Please open your Bibles to James 2. I encourage you take notes. The reason I encourage you to take notes is because we are a community who exists for the purpose of being the face of love; God's face of love in the world. And, many times, the Holy Spirit will prod us to do something, sometimes as simple as calling another person on the telephone to encourage them. You need to write that down when you are prodded by the Holy Spirit.

Two weeks ago, I asked you to spend a week fasting in prayer for we were about to embark on a tremendous risk in beginning a new campus in Dayton, Ohio. The Fort McKinley United Methodist Church voted last Sunday afternoon, and as a result of your prayers, their vote was 40 people for the merger and zero against the merger which is a pretty miraculous vote. As a matter-of-fact, it's amazing. Our district superintendent said in his 20 years of ministry, he's only seen a unanimous vote three times, so that's really incredible. In many people's eyes, it would be rather strange to anyone who's outside of Dayton. You might be aware of the American economy, really global, but we in Dayton are experiencing the lower end of what's happening in America. With the terrible news this week from General Motors of the closing of our mid-size truck plant, and the stock market going down about 400 points yesterday; and, when you think of what we're getting ready to do, become more aggressive in our ministry, you almost have to ask yourself "why" in such a crazy economic time and the place. Of all the places you could pick to establish a new church, why would you move into one of the harder economic areas of Dayton rather than one that is more stable, like at The Greene. One of the considerations we had was to move into the movie theatre located at The Greene and start a church. The only answers to these questions are not logical from a world's perspective. To understand why Fort McKinley, you only come to an answer to that question through a biblical understanding of who are. So, we're going to do a quick review of James, because we've gone in and out of it. James mentioned Jesus only two times. But in the very first verse of the first chapter, he identified himself as "James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Why Fort McKinley? Why do we do what we do? It's not what makes sense on an economic basis or any other kind of worldly basis, it's because we are servants of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we exist. In chapter 2:1, when James mentioned Jesus, he said, "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ..." Then he describes our purpose as community.

Who we are and why we're here on Planet Earth is realized as we live our life and journey together in this community in relationship with the Lord Jesus and under the authority of the Lord Jesus. That's when we discover the who and the why. This community that we are a part of, not the institutional church and what it's become in America and much of the world, but the community that Jesus established on Planet Earth, who would live under his authority that every thought, every value, every prejudice, every action would be held captive to the authority of Jesus Christ. It would become the visible demonstration of God's right-side-up values. In verses 1-4, and we did these two weeks ago, we see in this community, God's right ordering and how we assign value to human beings. There are two key words in those first four verses. In verse one is the word favoritism; in verse four the word is discrimination. The world assigns worth to human beings by what they have economically, we're speaking in monetary terms, about net worth. The world assigns value by what a person has, whether it is material things or titles they have on a wall. In the kingdom of God, value is assigned based on who a person is, and all of the potential and possibilities they have as children of God. For God so loved the world and God's not willing that any should perish but all come to life.

We are going to look at James 2:5-7, and the right-side-up values of God and how it's demonstrated through the community, his people, the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Listen, my dear bothers and sisters, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him." God is taking the upside-down values of the world and turning them right-side up. It's the right ordering of all things. "But you have dishonored the poor" - we dishonor the poor through exploitation. Do you see the words; dishonor and exploitation? We're seeing these key words, verse 1: favoritism; verse 4, discrimination; verse 6, dishonor. "Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?" It's talking about the rich. They use the courts to their own advantage. "Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?" You blaspheme the name of Jesus by what you do the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.

