Mercy Over Judgment.

I'm just contextualizing it for us today. Don't get mad at me for some of the things, this is James' fault. But here we go, in James chapter two, starting in verse one.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 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? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but you do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:1-13

Let's pray after reading that word today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much today for your word that is alive and active. God, I thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit in this place. For the ways that as we sing, as we worship, as we pray through those songs, Holy Spirit, you made us in such specific ways. I thank you that we can come and sit in this room today and open up our ears to hear you and our hearts to receive, knowing that you are the one who unifies us. God, we believe you want to do a cleansing work in our hearts today, that you want us to walk out of this place so your kingdom flows through us. And so even now, God, we pause and say, Holy Spirit, we welcome you. If that's your desire today, to hear from the Lord, to be cleansed, to be purified, to walk closer to him, closer in his love, would you just say, in your own way, come Holy Spirit, you're welcome here.

Holy Spirit, you are so welcome here. We invite you in. Would you speak to us through this text, through these words? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Favoritism reveals a divided heart

Favoritism is forbidden. That's the theme of this text today. At first, reading it, there's almost an instinct to get defensive: surely I don't have favoritism living in me. Surely we can all agree that discrimination against people is bad, that's a common thought. But why is James making such a point of emphasizing this? We see it throughout scripture, which tells us it's something we could still be struggling with.

Even in a room like this today, we may have all, in some form, entered into favoritism. When you walk into a space and decide where you're going to sit, who you're going to talk to, it might not be an intentional thing, but there's something in us that drifts toward what's normal for us, who looks comfortable, who maybe even looks like us, dresses like us. We tend to go there, to where we feel safe, where we feel secure. None of that is inherently an alarm bell. But James starts so strong, calling out the family nature of it: hey, we're family here, we're having a family conversation. Brothers, sisters, believers in the glorious Lord Jesus, do not show favoritism. No favoritism. Let it be gone.

This isn't a polite, hey guys, here's a thought, what if we try not to show favoritism? It's a direct command: do not do it. Favoritism is wrong. I literally have in my notes, be gentle, Abbie, be gentle, right here, because sometimes I can just go, and I'm like, be gentle, be gentle. So Holy Spirit's going to make it gentle. But this is such a deep word.

When I think about favoritism, I instantly go to the idea of going to a restaurant. I'm a creature of habit, I'll go to the same restaurant over and over because I know what I like, and even there, I order the same thing every time. There might be a million things on the menu, but I go to what's safe, what I know is going to give me that satisfaction, because I know what to expect and it gives me what I want. I don't go to the same thing over and over because it's necessarily the best on the menu, but because it's something I'm comfortable with, something that doesn't make me have to step into risk. And we're naturally risk-avoidant people, because it's scary to talk to people who don't look like us, sound like us, or think like us. The same instinct that shows up when we sit down at a restaurant and order the same thing shows up in the way we treat people. We drift toward what's familiar, what's comfortable.

But I believe Jesus continues to invite us into something wider, something deeper, something more loving, and it's something we can only live into with the power of the Holy Spirit. Because if you notice when I'm reading this, it says if you even break one law, you're off, it's done, it's over. We read that through the lens of the hope of Jesus, which is really good news. I want to go back to the beginning of James, the first message, which you can listen to on the podcast if you weren't here. There's this language of the mirror, where he gives the example that you don't look into a mirror, walk away, and forget what you saw. If you have spinach in your teeth, you don't just look and think, ha, there's spinach in my teeth, and leave it there. You get it out, you go brush your teeth.

I want us to think about this today as we go through this text, that we want to be people who aren't afraid of the mirror, who aren't afraid of standing in front of the Holy Spirit and saying, show me, show me what's going on in the depths of my heart, and who are also quick to say, cleanse me, I'm not going to stay the same, I'm going to walk away changed.

This week I did something wild that I never do, though I do this often, I'm such a multitasker that I can't sit still, even on my lunch break. I ran home, feeling really confident in my ability to eat my sandwich in one hand and load my dishwasher with the other, in my twenty minutes for lunch, wearing white pants that I had to go back to the office in. Yes, people are already saying, Abbie, bad idea, bad idea. It was a bad idea, because guess what happens right away? I drop something on my perfectly clean white pants. There goes my pants for the day. So now what do I do? I don't just let it sit there and stain, I go change, and then I walk back to the office, and everyone's like, oh, two outfits in one day, and we're like, yeah, it's fine, no big deal.

But it's this idea that when it comes to things like that, any sane person wouldn't sit there and start thinking, what a terrible person you are, Abbie, that you spilled on your clothes. What kind of person does that? You don't sit there in the shame, you look and go, okay, we're going to clean this, we're going to change, and we're going to keep going. This is how we need to live as followers of Jesus, not afraid of looking in the mirror. We don't run from conviction, we see conviction as kindness. We see it as an invitation for the Holy Spirit to cleanse us so we can continue to walk pure and holy in the identity he's given us.

