Living in the Spirit
September 6, 2018
Scripture Reading: James 2:1-17
My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? –James 2:1-7
A friend who loves the arts including music saw the ad on TV recently for the upcoming Broadway touring presentation of schedule this fall in our hometown. She wondered if we might get a group together from our church to attend. I said I would bring it up at an upcoming meeting, but I wondered if she had any idea how much those shows now cost. Her only income is her Social Security disability. I checked online and was somewhat relieved to see that the show was very close to being sold out and had only a few single and double seatings left. The cheapest seats in the back highest balcony were $62 each; the orchestra seats were over $700 dollars. We live in a world where many people have the resources to pay over $700 dollars for theater tickets without a second thought and a world where many people’s monthly income is less than $700. There is something rich about these realities being experienced concerning a musical that addresses class inequities.
How do we as followers of Christ reconcile living in a world where the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor getting poorer and call it progress. Of course, it relieves us of guilt if we can blame the poor for being poor casting them as unwilling to work, drug users, school failures even though their school library probably does not have a copy of the book Les Misérables. I heard on the news yesterday that only 16% of the students in my city passed the reading proficiency test last year which means students probably could not read the book if it were in the library.
I love Les Misérables, read the book, have seen several productions of the stage musical (not at the cost of the current showing) and saw the movie, which I hope some students got the chance to see it on TV. I want every child, every adult, to have the opportunity to learn and grow into the person God created them to be and we all have responsibility for making that happen.
Prayer: Open our eyes to opportunities for sharing the wealth of relationships with people of all backgrounds as we learn from each other. Amen.