"A Member of My Family"
Matthew 25:31-46
November 23, 2008
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
One of my favorite comic strips of all time has to be Peanuts, created and drawn by Charles Shultz. Most people love the adventures of Lucy and Linus, Sally and good ole Charlie Brown. If you are like me, you also like Woodstock, the little bird, and Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog. Snoopy may be my favorite of all the Peanuts characters. In the made for television specials, I love to hear Snoopy laugh.
In one of the comic strips, Snoopy is standing in the doorway of his dog house, shivering violently in the midst of a winter storm. Snow is everywhere. You can tell that it is Christmas time because lights are strung from Snoopy's dog house. In the comic strip, Charlie Brown and Lucy walk by Snoopy's house. Because of the storm, they are bundled up. They are wearing heavy coats, boots, and gloves. You cannot help but to get the idea that those two are as warm as toast.
It is about this time that Charlie Brown looks over at his dog, Snoopy. He sees him shivering. He notices that his teeth are chattering. And Charlie Brown says, "Snoopy, be of good cheer!" Lucy listens and then looks over at Snoopy and says, "Yes, Snoopy, be of good cheer!" Snoopy looks at both of them as his teeth chatter. Charles Shultz doesn't give Snoopy the ability to talk, but if he did, I wonder what Snoopy would say. If I were Snoopy, I would have preferred an invitation into the house over a greeting or at the very least, a blanket or a coat over Lucy and Charlie Brown's words.
Well, here we are on the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving. It is also a Sunday we call Christ the King Sunday. At Thanksgiving, we take the time to stop and thank God for the blessings in our life. It is also a time that we think about and try to help others.
It was the founder of our church, John Wesley, who said, "Give none that asks relief either an ill word or ill look. Do not hurt them if you cannot help them. And expect no thanks from anyone. This morning I would like for us to land by thinking about how we can help other people.
And I cannot help but to think that our lesson from the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's gospel is perfect for thinking about that. Commentators who have studied this passage say that this is the most important teaching in Matthew's entire gospel. They say that the entire gospel has been moving towards this lesson since Jesus was born in the manger. In Matthew, Jesus is a great teacher and this parable is his last lesson, his last point, the greatest moment in his teaching ministry.
The lesson paints a picture using words. Or a better image than that, Matthew takes a picture with a camera that has both a wide and close up lens. Up front is Jesus, sitting on a throne, clothed in majesty. His robe is long and flowing. The angels are tending to His needs. I have to tell you that this picture is interesting to me. Maybe it is because this is the same Jesus, who, a few short chapters ago had no where to lay His head. And this is the same Jesus who was rejected in his own hometown. Things are different now, very different!
If you pull the camera lens back, you will see that seated in front of Jesus, in row after row of chairs, gathered like a graduating class on commencement day, are all the nations of the world. They all glance towards Jesus. Jesus sees them and then, just like a shepherd would have done in his day, separated them. On one side He put the sheep and on the other he put the less valuable goats. Then Jesus pronounces a judgment on all of them. For the sheep the news is good, very good. They are the ones who will receive a blessing. They are the true heirs. The news could not be better. They are where they are because they provided food and drink and hospitality and clothing and care for Jesus. For the goats, the news is not so good. They are condemned because they did none of those ministries to Jesus.
Now, the problem with this parable is that it is not just a good moral tale. It does not say to us to take care of Jesus and we will be with Him forever or don't take care of Him and there will be consequences. It is not that easy! I wish it was! There is a twist. There is almost always a twist in these stories of Jesus. The twist here is that neither the sheep nor the goats had any idea that in their compassion or lack of it, they were taking care of Jesus. Both groups were stunned. Both exclaimed, "When, Lord, was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison? When?" Then there is Jesus' punch line, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it or did not do it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did or did not do it for me."
Wow! And Snoopy stands there with his teeth chattering and shivering in the cold because he has only received a word from Lucy and Charlie Brown.
