Equality and non-discrimination

Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at Evensong 6.30pm, 7th September 2008 - Trinity 16
Readings: Isaiah 35: 4-7a Psalm 108 James 2: 1-17

This morning in church, in our observance of Racial Justice Sunday, we reflected on unjust discrimination against people from other races.
But then the theme of discrimination came up in the church news last week in a completely different way. A newly form group called “Accord” accused Faith Schools of discrimination in the selection of teachers and pupils. I found myself wondering what it means to be a faith school if it does not mean that at least some members of staff and pupils come form the designed faith. A ballet school must necessarily select people who are interested in ballet. Surely a faith school must do the same? But in the perception of people like Accord there is a particular difficulty of discrimination arsing from faith.
And then in our scripture reading today we heard St James warn against unjust discrimination against the poor.
So it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect around this theme of equality and non-discrimination, in the Christian understanding.
The equality of dignity of all human beings arises above all from our creation. God, in his great wisdom and love, has created human beings to share in his image and likeness (Gen 1: 26-27, 5:1 James 3:9). We are created for a great destiny; to share eternal life with God, through Christ. We are called to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:18), the likeness of God. Whether or not people are aware of it, we are all called by Christ (John 12: 32, Matt 28:19). We are all created sons and daughters of the same heavenly father. Through Christ we have the possibility of fully realising that potential as fellow heirs with Christ, inheritors of God’s glory (Rom 8: 13-17).
So, all human beings share a common dignity. All are called to share in the life of heaven. Therefore each human being must be treated with great respect and afforded great value because of the presence of God, and the further potential presence of God in each one. And this dignity is equal among all human beings because it is one and the same dignity which is held in common; the share in the image and likeness of God.
And this has consequences in our attitude to other human beings, which are well illustrated in our reading from James this evening. We heard James emphasise that the Church must not show favouritism to the rich over the poor. He says tells us not to make distinctions among ourselves or make judgements about one another. He says that acts of favouritism suggest a failure to truly believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds of the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). He grounds all this in the commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself” and says that this commandment is broken if we show partiality. He says we should speak and act as those who are to be judged according to the law of liberty. He reminds us of the importance of an attitude of mercy, because the mercy that we show to others is the mercy that we will receive.
In the passage we read, James is particularly concerned with the poor; that there dignity be preserved (vv 3-5) and that their basic human needs for food and clothing are satisfied (vv15-17). But this need to preserve human dignity applies equally to all human beings who are likely to be discriminated against. We think especially today of people of different races, but we could also think of the very young, the very old, people with disabilities of different kinds, the uneducated, foreigners or people from different religions. As Christians we try to seek out, honour and develop this basic human dignity in all people. It is important even in people who wilfully damage the dignity of themselves or of others through greed or sex or drugs or violence or deceit or neglect. We might not agree with their actions, but we still value them as human beings and recognise that, like us, they are created by God, and like us, they are called to heaven, and like us their getting to heaven depends entirely on the grace and mercy of God.
My guess is that this understanding of the basic human dignity of all people is unlikely to cause problems for the supporters of Accord. But there are other aspects of it that they might find more difficult. In particular we must not think that our dignity as human beings a static thing. It arises from our creation as human beings who are called to share in the life of God. It is God’s call to us and his hope for us that is the source of our dignity. We are called to develop our relationship with God and to move ever closer to him. We are called to move from sin to righteousness. We are called to grow in holiness. We know that are human bodies are destined to die, but that we are called to life in the Spirit (c.f. Romans 8: 9-11).
And this call of God has consequences which sometimes are quite wrongly construed as inequalities. For example, God call is very personal to each one of us and the callings are quite different. It uniquely and precisely matches the way we have been made, our personal fulfilment and our personal contribution to the Church and to the whole body of humanity. We try to follow God’s calling for us in our everyday life in society and also in the life of the Church. As St Paul explains, “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. … But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1Cor 28-31) Over time the roles we are called to move on and develop. Hopefully we mature, grow closer to God and offer better and purer service to the life of the whole Church. Paul talks about some gifts being “higher” than others, but this is not about having dominion over others, rather it is about serving others; the wider the scope of service to the whole church, the higher the gift. It is when gifts are properly used for the service of others that we are able to see most clearly that the diversity of gifts and the diversity of roles does not compromise our equal dignity as human beings.
Also this call to righteousness means that we value and celebrate our efforts to become better people, and to correspond better to God’s aspirations for each one of us. And when we try to follow God in this way it does introduce a certain tension into our life. We find ourselves trying to behave like saints, when manifestly we are sinners. This is sometimes quite wrongly construed as hypocrisy, as though it would somehow be more honest and better to fail to journey towards God and to rejoice in our inadequacies and sinfulness. Of course our own human efforts to become holy are in themselves completely futile. We fail and fail and fail again, but our efforts are still very important and significant because they express our desire to move towards holiness. As we fail and confess our sins and start again, so we create a humble space in which God’s grace and mercy is able to work, taking us forward not as we would expect, but as God has planned for us.
[The call to holiness therefore means that there are certain values, behaviours and attitudes that are helpful to us personally, to the church and to wider society. These we seek to promote. Similarly there are other approaches which are rebellious against God, unhelpful and destructive. These we would seek to move away from. What groups like Accord sometimes find difficult is that promoting certain values can feel like discrimination in favour of people who display those values and discrimination against people who don’t. Needless to say, I do not accept this. It seems to me that seeking to remove discrimination by removing values ultimately removes the very reason why we want to avoid discrimination. All sense of right and wrong, and all sense of justice disappears.
So what are the valid ways of promoting equality and non-discrimination? Well certainly it is to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Certainly it is to recognise and rejoice in the dignity of each human being. Certainly it is to want the good of that human being, and want to help them on their journey towards God, even if they are currently very far from God. But we must not allow desire for equality to force everybody to be the same, or to exercise the same roles in society. Rather we should rejoice in diversity and encourage the people who are “greater” to focus more completely on the service of others. Neither should we allow the desire for equality to stop us from saying that certain behaviours are “good” and desirable, and others “bad” and undesirable. Rather we should redouble our efforts to promote that which is good, whilst retaining and attitude of great mercy towards those whose behaviour is “bad”.]