Risky Faith

“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born prejudiced, you’re taught it.”

- Chuck Swindoll

I’ve been intrigued by the rhythms of the Christian calendar, and during 2021, I am inhabiting the story of God.

Last week was the third week of Lent and the focus was on our bent towards prejudice. Merriam-Webster defines prejudice as “an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics.”

Mike Foster shared the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ this past weekend from three perspectives. One was the prejudice of the Priest and Levite. He said ‘Don’t choose ‘religious purity’ over a ‘righteous purpose’.” Isn’t it easy to say, ‘It’s too messy, I don’t want to get involved?”’ Instead, we choose self-righteousness.

Jesus told the parable as an example of how to love our neighbor! We should respond in the same way the Samaritan did. But how do we love our neighbor besides serving at a Good Neighbor Day or dropping off a bag of food? What does it look like to live out our faith?

The book of James offers some great practical advice. Let’s look at a couple of passages from The Message:

“My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?

- James 2:1-4

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

- James 2:14-17

To take our faith seriously, we need to take the posture of the Samaritan. Let’s ask ourselves these questions: Am I showing favoritism to those of wealth while ignoring the food insecure? What am I doing to bring about racial reconciliation? How am I advocating for women being trafficked and children being abused? And the list goes on!

Loving my neighbor means I seek opportunities to look around me with a fresh perspective through the lens of Jesus.

And then act and begin to change the problems I see. For one of the seniors in my Table Group, it meant taking his lunch hour to sit down with teens and engage in conversation. He wanted to understand their generational differences rather than judge.

How much better would our world be if we began to live without prejudice?

Pastor Pam

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