November 26, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: “I Was Hungry and You Fed Me”
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
(Other lectionary suggestions include Ezekiel 34:11-16 and 20-24, Psalm 100, and Ephesians 1:15-23.)
Matthew 25:31-46
The Judgment of the Nations
31"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. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then 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; 35for 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, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then 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? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And 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.’ 41Then 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; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I 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.’ 44Then 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?’ 45Then 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.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Ecclesiastical color is WHITE, the last Sunday of the church year. Today is sometimes called Reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday. Next Sunday the color will be PURPLE for the first Sunday of Advent, or the beginning of the church year.
Today's Scripture lesson lays it out, doesn't it? In a word, it's what you DO that counts, or DON'T do if you don't! You and I as Protestants have heard all our lives that it is God's grace that saves us, and I don't disagree with that! But what we DO is important, too, and some evangelicals have forgotten that, perhaps. We have the great hymn by Charles Wesley that says, “Hail him who saves you BY HIS GRACE, and Crown Him Lord of All.” I'm not saying that's wrong, because it says in one of the Psalms, “O Lord, if you should count our iniquities against us, O Lord, who could stand?” The Psalmist knew he needed God's grace, even all those many years before Jesus. And WE ALL DO! But don't you forget that it's important what we DO in our lives, grace or no grace! And today's Scripture reading makes that plain!
Now don't think you have to give away a lot! You don't because it's the little things that count. Remember in another context how Jesus says if you give somebody even a little cup of water, then you'll have your reward? If you have been blessed with a lot and can give much, GREAT! But look what kinds of things Jesus picks out: giving a hungry person a meal, welcoming a stranger, cheering up the sick, visiting those who are in prison. ANYBODY - i.e., YOU! - can DO that, and me, too! The idea is to give simple help to the people we meet every day.
Something else about helping others: it must be uncalculated giving. I like to think that most church people give because they want to, not because they want to come across as big shots. Also, in the story today, those who gave did so out of the sympathy in their hearts, not because they knew they were giving to Jesus. But those who DIDN'T give essentially didn't because they didn't RECOGNIZE Jesus in the face of each person in need! Isn't THAT interesting! It's as if they said, “Had we known it was YOU we would have given something. We didn't give because we just thought it was some insignificant person not worth helping.” What's the point? We need to see every person in need as somebody with the face of Jesus. THAT's the point. Don't judge that person as “not worthy.” Oh, we Christians can be so judgmental at times! We say things like, “He'll just take my money and buy another bottle.” Really? Do you know that or are you just making an assumption? Maybe the dollar or two you give somebody will be just what that person needs to make it through another day.
I am reminded of something that has probably happened to you. Somebody does something he shouldn't have and we are enraged.......but then you recognize that person and say, “Oh, it's you! I thought it was somebody else.” Isn't it interesting that the people we know we sort of give a break to, whereas if it's somebody we DIDN'T know, we might behave differently.
On that subject of behaving differently to those we know, I have a funny story. I played football in high school, and we were well ahead of this other team. We usually beat them on a regular basis, and at halftime we were already ahead by a score of 18-0. During halftime, the coach urged us to run the score up on them. We took the kickoff, and the ball came right to me. It was kind of a squiggly kick, and as I reached for it, it bounced funny and hit me in the helmet. The other team recovered, and as I ran over to the bench, the coach, a master of sarcasm, said, “Nice going!” A friend of my parents was in the stands, watching the game with my parents, and when he saw that the other team recovered the ball after it hit me in the helmet, he said, “Look at that goof!” My dad said, “Hey, that's Skip!” The other guy said, “Oh, I'm sorry!” The point is the guy was going to call me a goof until it was pointed out that he knew me! Point of the story? When we know the other person, we tend to treat that person differently. Oh, and we won that game by a final score of 31-0!
One more example......when I was in college, I hitch-hiked a lot to get back and forth from home to school, a distance of about 90 miles. Once just outside where my college town was located, an upper classman picked me up, because he recognized me! When he slowed down and I opened the door, he even said, “I couldn't pass you up!” That was nice of him, but he also did it because he recognized me. Had he not known me, perhaps he wouldn't have stopped.
This story that we heard today of the separation of the sheep and the goats would have been well known to Jesus's listeners. Sheep and goats, then as now, regularly graze together. But at night they need to be separated because the goats aren't as hardy as the sheep, and they need to be kept warm. Also, sheep and goats tend to look very similar. One thing I learned in writing this sermon is that one difference is that a tail of a sheep hangs down while the tail of a goat sticks up! (Did you know that? I did not.)
Here is an interesting idea from one New Testament scholar. He says that the best way to the hearts of parents is to treat their kids nicely. Well, everybody is a child of God, right? So, God appreciates it when we treat every single one of his children with compassion. That may be a little simple and a little naive. But EVERYBODY is a child of God, right? So, God appreciates it when we treat his children right.
Finally, there were two men in history for whom today's Scripture reading really made a big impact. The first was St. Francis of Assisi. He was born into a wealthy family, but he was not happy. He chose the priesthood, and his father was not happy about his son's choice. One day he was out riding, and he saw a leper. Something made Francis get off his horse and go hug the leper. As the leper was in his arms, the story goes, the leper's face changed to the face of Christ.
The other man, who is not so well known to me, is Martin of Tours. Martin was a Roman soldier and also a Christian. One cold winter's day, Martin rode into a city and met a beggar. The beggar asked for some money, but Martin didn't have any. The beggar was cold, Martin noticed, and since he didn't have any money, he shared what he had. What he had was his soldier's coat. and so he took it off, cut it in half, and gave half to the beggar. That night Martin of Tours had a dream, and in that dream he saw visions of Heaven with angels and Jesus there. In the dream, Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier's coat. One of the angels said, “Master, why are you wearing that battered old coat?” Jesus replied, “My servant Martin gave it to me.”
This Christmas season and all through the year, let us be generous without calculation - and who knows? Maybe you and I will see the face of Jesus himself. Amen.
Pastor Skip
