Musing The Mysteries

This message given at Hope Church in November 2019 focuses on the problem of suffering and evil in a world made by an all loving and all powerful God.

James’ vision for the Church was where the rich and poor sit next to each other, embracing each other in mutual, symbiotic relationships wherein the rich man needs the poor man as much as the poor man needs his rich brother.

James 5:1-6 -- addressing and undressing classism in the Church… You can’t be the kind of Christian that James describes and, at the same time, judge the relative worth of other humans based on their socioeconomic success or race or any other external factor.

God does allow a lot of people to acquire wealth to use for his glory, but to make consumptive acquisition a universal promise for all and an evidence of great faith and true spirituality is, in my opinion, not only mistaken, it’s evil!

Please listen to my justification for this brash statement in this brief commentary on James 4...

No one has more “envy and selfish ambition” than the devil and he’s happy to share it with anyone willing to log in and download it…

Christians who are "classless" either give away their position for the sake of the community or give out of their privileged position for the community’s sake…

You’d think it would go without saying that we should check our prejudices at the church door for at least an hour of worship, but apparently we can't! It doesn’t speak well of us if we won’t even treat people who aren’t like us with dignity for one hour on Sunday mornings. Let's see what James has to say about it.

A rich guy gets a good seat and the poor guy who sits on the floor of the church! Not exactly what Jesus envisioned!

Here's part 2 of my intro to the Epistle of James; this time focusing on the writer and how he mirrored the practice and teaching of his 1/2 Brother, Jesus on the topic of "Classless Christianity!" Listen at the peril of your prejudice.

In the world, some are disdained and others acclaimed for their socioeconomic station, but for followers of Jesus those distinctions are irrelevant. Christ annihilates classism! If you wonder whether or not this is biblical, check out my take on James 1:1-11.

The Epistle of James confronts classism in the Church and by the Church. Besides the teachings of Jesus, this letter is the New Testament's most concentrated teaching on social justice.