James 1.23-2.13 was the text today, though I may be off by a verse or two. It prompted some thoughts (some more driectly from the sermon than others).

1. We often hear how James follows Matthew, but there are some strong resonances with Mark as well. Mark and James are the only two books in the entire Bible which speak of anointing the sick with oil. But also, Mark 12 ends with a condemnation of the Pharisees for devouring women’s houses and then shows us the widow giving her life into the treasure of God’s house. This doesn’t seem to make Jesus happy because he immediately promises that not one stone of the house to which the woman is contributing will be left upon another. And this leads naturally to speak of how the Lord will visit the house and tear it down. Jesus will not be slack in his coming; the Lord will visit Israel. Thus James:
   

   Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction

   Visiting, obviously, may mean house calls when they are needed, but the point is not simply visits, but taking action to protect the vulnerable from whatever might harm them. An OT study of what happens when God visits should show this pretty quickly.

2. We are under “sunshine laws” because we are rulers. We are trained by “the royal law” and cannot show paritality. Kings are supposed to protect widows and orphans, not hobnob with the elites. We, of course, can always justify hobnobbing (is there a k in that word?) with elites because we need the influence and leverage to do good. But the Gospel tells us we are already exalted in Christ to God’s right hand. We have to believe we are in so great a position we need to act like servants without need or though for pay. People who know they have everything can afford to share. Those unsure of their Father’s inheritance are too busy scrounging for more.
3. Oversimplified, a prevailing view is that the Jews wanted a political king and wouldn’t accept Jesus’ Gospel of Kantian dualism. He preached about a noumenal kingdom and they wanted one in the phenomenal realm. This, view is quite attractive to the powers that be. It leaves them with not only no one to submit to, but no one to be like. But the prevailing view is greatly in error. Jesus came not as a non-king but as a king meant to be both submitted to and copied. His antithesis to the phenomenal realm was to say that the realm needed to be filled with new phenomena:
   

   Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

   Thus, we must abide by the royal law.