Daily Scripture: James 2:1 My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. 3 If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, “Have this good seat here,” while to the poor man you say, “You, stand over there,” or, “Sit down on the floor by my feet,” 4 then aren’t you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven’t you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?
5 Listen, my dear brothers, hasn’t God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to receive the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? 6 But you despise the poor! Aren’t the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Aren’t they the ones who insult the good name of Him to whom you belong? 8 If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.[Footnotes:
James 2:8 Leviticus 19:18]
Reflection Questions:Two thousand years ago, as today, it was a fact that "money talks." Nearly all of us, whatever we do, are tempted to show favoritism to a person who might enrich us over a person who clearly doesn't have much to offer financially. While James didn't want Christians to shun any neighbor, rich or poor (verse 8), he also knew that the human tendency to favor the wealthy over the poor was a clear breach of God's will.
- Scholar William Barclay said, "The Church must be the one place where all distinctions are wiped out. There can be no distinctions of rank and prestige when men meet in the presence of the King of glory. There can be no distinctions of merit when men meet in the presence of the supreme holiness of God." How easy or hard do you find it to lay aside a value system built on status, title and wealth to live as James called us to live?
- Barclay added this history: "In the society which James inhabited the rich oppressed the poor. They dragged them to the law-courts. No doubt this was for debt. At the bottom end of the social scale men were so poor that they could hardly live and moneylenders were plentiful and extortionate….It is not riches James is condemning; it is the conduct of riches without sympathy." In what ways do we see those attitudes today? How can you have riches (at whatever level you have them) WITH sympathy?
Lord, remind me that "this is my father's world," that I am a steward of some of your world rather than an owner of any of it. Keep my values aligned with yours in all of my dealings with others. Amen.Insight from Janelle Gregory
Janelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as a Human Resources Specialist.
My husband and I will not be going out to celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend. Why? It has nothing to do with a lack of love for one another (or a lack of love for eating out, for that matter). It’s just that while I am in love with my husband, what I’m not in love with is the idea of fighting crowds to eat a meal at a restaurant with a set menu which is going to cost me at least twice what it would cost to eat there the other 364 days during the year. Perhaps I’m a bit cynical, but it all seems stupid, Cupid.
I get that same kind of vibe when I think about how much money Americans spend going on short-term mission trips. It absolutely makes no sense. If our aim is to be of help to people with very limited resources, wouldn’t it just make more sense to send them the resources directly? Just think of how much people in developing countries could do with all of the money that has ever been put towards sending Americans in 1-2 week increments. We’ll easily spend over $200 a day to “help” those who live off of less than $1 in that same time. Talk about stupid!
At least that’s what I used to think. That is, until I learned about how we do mission trips at Church of the Resurrection. All of our trips are built around partnerships with local leaders in each country who do much of the actual on-the-ground work while we are not there. They absolutely need money to help get ministries off of the ground that will serve those in their communities. It’s very important that we are generous with our giving for that reason. But when they have been presented with the option of sacrificing having us send people in order to send additional money, our partners have consistently said that they would much rather have us send the people. I’ve been on the phones with church leaders in Malawi who have asked us to come and bring words of encouragement. “Really?” you might ask. Yes, really.
While not everyone has been called to go on a mission trip, there are some who will refuse to go because they can’t wrap their minds around the logic of it. And they’re right – it logically doesn’t make sense. But then again, we worship a God who not only doesn’t follow the rules of logic, but often completely disregards them. And we can ALL be grateful for that. So if you are one of those people, I’d encourage you to lay your logic aside. Consider going on a mission trip. You can find out more information on the missions’ page:here.
Because mission trips are not about what makes sense when you crunch the numbers. They are about building partnerships, sending encouragement, being present, and changing lives – and I’d be very surprised if you don’t return with your very own life changed for the better.
Church of the Resurrection
Because mission trips are not about what makes sense when you crunch the numbers. They are about building partnerships, sending encouragement, being present, and changing lives – and I’d be very surprised if you don’t return with your very own life changed for the better.
Church of the Resurrection
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
_____________________________
_____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment