK

25 January 2009

 

I. Introduction

    -- turn in Bibles to James 2

 

1. My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.

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?

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?

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!

14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

15. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

16. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

    -- anybody who knows me knows that I'm a creature of habit -- I tend to do the same thing, the same way, everyday -- probably one of the reasons why God has placed me in the Methodist church -- because I am so methodical about the way I go through life

    -- anyway, my morning routine when I get to work is to log onto my computer -- load up my Outlook Express e-mail program -- and while I'm waiting for my messages to download -- I check out the headlines on CNN, MSN, and Fox News to see if there is anything of interest

    -- well, one day last week, I opened up my internet and looked at the headlines, and I have to say, my heart just broke -- the story about Caylee Anthony was the lead story in the news -- for months the attention of the nation has been riveted on her disappearance and we all know that her body was found in the woods near the Anthony home and that her mother Casey is in jail awaiting trial on murder charges

    -- but now more information is coming out about the state of the body and Caylee's last hours based on the forensic evidence -- and when I read that her mouth had been taped shut with duct tape, and that she had been stuffed in a laundry bag and then a plastic trash bag and just dumped in the woods like any other unwanted refuse, it was about all I could stand

    -- I sat there in stunned silence and asked myself, "How could someone treat a child like this? -- Especially their own child?"

    -- and so I closed that news story and went on to the next -- a news story from Jacksonville -- seems the police were announcing the discovery of the body of a 27-year old lady who had been killed and stuffed into a trashcan outside of an apartment complex in downtown Jacksonville

    -- I just sat there and started wondering, "When did we start treating people like trash? -- When did we start acting like people had no value -- and just started disposing of them when they had no more benefit or use to us? -- What type of society looks on others in that way?"

    -- I could understand it if these stories were in India or in other places where people are placed in classes -- where those in the lower castes are treated as garbage and are down-trodden and oppressed simply because of their family heritage -- I could understand it if this took place in a third-world country -- but how could this be taking place in America?

    -- a Christian nation? -- a nation founded upon the principles of freedom of religion and of the value of all human life -- a place where we affirm that all men are created equal, endowed with their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

    -- in a week where we saw the inauguration of our first minority president and the media proclaimed equality in the land -- how could stories like this take place? -- how could lives be treated in this way?

    -- and these are not just isolated events -- these stories are all too common -- think about this -- we just recognized -- not celebrated -- recognized -- the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade -- the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion and that has led to the death of almost 50 million unborn lives since 1973

    -- our streets and cities are filled with homeless people in a land of plenty -- our foster care system is bulging out of the seams with children removed from horrific home situations -- and drugs and violence and murder and theft remain common-place, especially in these bad economic times

    -- and I can't help but ask, in the midst of everything that is going on, "Where is the church? -- Where are the Christians?" -- it seems like most everyone is focused on themselves and on their circle of family and friends and just turn a blind eye to the needs of those around them

    -- I was reading the other day about a pregnant teen-aged girl who had been turned out of her home and who couldn't a place to stay -- on the very day that she gave birth, she was in a distant city, far from her home, and couldn't find a hospital or a place to stay -- every door she knocked on for help and lodging slammed in her face -- they wouldn't help -- they wouldn't even find a place for her and her boyfriend

    -- what would you have done? -- what would we do if she showed up at our door today and walked in, looking for a place to stay and a friendly face? -- we know what the people did in the town where she was -- Luke tells us in Luke 2:7 that they had no room for her -- they had no room for Jesus -- to them, Mary was worthless -- just another pregnant teenager

    -- it's easy for us to say that we would have acted differently -- Martin Luther, the father of the reformation once scolded his sixteenth century German congregation by saying, "There are many of you who think to yourselves, 'If only I had been there! -- How quick I would have been to help the little baby!' -- You say that because you know how great Christ is, but if you had been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem...Why don't you do it now? -- You have Christ in your neighbor." [quoted in "A Peculiar Prophet" blog by Bishop Will Willimon]

    -- I wonder, if someone dressed in a suit showed up and knocked on their door, would they have had room then?

    

    - I watched a movie the other night called, "Music Within" -- it was the story of the man who worked to get the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in the U.S. -- and I was amazed at what led him to this point -- how people would treat those with disabilities -- how they would look on down on them and make fun of them and refuse to let them in restaurants and stores and other places -- but what really amazed me was that this law was not passed until 1990 -- that's in my lifetime -- that's when I was an adult -- and I had to ask myself, "Surely, I didn't act like that -- surely I didn't treat people with disabilities like that?"

    -- but then I thought about David -- a kid who lives near us who has cerebral palsy -- he's in a wheelchair -- it's hard to understand him -- it's hard to talk to him -- and he was always causing problems when he came over -- and so I told him not to come back -- and I realized, "You know, I'm no better than that innkeeper in the Gospel of Luke -- I'm no better than that priest or that Levite who walked past the man on the road to Jericho and left him for the good Samaritan to take care of -- here I am -- trying to serve God -- and closing the door on one of His children because I valued him less than other kids in the neighborhood"

 

    -- when we play favorites -- when we start to look on other people as being less than us -- as being of lesser value than us -- then we end up slamming the door and locking Jesus out of our lives -- we end up as sinful hypocrites -- claiming to be friends of Jesus while not loving our neighbors as ourselves

 

    -- here in this passage, James warns us against doing just that

    -- look back at verse 1

1. My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.

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?

