Matthew 25:31-46
"Hungry, thirsty, homeless, and without clothes, sick and in
prison, and you ministered to me," he said, and they were so
surprised. They said, "We didn't see you hungry or thirsty or
homeless or sick or in prison, and not minister to you; we'd never do
that." And he said, "If you did it to one of the least of
these, you did it to me."
This is the parable of the sheep and the goats. It is often called the
parable of the last judgment, or even the parable of the great surprise,
because folks were really surprised at the way Jesus talked of himself
being in the hungry or the sick or the poor. Like all the other parables
of Jesus, this parable is ultimately about our life with God. And this
parable essentially says that to get closer to God, we need to get closer
to those who are hurting. This doesn't surprise us, of course, because
Jesus was always reaching out to others, and he called his disciples to go
and do likewise. So it doesn't surprise us that many of the parables are
about this love for others and how it relates to our life with God.
It reminds me of an old preacher's story about a man who traded
horses--dishonest horse-trading. The trouble is, he knew the Bible
very well, and so he justified all his deals by quoting Scripture.
But he had
one sick horse; this horse was really in bad condition. Everyone in
the area knew about this and so he couldn't get rid of the horse. But
one day
a man came down the road and in just a little while he went riding
away on this horse; he had bought it. And his wife was asking him, "Who
bought that sick horse?" He said, "Well, an itinerant preacher
came through here and I convinced him that if he was on horseback, he
could cover a lot more ground, so he bought the horse." Well, she was
so upset, "How could you sell that sick horse to a preacher!" He
said, "It's in the Scripture, 'He was a stranger and I took him
in."
Well, the humor of this story, such as it is, turns around the fact
that it's the exact opposite of what the story is about. You don't take a
stranger in to take him in; you take a stranger in to care for him.
That's the point of the story, that our relationship with God is
connected with how we care for others.
This parable is really an illustration of what the book of James in the
New Testament is concerned about. The author of James understood Paul's
great contribution of justification by faith. Of course, we are saved by
grace through faith, Paul says. This is a great contribution to our
understanding of what life in the Kingdom is about. It's a life of faith;
it's a life of trust. But James keeps driving home the point that faith
without works is dead--it is a dead faith. You have to have the works, you
have to have the deeds, you have to put your love in action, you have to
work out your faith through this kind of practical, daily obedience, and
that's what this parable is about. This is a down to earth, practical,
no-nonsense parable, about acting.
But now it starts to get very exciting. This message is not new to
us; we've heard it over and over again. We understand this. But what
this
parable does for us is give us two powerful sources of motivation for
this. First, this is called the Parable of the Last Judgment, and that
is the setting. The sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left,
heaven
and hell, eternal life and eternal punishment, I mean this is the Last
Judgment. And the one criterion, the one criterion by which we are
judged is putting love into action in this way. It doesn't matter what
church
you've attended, it doesn't matter how many Bible Study Groups you've
gone to, how many retreats you've gone on, doesn't matter what creed
you have
accepted, doesn't matter what denomination you're a part of, doesn't
matter what kind of a car you drive, how famous you are, how many books
you've written. None of these count… according to this parable…none of
these count. The only way by which the value of your life is judged is the
way in which you've cared for those who are hurting. This is the one
criterion. "Did you act out your love?" That's the one question
that will be asked.
Now we have to say parenthetically, of course, that you can't push any
of the parables to the extreme because you tend to lose perspective. I
don't think Jesus intended for us to do that. But here it is in this
parable. It's enough to motivate us to listen to this, to the teaching of
this parable, to think about this past week, all the different things that
we've done this past week, the places we've gone, the things we've had to
do and to take care of; and the only thing in the midst of all of that
that matters, is how we have cared for others, in very concrete, very
specific ways. That's the only thing, all week, by which the value of our
lives will be judged.
There's a story of an old man who was at a prayer meeting, and every
week he prayed the same prayer, "Oh Lord use me, oh Lord use
me." People in the church got tired of hearing him pray the same
prayer over and over again, "Oh Lord use me." Well, a fire broke
out in the church kitchen one time, and everyone was running around
looking for fire extinguishers and getting people out of the building…a
lot of activity going on. This man just kept right on praying, "Oh
Lord, use me, …but in an executive capacity."
