Emphasis Preaching Journal

Leonard Sweet brings the Letter of James up-to-date in his criticism of those who favor the rich over the poor. Sweet writes: "Jesus really did have strange tastes. He especially liked being around the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten. Who should be invited to the table? The disabled, the outcast, the overlooked -- precisely those people excluded from the table by certain religious communities. For Jesus it was not 'Poor people and other outcasts, find yourself a church'; it was 'church people, find yourself the poor and the outcasts.'