Start Within

 

Shaira May Ronolo,  Senior student, Master of Divinity 

Text: James 2:1-4; 14-17

1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 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, 3 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,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 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? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (NRSV)

Introduction

            Good morning, people of God! It always is an honor and a blessing to stand in the midst of wonderful theologians and theologians-in-the-making.

Let us pray, for we know Oh God the limits of our human comprehension and the depths of your eternal message, therefore we pray for your Holy Spirit to work within us as we journey through your Word. Amen.

            Our message for today is based on the letter of James 2: 1-4; 14-17. Most scholars believe that James, the writer of this letter, is the brother of Jesus who was born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus’ birth. It was also believed that James was one of those who were skeptic that Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection event. What we do know now is that James eventually became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This letter of James is originally addressed to the Jewish Christians dispersed around the world in his time. However, we should not miss the fact that this letter is also addressed to us, Christians of today.

            When we hear of James and then his letter, what usually comes to our minds is the notion of the ‘saving faith’. James has this specific understanding of what ‘saving faith’ looks like. He talks about how faith in Christ must be revealed in the life of the believer. James’ letter addresses faith questions being raised during his time - honestly, the same questions that we still ask today.

            The theme for the centennial celebration of the Divinity School is: Working Towards Inclusive Ministry. The phrase inclusive ministry captures a broad scope in as far as an 18-minute sermon is concerned. An inclusive ministry can be taken as extending service outside the walls of our church, ministering to other denominations, to other religions. It can also mean ministering to everyone inside the church regardless of one’s social status, age, gender, race, and beliefs. For today, the Holy Spirit has moved me to talk and share about the latter. With the biblical text that we have read, allow me to share three points that will each talk about ministry, inclusiveness, and works within the church. I will also be playing with words a little bit, these points will be presented in alliterations for easy remembering. Working Towards Inclusive Ministry. The aim is clear, that is, ministry - to do ministry. What is ministry?

Ministry Must Manifest Modesty

James’ very first sentence in chapter 2 which is in interrogative form, “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?” This is according to the New Revised Standard Version. Interestingly enough, when I read the Good News Bible version, it wasn’t in the form of a question. It was in a direct statement saying, “Followers of Christ, do not hold favoritism among your brothers and sisters!” The rhetoric in NRSV comes as a different way of asking, what are you doing in line with your belief in Jesus Christ? At the same time, it points us towards the One we all must look up to, we all must base our actions when it comes to doing ministry. Certainly not me. I’m obviously talking about Jesus.

Modesty is being defined as “not too proud or confident about one’s self along with propriety in dress, in speech, and in conduct”. Looking back to Jesus’ time, first of all, Jesus was born in a manger to a father who is a carpenter - and on a side note, was not even sure about why he suddenly became a father. Jesus was not raised in a palace, not served with several servants, did not eat on silver plates despite being the King of kings. In fact, when he got to visit his hometown, Nazareth, he was not welcomed with a red carpet but instead was rejected by his own people. James’ description of ministry is the kind of service that our faith in Jesus Christ would lead us to do.

For quite a time our conference has been giving awards for the top ten churches supporting the wider mission. As clear as I can remember, there was really a ranking of who goes first and who goes last in the top ten. Sounds very academic, right. But then, it changed into “The Most Consistent Givers of the Wider Mission Support”. This time, it was no longer based on the total financial support that a church was able to give for the whole year. It was based on who consistently sends support every month for the whole year. A modest ministry is not a “one-and-done” move. Christ did not call all of the sick people all over the world all at once in the same place and healed all of them in one sitting. No doubt, Jesus can do that and that would be a great, powerful miracle. Yet, Jesus did not do that. He chose to remain low profile.  Jesus’ ministry was a series of consistent acts of love that kept going and showing wherever his feet lead him to. That is Christ’s ministry. That is Christ’s leadership!

When ministry becomes a competition, it loses its value. When it starts to focus on proving who is right and who is wrong, it loses its meaning. When we start doing something solely out of a desire to be the most powerful, known church in the area, we defeat the type of leadership that God has called us into. Church ministry is not about who does it better as reflected on the size of the church building or the parsonage. Ministry is an act of service that allows people to see Christ through us, to see more of who God is and less of who we are. When our church ministry manifests modesty, we become willing to lose sight of favoritism.

Inclusiveness Indicates Impartiality

            The second chapter of James is titled “Warning Against Partiality”, that is based on the New Revised Standard Version. In verses 2-4, James presented a considerably relevant scenario. There is this wealthy-looking person and a poor-looking person who both attended a gathering. Most often than not, the rich one gets offered with a seat of honor while the poor one is left to stand at the side or sit on the floor. In James’ day, this is exactly what happens in a typical non-Christian environment. Sadly, this is still happening today. And James made a strong assertion that this must not take place in a Christian Church. Showing more love and kindness to the rich than to the poor is inconsistent with our professed faith in Jesus Christ.