Because even as today, as we're singing about his kingdom coming, do we realize that we are the vessels for that? As you look around this room, we are the vessels for his kingdom to come. He's saying, I want you to show people what it looks like to love, not based on discrimination or favoritism. I want you to show people what mercy looks like without judgment. And in order for us to do that, we have to be cleansed and purified.

I'm not going to spoil the whole movie for you, but you should all go see The Devil Wears Prada 2. It came out, and you guys are more excited about that than other things, which is a problem we'll talk about in another message. But in the movie, there's a scene where someone turns on a faucet and brown water comes out. I looked at it and thought, okay, they're waiting, they're waiting, and then eventually they get a new apartment, and it's clean water. We know that when you turn on the faucet and stuff comes out, you think, we've got to get rid of that, we've got to figure this out, because we want clean water flowing through.

If we see ourselves as the vessels of God's kingdom coming, we don't want mucky water flowing through us. We don't want any hint of discrimination or favoritism flowing through us, because we want to represent the purity of the gospel, of who Jesus is, and his love. So that's why today, even as I say, be gentle, Abbie, it's important for us to really lock in. I want us to be open today, to not hear these words from James and think, oh, all those people who discriminate. I want us to look in the mirror and say, Holy Spirit, will you show me how I may be showing favoritism and not even know it?

Because if we're the church, if we want to look like his bride, pure and holy, we have to be purified. And as the Holy Spirit reveals things to us, we don't have to sit there and think, what kind of idiot would do this, we get to say, wow, thank you, Holy Spirit, for showing me something, and now I can see it and change it and be clean. Conviction is kindness. Can you say that to someone next to you? Conviction is kindness. And we're not running from it today.

So here's the first thing we see: favoritism reveals a divided heart. When James says, my brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism, and gives the example of two men walking into the room, judged by their clothes, you can't look at one and say, here's a seat for you, and tell the other, you stand there, sit on the floor. You read this and think, who would do that? Well, people were doing it, and he was speaking to believers who were doing it.

It's subtle. Favoritism can be so subtle. It comes from a place where we don't even realize we're doing it, because in a lot of ways it's socially acceptable, even today. A good question to ask is, who do I act differently around when they walk into a room? When a certain type of person walks in, what feelings come up in me? Who might make me a little uncomfortable, who might it be a little harder for me to talk to? Favoritism reveals a divided heart, a heart that says, I want to follow the ways of Jesus, and yet I'm still evaluating people, still judging them, still criticizing them by the world's standards of status, influence, comfort, sometimes even similarity.

As we go through this, it's important to think about why these things happen in us. Some of it is intentional, but a lot of the time it isn't, it's just habits formed over long periods of time. We have defaults. There are certain types of people where I see them and think, oh, you're my type of people, and that's not inherently bad. What becomes a problem is when other people come in and we can't see the beauty in them, can't see them as a child of God the way they were made, and we start to treat them differently because of it. We have patterns of behavior, relationships, thoughts, all the things that are familiar and safe.

What we honor, our heart follows

So much of James is pointing back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' first sermon to his disciples. In Matthew chapter six, he talks a lot about storing up treasures in heaven, and I love this passage, because so much of what it looks like to honor God, and to honor the things he honors, comes down to what we do with our wealth and our resources.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys, where thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Seek first the kingdom above all else and its righteousness, and everything you need, it's going to be given.

Matthew 6:19-21, 33

What I love about this is the language Jesus is using, because there are probably patterns, natural things, in all of us, we were born into different families of origin, we've been surrounded by different people who formed us. Some of these patterns might not be intentional. Even earlier, in James chapter one, when he talks about stumbling into temptation, you can just fall into things. But that's not an excuse. As we turn to Jesus, as we choose to honor him, to seek him, everything else is going to be added.

Jesus is painting a picture: the things we honor, the things we put first, that's where our heart is going to follow. The things you invest most in, you tend to care a lot about. I have a lot of different furniture in my house, and I treat different pieces very differently. I have the Facebook Marketplace couches I bought five years ago, that I said I'd only have for a year, and they're still there. When someone I was cat-sitting for had a cat destroy the fabric underneath one, I said, don't worry about it, it's fine, I didn't invest much into it. But my great-grandmother's dining room table, passed down for generations, that people have invested in keeping up, I care a lot about, because there's an investment made in it. What we honor, our heart is going to follow.

