Conference Workshop Presentation Application Guidelines
DEADLINE for submissions: July 31, 2011

Event History
The first-ever Prisoner’s Family Conference held in El Paso, TX in February 2009 was considered a resounding success by all in attendance. The 2nd & 3rd Prisoner’s Family Conferences held in Orlando, Florida & Portland, Oregon respectively expanded and confirmed the national interest in the prison family. Based on feedback from the 2010 conference attendees, the 2011 conference was extended to 3 days. The conference provides vital information for improving the quality of life for prisoner’s families during and following the incarceration of a loved one, and offers ample networking opportunities with those from across the country concerned for the prisoner’s family and the reintegrating prisoner.

Deadline for applying is July 31, 2011
To find out more about this conference go to info@prisoner’sfamilyconference.org or call 915-861-7733

“Ten University Students Speak Out”

By Harold Shank, National Spokesperson for CCFSA

Fall semester, 2006

Anyone who witnesses first hand the misery of others usually wonders how they can convince the Christian community to share the same awareness. For example, after a young couple hears about the dozens of abandoned infants kept in institutional foster care in their state, they seek to raise the alarm among others. The weekend after two college students stay in the home of a poor inner city family they urge others to take action. A Christian who sees a co-worker treated unfairly because of her race wonders why such injustice is seldom mentioned at church. How do Christians sound the alarm for God’s people to practice the mercy and compassion that should be characteristic of the followers of Jesus?

The eighth century prophet Amos sets an example. Amos witnessed first hand the misery of others (Amos 5:12). He noted how those who claimed to follow God lived in denial about how they oppressed the less fortunate around them. No doubt he saw Israelite men humiliated by corrupt courts (5:7), watched Samaritan mothers crushed by the uncaring women of affluence (4:1), and knew of children with nothing to eat because community resources all went to produce luxury beverages for the powerful (5:11).

Amos responded with harsh accusations (“[you] trample the head of the poor into the dust” 2:7) and alarming threats (“they shall take you away with hooks” 4:2). His complaints reached the head of the religious and political establishments (7:10f). Judges, store owners, managers of estate farms and the leisure class apparently knew of Amos’ stand.

A class of university students took up the question of whether Amos offered any guidance for contemporary witnesses. Jonathan, Karis, Candice, Tim, Kenneth, Derrick, Nathan, Carter, Cayla and Tanya realized that today’s culture both abhors those who pass judgment (“what right do you have to judge me?”) and yet passes judgment readily (“you Christians are so judgmental”). How can witnesses of abuse and injustice speak up in such a world? Here are their four observations:

• Public-Private. During their discussion of the issue, these students noted how Amos spoke out publicly (3:1) when the misdeeds were societal in nature, but privately (7:14) when confronting an individual. They reasoned that a current day Amos should raise issues with the Christian community as a whole. Their complaint about much judgment-making in contemporary society was that too often an individual is critiqued in a public forum resulting in unnecessary humiliation.
• Severity. The severity of today’s judgment, they reasoned, should reflect the severity of the misdeed. They argued that the harsh accusations and alarming threats of Amos were appropriate to the level of injustice in eighth century Israelite society. By way of application, they suggested that a professor’s response to a plagiarized term paper should not be as severe as their response to a fellow student physically abusing his girl friend.
• Prompt Improvement. Amos called the people to change. He repeatedly leaves the door open for altered behavior especially in chapter 5. The best expressed judgment should prompt positive change. Insulting people may only perpetuate the negative behavior. In Amos 1-6 the prophet speaks to the people on behalf of God, but in the last three chapters he speaks to God on behalf of the people. Amos sought to bring about a better Israel. The students noted that those who seek to raise awareness of injustice must, like Amos, use a means likely to prompt real change, not just guilt or resentment.
• Standards. Finally, this group of university students reasoned that people of faith must be reminded of the high calling God places on Christian behavior. The prophets often critiqued the community’s leaders for their failure to prompt a righteous and just society (see Amos 7). Their point suggests that those in the Christian community must not remain silent in the face of injustice (perhaps reflected in Amos 5:13). Christians must spur one another on to love and good works.

In a world that often deserts its own children, abuses its own families and oppresses its fellow citizens, these students speak out. Tanya, Cayla, Carter, Nathan, Derrick, Kenneth, Tim, Candice, Karis and Jonathan urge us to address the evils of our world, remind the Christian community of its duty, and refuse to remain silent in the face of wrong doing.

