God Is with Us In Our Distress

English

God is with us in our Distress

James 2:1-7

The Arts and Communicating God's Truth
This weekend is Academy Award weekend, a big one here in SoCal. So, we have consciously chosen this weekend at LAC to celebrate the arts and to thank God for those called to serve in the world of the arts and entertainment.
My son Brandon is an artist so we talk at times about the role God would have the arts to play in his creation. One part of our discussion is that the arts create a space for us to express some of the mystery we experience when we walk with God. For example, when we speak of who God is, we can use words. God is omnipotent. God is love. God is healer... When I read those words, my mind is engaged and my understanding is deepened. However, something more happens when we take those words and combine them with music or with visual arts. The more logical, analytical, and objective parts of our brains are engaged and say "yes!" At the same time, the more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective parts of our brains kick in too. The result is that I often am moved both to shout hallelujah and maybe to lift my hands in praise too. The arts seem to facilitate the coordination of my mind, emotions and body to give praise to the Lord.

Pablo Picasso, for Example
Let me give you an example of this. On April 26, 1937, German and Italian warplanes bombed a country village in Northern Spain. Those who experienced any part of it said it was not only a bombing but it was brutal overkill of a group of people viewed by the Nazis as being seditious. The entire small town was destroyed and countless innocent civilians, including many children, were killed. When I report it that way, I imagine you might gain some idea of how horrendous this kind of act of aggression is. For me, what happened there takes on even more reality when I see a picture of the city after the bombing. See http://www.albavolunteer.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/guernica.jpg.
However, I believe that the agony and senselessness of such acts takes on a deeper and fuller dimension when we see how artist Pablo Picasso painted it in his classic and expansive mural simply call Guernica. See http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/PicassoGuernica.jpg.
This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder to generations that have followed of the tragedies, senselessness and cruelty of war. Do you see what I mean? The artist has an opportunity to use art – whether music, visual or cinematic – to express far more than words can alone.

One Beautiful (and Challenging) Aspect of God
The Bible is God's special revelation about himself. Words are important to God and, because of that, he has chosen to make himself known particularly through what we call "The Word of God" and what James called "the Word of Truth." And, as we might expect, our creative Creator God also makes himself known through his creation. He brings the truth of his Word to life through what he creates. See Psalm 19:1-4a.
Let's apply this today to one of the points that James makes a number of times in his letter, i.e., that God cares about people in distress. In my last message, from James 1:26-27, I focused on how God says that true religion includes walking in caring relationship with people in distress, i.e., people like those who were orphans and widows. Do you remember? I said that when people are in trouble and don't know where to turn, they should know that God cares about them – even if no one else in society does.
In His Word, God declares that he is a "Father to the fatherless and a defender of widows (Ps 68:5)." Or Dt 10:18: "God brings about justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien..."
So, that's what God is like. God uses his Word to teach that his heart is one that cares for those who don't know where else in this world to turn.
But, when we are in distress, we may rightly ask, "Where am I to experience God's care?" In the Old Testament, it was God's people who were to demonstrate his heart by the way they treated the people in their boundaries who were in distress. Over and over, the people of Israel were commanded to care for those who had no idea where to turn. They were to make sure that those who were hungry or homeless and sought help would find it. Sadly, over and over, they did not live in ways that showed they had the heart of God. So, the prophet Jeremiah would declare that a day would come when God would place his ways into his people's hearts. And that day came in Jesus. Jesus showed the heart of God for people in distress.
Of course, even after the coming of Jesus, in every nation and society, there are still people in distress. What has God done – what has he designed -- to help us see in our own world that he is a God who cares for those in distress? James declares that we are to see in reality what God has declared in words by looking in two places: Jesus and the church.
Those are the two visual artistic demonstrations of the heart of God. Let's see how James writes about it.

