We're doing a sermon series based on James at church in September. In looking at James 2:1-17 Sera explores the theme of 'Loving the Vulnerable' and gives examples of what this means in action for the church team in their day to day work. This was first delivered as a sermon, and now it's here in blog form...

Passage: James 2:1-10, 14-17

Introduction:

'Grow up!' That’s how we started things last week. James’ message to Christians spread across the region was this: 'Grow Up. You are saved. Now grow up.'

And we saw that growing up involves listening. It's about hearing, and letting it sink in, and then let this listening shape your actions. We thought about our habits of listening to God. So I wonder how’s it going? Just don’t give up. Toddlers need to keep practising their walking and talking! Don’t give up.

At the end of the passage last week, James said actions grow from listening well to God’s word, and in particular he identified some important actions as resisting temptation, guarding your tongue and care for the vulnerable. And that’s what we look at today: care for the vulnerable.

This is faith expressing itself in actions and attitudes.

The Royal Law:

We'll start in the middle of the passage as everything points to this and flows from this. (vs 8) ‘If you keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself, you are doing right.’ James is quoting Jesus teaching (words which were captured by Matthew and Mark in writing their gospels) but he’s also reaching back into the Hebrew scriptures (our Old Testament) in particular to Leviticus 19. (more on that in a minute). It was embedded through Jewish life, written into Jesus’ way, and is part of our church values now.

 Look at the language James uses: ‘The Royal law’-  This is a special law of the king, who is described in verse 1 as the ‘Glorious Jesus Christ’. Note the beautiful paradox in this: Our king Jesus’s version of glory was about making himself nothing, taking on the nature of a servant, humbling himself, being obedient to death (Philippians 2:6-8). This royal law would have been in stark contrast to The Emperor’s law’ of the Roman empire with raised up the powerful, the useful and the arrogant. It’s also pretty countercultural today.

And notice: it’s a law to be obeyed. Not a suggestion. ‘For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.’ (vs 10). It’s a good job our glorious king is in the business of forgiveness and restoration.

So there’s our anchor in the middle. And now we get to two things where James tells his immature Christians they need to grow up and put this royal law into action.

Favouritism:

He describes a situation where attitudes and actions are a problem: vs 2-4: Two men come into a meeting or gathering. One is well-dressed & clean and you chat to him, welcome him and show him to the best seat. The second is dirty and smelly in ruined clothes. And this second man you steer to the side, out of the way, or to a place of humiliation.

James points out that is wrong. He’s not saying anything they don’t already know. Leviticus 19:15 says ‘Do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.’

I find it interesting that James is noting something about power and powerlessness. Vs 6 – He paints a picture of the rich as being the powerful ones: ‘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 blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? – the rich are have economic, legal and politic power. I wonder if that’s why the Christians are showing favouritism – it’s not because they like their clothes or don’t like the smell, it’s because the Christians themselves feel vulnerable & threatened, and think that by treating the rich & powerful well then things will work out better for them. It would seem the poor are irrelevant.

Well, the poor don’t have power, but they do seem to have God’s attention & honour. ‘5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: 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?’ God gives honour, richness of faith & kingdom inheritance to those who are poor (but note: not to the exclusion of others). Jesus identifies with the vulnerable and says what you do for them you do for me.

So, growing up involves a change to attitudes and actions: instead of favouritism towards the wealthy and powerful, the royal law of Christ is honour to the poor and vulnerable. Imagine the ripples that this can have.

Empty words:

The second things he tackles in terms of attitudes & actions and the Royal Law is empty words.  Vs 14-17(and further in fact) 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

Here people's attitudes are going in the right direction: there is attentiveness, there is a relationship & there are words of blessing. There are echoes here of how we speak words of peace to those within our walls and also those beyond the door each week. Attitudes seem hopeful. 

Yet actions are lacking. Note the weight that James puts behind the need for actions. He is not talking about a ‘good idea’ or ‘suggestion’. As well as talking about the royal law, he’s now also talking about faith.  Vs 14-17‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?... 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’

So much has been written about the link between faith, salvation and actions. I’m not going it into detail here, but instead I offer this quote: ‘No one can come to Christ by faith and remain the same, any more than one come in contact with a 220-volt of electricity and remain the same’(Walter Wiersbe). Contact with Christ changes us. 

A sign of being linked with Christ through faith is that our actions are changing. We are growing up. And rather than just speaking words of blessings we are taking action to those who come to our attention have their basic needs met.

Care in action:

In terms of looking at what this means in action, I thought I'd show a picture from our office wall. I show you this because putting the royal law into practice can be great in theory but in practice can be really hard. Some favouritism and bias is really hard to spot, often because it’s so embedded (as Black Lives Matter has begun to help us see). And the amount of need we’re conscious of can be overwhelming.

So, I thought I’d share with you a sign that is becoming a moto in the office: 'Warmth, compassion, respect and limits.’ We stuck it up about 2 months ago, it came from a document I wrote for the pastoral team about supporting homeless and vulnerably-housed people . We’ve now taken ownership of it in the office, and it’s become a really helpful talking point and reference point for a wide range of situations, both in personal and work lives.

We try to approach everyone with

• Warmth – friendliness and a smile (there are days when I’m busy, or irritated and I forget this)
• Compassion – this is about really seeing, really listening and understanding where someone is coming from. This often takes time.
• Respect – this is about honouring the person’s capacity to make their own decisions, to take responsibility, to have a different perspective from our own, to honour difference and have hope in their capacity to take small steps.
• Limits – this is recognising there is a limit to what anyone can do. And that we are part of a bigger network of help. No one person can sort everything for someone. So often the thing you can do is signpost someone to an organisation where they can get help. It’s also about realising that not everything on the news is something you need to act on. Not everything in your vision needs you act, but the stuff that is close to you in someway can be your starting point.

And this brings us back to the royal law: ‘Love your neighbour, as yourself’ and yourself has limits and needs.

In the last 3 weeks I have seen these principles in action by the St Denys Church community in multiple ways, but in order to show respect and compassion I can’t tell you about them. But I will say, these four words seem to be helping people to care well. At home and out about and at work and at church. Can they help you I wonder?

Let Jesus' love flow:

Growing up as friends and followers of Jesus means we let all that we see in him flow out into us, and it shows itself particularly in how we help those who are poor and vulnerable. So let us grow into being people who do faith well by caring well. And maybe these four words can help. At home, at work, out and about, and at church.