Worship Service on Sunday, July 28, 2024.
Some of you may have read this one but I thought it was very appropriate. Alice was to bake a cake for the church ladies group bake sale, but she forgot to do it until the last minute. She baked an angel food cake, and when she took it from the oven, The center had dropped flat. She said, oh dear, there’s no time to bake another cake. So she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom of all places, a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in the center and iced it. The finished product looked beautiful, so she rushed it to the church. Before she left the house, Alice had given her daughter some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it opened and to buy that cake and bring it home. When the daughter arrived at the sale, the attractive cake had already been sold. Alice was beside herself. The next day, Alice was invited to a friend’s home where two tables of bridge were to be played that afternoon. After the game, a fancy lunch was served, and to top it all off, the cake in question was presented for dessert. Alice saw the cake. She almost freaked out. She started to get out of her chair to rush into the kitchen to tell her hostess all about it. But before she could get up and get to her feet, one of the other ladies said, oh what a beautiful cake. Alice sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess, who was a prominent church member, say, “oh thank you, I baked it myself”.
You know if this had been the beginning of COVID, that cake would have been very valuable. Yeah, yeah, the toilet paper. Things may not always seem, be as they may seem. Such is what is perceived, especially in appearances and stations in people’s lives. Because of our perception of things, we can experience the sin of partiality. In the ancient world, as in much of today’s world, the rich and powerful had an upper hand in legal disputes where bribes could tip the judge’s hand. But God despised this. In the early church, the apostles taught the believers not to favor one type of person over another. They were to treat rich, poor, male or female, Jews or Gentiles equally the same with love and respect. Because God is impartial, we as Christians must be impartial too. People are prone to treat others differently based on external criteria such as looks, possessions, or social status. But God is utterly impartial. He never shows favoritism and always judges righteously.
Favoritism can be defined as a preferential attitude and a treatment of a person or group over another having equal claims and rights. It is unjustified partiality. James 2:9, “but if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” This verse confronts partiality as sin and admonishes us to avoid it at all cost. God’s impartiality is seen throughout scripture. For example, in our Old Testament reading today from Deuteronomy, Moses said to the people of Israel, “the Lord, your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, warned his judges to rule without partiality because God himself has no part in unrighteousness or partiality. 2 Chronicles 19:7, “Now, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be very careful what you do for the Lord your God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or taking of bribes”. God’s impartiality is also seen in his gracious offer of salvation to people of every race. Acts 10:34-35. “Opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to him.” God is also impartial in judgment, Romans 2:9-11, “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But the glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the Jew first, and also to the Greeks, there is no partiality with God”.
Our text fits today’s world because prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry are ever-present evils in our society both inside and outside the church. Those whom the world unfairly protects at the expense of others have no advantage with God. In fact, he condemns favoring or protecting one class or race of people at the expense of others. In today’s world, Partiality is a slippery slope. It comes in subtle ways. How many times haven’t you heard when going for an interview, dress to impress? I would venture to guess if there were two people walking in for a job interview, and one was wearing designer clothes, and the other one Kmart clothes, the one who was wearing the designer clothes would be more likely of a candidate to be interviewed for the job. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying dress like a stinky bum and not take care of yourself because we all know cleanliness is next to godliness. Cleanliness is next to godliness. So where did that phrase come from? Can we find it in the Bible? John Wesley, co-founder of the Methodist Church, may have been the inventor of the phrase. He often emphasized cleanliness in his preaching. But the principle behind the rule, cleanliness is next to godliness, dates back long before the days of Wesley to the worship ritual laid out in the book of Leviticus. That’s why I was up there Tom. Leviticus 14:8-9, “The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, bathe in water, and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days. It will be on the seventh day that he shall shave off his hair, he shall shave his head, his beard, and his eyebrows, and even all his hair. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and be cleansed”. That was for ministers of that day. Thank God that doesn’t happen today because I don’t know what I’d look like with no hair and no eyebrows.