Harold Shank, Teacher

Copyright © 2003-2008, CCFSA and the Church of Christ.  |  Contact Us  |  Website maintained by Sally Shank

]]> http://www.ccfsa.org/resources/ten-students-speak-outby-harold-shank/feed/ 0 http://www.ccfsa.org/resources/outline-for-gods-vision-for-every-city-and-town/ http://www.ccfsa.org/resources/outline-for-gods-vision-for-every-city-and-town/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 18:06:20 +0000 Sally Shank http://www.ccfsa.org/?p=578 God’s Vision for Every City and Town

I  Biblical conflict in Bethel

1. Early version of worship wars
2. People disagreed over fasting on a certain day
3. Sent Sharezer and Regemmelech to Zechariah for solution

II. Zechariah – arbitrator of conflict

1. Two answers
   1. You fasts are hypocritical and self servin
   2. How you treat community is as important as worship
2. Not new teaching
   1. Samuel stressed obedience (1 Sam 15:22)
   2. Amos stressed just and righteous living (Amos 5:21-24)
   3. Isaiah stressed that oppression in community affected worship (Isa. 1:12-31)
   4. John stressed loving God by loving others (1 John 3:17-19; 4:20)
3. Sharezer and Regemmelech are faithful to tell Zechariah’s message
   1. People refuse to listen
   2. Willing to fast but not obey God
   3. Willing to follow their terms, not God’s

III. God Acts – Zech 8:4-6

1.  Sets higher standard
   1. A city park
   2. Peace
   3. Children
2. God’s view
   1. God cares about children
   2. God plans a safe future for children
   3. Happy children a sign of a healthy society
3. God’s principles
   1. for orphans in O.T. – Moses, Psalms, Prov. Job
   2. Jesus’ attention to children – Mark 9:33-37
   3. James summary of Christian community – James 1:27

 Suggestions for using this Bible study

1. Begin by reading each passage in your own Bible. Read the larger context so you can be sure of how the writer is using the passage cited. This kind of study will take time, but will allow you to be more confident in the presentation.

2. Read over the study and write out what you think is the main point. Pray over that main point. Are you doing it in your own life or have you too become sidetracked? Pray that God would show you want keeps people from doing his will. Ask that you might be sensitive to the hearts to which you speak.

3. Begin the lesson with a prayer. Confess your own sin or inadequacy in the prayer and mention the things God has shown you in your private prayer time before him. Ask God to lift these things from you and your listeners.

4. Edit and change the Bible study so that it fits your ability and style. This Bible study was not meant to be read to a church or class. It is only intended to point in a direction and to provide material that can be altered to suit a particular situation.

Lesson for a church setting

God’s vision for every city and town

Conflict is as old as humanity.  From wars to spousal abuse, from terrorism to sibling rivalry, from debate in Congress to church fights, we humans seem destined for conflict. 

The Bible itself tells about serious conflict.   Cain killed Abel.  Lamech abused a younger man.  Sodom and Gomorrah were rough and tumble cities.  Judah and Israel fought years of civil war.  Both 2 Timothy and 2 Peter warn of false teachers and the resulting problems.  James 4 compares church conflict to a war.

In the midst of any conflict, it’s always helpful to have a final arbitrator.  The bank’s branch manager settles the problem between the front desk tellers.  The coach puts an end to the squabble between the ends and the linemen.  In church fights, we rely on Scripture to arbitrate, but often our different views of what the Bible has to say may only intensify the conflict.

One little known conflict in God’s spiritual community occurred when there was a resident prophet nearby.  Some of the earliest returnees from the time of captivity were from Bethel, a small village a few miles north of Jerusalem. Later Nehemiah came along and urged some of the city people to move to the close and far suburbs.  Some of the people moved north to the historic village of Bethel (Neh 11:31).

 The arbitrator of this post-exilic conflict was the prophet Zechariah, whose 14 chapter book is the source of prophecies about the 30 pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed Jesus (Zech 11:13; Matt 27:9), the triumphal entry of Jesus riding on a donkey (Zech 9:9; Matt 21:5; Jn 12:15), and the soldier piercing Jesus’ side on the cross (Zech 12:10; John 19:34).  It was clearly a book New Testament writers knew and quoted.   It would seem that Zechariah not only served as an arbitrator in his own day, but also in the days of our Lord.

