Can a Racist have faith?

Oh, how I wanted to preach on healing and exorcism today. There is a healing conference here (Oct 26-28, sign up at standrewscollierville.org) and the Gospel today was perfectly aligned for me to focus on Jesus' healing ministry then and now. But as I began the writing process, low and behold, those words from James in our second reading boomed loud and drew me in: "Faith without works is dead."
Ugh!

I just finished up a bit on transubstantiation. And even though what I said squared with the findings of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, I am afraid I still upset people. So to follow that up with another "breach" seemed too much. Yet, try as I might, I kept finding myself drawn back into James. In the end, I believe I was able to address it in a broader way which did justice to the  readings. (The actual audio will be posted later this week at the same church website.) And I will be blogging on it, in part because it is something I am teaching on at the Healing Conference and I want to get my thought process on that going.

James 2:1 is a difficult sentence in Greek. Looking at various English translations it is pretty clear that there is no clear and clean translation. However, the basic sense of it  is straightforward. In the actual order of the Greek it says:
"My brothers, do not in "preferences" have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ."
The Greek word, prosopolempsia, is a compound of prosopon "face, outward appearance" + lambano (take, receive, have). It means to "show favoritism" and conveys concretely the idea of one making a decision about a person because of the way they look. James talks about the way churches treat a rich man versus a poor man. And I will treat that more in depth later in the week.

Within the context of the salvation discussion, and the place of faith, it did lead me to ponder. James seems to be saying that one cannot be a pre-judger and a person of faith. So, as is usually the case when I preach, I said something which was not part of my text, nor had I really thought about it much until it flowed out of my mouth. What about the person who is a racist? They "hold-the-face" in making decisions. Can a "racist Christian" be saved?

Living in West Tennessee, I have encountered all manner of racists. I am a white guy, so I am directing this at my group. I do believe in Black racism (and Yellow, Brown and other forms). This is debatable in Progressive circles, but I think it is silly to say only White folks can be racist. In Memphis, for sure, there is no lack of White minorities in many institutions. But I do not want to get sidetracked, so I am saying "White" and you can fill in whatever colors (or groups) you want....

I know many devout, even conservative Christians, who hold racist views of Black folk. I have argued with them, taught them, discussed with them, listened to them. The idea that such feelings could be a bar to heaven, however, is something many of these people refuse to believe. In simplest terms their response is, "I believe in Jesus, and one is saved by faith alone, and I am assured of my salvation." So here is the dilemma. Does one claim that salvation is a gift through faith or not? And if racism is a barrier to the effectiveness of faith, what about other -isms? Sexism? Agism? Fatism? Etc-ism? There are lots of prejudices which we all have, some worse than others, but all real.

On the other hand, can I imagine Jesus throwing open the pearly gates and welcoming someone to eternal life when Jesus knows that that person has a heart full of hatred for people based on race? I cannot go there, either.

But then I remembered Jesus is really smart and can be awfully tricky. And I recall an experience of my young adult life with a dying family member which seemed to reveal some of how God works. So here is what I think.

I think that the Christian racist is saved. I think Jesus will keep His promise. However, I think this is how it will look. The newly dead guy/gal will head up for the meeting with the Lord, no doubt flush with anticipation of an eternal reward. St. Peter will usher them into the room and say, "Jesus is on the way." Suddenly, there He will be. Now, remember, Jesus is a Middle Eastern guy, so our Christian racist is going to be looking into the eyes of a swarthy face. And Jesus will tell him, your faith has saved you, now enter your reward. And Jesus will plop that guy smack square in the middle of an all-black section of heaven. And I think it will be set up where that is all this guy will meet and see. Ever. And there are millions of Black saints, and this guy will have a chance to meet them all. [obviously I would see the same thing happening for all sorts of other folks as well] The beauty of it is God will be true to His word. And the deeper beauty is an unrepentant heart without love will have to be changed over or else Heaven may feel like Hell (hat tip to CS Lewis and The Great Divorce). It is the sort of clever thing Jesus did over and over (like "render under Caesar..."). And it would be pretty funny.

Now if this is how Jesus actually does it, then I think you now know what I mean by the word Purgatory. It is the process of getting acclimated to heaven (and its values). For anyone who has a deep prejudice, that group of folks which you hate will be your only neighbors when you get inside the Pearly Gates. Eventually, I assume the heart will soften and the love will flow. But there is no escaping the consequences of an unconverted heart. Best way to avoid it? Start living right now in a way that prepares you for the celestial society ruled by Christ. St. James knew Jesus and he knew what Jesus taught. It is a good idea to listen to his words and keep in mind. You cannot have favoritism based on prejudices and have the faith of our glorious savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.