These rites were established by God to show sinners how they could be cleansed from iniquity and reconciled to God. Ritual purification was a matter of extreme importance in Israelite worship. God required his people to be pure and a holy nation. For the Jews, holiness had to be reflected in the way they lived, giving utmost priority to the moral and spiritual virtues that God had revealed in his law. Unlike all the other nations, God had given his covenant people specific instructions concerning hygiene and cleanliness. He showed them how to maintain purity and what to do to regain it if they lost it through carelessness or disobedience. God gave instructions for worship in the wilderness tabernacle. Exodus 30:17-19, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, You shall also make a leather of bronze with its base of bronze for washing, and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet from it.” This hand washing ritual is a purification came to represent God’s loathing sin. It formed the basis of the Jewish practice of washing their hands before specific prayers and before meals. However, the Pharisees adopted such a careful routine of hand washing before eating food that they began to equate having clean hands with having a pure heart. We know about the Pharisees. But in Matthew 15, Jesus didn’t give much weight to such habits, and neither did his disciples. Jesus considered this Pharisee practice to be empty, dead, legalism. The Pharisees came to Jesus and said in Matthew 15:2, “why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread?” Jesus, being Jesus, had this great retort in verse 11. He says, “it is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man”. Jesus said that. Boy, I wish I had his wisdom. Those Pharisees were always trying to trip up Jesus, but you know what? He always got them back.
The custom of foot washing was not only part of the purification rituals in ancient times, but was also one of the duties of hospitality. The humble gesture expressed respect for guests as well as attentive and affectionate regard for weary traveler really sorry weary travel-worn visitor visitors the roads in biblical times were not paved and sandal clad feet became dirty and dusty. Foot washing as part of the hospitality appeared in the Bible as early as the days of Abraham. The most remarkable example of foot washing in the Bible occurred when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. John 13:4-5, “Jesus got up from supper and laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself. Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded”. Christ performed this lowly service to teach humility to his followers and to demonstrate how believers are to love one another through acts of sacrifice and service. All throughout scripture there are verses speaking of cleanliness. In scripture sin is associated with the lack of cleanliness, whereas redemption and baptism are linked with washing and purity. Getting back to washing of the feet, Just think if we had to be hostesses now and it was required that anybody that came in our house We had a washing their feet. Nah, not doing it.
The Apostle Paul described salvation in Jesus Christ and new birth by the power of the Holy Spirit as spiritual washing in Titus 3:5, “He saved us not because of righteous things we had done but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit”. So we don’t really have a direct quote in the Bible that says, cleanliness is godliness. But many times throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, it talks about cleanliness, either figuratively or physically.
In today’s world, we have those people who, like the Pharisees, subtly, through all kinds of ways, are imposing their agenda of partiality on the world. Since God is impartial, he also expects his people to be impartial in their treatment of others. James also affirmed that impartiality, that it is one of the characteristics of a true spiritual wisdom. James 3:17, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy”. How can we in today’s world use God’s impartiality and apply it to our lives? We need to Remember that the offer of salvation is provided free to all, regardless who you are. Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone is automatically forgiven. We still must all enter the same door, the door provided by God that leads to salvation. His death and resurrection is God’s provision for whoever believes. But the atonement is ineffective in our lives unless we turn to God in repentance and faith. All who come into the kingdom of God, rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile, come in by the same means, repentance and faith. No one gets in because of their status, race, upbringing, good looks or gender.
Because God is gracious, there’s plenty of his grace to go around for everyone. We need to pray daily that God’s word will guide us from favoritism, subtle influences, and strengthen our commitment to a godly living. God is with us throughout the good times and throughout the trials and tribulations. We must remember this when we are dealing with the outside world and the partiality that exists that God is by our side, helping us fight for rights of all.
And it’s a little story that I found that kind of talks about how God is always by our side. A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him, and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sunshine go through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a man. He cannot tell the other boys of his experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing his blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man. Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night protecting his son from harm. We too are never alone. Even when we don’t know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to him. Just because you can’t see God doesn’t mean he’s not there. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Amen.