We might call the conflict in Bethel an early version of the worship wars.  God’s people have frequently quarreled over worship policies.  In frontier days it was over whether or not to cover the communion set with the white linen cloth while later controversies ragged over whether the church could pay to have indoor plumbing.  Fortunately those controversy are behind us.

For years the people had worshipped by fasting.  The particular fast in question concerned the temple.  When the temple where the people praised God, read the Bible, prayed to God and offered sacrifice was destroyed in 586 B.C. they began to fast and mourn on a certain date each year.  Now that the temple had been rebuilt some questioned whether the practice needed to be continued. 

From our perspective where the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16) and where each individual Christian’s body is a temple (1 Cor 6:19) such a conflict may seem insignificant, just as the question of having restrooms in our buildings seems equally inconsequential, but each conflict is quite real in its time.

Fortunately the people in Bethel remembered that Zechariah the prophet lived in Jerusalem.  They appointed two of their leaders, Sharezer and Regemmelech along with some others to visit with the people in Jerusalem, especially Zechariah, about the conflict.

Zechariah started with the correct words: “Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me”  (Zech 7:4).  Those wonderful words are sweet music to anybody in the midst of conflict.  If only God would decide.  Zechariah has two answers to their conflict.

Answer number one:  Your fasts were nothing but hypocritical self-serving times.  God said, “I knew you were not fasting for me, but for yourselves so you could eat and drink afterwards.”  Ouch.  That’s not the message Sharezer and Regemmelech wanted to take back to Bethel.  They could imagine the group waiting on them to return. 

      “What did the prophet say?  Do we continue our fast or not?”

      The duo fresh back from Jerusalem had to say, “God thinks our worship is self-centered.”   That would not be a good news message to bring back to the home folks.  But that was only part one of how to solve the worship wars.  Zechariah makes clear that the second point was the fundamental problem.

Like a good preacher, Zechariah had two points. Sharezer and Regemmelech hoped the second response was more positive than the first.  Here’s answer number two:   “⁸ The word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying:  ⁹ Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;  ¹⁰ do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another (Zechariah 7:8-10).  Zechariah indicates that God pays as much attention to their service in the community as he does to their service in the assembly.  How they treat other people is connection to how they worship God.

      Zechariah was not teaching a new lesson.  Samuel had stressed to King Saul that God wanted obedience more than sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22) while Amos stressed that just and righteous living offered God more praise than songs and solemn assemblies (Amos 5:21-24) as did Isaiah who tried to explain why the temple worship in Jerusalem was null and void in light of the oppression and brutality of their community (Isa 1:12-31).  John stressed the same point in his first epistle:  “¹⁷ How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?  ¹⁸ Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.  ¹⁹ And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him (1 John 3:17-19).   John later returns to the same thought in which the apostle seems to summarize the entire biblical teaching about worship:  “²⁰ Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20).

John offers a divine commentary on the conflict in Bethel.  The people at Bethel neglected the weak ones in their community, but expected God to hear their praise.  They did not love the ones they could see and then expected the God they could not see to accept their heartfelt love.  God said, “No.”

      We can only imagine the trip Sharezer and Regemmelech had on the way back to Bethel.  But they were faithful messengers.  They told the hometown crowd that God would accept their worship only when they began to care for the needy among them.  

      Listen to some of the saddest news in the Bible:  Zechariah 7:11-12  “But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.  ¹² They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.”

      They were willing to conduct their regular fasts, but not willing to obey the LORD.  They were willing to offer their worship on their terms, but unwilling to offer their service on God’s terms.  They were willing to seek and answer to a conflict over worship in their community, but not willing to listen when God himself responded to the query. 

      We wonder what happened to the folks at Bethel.  Did God wipe it off the map?  Did the community cease to exist?  Did they split into the fasting congregation and the non fasting congregation?  Were there pro-Zechariahites and anti-Zechariahites?  We don’t know.

