With Discrimination Comes Dishonor

Photo of Syrian refugees from the Lutheran World Federation website.
Please visit www.lutheranworld.org to help those in need.

The second in a sermon series based on the readings from James.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 23, Year B – 6 September 2015

Texts: James 2:1-13

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Today, we pick up in the Epistle of James where we left off last week. At the end of last week’s lesson, James concludes by saying, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” He then takes up the heart of the matter with his readers, which is what we hear today: that as a community of Christ-followers, they are discriminating against one another. They are forcing the poorer Christians to sit at their feet, while offering the best seat in the place to those who are rich.

James is pretty firm with them: “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor,” he says. Discrimination is at the heart of the ministry of James’ readers – and he says that with discrimination comes dishonor.

I’m reminded of an episode of the show “The West Wing.” This is the show from the late 90’s and early 2000’s that follows the work of White House staffers and a fictional president. In the episode I have in mind, we find out that a man named Roberto Mendoza has been jailed in Connecticut, allegedly for driving while under the influence. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? A drunk driver getting pulled over and jailed…

Except Roberto Mendoza isn’t any man, he’s a nominee for Supreme Court Justice. And as the White House staffers get involved, we find out that – because of a chronic health issue, there’s no way he could’ve been driving drunk because if he’d had enough alcohol to be legally drunk, he’d be dead. The staffers go to the jail to get him released, and we find out that Mr. Mendoza was actually arrested – not for driving while drunk, but for driving while Hispanic, and he was arrested in front of his wife and young son. Even in this fictional storyline - with discrimination comes dishonor.

It is James who reminds us of what he calls the “royal law” – also what Jesus calls the Second Greatest Commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.)

Now, this is the month in which we are focusing upon Service as a congregation. We will be focusing on it big time next week with our God’s Work, Our Hands Weekend. So, what does all of this talk about discrimination have to do with Service, anyway?

The connection for me is this: we don’t always get to choose whom it is that we serve.

It was last summer that Grand Prairie was embroiled in a debate about having a shelter for immigrants at an old GPISD campus way up on the north side of town. It was last summer that I attended the GPISD School Board meeting in which we received information about exactly who would be using the shelter, what the process would be for both getting them there and keeping them there, and what would happen to the immigrants when they left the shelters. As I sat in that meeting, listening to fervent speakers on both sides of the issue, and feeling the tension and the anger of those all around me, I realized something. I realized: We are arguing about the care of children. The care of children.

I felt compelled to speak. I reminded those in the room that the Bible has plenty to say about caring for children. I said that the children weren’t asking to come here and be put up in the Ritz Carlton, or to eat eggs benedict for breakfast (that’s the soundbite that made the news). I said that they weren’t asking to stay in our homes or asking for our jobs or our paychecks. I said that they are here needing shelter and food and safety. They are asking not to be sold as slaves, not to have their lives ended. These the things they are trying to escape.

Steve told me later that, as I spoke, there were people sitting right behind me, shaking their heads in disagreement the whole time.

I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that most of the people in that room would consider themselves good, God-fearing Christian people. And as I sat and listened to them complain that these children would not be welcome in Grand Prairie because they’d bring disease with them, and they’d get out and commit crimes, and that their mere presence in our community would cause property values throughout Grand Prairie to drop, I was stunned.

With discrimination comes dishonor.

Meanwhile, our world is now experiencing what the U.N. has called the “biggest humanitarian emergency of our era,”[1] as millions of Syrians flee their country because of civil war. Amid the stories of some countries closing their doors to the refugees, many stories and pictures of those who have chosen to help the refugees are also emerging. Lutherans in Hungary, for example, have mobilized to help the refugees who are passing through their country. Crowds of Germans at a train station in Munich clapped and cheered in welcome, and bishops shook the hands of the refugees entering that country.

This love and welcome shown to these refugees stands in contrast to those who want to throw out the “royal law” of loving our neighbor as ourselves by choosing who is worthy to be served, and who is worthy of receiving love. Making that particular distinction shouldn’t be up to us – because – think about it, if we as a society can’t even decide to serve and love children – let alone other human beings of any age - well, may God have mercy on us. “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy,” James says. With discrimination comes dishonor, and so it is Christians who should be the ones welcoming those who are desperately in need. It is Christians who should be honoring and loving those who are desperately in need.

So, where may the grace be found? The grace is found in James’ next statement, that “mercy triumphs over judgment.” Thank God that God’s mercy will always win out over our judgments of others. And thank God for the grace shown by some in this world to those who are in desperate need.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves isn’t always easy, and yet this is what we are called to do. This is what we are baptized to do. Like I said last week, like the mirror by the font says today: “God loves you – Go and love.”

Amen.

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[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/08/29/344219323/u-n-syrian-refugee-crisis-is-biggest-humanitarian-emergency-of-our-era