Now the problem with all of this is that if you are one of the goats and if you had noticed Jesus, you would have done these things for him. If you were a Pharisee and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, you wouldn't have challenged His teachings. If you were a soldier in the garden of Gethsemane, you would not have escorted Jesus to Pilate's headquarters. The problem you see is that Jesus doesn't always look like Jesus.
There is a good chance that a member of Jesus' family was in my office a couple of weeks ago. A young man asked to see me. He had garbage bags in his shirt pocket and a request on his heart. He was trying to move his family from Pine Bluff up here. He had a job, but it had suddenly become a part-time instead of a full-time one. He was looking for some work. The bags in his pocket were there to pick up leaves. I asked him what he really needed and he said that he needed about fifteen dollars for a disposable phone so he could line up jobs. And then he asked, "Could I have twenty so I could get something to eat?" I answered, "Sure." Off he went out our front door. I was working on this sermon and so I could not help but to wonder if he were one of the members of Jesus' family.
There is a movie whose title is Whistle in the Wind. Maybe you have seen it. In it, some children stumble across a man sleeping in the straw of a barn. The children were frightened and called out, "Who are you?" The man, just out of prison, was jarred awake and screamed out an expletive. It was this one, "Jesus Christ." That's the way he meant it, but the children took him to mean that he really was Jesus Christ, so they treated him with respect, awe, and love. They brought him food and blankets. They talked with him and they listened to his story. Their tenderness transformed the man's life and opened his eyes to the real Jesus Christ.
I've been listening to a song the past couple of weeks that truthfully would not leave me alone. Every time I turned on the radio, there it was. The words opened my ears. The video opened my heart. The words go something like this, "I wish I was more of a man. Have you ever felt that way? And if I had to tell you the truth I'm afraid I'd have to say that after all I've done and failed to do I fell like less than I was meant to be. What if you could see yourself through another pair of eyes? What if you could hear the truth instead of old familiar lies. What if you could feel inside the power of the hand that made the universe you'd realize. That He made the lame walk and the dumb talk and he opened blinded eyes to see. That the sun rises on his time, yet he knows our deepest desperate need. And the world waits while His heart aches to realize the dream. I wonder what life would be like if we let Jesus live through you and me." That is the title of the song, "What Would Life Be Like?"
What if we did see Jesus in others? In the book of Hebrews, the preacher of that sermon encourages, "Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."
Beloved, hospitality is big time in the Bible and we must tend to it. A lot of people who visit our church tell me that we are a friendly congregation. If you are visiting today, I hope you are experiencing that. We cannot rest on that reputation. We must take care of that gift. The gift of welcoming must always be before us.
In his book The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations Bishop Robert Schnase imagines this scene. A young single mom stands awkwardly at the foyer with her toddler, looking around at all the people she does not know on her first visit to a church. Someone at work invited her to come and she thought, at the time, it was a good idea. Now she is not so sure. She is wondering about child care and not real sure of her sixteen month olds disposition. She doesn't know where the bathrooms are. She's too timid to ask for directions. She's now wondering if coming here was a mistake. Where will she sit? Will she be in someone's space? What will it be like for her to be in the Sanctuary while her daughter is in the nursery. What if there is a problem? She feels the need for prayer, for some connection to others and for something to lift her high above the daily grind that is her life.
Now imagine this. What if we took Jesus' words seriously? "Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me?" Could you look at her as a bundle of hopes and anxieties and desires and discomforts that she is carrying with her. And what if you though, "She is a member of Jesus' family and Jesus wants me to treat her as I would if Jesus walked through those doors!"
How would you treat her? I'm telling you, taking Jesus seriously, and I cannot imagine a passage that demands that more than the one we've just read, will change how we look at people. Now let me say this. It is easier when they cross the threshold of church doors. It is harder when they call for help with their bills. It is harder when their name is given because without us on Christmas morning the tree, if there is a tree, will have nothing under it.
Now I don't know about you, but when that day comes, and I see Jesus up there on the throne, I want to be among the sheep. How about you? Let us pray.