      But God did act in the way that God typically acts.  He sets the standard even higher.  He reminds the people of the kind of communities he wants us to form.   He paints a picture of what our villages and towns will look like if we live God’s way.  It is one of the most serene pictures in the Bible.  God knows how the future can be and how it will be.  Whether we obey him now to form these kinds of communities or whether it happens in the afterlife, God will prevail. The dream of the future is an old one:

Someday, God says, “Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age.  ⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.  ⁶ Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the LORD of hosts?” (Zechariah 8:4-6)

When God describes life as He wants it to be, He paints a picture of a city park.  Not one filled with litter, drug deals, and perversion, but one with grandmothers and grandsons, papas and grand babies, all enjoying the safety of an evening in the park.  We can see the strollers and the balls.   We can hear the old people laugh at the antics of the young, pointing out to their friends which grandchild is theirs.

Those lines tell us at least three things about God’s view of children.  First, God cares about children.  That’s why they are central to His vision of the perfect world.   When God sits down at the canvas to paint tomorrow’s picture, He puts kids in the middle.   He wants to make sure those He cares about get in the picture.

Second, God plans a safe future for children.  In our day, safety for all children seems impossible.   It seemed just as unlikely in Zechariah’s day.  The last line says, “This may seem impossible to those of the nation who are now left, but it’s not impossible for me.”  This vision is not a program from earthly Washington, it’s a plan from heavenly Jerusalem.   The kids will be safe.

Third, happy children are a sign of a healthy society.   Throughout scripture, God gauges the well-being of the human community by how it cares for its weakest members.  That rule applies in this painting of the future.  We can tell it’s a community worth seeking because the young and the old are happy and safe.

The story in Zechariah about how a prophet played the role of arbitrator in a spiritual conflict is not terribly well known, but the principles of the story are everywhere.  The concern about vulnerable children runs through the entire Bible.  Many of the laws in the Mosaic covenant are about orphans.  The Psalms and Proverbs take up the matter of unwanted children.  The descriptions of the virtuous woman (Pro 31) and the virtuous man (Job 31) both show concern for the poor especially the orphan.  Jesus’ attention to children is well known (Mark 9:33-37; 10:13-16).  James in summarizing the kind of Christian communities we are to form cuts to the core of what is a perpetual biblical truth:  James 1:27  “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Now that’s a message that Sharezer and Regemmelech could write home about with great joy.  May we rise up to the standards God has set.

The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

1. Biblical ideals
   1. Mt. 6:33
   2. I Cor. 13:13
   3. I Cor. 15:3-4 
2. Core of biblical religion – James 1:27
   1. What does it mean
      1. Pure– get ride of junk in souls
      2. Undefiled – function as a Christian without our vigor being impaired
   2. Where did James get it?
      1. The Bible
         1. Deut 10, 14, 16
         2. Ps 146, 10, 82
         3. Isaiah 1
         4. Jeremiah 7
         5. Ezekiel 22
         6. Zech. 7
         7. Luke 4
         8. Acts4
         9. 2 Cor.8-9
   3. James doesn’t make it up
      1. From God
      2. From Prophets
      3. From Psalmists
      4. From Jesus
      5. From Apostles
3. Summary of the quality of all Christians
   1. Concern for widow
   2. Concern for

Suggestions for using this Bible study

1.       Begin by reading each passage in your own Bible.   Read the larger context so you can be sure of how the writer is using the passage cited.  This kind of study will take time, but will allow you to be more confident in the presentation.

2.       Read over the study and write out what you think is the main point.  Pray over that main point.  Are you doing it in your own life or have you too become sidetracked?   Pray that God would show you want keeps people from doing his will.  Ask that you might be sensitive to the hearts to which you speak.

3.       Begin the lesson with a prayer.  Confess your own sin or inadequacy in the prayer and mention the things God has shown you in your private prayer time before him.   Ask God to lift these things from you and your listeners.

4.       Edit and change the Bible study so that it fits your ability and style.  This Bible study was not meant to be read to a church or class.  It is only intended to point in a direction and to provide material that can be altered to suit a particular situation.

5.       Practice the Bible study out loud.  Time the Bible study.  Think of a couple of illustrations you might use.  Be careful with illustrations.  Our culture is so entertainment orientated that people might remember your illustrations and not God’s word.

After the study is over, ask a person you respect to give you substantial feedback.  Do not make this request in the hallway, but allow the person the time and situation to offer ho

Steven R. Covey, known for his advice about effective living along with training and day planner products, popularized the line, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  That complicated sentence speaks volumes once it is understood.  Don’t get sidetracked with the minor issues in life.  Stay on track.  One’s first priority is accomplishing our most precious goals.