Visual Demonstration #1: When You See Jesus, You See God's Care for Those in Distress.
My brothers and sisters, do not demonstrate your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e., the glory, by discriminating among people on the basis of outward appearances (2:1).
This is my translation of James 2:1. I want you to notice what James calls Jesus. He calls Jesus "the glory." In the Old Testament, what was called the Shekinah glory of God referred to the place where God is to be seen. And "to glorify" meant, in part, to reflect to the world what God is like. Jesus is "the glory" because he is the visual representation of God. Jesus is God in flesh.
I think the best illustration of this is one I've used often: The greatest qualities – the glory -- of a star basket player will be seen on the basketball court. The glory of a great singer will be experienced in the concert hall. The glory of a writer will be discovered in his books. So, where should we look if we will see the glory of God? And James says that Jesus is "the glory". As John 1:18 puts it, "No one has seen God at any time except God the one and only Son. He makes God known." And, of course, Jesus said it clearly, "He who has seen me has seen the Father!" To see Jesus is to see what God is like.
So, when it comes to seeing how God views people in distress, we look at Jesus and we will know what God is like. So, read the first four books of the NT and you will see that Jesus never showed favoritism. In fact, Jesus spent much of his time with those on the margins of society. He recruited a despised tax collector to be one of his 12 apostles. Jesus spent time with and ministered to with a Samaritan woman, a prostitute at that. Jesus cared for and healed the daughter of a Syro-Phoenician woman, whom his own people treated like dogs. Jesus received and touched lepers. In fact, Jesus so identified Himself with those who were racially and socially rejected that those in power criticized him for always spending time with "sinners."
When you see Jesus doing these things, you see him "glorifying God." When people wondered what it really looks like for God to be one who cares for those in distress, God took on human flesh and showed us. If you are here today and wonder whether God would ever welcome you because of whatever is in your past or whatever is in your life now, you should first look at Jesus and you will know the answer. As Jesus declared in his first sermon in Luke 4: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. I have come to set the oppressed free."
When you see what Jesus did, you know what God is like.

Visual Demonstration #2: When You Experience the Church, You Should Experience God's Care for Those in Distress. "... the noble name of him to whom you belong (2:7)."
The command in v.1 is clear: Since Jesus does not discriminate on the basis of external things, "do not demonstrate your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e., by discriminating among people on the basis of outward appearances. Then, this section ends with James telling us we bear the "noble name" of our Lord. That means, that we represent him in our world. So, here in SoCal, when people wonder what the Lord Jesus is like, they look at us. They look at who feels welcomed and helped in our church. They look at what kinds of people say their lives are being changed here. In other words, we are the artistic and visible creation of God placed in this community to demonstrate God's glory. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul was getting at in Eph. 3:21 when he said that the glory of God is seen in this world primarily in two places: in Jesus Christ and in local churches planted in communities like our own. For this "Weekend of the Arts" here at LAC, Eph. 2:10 declares that "we" – that is, local churches like LAC – "are God's masterpiece created by God through Christ Jesus" to do the good works that reveal his glory.
Let's get back to James 2: The word often translated "favoritism" in our versions (and that I am translating as "discriminating on the basis of outward appearances") means literally, "receiving what is on the face." It refers to making judgments and distinctions based on how people look, on external considerations, without consideration of their true merits, abilities, or character. Such distinctions can be either favorable or unfavorable, but in either case it is wrong. Favoritism on one side and prejudice on the other are two sides of the same coin of discrimination.
Now, I must clarify something for us in our day: Many people today would say that things like "the lifestyle I choose" or "the way I am" are included in a verse like v.1. I often hear things like these: "I speak my mind so you have to tolerate me because that's the way I am." "My moral choices? You have to tolerate them because that's the way I am." I do believe that we must see all people – both those who are nice and those who are mean, both those committed to morality as we understand it from the bible's teaching as well as to those who rejuect God's morality altogether – as being people made in God's image. There is hope for all who will turn in repentance and faith to Jesus. However, let me also tell you that James is talking about us having to tolerate as acceptable the sins that a person engages in. We must learn from the words of Jesus to say, "I do not condemn you but you must go and sin no more."
Having said that, what James is talking about here is judging on the basis of external appearances. In fact, James tells a story in vv. 2-4 to help us to know what he's talking about. He says that one man goes to church driving a Lamborghini, wearing an Armani suit and known to be a successful professional athlete. Right behind him comes a man just out of prison, still wearing the clothes given him as he was released the morning before at 2 AM. Are both seen as people made in the image of Christ, needing the mercy made available through the cross, and told that they are welcome in this place?
We could discriminate against both men. The first one is a person we might swoon over simply because of what he could do for us: increasing our prestige, bringing us a big offering and getting us Dodger tickets. We tend to honor the successful person on because of that external thing, i.e., he is successful – not because he is human. Those who are successful often find that they do not feel welcomed as people because of that.
But it's the second man who usually has been shunned or mistreated throughout history in our world. Remember that he's the kind of person Jesus went out of his way to welcome and to bless. And, James lets us know, we are to reflect the ways of Jesus by the way we welcome both kinds of men.
James declares that God is will not tolerate evils such as discrimination against people who may be viewed as having little influence or worth by people in the world (2:1,9). We will fall short in welcoming people as beautifully as Jesus did. Of course we will. But, as we grow in Christ, this is what we will see growing here at LAC, i.e., a readiness to walk with those in distress (1:27). This is a big part of what it means for a church to glorify God. Do you see it?
While human beings and secular organizations usually look on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart. Wealth, academic degrees, power, and fame are not high on his list of criteria for the value of a human life. As a matter of fact, God specializes in rescuing and renewing the poor and the marginalized. Any church in which Jesus is the Lord should be a place that demonstrates what God's heart is like to its neighborhood. Real religion in the eyes of God is to care for those in distress (1:27). When we set our minds toward doing that, we will glorify God here in the San Gabriel Valley.

