Sermon Notes for November 20th
November 20, 2005
Matthew 25:31-46
“You Did Not Welcome Me”
1. Today, one of the world’s most popular rock stars goes by the stage name of Bono … and his band is called U – 2. Unfortunately, I am getting a little too old to be a big fan of this group -- whose leader is now about 45 years old. But, having grown up with Rock and Roll – I get the basic concept pretty well.
But, it is important, I think, whether we are fans of Bono or not, to take into account his willingness to be a leader not only in Entertainment but also in today’s world of international politics at the very highest level.
In short, Bono is not your everyday pot-smoking sensation driven entertainment celebrity … nor does he seem to suffer from any of the scandals associated with people like Michael Jackson either.
For, aside from his world wide success – Bono seems to be concerned mostly about the poor of the world – especially those in Africa.
2. Imagine for a moment, you are Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson. You grew up in a middle class home … in Dublin, Ireland with a Catholic father and Protestant mother. At age 14 your mother, who you love very much, dies. Your father is not your favorite person, it turns out. So, you grow up an angry teenager … what’s new about that? But, then you get involved with your friends and start a band which goes on to become enormously successful.
But, unlike many musical groups, U-2 band members are basically religious … in a traditional sort of way …for they are attracted to neither the popular born again Pentecostalism of many today … nor the more new age cosmic spirituality either. On top of that there are no drugs, alcohol, or infidelities. Bono, it turns out, is still married to his first wife, Ali who he met at age 16. They and their four kids go to the Church of Ireland – which is traditional Episcopalian … a compromise, as the Church of England is … between Catholicism and Protestantism.
3. With all his success and world wide fame, in recent years Bono has sought to bring his case for aid to the poor in Africa before world leaders …Because of his international reputation as a performer he has been able to meet personally with many political leaders including Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schroeder, and Jacques Chirac. He has even met with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and numerous famous movie stars like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz …
Imagine now that you are Bono and you are on your way to meet President Bush to talk about AIDS in Africa. You arrive a the White House a little early, and so you tell your driver to circle the block a few times … while you sit with your Bible in your lap … hunting for a passage about shepherds and the poor … it is getting later and later … and finally you find the passage you are looking for … and it’s the one from Mathew 25 …
For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
And after the meeting… you give President Bush a special edition of the Book of Psalms for which you have personally written a forward. How different is that?
Now, he’s not just some unrealistic visionary … for Bono sees things pretty realistically … real down to earth … here and now … as is revealed in the words of his song: Crumbs Under Your Table …You speak of signs and wondersI need something otherI would believe if I was ableBut I'm waiting on the crumbs from under your tableWhat kind of guy is this?
(Kari tells me that rumors have it that he may be invited to the next national Methodist Youth gathering in Knoxville.)
4. Now to the scripture for today:
I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
The last few weeks, as we come to the close of the lectionary year … we have been reading from Revelations and Thessalonians about the so-called end times prophecies … the message of the Apocalypse, the Day of Lord, the return of Christ and other ideas which seem to be up in the air so much these days. What with lots of people wondering about all the upheavals, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, and all the rest.
So, is this the end? Well, people wonder. And many are convinced, it seems, by various preachers and self-proclaimed prophets … that the various prophecies written in the Bible some 2,000 years ago are directly related to current events today. Failing of course, to realize that people have been interpreting current events about the end of the world ever since the time of Jesus and no one has been right yet!
But, that doesn’t stop people from trying … or apparently people falling for it, either. And I have to be honest, having grown up listening to the radio in the 1950s, I continue to be fascinated by these strange words and symbols which if they are carefully cut and pasted together … which is what is often done … seem to predict Christ’s return and the final judgment which was very much part of the expectations of both Jews and Christians in Jesus’ time.
5. And yet, the truth is … that these various prophecies do not all agree. And in the Bible there simply is no clearly defined picture … that can allow anyone to say for sure … when life on this planet will end and the millennium will be at hand. It can’t be done!
And yet, there still are all these passages about God’s judgment in the Bible … what are we to think?
And how do these passages about judgment contrast with all the other passages about how God so loved the world … and with Jesus words about forgiveness and turning the other cheek … and loving your neighbor? They seem to contradict each other at times, don’t they?
Well, as I told the confirmation class recently … the whole purpose of studying the scripture … attending church … praying … and all the rest is to better understand who God is … and what God’s purpose for our life is … so we can fulfill the great commandment to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Isn’t that right?