God honors those the world overlooks

And the next thing we see is that God honors those others overlook. That's who he honors. As we start to invest in people others may overlook, as we invest our finances, our time, our resources into the kingdom of heaven, into the places Jesus found himself, the people Jesus surrounded himself with, our heart is going to grow for the kingdom. It's going to follow. He says, listen, my 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? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

James is painting a completely upside-down kingdom from what we know, where status and wealth, if you have them on this side of eternity, are to be stewarded and invested into the kingdom, not held as some high and mighty ranking. We have to be so careful how we talk about money and finances in these spaces, because God wants to bless us, he wants us to experience the fullness of his kingdom, and that's why he sent Jesus to die on the cross, to pay the price for our sins, so he was raised back to life, and now we get to spend eternity with him in heaven, where all will be made right. On this side of eternity, some of us might have earthly possessions, might experience some of those treasures, and some of us may not. That's not a sign of our obedience to God. Everything we have is something we steward and invest into the kingdom, opening up our hands to say, Holy Spirit, what's your strategy for everything I have? Because Jesus' kingdom is upside down.

There are so many Proverbs about this. Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Old Testament to New, God is painting this picture of how we're to elevate those who lack, on this side of eternity. The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all. I love that, and it's part of why we use that language when we come around for Sundays at the Table: you may not have almost anything in common with the person you're sitting next to. You may not make the same kind of money, have the same kind of job, the same skin color, the same hair. But what we have in common is our maker. We bear his image together, as the beautiful body of Christ, created not to walk as independent people, but interdependent, caring for one another's needs.

When we're following Jesus, we have access to the fullness of the kingdom, so we don't have to worry, but we continue to live into that reality, stewarding whatever is in our hands. James is hitting this hard, because it was a struggle then for believers, and it can still be a struggle for us today, to not see what we hold as ours to keep, our sign of status, but as ours to steward and give freely to whatever the Lord asks.

Mercy triumphs over judgment

As we continue, we see this emphasis, that mercy triumphs over judgment. And this is where we say, thank you, Jesus, for your mercy that triumphed over judgment. It says in verse eight: if you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing right. It sounds easy, keep the royal law. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it. For he who said, you shall not commit adultery, also said, you shall not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

This is the good news we have in Jesus, that his mercy covers us. That's why we keep saying, Holy Spirit, come, and even in the song we're singing, Holy Spirit, make us one, because it's not just about us trying to forgive one another or trying not to show favoritism. We need the Holy Spirit to come and unify us. We need the Holy Spirit to give us a deeper heart for the neighbor we just walk past without seeing. We need the Holy Spirit to say, will you open my eyes to see them clearly? Will you convict me as I walk through my life? Will you make me more interruptible?

I want to give a definition of mercy here, because it can be one of those church words we just say, mercy, mercy, great, awesome, without really knowing what we're talking about. Mercy is compassion expressed in action. Kindness toward someone in misery. Help given to the undeserving. Jesus says, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Compassion expressed in action, it's more than a thought, it's doing something. This is what Jesus did for us, and what he invites us now to do for other people, as those who bear his image and represent him everywhere we go.

Judgment is easy to do from a distance, but compassion expressed in action requires us to come close, to walk close with people we might not normally find ourselves around, or the ones we'd rather step back from, because it's too hard, too painful, too inconvenient, because it might interrupt our lives a little. But Jesus calls us and invites us to show mercy and come close, just as Christ came close to us. Judgment asks, what do they deserve, it's looking for fairness. But following Jesus, living into mercy and not showing favoritism, we're saying, how can I love sacrificially, how can I die to myself in this, die to my pride, die to what I think I deserve in this situation. God was not distant from us, Jesus came so close, and he wants us to be people who go close as well.

Where favoritism hides today

I want to talk about ways favoritism might show up. As I go through some of these, and there are probably a lot more, these were just some I thought through, of how it might show up in our day-to-day lives, in this cultural moment. I want you to listen and say, Holy Spirit, would you show me, like a mirror held up. Because it's one thing to say favoritism is bad, but it's another to come close and say, Holy Spirit, will you show me, will you convict me of any way this is coming up in my life?

The first is when you find yourself only gravitating toward certain people you feel comfortable with, and avoiding others. Think of times you've given more attention to those with status or influence, which again, none of us want to admit we do, but think about it: when a certain person with status or influence walks in the room, does it change the way you talk, the way you move in that space? Any time we look at people's appearance and make judgments. Another is when we treat people based on what they can offer us in return, because the beauty of Jesus showing mercy for us is that he gave his life for those he knew would never return it, never acknowledge it, never understand it, and he did it anyway. When we say yes to following Jesus, we say yes to dying to our right to be understood, to have that love ever returned. We can do that because, as we're singing today, he loves us so unconditionally, his love covers us, and we're in that place of love, so we can give it freely. It can flow through us. We don't have to try harder, we can say, God, whether or not this person can ever return what I'm giving, whether or not they can ever love me the way I'm loving them, I will give it freely, as you loved me. Because I'm so loved by you, Jesus, their love might be nice, but I don't need it, because I have everything I need in you.