Well that's a very popular prayer for many people. This parable is
saying that executive capacity alone won't cut it, it won't do, that's not
enough. You've got to be there where the action is; you've got to be
acting out your faith in love, in caring. So there's one source of
motivation, and I find it pretty compelling.
But there's another source of motivation also. And this is the one
that really excites me. It has to do with Christ, it has to do with
the living
eternal Christ, the Christ Spirit of God. "Christ in us," Paul
says, "is our hope of glory." That deep within the human
soul is this Spirit of God, which Christians call the Christ Spirit,
and it is
through this Christ Spirit that we can be led deeper and deeper into
the heart of God. And as my spirituality has grown, the thing that
has become
so important to me is how to be with Christ. What are the ways that
Christ can become real for me? And this parable is telling me the very
best way,
the best way to be with Christ is to be with those who are hurting
and those who are suffering, because that's where Christ is.
Here then is a parable in which the emphasis is upon love in action.
It's not simply a cute little story, which we can easily dismiss. It's a
story that stirs us up because of the double motivation here.
Now, of course, we can apply this in our individual lives. It's so
important, as individuals, to be out there in the world in service to
others.
But I think it's a parable, which can also speak to us at the corporate
level, at the level of the church. There are so many things that we
cannot do individually, but if we gather together in groups for mission,
acting
in the name of Jesus Christ, there is so much more we can do. It's
almost a living out of the words of Jesus, "Where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I will be with them." And it's no accident either
that I offer this meditation on the day we celebrate the ministry of
Phyllis Reeds, because I think the primary gift of Phyllis to our church
is that Phyllis has enabled us to act corporately in this way.
In our I Have A Dream Program Phyllis pulled us together, and together
we helped 79 young people prepare themselves for a better life through
the empowerment of education. "I was having trouble in school,
and you motivated me and supported me."
And through our Crisis Food Support Program Phyllis pulled us together,
and together we have delivered literally thousands of weeks of groceries
to Hartford families who found themselves in crisis and without food. "I
was hungry, and you gave me food."
Or through Habitat for Humanity, Phyllis again pulled us together,
and together we help build homes in this neighborhood. "I was
homeless, and you sheltered me."
Or through Covenant to Care, Phyllis pulled us together, and together
we helped in myriads of ways people who were lacking some of the basic
necessities of life. "I was naked, and you clothed me; I was a
teenage mother and so alone, and you reached out to me."
Or through our Love Hartford Committee, Phyllis pulled us together,
and together we are working to establish a Boys and Girls Club here
in this
neighborhood to serve our young people so desperately in need of a
place to go and for caring people to guide them. "I was young
and didn't know what path to take, and you pointed me in the right
direction."
And so you see that this is a parable not just for us as individuals,
but maybe even more so for us as a church. Are we to be a church that
talks about love in the beautiful sanctuary and then we merely return to
our comfortable home, or are we to be a church that will continue to put
our talk about love into action? That's what this parable is about.
I think of a story during the Second World War when the coal miners
of Great Britain were having a hard time producing enough coal. Winston
Churchill was trying to motivate them; everything depended upon production
of the coal. So they gathered 3000 miners in a great hall in London,
and
Churchill was speaking to them, motivating them about working and
producing the coal, and he said, "Some day, some day your children
will ask, 'where were you during the great war?'" Some will answer,
"in the Eighth Army;" some will answer, "the Fifth Air
Squadron," or "in the Hospital Core." And what will you
say? You will say that you were "down in the pit, up against the
face of the coal, digging, digging."
Perhaps our children someday will ask us, as individuals, as a church,
how did we live out our Christian life in a world plagued with so many
hungry, and homeless, destitute, lost, and lonely. We will want, as
individuals, and as Asylum Hill Congregational Church, we will want
to be able to respond to our children, "We were out in the streets,
in the world, up against the face of human need, serving, serving." Ministering
to you in Christ's name.
Amen and Alleluia.