Notice in these verses that James is contrasting two different kinds of poverty. The first poverty is a physical poverty; poverty of the body. When you talk about physical poverty, most poverty in the world is not the consequence of lack of initiative. So many times, we have the tendency, "Well, we've earned it, we've worked hard for what we have and if they worked hard, they could have it too." Most poverty in the world, in the words of singer Bono of U2 fame, is "the consequence of the accident of latitude and longitude." You are not valued more than someone else because you live in a prosperous place, like the United States of America. The Bible is clear on this. Romans 2:11 says, "For God does not show favoritism." So when Bono says that poverty is a consequence of the accident of longitude and latitude, God doesn't put anyone in prosperity or anyone in poverty. If God doesn't show preference or favoritism, why does it seem that all throughout scripture God seems to place a priority on the poor? Or to favor the poor? It even says in verse 5, "Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom of God." The first thing Jesus said when he announced his ministry, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the good news to the poor." In Luke 14, Jesus said, "When you throw a party, invite the poor, crippled, the lame and the blind." Why does it seem that God shows priority to the poor? How many parents are in the room? How many parents have more than one child? Anyone who has more than one child knows most of your energy and attention goes to the one who is most troubled, the one who is struggling the most. It's like the story of the prodigal son, the one who stayed at home did everything Daddy wanted him to do and he got upset because his father's attention was toward the brother who was struggling.

There is a growing equity gap in the world between the rich and poor. Not only between the rich and the poor, there is an erosion of the middle-class in our own country, in our own community. I want you to get this number, this is amazing: there are 2.2 billion children in the world and one billion children are living in poverty. Every other child is living in poverty. Where's God's attention going? I want to talk about our own community. Statistics in the Dayton Daily News this past Tuesday, states since 2000, we have lost 33,000 manufacturing jobs in the Miami Valley. In eight years, 33,000 manufacturing jobs. The median income has dropped 10.5% in the last 10 years in the Dayton, Ohio, community. It has fallen faster than any other Ohio school district and we wonder why our Dayton public schools are ranked lowest in the state of Ohio. Listen to this, this is astonishing! I'm talking about Dayton, Ohio. The poverty rate for children ages 5-17 was 24% in 2000. That's high. Is that surprising? In 2005, five years later, it was 32.8%. And my suspicion is that that number is higher today, three years later. Three years ago, a third of the children in Dayton were living in poverty right on our doorstep. Why are we going to Fort McKinley? Here's the thing, servants of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not talking to the institution of church people, I want you to be praying which of you in the room are to become urban missionaries. In a couple of weeks, I'll announce that we are going to have a variety of meetings, probably down at The Fort, where you can meet with me and we'll talk about what's involved for that to become the Ginghamsburg community where you worship and serve. Poverty of body can be fixed, but the Bible, in this passage, speaks of a deeper kind of poverty that has severe eternal consequences. I love the way this 16th century dude Montaigne put it. He said, "The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable." The poverty that has severe eternal consequences is poverty of spirit.

It's so easy to have this kind of poverty and have a false security to think you are secure in Jesus. In verse 6, look at the word exploitation. I want you to circle that word exploitation because most of us with means don't intentionally exploit poor people. It's not exploitation of intention, but it's exploitation of the consequence of our indifference. Exploitation is when you consume resources for yourself instead of being a steward of God's resources for those who need. It's when you idolize earthly valuables over kingdom values. It is so easy to place priority on valuables over values. When we talk about inheritance and leaving our children an inheritance, what do we mean by inheritance? Again, aren't we speaking in monetary terms? When I die, I'm going to write my last check for the kingdom. I'm going to stand accountable to God. Here's the inheritance I'm going to leave my children, it takes a lifetime to build it into them but here it is: "'Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.' That's it! That's all you get. Good job, go with it." And that's eternity. Exploitation happens when we worship, serve and work for the gift rather than the giver. Jesus told an incredible story in Luke 16:19 when he compared a rich man with a man by the name of Lazarus. Here's what it says: "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate laid a beggar named Lazarus covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores." At his gate, gate means doorstep. One third of the children in Dayton are living in poverty - at our gate. The time came - I love the way Jesus put it - when the beggar died and the angels carried the poor man to heaven and they buried the rich man and he went to Hades and there he was tormented. He said I don't understand, I lived a good life. I never committed adultery, I did everything I was supposed to do and here's what Abraham said to the rich man: "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony." Exploitation is when we consume resources for ourselves instead of being a steward of God's resources for others. With wealth we become calloused, indifferent and insulated from the needs of our brothers and sisters lying at our gate. And we can't even feel their pain.