So, what kind of God is God? That is the real question! Wisdom about God – then -- is what we seek. But what is this Wisdom and how do we know it when we see it?
6. Paul the Apostle says that this wisdom is not what we think it is … for it is not the same as the wisdom of the world … but, rather, a deeper wisdom of the heart and soul … and Paul tries to explain this in I Corinthians, where he says, 6We speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
In other words, one should be a bit careful about what one says … about God … because who are we to speak in matters of faith and the spirit … about that which we may not be all that knowledgeable … rather, it seems, we ought to be striving to get to know God better … before we speak too quickly and think that our own opinions are the same as Gospel truth …
Think, for a moment, how often we encounter those who with fine sounding phrases … act as if they know God personally … and therefore are ordained to speak on His behalf …
7. Perhaps the most familiar and flagrant example of this kind of sophistry is the Televangelist, Pat Robertson … who, as you may know, recently warned the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, that God might strike them with a disaster since they voted out the School Board members who favored "Intelligent Design?"
This totally off the wall remark prompted one articulate critic to respond by saying:
I wonder who, other than Pat himself, designated Pat Robertson to be God's spokesperson? How dare Pat assume that the God revealed in the Jesus I serve is filled with all of Pat's peculiar prejudices. Why does he not understand that God is God and Pat Robertson is not? Why does he not see that when he tells the world with an unashamed certainty what God thinks and what God will do, he is only revealing what he thinks and what he would do if he had God's power? Pat needs to understand that he is acting out the very meaning of idolatry. He has confused God with himself.
8. So, let’s not do that. Let’s not confuse our own particular prejudices and opinions with God’s eternal word … as if we, and no one else has the inside track. That, for starters, is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom, first of all is to know what we know and what we don’t know about God and to know the difference. And from this wisdom comes the humility to not presume to know more than we know and therefore to speak for God in absolute terms. This is the meaning of faith. Which is to know that faith is different from certainty? And absolute certainty in matters of faith is a basic form of idolatry. There is way too much of that in the world today … and the real outcome of idolatry is terrorism.
Consider for a moment, then, this same passage from Mathew’s Gospel which Bono read to the President. Consider how different it is from some of the other passages about the end times … and yet how powerful it is … with it’s imagery about the sheep and the goats and … and its very different sounding message about …
For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
9. A very different message, we must agree, from that in Revelations which speaks about the faithful not giving in to the worship of Caesar and how they will be rescued in the midst of the time of tribulation.
For this is another vision of God’s judgment which has nothing to do with religious faith … nothing to do with doctrine … nothing to do with going to church … really …
It’s all about how we relate to “the least of these …”
Now, of course, the standard approach to interpreting this passage is to lay a guilt trip on everyone … because of all the poverty, the underfed, the imprisoned … in the world. We’ve all heard that before, haven’t we?
But, the reality is that the Gospel in this passage is that what Jesus is talking about is not about how the church relates to the world but how the world relates to the church … For the church, in Jesus’ time was the poor … the downtrodden … the sinners … the tax collectors … that was who Jesus’ followers were … right? It wasn’t the wealthy Nicodemus or the prestigious Scribes and Pharisees … it was the down and out – including, probably, Jesus, himself – a poor Mediterranean peasant, born in stable. So, the question here is not just about how the church needs to help the poor in the world merely because they are poor or because we feel guilty because of the injustice of it all … as if we are just another kind of do-good relief agency … which in the end, despite our best efforts, just ends up being rather self-serving in itself – if you get my drift … but instead, it appears, from this passage that what we are really called to do, first of all, is to identify with these people … the least of these … our brothers … and in doing so we will actually enter into the Kingdom of God! For, as Jesus said, it is to them to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.
So, it’s really not about doing good to earn our salvation … to prove our righteousness … and get brownie points with God. That’s not exactly it, at all.
10. To further make this point, notice how Jesus in his story … reveals that those who do help the less fortunate and those who do not … both fail to fully realize what they are doing … because both fail to understand – or see Christ’s presence in those who are suffering from poverty … and misfortune … and perhaps … we might say, also, that it is the poor, themselves, who also do not realize it … either.
This is rather shocking … because it removes the whole question of judgment and salvation from our hands entirely – doesn’t it? … And it places it where it belongs … in God’s hands … or in Christ’s. Who, then, is to judge? Not you, not me … not any person … no, not anyone at all … for no one is God … and just as no one can rightfully speak for God … so also no one can pass judgment on another person or group of persons … for that is usurp God’s will and make it our own.