            In fact, in the succeeding verses, James added that to favor the rich over the poor is a sin. When God called us to obey the commandments, there was no space for cherry-picking. Breaking one means breaking the entire law. Showing partiality is breaking the command to love our neighbor as ourselves. James asks, “Have you made distinctions among yourselves and became judges with evil thoughts?”. Judges of evil thoughts are the ones who made the judgments on who to include in the ‘honorable circle’ and who gets excluded. Judges of evil thoughts are the ones who divide the church pews into rich and the poor.

Every church can claim that they do have an inclusive ministry outside the church walls. We feed people in the streets. We send out relief goods to calamity victims. We provide for other people’s needs regardless of religion, gender, ethnicity, and other cultural differences. Yes, we have this “inclusive” image outside but are we doing the same inside our very church? We encourage our church members to join the choir because it is open for everyone but we ask those who can’t sing well to lower their voices so they can hardly be heard. We encourage our church members to learn and train themselves to lead worship services but we restricted that one youth who seemed to not have a “clean” dress. Why did we not allow someone to preach just because he was openly gay? Why is it that only those who give the most in the church also are the most heard or even get to have the final say in the church’s decision making? Why was the street child who suddenly came in to join the worship driven out just because he smells? Why was the governor reserved with a seat beside the Pastor behind the pulpit? I am not trying to invalidate the things that we do outside the church. What I am trying to say, and James too, for sure, is that as much as we are openly inclusive in our ministry outside, the more that we must be too, inside. If we are impartial with who we help outside, we must also be impartial with who we open the church to. We have to keep it real inside. Unless we practice inclusiveness that’s indicative of impartiality inside the church, the good image that we are portraying outside is just a show. It will only be temporary, too because our foundation within, is very weak. We, Christians are obligated to be merciful, loving, welcoming, accepting to everyone both inside and outside the church walls.

Now that we know what ministry must manifest (modesty) and what inclusiveness must indicate (impartiality), we ask, how are we supposed to bring these into reality? We ought to work for it.

Works Will Win Words

            I would say that verses 14-17, well, particularly 17, is the most famous verse in the letter of James. Simply put, faith without works is dead. James presents his case. To simply have “faith”in God is not enough. As we read on with James' letter, we can get a hold of the main theme: a genuine faith in God results in genuinely changed lives - which involves the “works” that we do, the actions that we show, and the thoughts that we create. According to James, faith that leads to no change or no works is not saving faith at all. These works are not the ones that will save us. However, these works reveal the character of our trust in God.

            James describes an encounter with someone who barely has enough clothes to wear or food to eat. Will it be enough to simply tell them to go on with the day, stay warm, eat, go in peace? Take for example the story of the Good Samaritan. Will it be enough to tell the victim to stand up and walk and find a doctor or a hospital without giving him a hand? According to James, this accomplishes nothing. These words don’t fulfill anything. What we say inside our minds becomes meaningless and pointless if it does not matter enough to influence our actions.

            There were some comments about James’ letter standing in contradiction to the teachings of Paul. James’ arguments do not necessarily disagree but complement the very message of Paul. What actually creates the confusion is our mistaken view of the biblical definition of faith. For James, faith is beyond mental agreement with God. Faith is trust. While Paul emphasizes faith as the “cause”, James emphasizes the “effect” which is “good works”. This calls for a deeper reflection upon our respective callings.

Why do we need to work towards inclusive ministry? Because we must go beyond just definitions of what ministry and inclusiveness is. We ought to work for it. We need to go beyond just words. We need to work in order to win over mere words. These beautifully written and said statements like ministry must manifest modesty and inclusiveness indicates impartiality are worthless without works winning over these words. Here is the thing, everyone else can say the same things about ministry and inclusiveness. Everyone of us now can simply say, “Oh I agree! You are right. I understand.” We settle with words: “I believe in God. I respect and love people no matter who they are. I have faith in Jesus. I accept everyone.” Yet the sad truth is, not everyone is willing to do the actual work. Yet we dread doing the very little acts that portray these claims. Even a coward can praise Christ but it takes a person of courage to follow Him.

Conclusion

            Working towards inclusive ministry must not end in a tarpaulin. It requires intentionality and continuous joint efforts to bring it into reality. If we were on campus right now and there’s no virus lingering around, I would have asked the Koinonia to hug the person who they were never able to hug during their entire stay in the seminary. Our very own individual lives carry Jesus’ ministry in ways only God knows how and we ought to include everyone in that ministry.

To start within means to start within the church, within ourselves, within the tangible main source of our faith - the Bible. Let us go back to where we founded our faith upon. Today we have the tendency to start outside. Take our own world, the world that our human will has created into the Bible and expect the Bible to adjust for us. Hence, the cherry-picking of verses that we only see fit with our biased beliefs and principles. We have to start within the Bible and then take it out into the world. We have to let the Bible change us and guide our beliefs.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we welcome the 100th year of the founding of the Divinity School and as we go on through this year, let us not stop reading the Bible, reflecting on our calling, nurturing our faith, discovering our gifts, and discerning God’s will upon us. May we always be reminded that we have to start within and see to it that our ministry must manifest modesty, that inclusiveness must indicate impartiality, and that we have to strive for our works to win over words. For it is when we start within the walls of the church that we can bring about real change to the outside. For it is when we start the change inside of us that we can reflect our light, manifest our faith, and share our passion to others. Amen.