               The Bible never says, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” but it comes close.  Think about these lines:

Matthew 6:33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

1 Corinthians 13:13   ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4   ³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,  ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

When we read carefully, we look for those sign posts about what is really important.  They are the “don’t miss” and “danger ahead” signs on the highway of life.  So we know that when Scripture says, “strive first” or “the greatest is” or “first importance” we are on to something.

Suppose we could find a verse that defined religion as sincere or genuine or blameless.   Suppose this text said also said that this religion was without deformity, that it was the real thing.  Would that not be one of those “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” kind of text.

I’d like to suggest that one of those crucial biblical texts that reminds us of the core of biblical religion that helps us keep the most important aspects of faith in focus is the last verse of James 1.  Here it is:

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

               James comes close to the end of the New Testament with a wonderful letter about core biblical values.  In the midst of talking about trials and the tongue, about teachers and temptation, about confession and conflict, James inserts this line about what pure and undefiled religion.

               The Greek word for pure is the word from which we get catharsis.  Widely used in the counseling world, catharsis is when we get rid of all the ugly emotions and pent up junk in our souls.  Whether we are talking with a minister or just visiting with a friend, or even complaining to God in prayer in the way many of the Psalms are written, we are simply purifying our soul of the uneasy rumblings deep inside.   In popular terms, we say, “I need to get this off my chest.”  What we want is to purify ourselves of that issue.

               The other word in this text that makes it one of those “main thing” text is “undefiled” which means that a person who practices what James is about to say has thrown off whatever deforms true Christianity.  It means to function as a Christian without our vigor being impaired.  He points to how to be a Christian without impairment.

               Now would does not want all this?  Do we want to

                              *practice a religion that is pure, free from the garbage of life?

                              *live a faith that is free from major handicaps?

               Clearly James is not describing all of the Christian life.  He is not offering a summary of Christian living.  He is not giving us a plan of salvation.  In fact, it is striking what he does not mention.  He says nothing about Jesus or faith.  There is not a word in pure and undefiled religion about baptism or the church.   In this “main thing” text James never references reading the Bible or attending worship.   Clearly James is not being exclusive, that is, James is not saying do this one thing and you have it covered.   But rather James is saying that a person who is following Jesus by faith, who has through baptism come into God’s church and who has made a study of Scripture and worships regularly, will be a person recognized by a peculiar list of traits.  That person will be one whose pure and undefiled religion is displayed in their concern for widows and orphans.

               Most of us tend to wonder about James’ admonition.  We might think of several other ways to describe a person of pure and undefiled religion.  The church treasurer might say pure and undefiled religion is fulfilling the pledge you made to the budget.  The nursery supervisor is more inclined to think that pure and undefiled religion is taking your turn once a year.  The church janitor would identify those who clean up their coffee pot after Sunday school the ones who are practicing pure and undefiled religion.   

               Clearly we all have our own definitions of pure and undefiled religion.  This one happens to be God’s definition.  It is one of those “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

               Yet we still suspect that James had it wrong.  Maybe he saw unwanted children on the streets of his city.  Maybe he saw people ignoring his mother who was a widow.   While we might look for some self-interest in James’ “main thing” text, we know better.  He writes by inspiration.  His is a word from God.

               Let’s just suppose we could invite James over to our home for an interview about this “main thing” passage.  We might ask him, “James, where did you get this definition of ‘pure and undefiled religion?”   We might press him and ask him if he made it up.  

               In our imaginary interview with James, I suspect he would say something that we all should say, “I am a student of the Bible.  I got it from the Bible.”   Ashamed that we did not think of that ourselves, we might back off and ask James, again, to be our teacher. 

               In our Bible study, James might first say I notice in your congregation that you sing many songs about God.  You worship him as the “God of Gods” and the “Lord of Lords.”  You call him “great” and “mighty” and “awesome.”  Do you know where those words all come from?  Do you know the source of those words.   They are from Deuteronomy 10:

¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe

We quickly see that our song writers have dipped more into Deuteronomy than we have.  We can see that this early book in the Bible describes God in the same way we do on Sunday.   Then James reads the next verse:

¹⁸ who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.

The God of gods knows about justice for the orphan.  The Lord of lords is filled with concern for the widow.  The God we set on the high pedestal of “great, mighty and awesome” cares about the stranger.  The mighty God has the lowly in his heart. 