Yet, as the church we must confess how often this is done, especially by religious people. Sadly, despite Jesus’ admonishment to “judge not, lest ye be judged,” it is the church itself which often ranks as one of the most judgmental organizations in the world. Isn’t that, sadly, the truth?
11. And so, just as some try to predict the end of the world … according to current events … which is to abrogate God’s authority in an idolatrous way … so, also, there are those who claim to pass judgment on others in the name of God …
And it is to these persons and to all of us, really, that Jesus’ words in Mathew 25 become a reminder of our inability to adequately judge even our own actions … let alone those of others …
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
When did we see thee …? When? Do we really know all the time?
The well known author Kathleen Norris says that what is lacking in all of us is imagination. Imagination, she writes, is vital if we are to see Christ in others. And, to do this, she says, we must resist the all too frequent temptation to look a starving child … with a swollen stomach … and say, “Well, thank goodness, it’s not my kid.” Or, to see an old man alone in the park and say, “It’s not my dad.” What is at the heart of it all is that unfortunate capacity we all have to look out upon the world and everything that God made and say, “I don’t care.”
12. But, wait a minute, we do care? Do we not? We have responded! Have we not? For yes, our church raised over $ 14,000 this past year for Tsunami relief and for Hurricane Katrina. We also have given over $ 7,000 to Habitat for Humanity, the Food Shelf, Churches United, and other groups. We let the Soup Kitchen use our church every week. Many of our members volunteer for Community meals on Thanksgiving … and we support the Africa University and Black College fund. And there is more.
Yes, we have been generous … more this past year than any year previously in a long time … much more …
And we have seen the images on television of disasters … and the hungry and the starving … which have stirred our imagination …
And I hope we are all thankful and grateful … for being able to be together with family and friends … most of us … this week for Thanksgiving in a safe and warm place with good food it eat. Something that many will not have …
So, how comfortable are we? How blessed are we? A lot … really when you consider what is going on in other parts of the world.
13. And that, perhaps, is the message of Mr. Bono ... a very wealthy individual because of his success as a musician … who continues to tirelessly work to persuade the great nations of the world … the richest nations … to help the poor in Africa.
Simply, it would seem, because he reads the Bible … and takes seriously what he reads there … especially in Mattew 25.
And also, because, for whatever reason … he also has the imagination to see in the starving … the poor … the face of Jesus Christ. And, he seeks to inspire others to have that same imagination. People like us … Can this be done? We must wonder … but Bono is not easily deterred from mission …
In fact, it is reported than on a recent trip to the US, Bono even went to visit Senator Jesse Helms who had been very tough on the concept of foreign assistance and very bleak on Aids. Afterward, Bono told his friends, Helms is a very religious man so I told him that 2103 verses of scripture pertain to the poor and Jesus speaks of judgment only once - and it's not about being gay or sexual morality, but about poverty. I quoted that verse of Matthew chapter 25: 'I was naked and you clothed me.' He was really moved. He was in tears. Later he publicly acknowledged that he was ashamed..."
Can you believe that?
14. Now, today, many people, in light of the recent disasters, are worried about donor fatigue.
Too many more disasters … and people will run out of money …
which, on top of the fear of increased gas and oil prices, will mean a reduction in generosity – that’s what worries people lately.
Well, so far … it hasn’t happened at least in our church. And I am happy to report to your that our church stewardship campaign is on target for next year … for we are estimating that we will reach our goal of $ 194,000. That’s up by $ 14,000 - or about 7.5%. That’s great! All on top of what we gave for UMCOR.
But, let’s not be too complacent. The purpose of Jesus words in Mathew 25 is to keep us on our toes and to get off the “poor me” attitude. To get us off all the narcissistic concentration on ourselves and what we “deserve” which is rampant in this country and to try to focus on God’s way of looking at things for a change.
So, who are the least of these? Well … all of us … really … some more than others of course … but the truth is we are all in this world together … and if one part of the world is poor then we are all impoverished by it … if not economically then spiritually … and if God cares for one … then God cares for everyone … and it is just not acceptable for us … for anyone … to say … “It’s not my problem … because I just don’t care.”
So, for a moment, try your imagination on these lyrics from the song “Yahweh” by Bono …
Take these shoesClick clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoesAnd make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirtAnd make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
May you all have blessed Thanksgiving!
