View as Webpage

Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

September 4, 2023

Invitatory

Lord, open our lips.

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: James 2:8-13

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

I’m irremediably biased. That is to say, I’m biased in a way that can’t be undone. Nor can my bias be corrected or, by force of redress, brought back to fairness. For bias is the constant of my life, playing a part in countless decisions and actions every single day. I can’t imagine living otherwise. I can’t imagine never choosing this over that, often as a whim, as something done for no particular reason at all.

If I hold the door open for someone entering a store shouldn’t I, in order to be fair, hold it open for everyone? But who comprises “everyone?” Is it whoever I see coming in the direction of the store? Or is it whoever is immediately behind me? And what does “immediately” mean – less than five feet away, or fewer than three steps? If I hold the door for an elderly person who has to manage a walker, is it unfair of me then not to remain holding the door for a young parent with a child in tow? Holding a door open for someone is considered a courtesy. One might go so far as to think of it as a minor, yet lovely, instance of grace. What allows us, then, legitimately, to withhold this from anyone?

James didn’t use the word “bias” when he was addressing how we should act; he chose “partiality” instead. But he meant it in the same way. If you do something for someone without extending this to everyone then, automatically, you have acted with partiality. And as soon as you’ve done this – even just once – you’ve transgressed the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

It’s tempting for us to translate this Gospel command into a far less demanding form in order for it to be more accessible and accomplishable. We should e.g. “be kind to one another” or more dramatically “welcome strangers.” But James framed the command in such a way that it is simply unachievable. Partiality is inevitable because we are finite creatures. It’s not within our power to be all things for all people all the time. It never will be. So in myriad ways we act within this limitation. We must. We have no choice but to be partial, biased, unfair, and unequal in our dealings. We should be courageous enough to admit this: it is not within our capability to love our neighbors as ourselves. And thus, there is a laughable understatement in James’ comment that we would “do well” if we were to “really fulfill the royal law.” Good luck.

This impossibility, however, led James to take refuge in what he called the “law of liberty,” where mercy takes precedence over judgment – or, one might say, love takes precedence over justice. By admitting the partiality we cannot escape – any of us, and all of us – our only consistent remaining option is to stand together in mutuality rather than to stand apart, demanding condemnation.

It’s a lesson we are loath to learn, but true hope resides only there.

Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

         as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

         but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

         forever and ever. Amen.