               God’s concern for the widow and the orphan continues in the old book of Deuteronomy.  God tells the people to take up a tithe.  Part of the tithe goes to support the widow and orphan (Dt 14:29).   God tells the people to celebrate the Passover.   Part of the celebration includes the admonition to include the widow and the orphan (Dt 16:11).  When they arrive in their new land the people are set up a court system.  God gives specific instructions that the court system must be fair to the widows and orphans. 

               In our imaginary Bible study with James as our teacher, we might next go to the song book of Israel.  James might turn to these passages:

               Psalm 146:9  ⁹ The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow

Psalm 10:17-18  ¹⁷ O LORD, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear  ¹⁸ to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 82:3   Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

The book of Psalms is rich soil for how we approach God.  Indeed many of the songs in our current hymnals come from this ancient book of songs.  The writers of Psalms knew the heart of God.  The god of Gods and lord of Lords continues his same focus on the orphan and widow.

               Then James might turn to the prophets.  God sent these men to correct what was wrong in Israel, to being them a word from God.  God called them “my servants the prophets.”  James might have done a quick century by century survey:

               Isaiah spoke to Jerusalem in the 8^th century BC by pointing how they had drifted from what God wanted.   He urged them to change their ways to return to a more pure religion:

Isaiah 1:16-17  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,  ¹⁷ learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

In the next line he urges them with the famous line, “Come let us reason together.”  God hoped they would see the value in showing concern for those closest to his heart, the weak and oppressed.

               A century later, Jeremiah preached in the same city.   Jeremiah went to the temple and delivered the most famous sermon of his career.   At the highpoint of the lesson he urged,

Jeremiah 7:5-6   ⁵ For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,  ⁶ if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷ then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

We might ask Isaiah and Jeremiah where they got this central concern.  Both are sent by God to tell the nation the things they needed to correct.  Both of their answers anticipate the same thing James would say.   Where do they get this focus?  The god of Gods and the lord of Lords has his heart set on the widow and the orphan.  He does not want them overlooked.

               Our Bible study might cite Ezekiel’s complaint in the 6^th century, “⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you” (Ezek 22:7) or Zechariah’s advice in the 5^th century, “¹⁰ do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” (Zech 7:10).

               James might well cite the concern for the vulnerable and weak expressed in the Gospels and by his comrades writing the New Testament.  Jesus set his agenda in Luke 4:18:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,  ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”   Jesus does not specifically mention either orphans or widows, but his mission includes the weak, marginal and oppressed of his time which would clearly include the widows and orphans.   The early church made sure there was not “There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34), Paul raised funds for the starving in Judea (2 Corinthians 8-9) and James might have alluded to the Jerusalem conference when after making a doctrinal decision they agreed to help the poor (Gal 2:10).

               Our Bible study has made one thing clear.  James is not alone in pointing to “the main thing.”  The god of Gods and lord of Lord’s points to the same thing.  The psalmists praised God as the one who cared for orphans and widows.   The prophets saw that one of the major differences between the way people were living and the way God wanted them to live was in the way they treated the poor, especially the widow and orphan.  Jesus set his mission on the same needy group of people as did the early church and the apostolic writers.

               James did not make up his definition of pure religion.  He got it from Bible study.  He read Scripture from beginning to end and isolated a core teaching of what it means to practice pure and undefiled religion.  James was simply putting in words what was agreed to at the Jerusalem conference.  He was echoing Paul who raised funds for the starving and the early church that took care of their needy.  All these Christians were following Jesus who came to preach good news to the poor and vulnerable.  He followed Zechariah who cited Ezekiel, who quoted Jeremiah who cited Isaiah, who quoted Moses who got it from God. 

               All this makes it doubly difficult to jettison James 1:27.   Not only does James say it is one of “the main things” of the Bible, but he in a way is summarizing one of the great qualities of God-like people from the ancient days of Deuteronomy until the final days of the apostolic church.

               We also note that widows and orphans often fall off the agenda of the mainstream people of God.  They forgot in Isaiah’s day and in Jeremiah’s.  They had to be reminded by Ezekiel and Zechariah.   Perhaps by putting those two crucial adjectives in front of the care of widows and orphans, James hoped that all Christian people of all the days to follow him would remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and that in the middle of all that’s central is a concern for the widow and the orphan.

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.