Matthew 25:31-46
“You Did Not Welcome Me”
1. Today, one of the world’s most popular rock stars goes by the stage name of Bono … and his band is called U – 2. Unfortunately, I am getting a little too old to be a big fan of this group -- whose leader is now about 45 years old. But, having grown up with Rock and Roll – I get the basic concept pretty well.
But, it is important, I think, whether we are fans of Bono or not, to take into account his willingness to be a leader not only in Entertainment but also in today’s world of international politics at the very highest level.
In short, Bono is not your everyday pot-smoking sensation driven entertainment celebrity … nor does he seem to suffer from any of the scandals associated with people like Michael Jackson either.
For, aside from his world wide success – Bono seems to be concerned mostly about the poor of the world – especially those in Africa.
2. Imagine for a moment, you are Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson. You grew up in a middle class home … in Dublin, Ireland with a Catholic father and Protestant mother. At age 14 your mother, who you love very much, dies. Your father is not your favorite person, it turns out. So, you grow up an angry teenager … what’s new about that? But, then you get involved with your friends and start a band which goes on to become enormously successful.
But, unlike many musical groups, U-2 band members are basically religious … in a traditional sort of way …for they are attracted to neither the popular born again Pentecostalism of many today … nor the more new age cosmic spirituality either. On top of that there are no drugs, alcohol, or infidelities. Bono, it turns out, is still married to his first wife, Ali who he met at age 16. They and their four kids go to the Church of Ireland – which is traditional Episcopalian … a compromise, as the Church of England is … between Catholicism and Protestantism.
3. With all his success and world wide fame, in recent years Bono has sought to bring his case for aid to the poor in Africa before world leaders …Because of his international reputation as a performer he has been able to meet personally with many political leaders including Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schroeder, and Jacques Chirac. He has even met with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and numerous famous movie stars like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz …
Imagine now that you are Bono and you are on your way to meet President Bush to talk about AIDS in Africa. You arrive a the White House a little early, and so you tell your driver to circle the block a few times … while you sit with your Bible in your lap … hunting for a passage about shepherds and the poor … it is getting later and later … and finally you find the passage you are looking for … and it’s the one from Mathew 25 …
For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
And after the meeting… you give President Bush a special edition of the Book of Psalms for which you have personally written a forward. How different is that?
Now, he’s not just some unrealistic visionary … for Bono sees things pretty realistically … real down to earth … here and now … as is revealed in the words of his song: Crumbs Under Your Table …You speak of signs and wondersI need something otherI would believe if I was ableBut I'm waiting on the crumbs from under your tableWhat kind of guy is this?
(Kari tells me that rumors have it that he may be invited to the next national Methodist Youth gathering in Knoxville.)
4. Now to the scripture for today:
I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
The last few weeks, as we come to the close of the lectionary year … we have been reading from Revelations and Thessalonians about the so-called end times prophecies … the message of the Apocalypse, the Day of Lord, the return of Christ and other ideas which seem to be up in the air so much these days. What with lots of people wondering about all the upheavals, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, and all the rest.
So, is this the end? Well, people wonder. And many are convinced, it seems, by various preachers and self-proclaimed prophets … that the various prophecies written in the Bible some 2,000 years ago are directly related to current events today. Failing of course, to realize that people have been interpreting current events about the end of the world ever since the time of Jesus and no one has been right yet!
But, that doesn’t stop people from trying … or apparently people falling for it, either. And I have to be honest, having grown up listening to the radio in the 1950s, I continue to be fascinated by these strange words and symbols which if they are carefully cut and pasted together … which is what is often done … seem to predict Christ’s return and the final judgment which was very much part of the expectations of both Jews and Christians in Jesus’ time.
5. And yet, the truth is … that these various prophecies do not all agree. And in the Bible there simply is no clearly defined picture … that can allow anyone to say for sure … when life on this planet will end and the millennium will be at hand. It can’t be done!
And yet, there still are all these passages about God’s judgment in the Bible … what are we to think?
And how do these passages about judgment contrast with all the other passages about how God so loved the world … and with Jesus words about forgiveness and turning the other cheek … and loving your neighbor? They seem to contradict each other at times, don’t they?
Well, as I told the confirmation class recently … the whole purpose of studying the scripture … attending church … praying … and all the rest is to better understand who God is … and what God’s purpose for our life is … so we can fulfill the great commandment to love God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Isn’t that right?
