The royal law - Love your neighbour as yourself

 

Reflection Sunday 5^th September 2021

Chapter 2 of the Book of James starts off with a short illustration:

2 My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others. ² Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. ³ You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor. ⁴ That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge. James 2: 1 – 4 Contemporary English Version

James is writing to address a problem within the early church in Jerusalem – that preference is shown to rich people at the expense of the poor.  James is addressing those who claim to profess the faith of Jesus, but do not live up to it. It’s a reminder that preference for the rich, rather than the poor, is a betrayal of God’s law, the law of love.

The behaviour described in James’ story isn’t just confined to a first century church. It is typical of human behaviour on so many occasions. All so often the rich and prosperous – especially if they are well dressed and have the outward trappings of wealth – are welcomed in, and the poor are excluded.

As I was writing this I remembered a film called “Pretty Woman”. If you’ve not seen it, it is a story of how a very wealthy man falls in love with a prostitute – Vivian Ward. He saves her from the gutter as it were and then they live happily ever after. In one scene, after they have just met, he decides that if Vivian is to be his companion she needs to dress more smartly. He gives her his credit card and sends her off to some exclusive shops. However, when Vivian walks in to one shop in her scruffy jeans and t shirt, the swanky shop assistant refuses to serve her kind. Vivian is served in another shop, and she returns – beautifully dressed – to the first shop to point out the costly mistake of the shop assistant.

That is how people often are. Societies all too often treat the rich with worldly honour; meanwhile the poor are addressed with scorn and degradation. 2000 years ago, James was able to identify this behaviour going on in the early church.

James pulls no punches in telling those in the early church who favour the rich over the poor that they have done wrong.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? James 2:5

These words echo Jesus’ teachings in the Beatitudes Matthew 5:3, or in Luke 6:20

James reminds us that God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in respect of faith. God has promised that the poor are the heirs of his kingdom. The view of society – that the rich should be honoured – is completely at odds with the preaching and teaching of Jesus.

And James reminds us that there is a royal law:

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’^[a] you are doing right.

Christianity always has a special message for the poor and marginalised. The Christian message has consistently been that those who matter to no one else, matter immensely to God.

So often we in church are concerned about dwindling numbers. There are many reasons for the decline. But I cannot help feeling at times that one reason is that what the church says goes so far against the values of the world.  When we have a society that idolises the rich and encourages wealth – seemingly at any cost – then our message:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.

And

‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’

falls on deaf ears. But our message is truth and we must keep proclaiming it. In our own society when we are all rich when compared to most of the world, then people think they don’t need the Gospel. However we as Christians need to challenge the world. We need to keep proclaiming that:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.

And

‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’

That means we as Christians must be the voices for those who have no voice. That means for example, instead of tutting at refugees coming across the channel in small boats, we should be questioning why they are fleeing their countries in the first place. I use the word refugee. Sometimes the press talk about “Migrants”. Sometimes about “Asylum seekers”. And those terms have taken on a negative image in the press. But first and foremost these are people. They are human beings. We must remember that.

Maybe if we started to think of refugees and migrants as people needing Christ’s love, our attitudes would change? Maybe if we knew their names, their faces, their ambitions and their fears, their loves, what they fled from, then we’d begin to think of them as our neighbours? Maybe we’d challenge our politicians. Maybe we’d try to help them in some way? And maybe we’d be prepared to offer them sanctuary and help instead of rejection?

Who is my neighbour?

This is a slightly abridged text of a sermon preached at Lyneham Methodist Church on 19th June 2016. It is based on The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25 - 37)


‘And who is my neighbour?’ a Jewish lawyer asked Jesus.

The events of this last week have left me feeling sickened.

Just last weekend Omar Mateen entered a night club in Orlando Florida and murdered 49 people and injured many more. All week there was speculation of why he did it. Was he just yet another American gunman? Was he mentally ill? Was he a Muslim terrorist? Was he intent on killing Gay people because he regarded their actions as sinful? Was he in fact a repressed homosexual?

Only he and God know. And may God have mercy on him.

But whatever his exact motive, Omar Mateen clearly targeted the specific night club as it was a meeting place for Gay people. And within hours of the shooting the usual bigots had come out of the woodwork with their smears about the lifestyles of Gay people.

A politician in Texas Dan Patrick posted a Bible verse on his official Facebook page; a Bible verse that read: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Galatians 6:7

Mr Patrick has since claimed the timing was unfortunate. (See http://www.nytimes.com/live/orlando-nightclub-shooting-live-updates/texas-lt-governor-deletes-ill-timed-tweet/) He always posts a Bible verse on Sunday morning and it just so happened that this was the verse he’d chosen.

I can think of many other Bible verse that would have been better. How about Luke 10:27 “Love your neighbour as yourself.”?

Back home, the EU referendum “debate” become more and more heated. I don’t know about you but I have got thoroughly fed up with it. The constant sniping. The constant “The EU costs this” “Oh no it doesn’t” “The EU does this for us” “Oh no it doesn’t”. Pathetic.

But amid all that what has sickened me is the way a serious question about immigration – an issue that clearly does concern people – became racist. It is legitimate to ask about what EU rules on the free movement of citizens means for this country. But the debate has moved one from that.