So – where do we start?
There are countless things I would like to call us to do – but I will simply try to be as focused as James was. In his story, both the rich man and the poor man needed to be met not on the basis of external things but on the basis that they bore God's image, that Jesus died for them and therefore, that there is hope for their future if they will surrender in faith to Jesus. I want to ask each of you to be more conscious about doing that than you ever have been -- beginning today. Blake Riboli said to me, "We need to learn to start with the small things – with each encounter. Then, it can grow from there."
Our campus is filled with art of all kinds today. Take some time to go and see it and, as you do, talk with the people whose paths cross your own. You may be older and see a student looking at a piece of art and you might be tempted to think, "He'll think I'm old and not cool so I'd better not talk to him." Or, you might think, "I'm just a student. She looks like a professor. She won't want to talk to me..." Get past those thoughts and enter into conversation together. Don't let any matter related to external appearance create the kind of wall that James says should not exist in a church.

And, let me go at this as hard as James did in his story by showing you a drawing entitled Unlikely Friends. You will be able to see it as a part of our art demonstration in the lobby. It was done in prison by Ernesto Olivas – during one of the dark periods of Ernesto's life. For many people who usually spend time with their church friends and business or school colleagues, some of the faces Ernesto depicts may frighten you. But, let's look at these people in the light of what God's Word has said today -- and in the light of how we think Jesus would see them. (I'll show the painting on the screen.)

I sent this work of art to my son and, without telling him anything about the where Ernesto was when he drew it, asked him to give me his first thoughts. Here's what Brandon wrote: "I see archetypal images that represent drug use, addiction, death, a demonic figure (an upside down cross being the signifier) that seems to have grown weathered and tired. I see exhausted people who perhaps have hurt one another but want a different life... The depiction of skulls on faces is interesting as the forms used are from day of the dead—a day which seems dark and disturbing but is actually a lively celebratory day in Mexican culture. Day of the dead images... stand out to me as an opportunity to consider how people might find hope in the midst of pain – but it may be misplaced hope and may provide no way out. The rest of the imagery seems informed by things like tattoo and mural culture where images are cumulative and... are usually not to be read linearly. More often, they become a document of experience. Sometimes the document of experience functions to represent the depths from which people have come. So, I believe this work is a record of the struggles of a group of people whose lives have been forced together by the drugs, darkness and addictions of their pasts. I see some hope for a better future in it."

I want you to go and look at it today. I think Ernesto's painting shows us people who have been affected by difficult issues in our fallen world: drugs, violence, evil forces and death. As a result, they are all a part of his life in a prison under that guarding eye of a prison watchtower. They are "unlikely friends" who may not help each other much. But, as I look at it, they all need to come out from the shadows and find new substance and meaning in their lives.

I want you to ask how Jesus would have seen and treated the people in the drawing. And, then I want us to see and treat them in the same way in our church. God's family is open to "whosoever" will believe on the Lord Jesus. I proclaim that the church of Jesus Christ has more to offer than a prison community! The Bible says that in a church we find, not only Unlikely Friends, but an Unlikely Family -- all united through faith in Jesus and all having one Father, i.e., the God whose heart we are called upon to demonstrate to our world.

Listen again to James' powerful words: My brothers and sisters, do not demonstrate your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e., the glory, by discriminating among people on the basis of outward appearance.
And let us rejoice in the message that holds this unlikely family together: If anyone – yes, anyone -- is in Christ, that person is a new creation. In Christ, the old has gone. Behold, the new has come!

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor