Sermon - 22 November 2020

Out with the old and in with the new
Matthew 25:31-45

Today is the final Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year. For those of you who don’t know, we follow a three-year cycle of readings…years A, B and C.

Today being the final week means that next week, which is the first Sunday of Advent, we will begin a new church year using the readings from year B. On the final Sunday of the church’s year, we always celebrate the feast of Christ the King. And today, the gospel reading from Matthew paints for us, a picture of Jesus appearing on clouds at the end of time…as a king sitting in judgement on those who stand before him. He talks about two groups, one side going through the pearly gates to eternal bliss, the others, the unrighteous are sent off to eternal damnation.

Scary – or what?

We often try to ignore this story or try to water it down because the thought of a last judgement makes us feel uncomfortable because the consequences of being rejected by Christ don’t bear thinking about. But God thinks that the lives we lead here on earth are of consequence, and so our behaviour has serious penalties. The way in which we treat others has importance to God, he takes note and there is judgement.

We love parables like the Lost Sheep and the Good Samaritan, but this parable about the sheep and the goats is a bit close to home. We can see the truth in it and the truth is painful. It makes us feel uncomfortable.

Did you notice that in Jesus’ words, both the righteous and the unrighteous are surprised by how they’re judged….both groups say:

‘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?’

Jesus refers to them as sheep and goats and whether we like it or not, we have the capacity to be both. The righteous (those classed as sheep) had no idea that their good deeds meant that they were inheriting the Kingdom prepared for them. They weren’t trying to earn God’s favour. They were just living their lives of faith in the way that they always did. This is what loving our neighbour as ourselves is about. Loving our neighbour just to get ourselves to heaven wouldn’t be real love.

It’s easy, isn’t it, to show love and compassion to those we like or love? But what about loving those who do things that repulse us or things we don’t believe in? What about muggers or murderers, sex offenders, thieves, liars…I could go on.We might even find ourselves judging others by their appearance, or we make assumptions about how people think or feel. Most of the time we are unaware that we are even doing it.

Our Christian calling is to be Christ like and we are faced by many opportunities to help the needy. These acts of kindness can be provided by anybody, we don’t need any special qualifications or lots of money. To visit, to care, to offer our time …such things all are well within reach of everybody.

Everything we know about Jesus from the Bible tells us that he befriended outcasts and helped the poor and needy. He came to earth to help us to find God. And that happens in the most unexpected places, and in the most unexpected ways.

We are judged not on the dramatic moments in our lives, but by the ordinary, mundane ones. We are judged by God and by our neighbours on the smallest actions, the throw-away remarks, the routines of our lives.

So…do we care about the hungry and thirsty or do we turn to another channel when the Water Aid adverts come on? Do we cross the road when we see someone hungry and homeless? Do we even notice when we hear a cry for help? There is a lot of need in the world, and because of the pandemic it is only going to get worse. I wonder whether that will mean that we will begin to notice more, or respond more readily, or even that we begin to switch off if the demand is too great?

We might be able to kid ourselves, or even others if our thoughts and actions are not very Christ-like. But there is no hiding things from God. He knows what is in our innermost thoughts and if we are to take today’s reading seriously, then there are consequences.

Not a good thought, is it?

But there is good news as well as bad news, and however seriously we take today’s gospel reading, we need to hold it in balance with other things that Jesus taught… about the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son for instance…who ran...ran…to meet his irresponsible, lazy, greedy younger son to welcome him home with a great celebration….or Jesus’ emphasis on forgiveness ...even when he was dying on the cross.

The good news is that God’s judgement is very different from human judgement. And God judges us with perfect understanding of why we avoid some types of loving and are ignorant of others. But God sees and knows everyone with the same perfect understanding.

God knows when we have crushed someone’s confidence or withheld encouragement, or avoided thinking of them….and he loves our neighbour just as perfectly as he loves us. Maybe the judgement we need to fear is that sometime, somewhere, we will see ourselves as God sees us.

Better get ready, better be more alert, better practise for that day…

Oh yes, of course, that is what Advent is all about…and it starts next Sunday!! 
Amen.

Rev Julie Clarkson