The anti EU faction have it seems to me subtly linked immigration of EU citizens into this country with immigration by all people. Hence this week Nigel Farage standing in front of a new poster showing a long line of Syrian refugees with slogan “Breaking Point”. (A poster the Chancellor of the Exchequer compared to Nazi propaganda - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/19/eu-referendum-campaigning-resumes-as-jeremy-corbyn-and-michael-g2/)


‘And who is my neighbour?’

Then on Thursday came the news of the death of Jo Cox MP in the small Yorkshire town of Batley.

I’d never heard of Jo Cox MP. There I’ve said it. Until Thursday 17th June 2016 for me and most of the country, apart from her constituents and the “Westminster Village” she was just one of the few hundred MPs sat on the back benches behind Jeremy Corbin.
But from what we have heard, and seen, and read since, she was clearly highly thought of in her constituency and at Westminster. She clearly was highly thought of by her own party and by the Conservative party.

Considering I didn’t know her, and as I’ve said I had never heard of her, when I learned that she’d died I was shocked. It wasn’t just the fact that she was young. It wasn’t just the fact that she left a husband and two children. (Sadly in a world where we hear most weeks of murders one becomes desensitised.) No, what shocked me was that an MP should be attacked in this way. And I was shocked that the man accused of her murder – Thomas Mair - seems to have been connected with the extreme right.

A number of photos of him have emerged at rallies for the extreme right “Britain First” party. And this is the man who in court yesterday when asked his name said “My name is death to traitors and freedom for Britain”. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/18/thomas-mair-charged-with-of-mp-jo-cox

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve preached a sermon in several churches based on the passage in Luke 7 on the Faith of the centurion. And I made the point in that sermon that the Centurion is acting like the Good Samaritan 3 chapters before Jesus tells the story. For the Centurion has asked himself “Who is my neighbour?” He has identified that his neighbour is someone from a different land and culture – the people in Capernaum. And he has taken it on himself to help those people by building a synagogue for them.

The conclusion of that sermon was that as Christians I hoped we should be about building bridges and tearing barriers down not about building walls up. And as part of that process we should be asking the question “Who is my neighbour?”

This last week I feel my hope is unfounded when I’ve seen discussions amongst Christians on social media that would be worthy of the UKIP annual conference.

After hearing the news of Jo Cox's death, I was very much of the mind-set “What’s the point?” In fact, a friend of mine summed up my feelings really well with a comment on her Facebook page “I'm angry and questioning why this happened. If it is in any way linked to In/Out/Brexit/Remain then cancel the whole bloody thing.”

My mood wasn’t helped by a recent drive through north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and seeing several UKIP posters saying “We want our country back!” That makes my blood boil “We want our country back!” Well it’s my country too and I like it as it is thank you!

But then on Friday morning (17th June) I heard an interview with an 18-year-old young man from Jo Cox’s constituency. From his name he is of Asian heritage and he said he was a Muslim. He had attended a prayer vigil in the parish church of St Peter's Birstall on Thursday evening. He was interviewed for BBC Radio 4 Today programme. He explained that he knew Jo Cox. He had met her when she was canvassing for the General Election. She’d got him interested in politics, he’d joined the Labour Party and since become a local councillor.

This young man was clearly close to tears. Hardly surprising given that a close friend has just died. What a legacy she’s left if she had made a difference to just one life. But in fact through her campaigning on the Syrian refugee crisis alone she has made a difference to countless others.

The death of Jo Cox has left me feeling angry and disgusted by what our country is becoming. But anger and disgust alone won’t change anything. I suspect that Jo Cox understood that. No doubt she was angry at the injustices in this country and around the world. According to the Bishop of Huddersfield in a radio interview “She was a woman of passion and a woman of compassion”

Jo Cox didn't sit back and shrug he shoulders. Jo Cox’s husband Brendon said of her:

“She believed in a better world. And she fought for it every day.”

I’ve heard no mention of whether or not Jo Cox had a Christian faith. But she clearly was familiar with the concept behind the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Remember the words Jesus says to the lawyer after Jesus has told his parable

“Which was one of the three was a neighbour to man who had been attacked?”
“The one who showed mercy”
Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’


“She believed in a better world. And she fought for it every day.”
‘Go and do likewise.’

Last night, I was an event called “The Big Sing” at Zion Baptist Church in Trowbridge organised by a friend of ours. It was to mark the 200th anniversary of the church. It was a mixture of hymns and readings all linked with words reflecting on what it means to be the Church.

One of the passages of scripture was this one 1 John 4: 7 – 21

That passage really spoke to me last night. So much so that I came home and ripped up what I was going to preach on and have brought you this instead. Yhe final 3 verses of 1 John 4: 7 - 21 say:

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
The story of the Good Samaritan is founded on love. Love for God and love for our neighbour. “Who is my neighbour?” We know who is our neighbour. Everyone is our neighbour. Not just people in this church. Not just people in this village. Not just people in the country. All people are our neighbour. And we are called to love them.
How can you love your neighbour if you don’t speak to them? How can you love you neighbour if you turn your back on them? How can you love your neighbour if you close the door to them? How can you love your neighbour if shout abuse at them? You can’t be a neighbour if you don’t associate with people.
21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

I said earlier that I have been sickened by the events of this last week. I have been sickened because of the violence associated with hatred that we have seen in Orlando and Batley.

Dr Martin Luther King said this:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.


19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4: 19 - 21

As you vote in the Referendum on Thursday remember those words. 21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
And as you vote think "Who is my neighbour?"