September 9th, 2012 James 2:1- 9 & 14 – 17 NRSV

James 2:1- 9 & 14 – 17 NRSV

2My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? ²For 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, ³and 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,” ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 

⁵Listen, 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? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

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Whew boy, I don’t know if you want to hear what is going to come out of my mouth today, because I don’t know if we in this church really want to hear what this passage is saying. It was said in 46 C.E. but it applies to First Presbyterian Church, Baker City, Oregon, 2012 just as much as it did in then. We can relate to this passage. This passage is talking straight to us, both to our strengths and our weaknesses. We are a church that feeds people, but we are also a church with a money problem, and our money problem is keeping people hungry.

First, let me tell you what I’ve seen about this church feeding people. Downstairs a few nights ago there was meeting for the Open Door Program. Church members and community members spanning seven decades in age gathered around a table for a covenant meal. Promises were made to be there for one another and for our community’s children. Excitement buzzed with organizing and planning, and solidarity was agreed upon when a member said, “Our job is to love them.” That love was split into two teams, one that fed the kids, and one that sat with them to listen. This church feeds people with love.

Let me tell you what I’ve seen about this church feeding people. On Wednesday night the Christian Education Committee met. Ideas for planning Young Family Events swirled around yet there was a common thread of deep need and hard work. There was also talk of the people who have agreed to serve on the search committee for a youth director. Every one of those people is busy, including the youth on the committee, but their commitment to their faith is tangible in their works. Their faith is alive to feed those around them.

Let me tell you what I’ve seen about this church feeding people. We have a Worship Committee who sat down and helped pick hymns for this month. They sought to fill a void of a pastor who can’t read music, and congregation who is touched by song.

Let me tell you what I’ve seen about this church feeding people. We have little girl, who felt so welcome and loved in worship that last week she helped light the Christ candle, and by the smiles around the room Christ’s presence was visible.

Let me tell you what I’ve seen about this church feeding people. Before Mildred Rogers stock was found, this church pledged to build our fellowship hall. I would have liked to witness this church’s faith at that point. Sure the debt and financial commitment of a new building is a money problem, but it isn’t a faith problem.

Unfortunately, today, this church’s commitment to stewardship is at a frightening low. We are only about 60 members off of the national average for church size, but we are more than $157,000 under the national average for our total financial contributions. If you want that broken down into a more personal amount, our average pledge is $580. The national average is $1,100. We would have to about double our pledges to be on par with our church membership. Even if we had those 60 more people still pleading at our amount we would be under the national average by about $120,000 dollars. You may say Baker is not a wealthy town. But why can’t we be a church whose stewardship reflects our hope and our faith rather than our fearful circumstance? Why can’t we be the exception to the rule? Why can’t we be exceptional? Why can’t we be the ones pulling up the average rather than bringing it down? 

Many suspect what we have said is, “We have an endowment.” This is true, and by God’s grace we do. But does this endowment reflect your giving back to God what God has given you, or are you more willing to let Mildred Rogers do that and claim it as you own? I don’t believe that this church hasn’t been blest because its faith can be witnessed by those who are feeding people. There is an uprising of meals both literal in the Food Bank, Learn and Grow to Go, and Open Door, and metaphorical in our commitment to young people, in our commitment to worship, in our commitment to care for one another from stalks of rhubarb at the fellowship hall, to members visiting down the halls of our hospitals. No, I know this congregation is blest, I know this congregation wants to feed even more people, but we have a money problem.

I look at this congregation’s history; you gotta look at family history when you’re looking a church dynamics. You have had a hard history with money. You had a pastor who asked for personal money from the congregation and it literally split the congregation down to one vote. You were given a million something dollar endowment with at least three different stories about how it was found and its purpose. You have fought over how this endowment should be spent, and how it should be kept, and who should keep control over it, and for how long should that control last? You have in part lost a pastor over this conflict and that grief still lies within you. Folks we are a family, and whether or not we remember this history with our own eyes, it affects the vision of our church today. It will continue to affect the vision of our church for generations until we are able to stop the cycle. We are church who wants desperately to feed people, but we have a money problem.

A person with gold rings and fine clothes walks into our assembly, and we say here is our endowment, keep it safe, and they have, faithfully, for years and years, but faith isn’t about being safe. Its about feeding people, its about loving our neighbors. And that’s why when you look in your newsletter each month you see that the session is spending more than it is bringing in in pledges. It is spending that endowment, because the people who are down in the kitchen at 7am on school days know that it costs money and risks financial security to feed people. You have to break five loaves and pray they will feed 5,000.  When the plea was given for money for VBS you emptied your pockets because you knew it took more than the line item on the budget. You have to have the hope of the poor woman who gave two small copper coins. You have to have the hope that giving all you have will further the kingdom. The deacons each month give gas money to Arlita, our Parish Health Advocate, so she can visit the sick and together we can give communion to the shut-ins. You have to remember the promise that lies in the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup. The people preparing for a youth director with no line item and only a promise from session know that it takes faith and money to pay someone a living wage to do God’s work. They are not playing it safe; they are trusting in faith.

I wonder what our endowment would look like, I wonder what our stewardship would like, if we followed that hope, and created a vision for our church? Our hope should not follow our finances; our finances should to follow our hope. I imagine that was the feeling when this congregation chose to build the fellowship hall before the endowment was discovered. I have heard that the fellowship hall breathed new life into the church, and I don’t think it is because of the endowment, I think it is because of the faith and the vision that pledged to build it. Yes, the endowment was a faithful gift, but it was a gift from God, let us return those gifts to God. Let’s stop worshiping the endowment with gold rings on its fingers, and start feeding the poor who are sitting at our feet. Let’s stop walking away from our own stewardship, and instead work to supply the bodily needs of our brothers and sisters. Lets create a vision. Let’s put our money where our hope is. Let’s be a congregation that feeds people and not a congregation held back by our money problems. 

This scripture is speaking to us friends. It is a hard word in truth and love. It is also a glimpse of the kingdom; the kingdom which is already breaking in, in this church. Do you see it? People are being feed. Do you see it? We have begun. Let us continue in faith and in hope and in love. Amen.