     -- people -- and churches -- play favorites -- always have -- always will -- but it's not the way it should be -- God is no respecter of persons -- in other words, God recognizes the sanctity of human life -- the Bible tells us that we are all His children -- special creations of God with value and importance and worth in His eyes -- God sees everyone as valuable -- from the tiniest human in the womb to the junkie on the street to the best-dressed person in church

    -- but, we don't always see things through God's eyes -- we see things through an earthly filter -- and we put a higher importance on people that we deem as more valuable than others -- maybe they dress better -- maybe they have a better job -- maybe they drive a better car -- maybe they are famous -- and so we regard them as better than someone else

    -- James writes, "Don't do that -- don't play favorites -- treat everyone as special and precious in Jesus' name" -- and then he gives us three reasons why we shouldn't do it

 

    -- verse 5

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?

8. If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.

    -- first, James points out that it is the rich who are slandering the name of God through their behavior and that it is the poor who will be exalted because they are rich in faith

    -- Jesus once said that it was harder for a rich man to get into heaven than to put a camel through the eye of a needle -- the rich tend to approach life with the arrogance of one who can pay their own way -- as a result, they think they don't have to rely on or trust in God to keep them safe and secure -- and they tend to exploit those who are less fortunate than them

    -- the poor, on the other hand, know they need God -- they need Him to survive -- and the roots of their faith go deep -- while they may be exploited and looked down on here on earth, they are storing up treasure in the one place where it truly counts -- in heaven with God

    -- by playing favorites and treating the rich better than we do the poor, we are exalting those who are less in God's eyes and ignoring those who are richer in the kingdom of Heaven

 

    -- verse 9

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.

     -- next, James tells us that to treat people differently is a sin -- a violation of the "royal" law -- we call it the "Golden Rule" -- Jesus called it one of the most important commands of God -- to love our neighbors as ourselves

    -- if we look down on the poor -- if we walk past the homeless -- if we ignore the plight of the widow or the fatherless -- if we refuse to help the unborn or the abused or the disabled -- we are sinning against them and against God and will have to pay the consequences

    -- how can the church not speak out against the injustices in our land? -- against the policies and the actions of people who treat others as worthless trash simply because they have less value here on earth than others?

    -- how can we claim to be Christians if we slam the door in the face of the Davids in our lives?

 

    -- verse 12

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!

    -- the final reason James gives for not playing favorites is that we are going to be judged for our actions -- God Himself will judge us for the way we have sinned -- either through commission or omission -- against the least of these my brothers

 

    -- verse 14

14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

15. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

16. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

     -- pious words are not enough -- empty faith cannot save -- it's not enough to just offer up kind, sympathetic words for someone -- it's not enough to have empathy for their plight -- it's not even enough to offer up a prayer on their behalf

    -- Christ calls for more -- He calls for us to get involved -- to meet the needs of the poor and the sick and the lame and the disabled -- to work to end abortions and abuse and the rampant devaluation of human life in our days

    -- He calls for us to be part of the solution -- not part of the problem -- I sometimes listen to the conservative talk shows on the radio -- and they are so good at naming the problems -- they can identify what's wrong with America -- they can talk statistics about abortions and divorce and murder and violence -- they can get on their soapbox about the evils of America and how we are turning people into trash -- but if they aren't offering solutions -- if they aren't rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty, then they aren't fulfilling the great commandment "To love our neighbors as ourselves"

    -- James says, "What good is it to talk about it and then do nothing to fix the problem"

    -- it's time for us to stand up and be the church that Jesus called us to be -- to be the people that He called us to be -- to speak out and to speak up and to take action on behalf of the oppressed and the poor in our land

    -- it's time for us to quit playing favorites -- to quit acting like favorites -- and start loving those around us and meeting their needs

    -- there are many, many ways you can do that -- we have a crisis pregnancy support clinic in Valdosta that can always use help -- that can always use volunteer or financial assistance -- we have homeless shelters and soup kitchens that would love to see you -- there's a food bank in town that could use your help -- and if none of those sound good, then come up with your own idea -- we are only limited by our own creativity

    -- I was just reading yesterday about a church in Atlanta that ministers to the homeless by taking care of their feet -- evidently, the homeless people have enormous problems with the health of their feet because of the unsanitary conditions they live in -- so this church brings them in -- and they take care of their feet -- they get a soak, pumice, nail trim, massage, and a fresh pair of socks. Volunteers wearing gloves provide apricot scrub, ointments, air freshener for shoes, nail polish, and even insoles." -- small acts, but acts that restore their sense of humanity -- their sense of worth -- their sense that they have value in a country that tends to put them out with the trash [Ga. Homeless Ministry Tends their Feet, Dignity -- http://christianpost.com/Ministries/General/2009/01/ga-homeless-ministry-tends-their-feet-dignity-22/index.html]

    -- what acts can you do? -- what ministry is God calling you to today? -- as the old saying goes, "One man's junk is another man's treasure" -- in this case, we can easily say, "One man's junk is God's treasure" -- how can you show someone else that God treasures their life?

    -- on this Sunday where we celebrate the sanctity of all human life, let us start making a difference by changing the way we look at people and the way we interact with them in our lives

    -- and let's work for a world where all people are truly created equal and no one is ever thrown in the trash or to the curb again

    -- let me leave you with this old saying to consider as we pray: "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do. What I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do."

    -- let us pray