Proper 29 year A RCL

Last Sunday after Pentecost

November 23, 2008

Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, `Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, `Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, `You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, `Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, `Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I am firmly convinced that “right belief” does not result in God’s favor. Richard Hooker, a famous Anglican theologian from the 16^th century, argued that, “those who do not rightly understand the means that God has provided for our salvation may nonetheless be saved by it.” (Quoted from James Kiefer’s hagiography on Hooker) I think that what really matters to God, more than our self-righteous claims of understanding about God’s plan for salvation, is our actions toward our fellow human being, especially toward the down-trodden and disenfranchised.

In answer to the question, “What does God require of us?” Micah, the Old Testament prophet, responds, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” God doesn’t desire animal sacrifice or adherence to complicated (or even simplistic) theological beliefs. He desires our love and our willingness to turn our lives over to his care.

Some might point out to me that there are certain beliefs I must hold. Let me answer that, yes, I agree with the theology that says that we cannot make ourselves acceptable to God through our good works. Yes, I know that we have been made acceptable to God through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Yes, I understand about Martin Luther’s realization about grace while he was superstitiously crawling up the steps of Pilate’s Stair in Rome when he heard the words, “The just shall live by faith,” as if from an angel. We are made acceptable to God through our faith alone; otherwise it would be as if we are seeking to control God, gaining favor through our own merits. Yes, yes, yes…

However, faith without works is dead. At least that is what St. James wrote. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul. It is through our love of neighbor that this is accomplished. And that love has to be more than holding hands with our friends and singing Kum-By-Yah. We have to feed the hungry, provide water for the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the imprisoned. And notice that it doesn’t say the “falsely imprisoned.” We are to visit the guilty as well as the wrongly accused.

A few years ago I went up to Gold Beach to the Curry County jail on Sunday afternoons to visit a guy that I knew. I can’t remember his crime, but, rest assured, he was guilty. I doubt my visits had much impact on him. In fact, I saw him this past summer. His 12-year-old boy was sitting in the passenger seat of his pickup with a half full jug of whiskey on the floorboard. I made this observation and my formerly incarcerated friend said, “Oh, that isn’t mine.” “I’m sure the cops won’t cite you for open container when you tell them that,” I thought to myself. He is still on a collision course with bad judgment.

Regardless of whether my wayward friend manages to stay out of jail in the future, regardless of whether he was blessed by my visits, I was blessed by the experience. I got to “do unto the least of these.” I got to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ by visiting the prisoner.

When I visit the elderly at Macklyn House and Curry Good Sam it is the same thing. Paige and I went to see my favorite 98-year-old woman last Sunday. As we approached her door I could hear her faintly calling, “Help. Help me.” She was sitting in her wheel chair and couldn’t find her call button. She needed to use the toilet and didn’t want to soil herself yet again. I pushed the button, verified that the light above her door was lit, and Paige and I kept her company until the nurses came. In this case, I think it is safe to say that Dorothy was as blessed by our visit as much as we were. Dorothy is most definitely “the least of these.” I talked to a woman this week that had been one of Dorothy’s Sunday school students decades ago. I encouraged the former student to go see Dorothy. But I’m cynical that she will. It is a lot easier to profess hollow faith than it is to walk in the doors of a scary nursing home and face our own mortality in the eyes of a fragile 98-year-old woman that can’t use the toilet by herself.

I don’t know all of the right beliefs that I am supposed to hold. But I do know that Christ calls us to action. Christ doesn’t call us to church. He calls us to jails and nursing homes, hospitals and night shelters. He calls us to protect the rights of the discriminated and the safety of children. And he tells us that when we do these things, it is as if we are doing them unto Christ himself. What further motive to we need?

==Amen==