November 18th

James 2: 1-13. In these verses James asks a question: 'Listen, dear brothers! Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to possess the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?' But I am remembering a James who, only a few years earlier, was astonished at this notion: when Jesus informed his disciples that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, James shouted out in disbelief, along with the others, 'Then who can be saved!' They all believed that, without question, to be rich was a sign of God's blessing, not vice versa. Jame's admonishment, here in chapter 2, against showing favoritism is not a moralistic finger-shaking on how things ought to be, but is more a finger-pointing, based more on a glad new knowledge of how things actually are in the reality of God. Christ has turned the tables of this world upside down; we live in a new day, a new reality, and James points to it. Can I live in that reality today, I wonder? RS.