These two guys walk in to a church, ok. And the one guy is dressed in a sharp suit, smells good, looks good. He’s got a short, neat haircut with a perfectly groomed beard. On his left wrist, he’s got a Rolex the size of a pocket watch with a wedding band to match. You can almost smell the money oozing off of him. The other guy is obviously homeless. As soon as he walks in you can tell it’s been awhile since he’s used deodorant. If you were to get close, but you probably wouldn’t, you’d notice the outline of dog tags under his shirt.
Which one do you say hello to first?
Honestly, which one do you smile at? Which one do you kindly ask how his weekend is going? Which one do you try to get to know and be extra friendly with? And then which one do you kindly ignore and hope they go away?
I’ll tell you which one I choose. As much as I hate to admit it, especially considering what James just wrote to us this morning, I spend more time with the guy in the suit and tie. I naturally gravitate to him. I want him to like me, I want him to like this church, and I want him to continue coming here. I don’t think I’d make this decision consciously, but if I’m going to be truly and deeply honest with myself, of the two, he’s the one I go to.
And then I need to hear these words from James and I need to ask myself why? Why am I avoiding the person that looks probably a lot like Jesus did during his ministry? Why am I avoiding the very person that Jesus would have sought out on his travels? Why am I gravitating towards the person that would likely have shunned Jesus’ message to “sell all that he has and give it to the poor?”
And if I’m going to be honest, it’s because going to the richer person is easier. It’s more comfortable. It’s not going to result in me getting dirty. It’s not going to result in me risking my social standing. It’s what the world expects me to do, and I feel absolutely no qualms about doing it. It’s more acceptable for me to ignore the homeless person and hope he goes away than it is for me to treat him like a person, welcome him into the building, offer him some money, and sit and talk to him for a while. It’s more acceptable for me to ignore him than it is for me to love him.
And if I’m not loving him, if I’m not loving my neighbor, then what am I doing calling myself a Christian? Isn’t that part of the greatest commandment? That I love God with all my heart, soul, and mind AND love my neighbor as myself? At best by ignoring him I am apathetic towards him, which feels so much worse than outright hating him. At worst, by ignoring him, I am causing him harm.
Either way I’m breaking God’s commandments and living in sin. I’m living into a broken relationship with this person that I’m not particularly interested in mending. And if I’m doing that, I might as well have killed him - I’ve broken the relationship and refused to repair it or restore it. That’s why James says, perhaps counterintuitively, that there are no gradients of sin. Sin doesn’t operate like our legal system. There are no 1st degree or 2nd degree offenses. All sin is a break in a relationship. And all sin that is unrepented of is considered to be murder - because you’ve killed that relationship with that person: their life is cut off from yours.
Bear with me, I know this sounds counterintuitive. Trust me, I was a philosophy major who loved his ethics classes. I really want one evil to be lesser than another because it makes the world a better place. I want to say well of course lying is better than killing - it just makes sense, according to this world. But what if we looked at sin in a way that was different from our current legal system? What if we looked at sin the way we look at cutting string?
Once you make a cut of thread, you can’t undo it. No cut can be any less thorough than any other cut. I can’t half-cut a piece of thread, once I start that whole thing is cut into two pieces. Sin is kind of like that. Each sin cuts the thread of our relationships. Now sin can cut the relationship in lots of places. But certain sins can’t cut more or less than other sins.
Especially for God. Because God doesn’t see sins as individual acts that we do, God sees all sin as something that breaks relationships between the Trinity and between humanity. That’s part of why we word our confession the way that we do. We’re not confessing to this sin, this sin, and this sin, but for all the complete breaks in relationships that we need God to help us mend.
It’s confusing, I know. It doesn’t quite make sense, I know. It’s not how the world views things, I know. But bear with me. Because it only gets weirder. Remember how I said God’s weird? Well, here’s a piece of that.
So we’re a part of God’s world, and when we play by God’s rules, our sins aren’t any better or worse than say, Hitler’s sins. Because, remember, God doesn’t qualify or quantify sin. For God, it’s all a break. This sounds bad, I know. We like to think that we’re at least a little better than Hitler, but remember sin is sin. It’s all equally bad. But wait, there’s more. Because God isn’t content to let us sit here in our sin. Instead of judging us, God offers another way. Instead of divinely punishing everybody, God chooses mercy. To quote James, mercy triumphs over judgement. And Lutherans say James doesn’t have good news!
God chooses to redeem us in our sin. God chooses to offer us mercy and grace time and time again even when we make mistakes and love ourselves more than our neighbors. And because God doesn’t qualify or quantify sin, that offer of love and mercy and grace goes to every single person on earth. Even Hitler. To each and every person, which means each and every person is worthy of being welcomed into the kingdom of God. Every one. Rich and poor. Black and white. Republican and Democrat. Liberal and conservative. Male and female. These binaries aren’t exclusive, instead all are brought into the church.
Which is to say, James isn’t saying kick the rich person out of the church. Instead, he’s saying to welcome the poor person in. The rich person gets treated well 24/7/365, so they can wait a little bit to be welcomed into conversation, instead start with the person who is mistreated and abused. Let them know that they are welcome and that there is nothing they have done, are doing, or could do that would keep them out of the kingdom of God. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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