The author of the New Testament letter attributed to James, Jesus’s brother, gives us a glimpse of what could happen when a community attracted the attention of a rich patron. He imagines a rich man and a poor man arriving at the Lord’s Supper at the same time. The well-dressed man is escorted immediately to a prime seat while the poor man is told to “stand over there, or sit on the floor by my footstool.” The author is appalled: Had not God chosen the poor to possess the Kingdom? Yet here the poor were relegated to the margins, while their rich patrons and oppressors were held in honor.
