James 2:1-17

Have you ever been in a place where you don’t belong and the people there let you know it? I had that experience at a local men’s clothing store. I went to the store on my day off (which means I didn’t shave), my pants were very casual (the ones I wear to mow the lawn), and I was wearing one of my favorites shirts (Ronald Reagan was president when I bought it). I thought I looked okay, but the sales staff did not approve of my scruffy face, my worn-out pants, and my old shirt. The sales staff gave me that what-are-you-doing-here? look, and they asked if they could help me, making it obvious that the last thing they wanted to do was help anyone as shabby as me. I felt embarrassed, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I was so uncomfortable I didn’t take time to purchase what I came for, even though I really like their men’s clothing. So the next week I shaved, dressed up, and went back to the store, and—what do you know?—the sales staff gave me a warm welcome. They were happy to help me. I looked like “their kind of customer.”

It happens every day: situations in which people make you feel like you don’t belong, and you feel ashamed. Or, sorry to say, when you make somebody else feel inferior and unwelcome. Ours is a fallen world. We’ve all been shamed, and we’re all guilty of being shamers.

Our second reading is looking at the pain that comes when we are left out. This sort of shame is social. We feel it when someone treats us as inferior. St. James illustrates shaming with his example of a rich man who visits the church, and he’s given a warm welcome, because he’s well-dressed. Meanwhile, a poor man is wearing out-of-fashion clothes from Goodwill, and he has to find himself a seat where nobody else wants to sit. The poor man is shamed: he’s treated as inferior and undeserving of a place in church that is equal to everyone else.

That’s not very nice, is it? It’s worse than not nice. Snubbing an underdressed customer in a clothing store is not nice. Snubbing fellow Christians is sin. “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?… If you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” It’s worse than not nice, warns St. James: it denies our faith.

Shame is a subject that God is very, very, very sensitive about. God deliberately embraces the “rejects” of the world on the cross of His dear Son. On purpose, to show us what he really thinks of worldly standards of honor and shame, God sent His Son to the place of humiliation.

St. Paul writes: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world… so that no one may boast in the presence of God” (I Corinthians 1:27–29).

God deliberately ignores the preference the world gives to the strong over the weak, the rich and well-educated over the poor and ignorant, the men over the women, the beautiful over the ugly, and all those other differences that people use to boost themselves and to shame others.

The shameful, humiliating cross is worth more to God than all those things people use to make themselves feel important and others unimportant.

Which is why the church is different from the world. The church is the place where people are saved by the shameful, humiliating cross that is worth more to us than all those things people use to make themselves feel important and others unimportant. The cross is worth more to us: that is the faith that saves us from a disgraced world.

“Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man.” Whether our faith is rich or poor is revealed by a simple test: whether we choose the people God chose. Since the poor in the world who are rich in faith are heirs of the kingdom, it’s probably a good idea not to humiliate them—we hope to spend eternity in their company!

“Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?” Why would we want to act like them? The church is different: we honor what the world shames, and God shames what the world honors.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” That faith can’t save us from a world that acts disgracefully. It doesn’t work. What good is that? “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food to eat, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

There are things we should be ashamed of. We should be ashamed of ourselves when we act like certain people aren’t important enough to help. We kill our faith in Christ when we act like they’re not important enough even to notice their need. Christ says they are important—important enough for him to die for in shameful, humiliating circumstances. We should be ashamed of ourselves for our excuses, self-centeredness, put-downs, and “jokes” that aren’t funny to the victims. Remember Good Friday next time, before you close your eyes or open your mouth.

“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Dead bodies—corpses—don’t respond when you ask them to do something. Spiritually dead people don’t do anything when you ask them to do something. Did you hear the story about the greedy man who died and met St. Peter at the entrance to heaven? I believe in Jesus, the miser says, so St. Peter asks him to name one good work he ever did. The greedy man thinks and thinks and thinks and finally remembers: “I once gave a dime to a beggar.” St. Peter feels around in his pocket and pulls out his spare change. He hands the man a coin and says, “Here’s your dime.” You can do good works without believing, but you cannot believe without doing good works.

The good news is: believe in God’s mercy to you and show God’s mercy to others. Show God’s mercy to others: that will be good news to others and will help you believe in God’s mercy to you.

Shame is the pain we feel when people act like we don’t belong—like the sales clerks at the store I mentioned. Shame is the pain we feel when they act like our problems don’t exist—like the guy in the cafeteria no one sits next to. Shame is the pain we feel when people act like we’re inferior. Jesus would never act like that… although you might not know it from today’s gospel! A dog! Jesus calls the woman a dog! Did it shock you? Jesus is trying a little reverse psychology. Jesus loves people: for Jesus to shame the woman is completely out of character. He wants us to be shocked. “Dogs” is how Jews referred to non-Jews in those days. Jesus says out loud what his disciples are thinking to themselves. “She’s a foreigner, she’s of the wrong religion, she’s just a woman. She should take the hint and go somewhere else. She’s a dog.”

Reverse psychology. Jesus is deliberately outrageous in order to bring their shaming out into the open—so that they have to confront what they really think and hear God’s opinion of their favoritism.

The woman breaks the tension with her terrific comeback. “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Ooh! Gotcha! She doesn’t have time for the shame. Her daughter is sick, she believes in Jesus, and she won’t take “no” for an answer. She belongs as much as anyone else. Maybe she gets the point across to the disciples. Maybe she gets the point across to us!

Christ died with the weak, the poor, the ugly, the ignorant, the bad, and the badly-dressed. But Christ died for the strong, the rich, the beautiful, the good, the well-educated, and the well-dressed, too. In order that together “the lowly brother may boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation” (1:9–10).

“You do well,” says St. James, “if you really fulfill the law of the kingdom according to the Scriptures: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Here’s what to do. “So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.” What is the law of freedom? Mercy. The law of freedom says, “Jesus frees you from your sins. Believe in God’s mercy to you and show God’s mercy to others.” “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Jonathan Jenkins is the Pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. This sermon was preached on September 10, 2006.