I want to say this, this is important: wealth is not bad. The Bible talks about wealth being a blessing from God. But with wealth comes incredible responsibility. Jesus said poverty of spirit. Any of you suffer from poverty of spirit? In Matthew 5:3, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Wait a minute - this must be an important lesson to get right here. What is blessed about poverty? What is it that the poor understand that I need to get, to inherit the kingdom of heaven. I see four things here that are blessed about poverty and what poor folks understand and that I need to learn. Here's the first: poor folks understand they need help. They have this understanding that they need urgent help and redemption. Sometimes when we live in the blessings of God, we forget the continual source of those blessings. Danger. Danger. Danger, wealthy people. I read the other the day that if you have two cars, you are in the top 3% in the wealth in the world - just by having two cars. We're all wealthy in this room. Go to Darfur with me and I'll show what wealth is all about. Go to Haiti with me this year, where the average income is under $200 a year. When I was in Haiti in 1975, the average income was under $25 a year and guess how much a pair of blue jeans was - $35. Here's the problem with wealth in the church. Jesus, in Revelation 3:15, was speaking to the church of Laodicea and he said, "I know your deeds, that you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth." That's not anice Jesus. Is that what you want to be - lukewarm? "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see." Poor folks get that. They know they need urgent help. It's called the anointing of God. It's God's hand on my head. My strength has not made me who I am, my wealth has not made me who I am, my ingenuity has not made me who I am, it is the Lord God Almighty. The poor understand that. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God."

Here's the second thing the poor understand that I need to learn: they are dependent upon one another. Poor folks understand the need for authentic community. One of the amazing things about wealth and prosperity is what it does to us. Do you know when America got this vast middle class? It all happened after World War II to our daddies, my daddy. After WWII, our government came up with something called the GI bill for all of the GIs who had fought in the war. They paid for my dad to go to night school at the University of Cincinnati for thirteen years. They paid the whole thing. I think he even got a small allowance. They paid them to go to trade school, or whatever, and it created this vast middle class in the United States of America. We got this vast middle class and another kind of invention of the American people and it was called the suburbs. We moved from urban and rural communities where we depended upon ourselves and we isolated ourselves in these suburbs. Today, I don't know if I can go around my street and name anybody's last name. We have created these little cocoons of isolation and not community. The church is supposed to be the re-establishment of this authentic community where we would understand how dependent we are on one another. Poor folks get that. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God."

Here's the third thing poor folks get that I need to get: the poor have no exaggerated sense of self-importance. None. They're not trying to put on any airs. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:26, "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called." Maybe some of you weren't in trouble like I was in trouble. Do any of you remember where you were when Jesus found you? Am I unique to this kind of situation? I understand that hymn "Amazing Grace"…that found a wretch like me. I remember the numbness of what it felt like to go home from high school and tell my parents I probably wasn't going to graduate. "Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." The poor get that. They have no exaggerated sense of self-importance.

The fourth thing the poor understand that I need to learn: you make a life by what you give, not what you get. Poor folks get this. Here's one thing I totally don't understand. Go home and Google and check this out. This is the truth. The poor, in proportion to their income, give more than the rich. Did you know that? We Googled that, we checked the ABC News website and this is what surprised me, the poor give about 30% more of their incomes – people who make under $25,000 a year give about 30% more of a proportion of their income than those who make over $150,000 a year. This is even more mind-blowing: $25,000 and under give a greater proportion of their income than $25,000-$50,000 incomes. $25,000-$50,000 gives a greater percentage of their income than $50,000-$75,000 - all the way up the table. It blew me away; it doesn't make sense. Why is it that the poor understand? You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what give. The poor get that, I need to learn it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the kingdom of God."

I want to tell you something, I say this on my own, not of the Lord, but I might be right. I believe Americans are facing challenging times and I think we're going to see times like we've not seen since the Great Depression. Or, maybe times like America has never seen. These are not the times for God's people to fear or to insulate ourselves from human suffering and human need all around us - this is the time when we need to stand up. We remind ourselves that every time we come to this communion table, we make a re-commitment with Jesus to give our lives as bread and drink for the life and sustenance of the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.