Often as we walk the streets of our city we encounter people who have very real economic needs, while others we encounter clearly have financial abundance. Our heart is to bring the Message, or the Good News of Jesus, to all of these people.
How then do we deal with the favoritism that we encounter in our church cultures? Some of us come from church backgrounds that favor ministry to the poor, and preach it constantly. Others come from churches where the poor are far removed, both from our minds and neighborhoods. So, what do we do when one group or the other is excluded from our church communities?
"My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism." James encourages us to confront this favoritism, and makes it clear in his letter that this favoritism is a sin; just as grave as adultry or murder. Our response to this is what we wrestled with as a group last Monday.
We discussed how perhaps our favoritism is a symptom of our focus on riches and poverty. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to focus on something else, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
So, His Kingdom should be the focus, a Kingdom sustained by daily bread. Perhaps as we live out the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, the Kingdom will come, His will will be done, and daily bread will be provided. We will find ourselves in community with all kinds of people. A community where none hoard and none go without. A community like Israel in the desert, dependent on the daily bread from heaven - manna that provided for everyone and spoiled when it was hoarded. A community like that in Jerusalem shortly after the death and reserrection of Jesus, where they held everything in common and gave to each as they had need.
No comments:
Post a Comment