Impartial Interest

It is just about impossible to show everyone equal favor, avoiding a show of favoritism. I think so much of how we approach the world and move through situations operates from the judgement part of the brain. We scrutinize, noticing differentiations, so that we can make choices. This automatic feature of our brain function, this necessity of negotiating our movement through the course of the day, spills over into areas in which we really should apply egalitarian neutrality.

What about at church? Do we have any better chance of avoiding playing favorites within the Christian community? I am not sure how we are doing these days, but in the first century, a wide range of early church communities get quite a talking-to by James of Jerusalem who wrote the Letter of James. We will hear this part of the letter within the Epistle reading tomorrow at the Eucharist:

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. 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. …What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:1-6, 14-17)

There are two pieces here. The second one is a stern teaching on how we cannot be all talk and no action. As a Christian, if I wish someone well, I had better be ready to act on the Holy Spirit’s prompting to do something about the person’s wellbeing. Here James is saying that, spiritual faith and the follow-through of works go together. No one can do it all. There are dire needs unfolding within our reach all hours of every day. Still, we can sharpen our sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit and know when we can incarnate our Christian love into action.

The first matter in this chapter of James is the difficult trap we fall into, the pitfall of favoritism. When we show instant attention to someone who has the look of having it all together—physically, financially, and socially—but dismiss and overlook, one who appears challenged in any of those areas, that is not okay. It was Jesus who told those critical of him that it is the sick who need the physician, not the well and strong. His love goes out to all, and he does not dismiss the disadvantaged.

I am wonder what I can do the cultivate this fairer, even treatment of others. How can I override my natural mechanism to judge and invest personally where it is most comfortable for me. There must be a way for me to keep from side-stepping people based just on looks. There is progress to be made. Remember the character, Max Detweiler, visiting at the luxuriant Austrian villa of Captain Von Trapp? He rather enjoyed hobnobbing with the Baroness. I shall always be amused by his line, “I love the rich; I love how they live; I love how I live when I am with them.” It is very natural to have these biases, but it is also very possible graciously to receive Christ’s efforts, as he reshapes us into his likeness.

I shall finish with the Collect of the Day, for Sunday. In it we look to God to direct us away from the error of leaning exclusively on our own strength. Such personal pride is our downfall. We wind up enjoying our strength and trolling for people and things that will lend us more. We have a better option. With our whole selves we can trust in God. We can humbly realize we are not self-sufficient, and lean on God, the loving and omnipotent One. Doing so will ground us in the reality that all people have a level of need and vulnerability. Despite how people might look they deserve our notice and kind hospitality.

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.