So, what kind of God is God? That is the real question! Wisdom about God – then -- is what we seek. But what is this Wisdom and how do we know it when we see it?
6. Paul the Apostle says that this wisdom is not what we think it is … for it is not the same as the wisdom of the world … but, rather, a deeper wisdom of the heart and soul … and Paul tries to explain this in I Corinthians, where he says, 6We speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
In other words, one should be a bit careful about what one says … about God … because who are we to speak in matters of faith and the spirit … about that which we may not be all that knowledgeable … rather, it seems, we ought to be striving to get to know God better … before we speak too quickly and think that our own opinions are the same as Gospel truth …
Think, for a moment, how often we encounter those who with fine sounding phrases … act as if they know God personally … and therefore are ordained to speak on His behalf …
7. Perhaps the most familiar and flagrant example of this kind of sophistry is the Televangelist, Pat Robertson … who, as you may know, recently warned the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, that God might strike them with a disaster since they voted out the School Board members who favored "Intelligent Design?"
This totally off the wall remark prompted one articulate critic to respond by saying:
I wonder who, other than Pat himself, designated Pat Robertson to be God's spokesperson? How dare Pat assume that the God revealed in the Jesus I serve is filled with all of Pat's peculiar prejudices. Why does he not understand that God is God and Pat Robertson is not? Why does he not see that when he tells the world with an unashamed certainty what God thinks and what God will do, he is only revealing what he thinks and what he would do if he had God's power? Pat needs to understand that he is acting out the very meaning of idolatry. He has confused God with himself.
8. So, let’s not do that. Let’s not confuse our own particular prejudices and opinions with God’s eternal word … as if we, and no one else has the inside track. That, for starters, is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom, first of all is to know what we know and what we don’t know about God and to know the difference. And from this wisdom comes the humility to not presume to know more than we know and therefore to speak for God in absolute terms. This is the meaning of faith. Which is to know that faith is different from certainty? And absolute certainty in matters of faith is a basic form of idolatry. There is way too much of that in the world today … and the real outcome of idolatry is terrorism.
Consider for a moment, then, this same passage from Mathew’s Gospel which Bono read to the President. Consider how different it is from some of the other passages about the end times … and yet how powerful it is … with it’s imagery about the sheep and the goats and … and its very different sounding message about …
For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and yet took me in …”
9. A very different message, we must agree, from that in Revelations which speaks about the faithful not giving in to the worship of Caesar and how they will be rescued in the midst of the time of tribulation.
For this is another vision of God’s judgment which has nothing to do with religious faith … nothing to do with doctrine … nothing to do with going to church … really …
It’s all about how we relate to “the least of these …”
Now, of course, the standard approach to interpreting this passage is to lay a guilt trip on everyone … because of all the poverty, the underfed, the imprisoned … in the world. We’ve all heard that before, haven’t we?
But, the reality is that the Gospel in this passage is that what Jesus is talking about is not about how the church relates to the world but how the world relates to the church … For the church, in Jesus’ time was the poor … the downtrodden … the sinners … the tax collectors … that was who Jesus’ followers were … right? It wasn’t the wealthy Nicodemus or the prestigious Scribes and Pharisees … it was the down and out – including, probably, Jesus, himself – a poor Mediterranean peasant, born in stable. So, the question here is not just about how the church needs to help the poor in the world merely because they are poor or because we feel guilty because of the injustice of it all … as if we are just another kind of do-good relief agency … which in the end, despite our best efforts, just ends up being rather self-serving in itself – if you get my drift … but instead, it appears, from this passage that what we are really called to do, first of all, is to identify with these people … the least of these … our brothers … and in doing so we will actually enter into the Kingdom of God! For, as Jesus said, it is to them to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.
So, it’s really not about doing good to earn our salvation … to prove our righteousness … and get brownie points with God. That’s not exactly it, at all.
10. To further make this point, notice how Jesus in his story … reveals that those who do help the less fortunate and those who do not … both fail to fully realize what they are doing … because both fail to understand – or see Christ’s presence in those who are suffering from poverty … and misfortune … and perhaps … we might say, also, that it is the poor, themselves, who also do not realize it … either.
This is rather shocking … because it removes the whole question of judgment and salvation from our hands entirely – doesn’t it? … And it places it where it belongs … in God’s hands … or in Christ’s. Who, then, is to judge? Not you, not me … not any person … no, not anyone at all … for no one is God … and just as no one can rightfully speak for God … so also no one can pass judgment on another person or group of persons … for that is usurp God’s will and make it our own.