Next is when we find ourselves interrupting or overlooking certain people and certain voices. Maybe it's in the workplace, those coworkers where the moment they open their mouth, you tune out. Could the Holy Spirit be showing us, maybe we need to tune in, maybe there's something there? Think back to times you're around certain types of people and feel a little uncomfortable, and ask, what's happening there, when I feel awkward? The last is if you find yourself justifying why you have a preference toward certain people, that can be a sign of favoritism too. James doesn't get super specific here, and it doesn't perfectly translate to our cultural moment, and that's why we have the Holy Spirit, to specifically convict our hearts with kindness so we can come closer to Jesus. So even though we're not talking about murder and adultery, there are little things we're doing where we need to say, Jesus, we need you to cleanse us, we need you to remove it from our lives.

Closing prayer

I'm going to invite the worship team to come up as we get ready to close. Our so-what today is, who you honor reveals what you value. We want to be people who value the kingdom and let the kingdom flow through us. We need to take a close look: who do we honor with our time, our attention, our finances, our stewardship? Who do we honor? Because that's going to reveal a divided heart, it's going to reveal what we value most, it's going to reveal whether we're people of mercy or people of judgment.

As we seek that, and ask, God, who do I honor, is it you in all situations, we recognize that whenever something's off, we come with that conviction and turn toward Jesus, and he cleanses us with kindness, and we go, okay, I'm going to walk away differently. We get to choose who we want to honor, but sometimes it takes us slowing down long enough to stand in front of that mirror and say, show me. Because if you never look in the mirror, you're not going to see it, you're just going to keep going, thinking, yeah, I don't show favoritism, but those people do. And I'm sure we could all name a lot of people who show favoritism today. But I want us to look into our hearts and say, Holy Spirit, will you show me, like I'm standing in front of a mirror, any ways I am not valuing the people you value, any ways I am not honoring those you're asking me to honor, because favoritism still exists.

Our now-what is that we would move toward someone we normally overlook, with mercy and compassion. So this question is simple today: God, who am I overlooking? Would you give me eyes to see them? It's simple, but it's so important that as the church, as the people of God, we don't run from conviction, we're not scared of it, and we also don't sit in it and let the enemy come in with lies of shame, but we run toward the mirror and say, show me, Holy Spirit, show me.

So even as we go into this today, I want to invite you to stand, and we're going to have a moment where the band just plays, and I want you to listen to the Holy Spirit. I want to invite him to truly show you, is there any favoritism that exists? And as you do, no shame will be there, in the name of Jesus. No shame that keeps us stuck, but a cleansing, a kindness, and we would experience the kindness and mercy of God in that, and say thank you. And we would pray, Holy Spirit, give us a new way to see today, give us a new way to love.

And if you're here and you're still in that place of, do I follow Jesus, what does this look like, I want this invitation to be so clear to you: Jesus sees you, and he longs for us to come close to him, whether or not we have it all together. James is speaking to people who were Christians, following Jesus, and he's saying, but there's still more cleansing to do. The fact that there's still more cleansing is nothing to be ashamed of, it's just a part of following Jesus and being purified every single day.

Lord, we pray today, would you come and show us anyone we're overlooking? God, would you show us where any favoritism exists in our lives? Would you highlight maybe spaces recently where we've walked in and felt that uncomfortableness, and would you show us what's happening there within us? I pray we wouldn't feel ashamed for the patterns we were born into, the things that are part of our stories and have become normal and default for us. But God, would you show us your Holy Spirit strategy for how we can invest into your kingdom in a way that our heart will follow, toward your kingdom, your mercy, your love, your people. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that we don't have to worry about getting it right or getting it wrong, but we know you will continue to come and show us, to convict us, to draw us closer to you. Because of the power of your death and resurrection, and your Holy Spirit that speaks so specifically to us and longs to speak to us, we have freedom from our sins and our shame. We don't have to sit there, we can be made new. We thank you, Jesus, for that.

Lord, I pray that as we invite your Spirit to come and show us and reveal, deep in the depths of our hearts, where we as the church are showing favoritism, there would be a cleansing that leads to freedom, to lightness, to healing, that doesn't lead to condemnation or shame, but to closeness with you. And that we would feel so loved by you, that it is kindness, that you stand in front of us, Holy Spirit, and say, hey, we're missing something here, let's change, let's be clean, let's be whole, so the kingdom and the purity of the gospel can flow through us.

So Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this space. Would you show us? Would your Spirit just flow through us? We thank you, Jesus, for your kindness. Thank you.