from playground to parliament

The words of James struck me powerfully today while sitting in Parliament.

1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers 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? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”[b] also said, “You shall not murder.”[c] If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Incredible words. As I pondered them, I wondered what would happen if we swapped "MP" for rich man, and "researcher" for poor man in the text. Have our minds become hard-wired to discriminate? In the corridors of Westminster, there is a pecking order, as with any workplace. Attention and care are given more to those whose status is higher up the pecking order. What would Jesus have to say about it?

It all starts in the school playground. I remember it well. There is order in the chaos of 100s of children running around. That order is achieved subtly. There are clumps of children hanging around where the "cool kids" hang out. Where there is social status and correct fashion a crowd forms. Where there isn't, it often doesn't. I don't know which camp you fell into at school, but last year at Labour Party conference, I felt suddenly transported back to the playground. At a drinks reception, I had many conversations with people who were furtively looking over my shoulder and their shoulder, seeing if there was someone more important to be talking to. It's all about power.

When an MP, or even more so when a shadow cabinet member walked into the room, the physical geography immediately shifted. The clumps shifted to be around the "cool kids" who had just walked in.

Some of this is of course inevitable, and a factor of busy diaries and time constraints. But much of it is an internal battle that any Christian called to political life must fight. Will I care as much for "the least of these" as those who wield the most power?

Our perspective on these things is usually revealed by whose calls or emails we respond to most quickly, or who we will endeavour to speak to in various gatherings. Are our eyes open to see the cleaner, the solid branch member, the people "making up the numbers"? People who we will gain no benefit from having a conversation with, but who we may be called to reach out to. Think of the "nobodies" who Jesus invested his time with, while the "somebodies" became further enraged. Tax collectors, prostitutes, the woman at the well, fishermen - the list goes on. To Jesus, they all had equal worth determined by their identity as children of God, rather than their social standing.

Could we have those eyes to see?

Andy Flannagan, 03/02/2011