Yet, as the church we must confess how often this is done, especially by religious people. Sadly, despite Jesus’ admonishment to “judge not, lest ye be judged,” it is the church itself which often ranks as one of the most judgmental organizations in the world. Isn’t that, sadly, the truth?
11. And so, just as some try to predict the end of the world … according to current events … which is to abrogate God’s authority in an idolatrous way … so, also, there are those who claim to pass judgment on others in the name of God …
And it is to these persons and to all of us, really, that Jesus’ words in Mathew 25 become a reminder of our inability to adequately judge even our own actions … let alone those of others …
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
When did we see thee …? When? Do we really know all the time?
The well known author Kathleen Norris says that what is lacking in all of us is imagination. Imagination, she writes, is vital if we are to see Christ in others. And, to do this, she says, we must resist the all too frequent temptation to look a starving child … with a swollen stomach … and say, “Well, thank goodness, it’s not my kid.” Or, to see an old man alone in the park and say, “It’s not my dad.” What is at the heart of it all is that unfortunate capacity we all have to look out upon the world and everything that God made and say, “I don’t care.”
12. But, wait a minute, we do care? Do we not? We have responded! Have we not? For yes, our church raised over $ 14,000 this past year for Tsunami relief and for Hurricane Katrina. We also have given over $ 7,000 to Habitat for Humanity, the Food Shelf, Churches United, and other groups. We let the Soup Kitchen use our church every week. Many of our members volunteer for Community meals on Thanksgiving … and we support the Africa University and Black College fund. And there is more.
Yes, we have been generous … more this past year than any year previously in a long time … much more …
And we have seen the images on television of disasters … and the hungry and the starving … which have stirred our imagination …
And I hope we are all thankful and grateful … for being able to be together with family and friends … most of us … this week for Thanksgiving in a safe and warm place with good food it eat. Something that many will not have …
So, how comfortable are we? How blessed are we? A lot … really when you consider what is going on in other parts of the world.
13. And that, perhaps, is the message of Mr. Bono ... a very wealthy individual because of his success as a musician … who continues to tirelessly work to persuade the great nations of the world … the richest nations … to help the poor in Africa.
Simply, it would seem, because he reads the Bible … and takes seriously what he reads there … especially in Mattew 25.
And also, because, for whatever reason … he also has the imagination to see in the starving … the poor … the face of Jesus Christ. And, he seeks to inspire others to have that same imagination. People like us … Can this be done? We must wonder … but Bono is not easily deterred from mission …
In fact, it is reported than on a recent trip to the US, Bono even went to visit Senator Jesse Helms who had been very tough on the concept of foreign assistance and very bleak on Aids. Afterward, Bono told his friends, Helms is a very religious man so I told him that 2103 verses of scripture pertain to the poor and Jesus speaks of judgment only once - and it's not about being gay or sexual morality, but about poverty. I quoted that verse of Matthew chapter 25: 'I was naked and you clothed me.' He was really moved. He was in tears. Later he publicly acknowledged that he was ashamed..."
Can you believe that?
14. Now, today, many people, in light of the recent disasters, are worried about donor fatigue.
Too many more disasters … and people will run out of money …
which, on top of the fear of increased gas and oil prices, will mean a reduction in generosity – that’s what worries people lately.
Well, so far … it hasn’t happened at least in our church. And I am happy to report to your that our church stewardship campaign is on target for next year … for we are estimating that we will reach our goal of $ 194,000. That’s up by $ 14,000 - or about 7.5%. That’s great! All on top of what we gave for UMCOR.
But, let’s not be too complacent. The purpose of Jesus words in Mathew 25 is to keep us on our toes and to get off the “poor me” attitude. To get us off all the narcissistic concentration on ourselves and what we “deserve” which is rampant in this country and to try to focus on God’s way of looking at things for a change.
So, who are the least of these? Well … all of us … really … some more than others of course … but the truth is we are all in this world together … and if one part of the world is poor then we are all impoverished by it … if not economically then spiritually … and if God cares for one … then God cares for everyone … and it is just not acceptable for us … for anyone … to say … “It’s not my problem … because I just don’t care.”
So, for a moment, try your imagination on these lyrics from the song “Yahweh” by Bono …
Take these shoesClick clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoesAnd make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirtAnd make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
May you all have blessed Thanksgiving!
posted by Anonymous at 6:06 PM
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