November 26, 2023 – Christ the King

“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.” Matthew 25:31-46

Just three days ago we celebrated Thanksgiving. Some of you watched the parade in the morning — some of you were obsessed with cooking and cleaning that you missed the parade — but perhaps you watched the dog show. Some of you may have been on the road early in the morning — others may have slept in as long as you could, but got up just in time to eat turkey. And some of you were perhaps working — because Thanksgiving is not a holiday for everyone. It was not that long ago that nothing was open on Thanksgiving — except the occasional gas station. Now, everything is open. But Thanksgiving is over, and to that the American Society says “Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out”. Because, as of Friday, our focus changed — well actually the change of focus began at 6:00 pm on Thursday — the Christmas freight train that is barreling toward us at 90 miles an hour was unleashed.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus is forming lines – he is directing people into two lines. Two lines are formed, and the people are looking at one another trying to determine what is going on. Will one line get to the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than the other? Will one line get a “door buster” sale on wings –while the other will get a “door buster” sale on pitch forks and horns? We don’t know – all we are told initially is that the people are separated like a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep – the king puts them in different lines. And initially there would have been some anxiousness – what is the king doing? Why am I in this line, and not that line? We can feel the anxiousness building.

We gather here today, and undoubtedly some of you have anxieties. I have anxieties — my life, and perhaps your life is filled with places where family cannot get along — bills can’t get paid — you don’t seem to have enough money from one pay check to the next – or your loneliness replaces love and companionship. Some of you have a restlessness where you know all is not right in your family, in your community, in your world — you have compassion for others where you cannot be settled — you cannot be settled because you know people go without: without food, without opportunity, without justice, or without love. And others may have an anxiety about the end times – they wake up worried at night wondering, are they in – or are they out? Following the Thanksgiving holiday, we often find our thoughts turning to those who are homeless, poor, and lacking basic needs.

But often our ideas about how to reach the poor, the hungry, and the homeless sometimes sound more like a political solution than an answer to Jesus’ call to love our neighbor. We want to put people in two lines just like the king in the parable – one line is for those whose outside appearance is more palatable to us – the other line for those whose outside appearance needs to change. One line is for those we can help – the other line for those we deem helpless. One line for those who look, well, clean – the other line for those who need cleaned. How strange of us to think that if we can force people to change their outward appearance, then our willingness to help them will change. We remember that Jesus said we should be “fishers of men,” but he never suggested that we should try to clean the fish before we catch them. Many of us want to give people a razor, a deodorant and a bar of soap before we give them our acceptance. We tell them in so many ways that they are not accepted, and then wonder why they never hear the good news that God loves them. Jesus never suggested that we clean people up before we pick them up.

In most of our churches, we tend to consider ourselves good at ministering to the clean and the comfortable and those whose lives hold some amount of promise; but we choke on our words when some poor soul who comes to is deemed to clearly be absolutely, truly hopeless. And this was Jesus’ specialty – the hopeless. There are some people (and I know we find this hard to understand) there are some people whose lives, and situations are truly hopeless — who cannot lift themselves up by their own bootstraps, because they do not even have boots. This is where I believe we watch the events of Black Friday, the awful, terrible, selfish, behavior of people grabbing, tripping, punching, biting, and shooting one another to get the best deal on a smart Television – and some of us feel sick to our stomachs. I believe it is increasingly obvious that we live in a society that is so radically ill – that is increasingly showing how deep are the social and spiritual problems, that nothing short of a radical commitment on our part, a radical commitment to the radical love, Mercy and Grace of Jesus will help us better understand those who find themselves standing in line for our help.

The ordinary, superficial keep-the-needy at arms length, safe religion so many churches practice are becoming less and less effective among people who are hungry for love, who crave a sense of community, and have no idea how to help themselves. If our conventional words and ways do not touch them where they hurt, then we must find new words and new ways. It is really true: “People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.” So the people standing in line would have been suffering a lot of anxiety — anxiety that is worry — that is fretting — worrying about the future – what is going to happen to them. We all have this worry, at some point in our lives. We all have anxiety.

But Jesus comes to the rescue by doing what Jesus does – showing the anxiousness, or better said the compassion that defines the ministries of Jesus. And Jesus lifts up those who were not afraid to act on the anxiousness that they felt to act on their compassion – those who fed, gave a drink, clothed, or visited someone in need. When the Gospels talk about Jesus and his compassion, it is the Greek word “Splagnizomai” used to describe his compassion — a compassion that wells up from the guts, it is born out of the place true compassion comes from —our inner-most being — the place where so much happens so that we can live — our inner organs — the heart, the Bowels, the guts. And I know we all have had those moments when we have a visceral reaction to the insufficient help that is required to meet the many and varied needs of so many people – but we feel helpless as how to help. When we are truly thankful for the abundance of blessings Jesus has given to us all, we want others to know that abundance, to know that people do care for them, to have love they so crave, to have basic needs like food, clean water, and a visitor when they are in trouble. And that makes us anxious to share compassion with others — makes us anxious to be someone else’s “Thankful” — to be the one others are thankful you are in their lives.

I want you to ponder this: live your live being ready to be someone else’s “Thankful”. For this is what Jesus wants us to do. He says in scripture:

“…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 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 sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And he answered them, ‘…just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”

Jesus was thankful for those whose compassion drove them to be someone else’s “thankful”. Jesus heaped blessings on them because they were the “Thankful” in others lives.

Be Thankful — and be someone else’s Thankful — each and every day.

November 25, 2023 – Does the Bible Say…?

“Does the Bible say Lot hated his daughters?”

 “The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. He said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the square.” But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down. But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door.” Genesis 19:1-11

The story of Sodom – more specifically the people of Sodom is one of the more troubling stories in the Old Testament. The stories about the sins of the people of Sodom have reached all the way to heaven, and the Lord has determined to do something about it. Abraham tried to get the messengers to reconsider their course of action, and they have determined that if they find ten righteous people in the city, the Lord will not destroy the city. And so the two messengers of the Lord arrive in the city, and Lot asks them to stay with him. And while they are with Lot, the men of the city come and demand of Lot to give the visitors to them, so “they man know them”. This is a particularly terrible sin, the sin of “non-consensual” sexual relations. So Lot determines to keep the men of the city away from the visitors – after all, hospitality to strangers is of the utmost importance for the people of Israel. And in a strange turn of events, Lot says “Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please;” His response seems as bad as the demands of the men of the city.

We may find ourselves questioning the culture of that day but protecting one’s guests required great sacrifice. Was Lot right to offer his own daughters in place of the men – the messengers of the Lord? No. But we see something greater happening, because in the story, the Lord’s messengers protected Lot and his daughters in spite of Lot’s choice. Of course if we had the opportunity to ask Lot a question we certainly would ask him “What were you thinking?” This is just another of the difficult stories from the Old Testament that make us stop and consider the often strange and wonderous workings of the Lord.

Pastor Dave