Proverbs 22: 1,2; James 2: 1-10,14,17

Today we talk about character, how we judge it and we show it and how the two are related. James criticizes his readers for honoring the wealthy and well-adorned in church, but ignoring the poor and unkempt. He reminds us that we so often judge people from the outside.  I sometimes test people just for the fun of it.  If I walk into Starbuck’s with a jacket and a tie and I act confidently and friendly and smile, people treat me so well.  I am one of those people in their power years who looks successful and has a lot of influence and shows the barista some kindness. Little do they know I have very little influence….! But then sometimes I walk into same Starbucks after cleaning the house in grubby clothes and I don’t say much and I am preoccupied. It’s like I am suddenly a graying sad middle-aged loser who just never got his act together.  The difference in treatment is enormous.  But you know when I am in grubby clothes that very day I may be a better person than I was the day I came in with my tie on.

Let me tell you about two men, one who seems to care deeply about his wife and the other who seems happy and well-adjusted. A man said to his friend, “I can’t break my wife of the habit of staying up until five in the morning.”  “What is she doing?” asked the friend. ‘Waiting for me to get home.” A woman walked up to an older man rocking in a chair on his porch. “I couldn’t help noticing how happy you look,” she said. “What’s your secret?” “I smoke three packs of cigarettes every day,” he said. “I drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods and never exercise.” “That’s amazing,” said the woman. “How old are you?” “Twenty-six.”  Turns out the caring man was selfish and the young man who seemed happy abused his body. It’s easy to misjudge people.  Last week we talk about the difference between what we see in the mirror and who we are in practice, today we learn about how we make a judgment about the character of others. Both last week and today it’s about appearances.  But in today’s text James hits a little harder. Last week we learned from James that maybe we just forget who we really are that’s why we don’t act out our faith.  Today, James tells us we are likely to judge people for their appearance and their wealth.   What people look like and the wealth they show us makes us treat them differently. One of the practices of the early church was showing partiality to the rich. Church members who tend to honor the person wearing fine clothes.  But then we aren’t much different. A young husband and wife with well-behaved children showing up for worship for the very first time, are almost going to be received more warmly than a homeless man off the street or someone with bad habits or mental illness or a problem that tends to be disruptive. But the homeless man may have beautiful faith and the young couple may be only there to have their child baptized so the grandparents will stop nagging them. Who’s to say?

Friends, how we measure and judge people says something about our character.  If we just focus on first impressions and not on Arthur Friedman said: ”men of genius are admired. Men of wealth are envied. Men of power are feared, but only men of character are trusted.” The same of course is true about women of course If we look only at the outward, if we consider only looks or poise or the way people carry themselves or what they have on or around their bodies, it reveals the hollowness of our own character.  Whatever you may think of her, The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain, liked to use the following really good quotation:”watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become action. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become your character…”   So it is lesson we can take: what we think about people when we first meet them has a way of revealing our character?  So assuming we know what the character of people by looking at the outside reveals the flaws in our own character.  By doing that we are really dehumanizing people and as consequence we also dehumanize ourselves.

So what needs to happen, friends, is that we must re-humanize others and thereby re-humanize ourselves?  Well, how do we do that? This is where our faith comes in.  Proverbs reminds us that favor is more important than riches and that God has made both the wealthy and the poor.  You see, God’s creation of both rich and poor gives instant dignity to both. God’s love is the great equalizer.  God’s love makes us all worth the same.  Even though as flawed as we humans are, as much as we constantly dehumanize each other, it is through our faith that we can be re-humanized.  If we really think about how God loves us all equally, there is no way one person can look down on another in church. It may be true that some people are kinder than others, but they are never worth more in God’s eyes. Thanks be to God.