September 9, 2018
Brookdale
Is 35:4-7a; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37
You probably know that Sunday readings are chosen in a three-year cycle. This year most gospel passages are from Mark, next year will be Luke, and 2020 we will read primarily from Matthew’s Gospel. Readings from John’s Gospel occur throughout all three years. The first reading is usually chosen to complement the Gospel reading. Today, for example, Isaiah’s prophecy that the deaf will hear is fulfilled in the Gospel reading. The second reading is different; it is usually unrelated to the other two. Second readings cycle through the letters of St. Paul and some other books of the New Testament. Currently, we are reading from the letter of James.
We don’t know who this James was. He simply identifies himself as “a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” His letter was addressed to Christian Jews in the diaspora and is all about how to be a good Christian—or, for that matter, how to be a good Jew. Today’s passage is about avoiding the sin of partiality—that is, distinguishing between people on the basis of wealth or social status.
A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a story about something that happened to a congregation that was expecting a new pastor. Picture people like us standing outside the church waiting to go in for the service, when a homeless man walks up to the church. He has a tanned face and a scruffy beard and is wearing a wool cap and a rough looking overcoat. He approaches a couple of people and greets them politely, but they turn away. He smiles and says hello to some others, but everybody avoids him, as I would. Then everyone goes into church for the service, and the homeless man goes to the very front; nobody sits near him. Finally, the pastor enters, announces that the new pastor is here, and invites him to come up to greet the congregation. You guessed it—the new pastor is in fact the apparently homeless man, who everybody has spurned. The people in the congregation feel heartily ashamed of themselves.
I loved this story and sent it to Fr. Joe, who also loved it. I would like to tell you where this happened, but I can’t, because it didn’t actually happen. The story has been shown to be a fiction. But in a way it is still a true story, because the reaction of the people to the “new pastor” is very true to life. It’s what would happen if a pastor who looks like a homeless man showed up at church. And this is just the behavior of partiality that James is talking about in the second reading. If
you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes …, while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” … have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? (James 2:3-4)
Now, it would be easy to understand this passage from James as telling us to help the poor, and that is a very good thing to do. But James is not talking about giving aid to the poor. Or it would be easy in our times to understand this passage as telling us to work for social justice and greater equality in society, and that is also a very good thing to do. But that is also not what James is talking about. James is reminding us that faith has consequences. If we take the Gospel and the example of Jesus seriously, then we will treat both movie stars and beggars with respect. We will welcome the Nobel prize winner and the woman with Down’s Syndrome. We will learn to see both the janitor and the pastor as fellow members of the body of Christ. This takes work. James is saying that if our faith is genuine, then we will learn to love all our neighbors as ourselves.