I had two teachers in the Spanish school for the last three weeks. Julio was the teacher in the morning from 8am – noon, and Olga taught from 2pm – 6pm. Julio is married with 2 children, rents an apartment and does not own a car. His father is 77 years old and Julio was very curious about what it is like to live in the United States and be elderly. I mentioned Social Security, Medicare, half price Metro Cards and meals on wheels. Guatemala has none of these things. Some families have a lot of children and the parents live with the children when they get sick, but Julio only has one brother. His father continues to keep life going because he still works full time, half the day on a farm and half the day at his house as a tailor.
Sometimes you get a new appreciation for your own country when you look at it through the eyes 
of another. So I decided to look up Social Security and discovered that there is a Christian that wrote much of the basic legislation for Social Security.
She became a Christian as an adult. She worked as a factory investigator in New York City. When she became secretary of labor in 1933, unemployment approached 30 percent. Facing the most demanding job of her life, she made arrangements for regular rest and replenishment--as she believed all people should be permitted and encouraged to do. On the advice of her pastor, Francis Perkins spent one day a month in silent prayer at the Maryland convent of All Saints Sisters of the Poor, one of the oldest religious orders in the Episcopal Church. Through the Summer School of Christian Sociology, she came to believe that not only the church, but even the state was a sacrament, a gift from God through which grace is given tangible expression.
For Frances Perkins, Child Labor Laws, Minimum Wage Laws, and Social Security were gifts and proof of God’s love, shown through the state as well as the church.
Friends, I can’t tell you at this time whether I agree with her theology. It is a completely new idea to me that the state as well as the church is supposed to be a sacrament of God’s grace. Perkins was steeped in the Lux Mundi theology of Bishop Charles Gore and a subsequent generation of British Anglican socialists, such as Conrad Noel, Maurice Reckitt, W. G. Peck and William Temple. (If you are interested in reading more, I refer you to those authors.)
What I can tell you is that it made sense to Julio. Julio is a fundamentalist. I’m not sure if he has ever even heard the word ‘sacrament’. But it did not take him 5 seconds to realize how a Christian had taken the machinery of the United States government to make it a sign gift of grace.
Guatemala is a country recovering from war. There have been incredible changes in the last year. Its one of the largest Central American countries. But five centuries of Catholic teaching have not managed to make a sign gift through the state. And now, Protestants, largely fundamentalist or pentecostal, have converted 35% of the population. Large mega churches are emerging like the United States. But the emerging theology of the new churches has not shown any more interest than the Catholics to the one concern that is closest to Julio’s heart, what will happen to his 77 year old father?
I want to look with you at the Book of James today. As the election process starts again, the Christian community is largely tied to the failed presidency of George Bush. We need a fresh start. There needs to be a second conversion of the Christian church. In Wesleyan theology, we call this sanctification. If you are firmly committed to the Christian life, but uncertain as to what it means in daily living and the witness you have and the way you participate in a democratic society, then I pray that the book of James will offer hope and guidance. Let’s worship
When a rocket takes off, we usually see them pointed straight up. But the escape velocity need to escape the atmosphere of the earth does not need a direction. If you start running and you can run fast enough, at some point you will leave the earth’s surface and shoot off into space. That is somewhat like the Christian experience. Most people become Christians out of frustration. There is something in life that is troubling you and the love of God suddenly makes a deep impression, it makes sense in a way you did not know previously. Suddenly you take off the escape your old life, leave it behind, willing to believe that the sacramental signs of God’s love are true indicators of what you will experience.
The problem for space ships is that once they reach escape velocity, they simply leave the earth without direction. Since you don’t have to have any particular direction to escape, it means that you are suddenly boosting away from the earth without any particular destination. We see with the Mars rocket that other rockets fire after it gets into orbit to start steering for Mars. John Wesley taught that the soul has this same problem. You became a Christian to escape the problem that was binding you in life. But now you are a Christian only converted in one dimension, you have escaped whatever problem that troubled you. Now you need a second experience of grace to get your heart pointed directly at the North Star, the new light of Christ.
Friends, the trouble with most of the Christians in the United States is that they have never had this second experience. It is not just a problem for our time, it was a problem in Wesley’s time, a church that was supposed to ask the state for sign gifts of grace but the state was resistant and the church was reluctant.
Christians have also been uncertain about how to use Wesley’s ideas on sanctification. We usually teach that sanctification is progressive and gradual, that slowly through Bible study you will drop non Christian ideas and represent Christ more faithfully. Wesley did not believe this. Wesley was interested in destroying slavery and supported Wilberforce, Wesley was interested in medical help for the poor, Wesley visited prisons. He felt that people don’t just gradually identify with the heart of Christ, they need a second definite work of grace to get their heart oriented
James is a warning that you cannot live the Christian life by belief alone. Saying I believe in Christ and support the war in Iraq puts you on very dangerous ground. James tells us that even the demons can say that they believe in Christ. If you will not allow your salvation to change what you do, then you will remain dead in sin.
How does the Christian church deal with this? Many times, we focus on imaginary sins. When I grew up, my church had reduced sanctification to , don’t own a television, don’t go to the movies, don’t dance, don’t wear a ring. Now, forty years later, all of those people have pretty much changed their ideas. They have televisions. I remember one pastor who would not own a television when I was a child, but he took his family to Sears every Thursday night for their favorite TV program where they could watch it in the furniture department.
Did God change? Has God suddenly decided that TV’s are ok? Sanctification must be real, not a recommitment to false ideals that don’t reflect God’s heart.
James gives blunt hints of what he considers to be a true sanctification. You better end up feeding people who are hungry, clothing people who are naked. And forget sexual sins. Rahab was a prostitute who found salvation by hiding the spies. I don’t think James is supporting prostitution, but he is searching for an example to shock you and get Christians away from a preoccupation with sex as the only sin.
There is a world waiting for news of its savior. They are looking for sign gifts and we would have to admit that the United States has been the hope of many in the world. We are a beacon of a place where people are treated fairly and mercifully. That is why we have undocumented immigration – we were a place where people sensed the grace of God even through the actions of government.
I have preached several times about the 7 stories of the gospel and you will find them on the web site. When you are sanctified, you join the heart of Christ in offering these signs of grace in the world, - a sign of inclusiveness that God and us want to know your name, a sign of understanding that God sent Christ and us to get to know how you suffer, a sign of hope, that God and us believe in a great future, a sign of peace, that Jesus is the sacrifice so we renounce vengeance and the shedding of blood because of Christ.
If you are willing to be a bearer of the signs of grace, then you are a sanctified Christian. If this is all new to you, perhaps God is asking you to reorient your life, ask God for a second definite work of grace that changes your outlook from the worldly to the heart of Christ.
Frances Perkins knew the heart of God. She became one of the people who has probably had the most impact on your life if you ever had a minimum wage job or received social security.
The United States continues to be a sign gift of God’s grace through her legislation. And it will continue. Currently, the system can pay full benefits until 2032 and 75 percent thereafter. A tax increase of 2.2 percent, evenly split between employers and employees, would keep benefits at 100 percent indefinitely. In practical terms, people earning $50,000 a year would pay an extra $10 a week for a retirement annuity that is fully protected against inflation and that supports their retired parents at the same time.
For Julio, this is a dream of what can be, even though we take Social Security for granted and pretend that we can’t manage a 2% tax to continue it indefinitely.
Frances Perkins said, "I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen." She was the longest serving Cabinet member ever, the first woman Cabinet member, and an example of what God can do with your life, when you find sanctification.
