“Consistency”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, September 8, 2024
James 2:1-17 (Forward, p. 41) CEV p. 1273
A failing that often plagues us human beings is our lack of consistency. We pledge ourselves to doing certain things, or not doing them, but then we forget. We mean to do otherwise, that is our intent, but then in the heat of the moment, or our busyness, we become distracted, and forget. Today’s passage speaks initially on how easy it is to offer preferential treatment to others, based often on how they dress or how they come across. Here I must confess that I am guilty of this on occasion. If a dishevelled, unkept person comes to the church with slurred speech and an uncertain gait and a demanding, obnoxious behaviour, I am less inclined to give that person the help I might give to someone who didn’t ‘present’ him or herself in that way. Yes, I guess that I am indeed saying, by my actions, is that I accord some people to be better than others. And this is exactly what James is warning us against.
He says that our actions must be consistent with our words and beliefs. In other words, if we consider all people to be equal, then we must treat them that way. That way our faith in God shows itself to be real, by being demonstrated in action.
Anyway, this is a hard one, a challenge for myself, and probably for most of us. We aren’t inclined to treat everyone equally, especially if that person is slovenly, belligerent, or nasty, or we suspect that person to be guilty of unsavory or questionable behaviour. With myself, I probably will end up helping the person—but not necessarily happily, or with a good or loving attitude. So, what am I to do? A good question.
Forward notes: “Do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?” (verse 1)
“I’ve been a member of churches that offer canned food drives and food banks and Monday Meals, which are all fine and good and important work. But if we continue to see those persons as subjects of our charity and separate from us, I fear we are still showing partiality in our hearts.
“When James talks about fulfilling the law, he is not describing particular acts of morality. Instead, we are to fulfill the new law given by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. While this seems simple on the surface, it’s a much higher calling because to love is a condition of the heart. If I serve the poor from a place of pity or mere sympathy, I dishonour them and Jesus’s call. Sympathy is to feel a sense of despair for someone who is going through something difficult. Empathy is the ability to identify with another’s feelings. Because Jesus loved, he could not resist being love. Though we are not Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’s example, we too can choose to love.”
Moving Forward: “How can you move from acts born out of sympathy to acting with empathy and love?”