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NRS Matthew 25: 34 Then 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; 35
for 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, 36 I was naked and
you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, 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? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger
and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it
that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40 And 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.' 41 Then 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; 42 for I was
hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I 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.' 44
Then 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?' 45 Then 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.' 46
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life."
Have you ever met
God? Maybe it was while you were at the grocery store? Maybe you were at the
park? Maybe you are sitting here this morning telling me that you have never
met God, what a silly thing to say. People don’t meet God face to face. This
morning we are going to talk about meeting God face to face by placing our
lives in the path of God. Have you ever watched the face of someone when they
received a gift from someone? Remember the joy and in some cases, shock as they
realized that someone cared enough to give them something? It is possible that
you have been the one who put money in the collection plate that we used to pay
an electric bill or water bill. All of these are opportunities to meet God. How
can I say that? The scripture this morning tells me that. When we gave clothing
to the naked, gave food to the hungry or provided comfort to the anxious, that
person may well have been the personification of God in the world. When we love one another as the Bible tells
us to, we share in an experience that brings joy to others and joy to us as
well. I have never (and never is a big word) met anyone who has not shared
with me that they felt blessed to be the blessing to someone else. Jesus is
reminding us through this passage that we encounter Jesus in endless
possibilities of people along the way. And we never know whether we have just
met Jesus in the face of the homeless person or the poor person looking for
food or clothing or the stranger in the business suit who said good morning.
What we do know is that we have an obligation to encounter these people as if
we were face to face with Jesus. What
would you say or do if you found yourself face to face with Jesus? How
would you react? Would you feed him or offer him a coat if it were cold
outside? Would you visit him at his home if you knew that it was Jesus you were
visiting? Well the good Christians among you today would certainly say,
absolutely. But would you? Have you visited the homebound in the last six
months? Have you reached out to the poor in our community since Christmas? Have
you offered food to a homeless person that you encountered in our surrounding
area? If the answer is no to any of these, then we have not reached out to the
least of these among the community we call home. Jesus loved the least lovable
and the most vulnerable and he offered the same grace to the greatest sinner
that he does to the saint. What that means for you or me is that we have no
choice but to extend the invitation to join us at the table to the person in
our community who we would prefer stay as far from us as possible. What can we
gather of the Good Samaritan story except that we are to extend ourselves
beyond our comfort zones. That is what risk taking mission and service are. If
we don’t have to think about the gift, the work or doing something for the
person we encounter then we are probably not involved in risk taking mission
and service. Risk taking means stretching beyond our comfort zone and reach out
to those who you are not into relationship with and probably would never be.
Jesus said that to love those who love you is no credit to you, since all
sinners do that. Rather we are to love our enemies, the poor, the untouchables,
the downtrodden, the alcoholics, the homeless and those who are not like us and
not likely to ever be like us.
What is
interesting about this concept is what it does to the churches that do take
risks. When churches turn outward they come alive with a sense
of purpose and transform the lives of their members and the communities they
serve. Churches that
practice risk taking mission and service value engagement and long term
relationships. They measure the impact of their work in lives changed rather
than in money spent or buildings constructed. God places congregations in a
world troubled by many challenges. Yes, we are placed right here for this
moment and time not because of chance, but rather God is giving us the
opportunity to step up and be a part of God’s plan in our world.
Churches that practice risk taking mission and service
hear in the human need of their neighbors the distinct call of God. Against all
odds, they figure out a response and offer themselves faithfully, even at some
cost to themselves. God uses them to transform the world. So what have we done
lately? Well some would say we have done alright. We have given to the needs of
our community at Christmas. And I would suggest that not once in all of that
did we reach a level of uncomfortably in what we did. We tossed a few bucks in
the offering plate and felt good about that. But did we reach out to the
homebound and visit them during Christmas? Did we take them, physically mind
you, a little sampling of our love here so that their lives might be a little
more cheerful? Did we create a food bank or clothing pantry and feed the hungry
as we clothed the poor? Some did, many did not. What Bishop Schnase is saying
to us is that risk taking mission involves stepping out beyond our boundaries,
placing ourselves in uncomfortable situations in order to show others the love
of Christ. Now mind you, he is not suggesting and neither am I that we should
ever place ourselves in harm’s way in order to help those less fortunate. But what
we can say is that we need to stretch ourselves beyond where we are. Hands on mission changes the lives of
volunteers! It involves sending work teams to other places, soup kitchens
in our own church staffed by members from all the church, after school programs,
food banks, visiting and/ or volunteering at senior adult retirement homes,
working with the incarcerated and standing for justice. We have a lot wrong
with our country today including healthcare issues, and social injustice at all
levels of culture and race. Risk-Taking Mission and Service includes the projects, the
efforts, and the work people do to make a positive difference in the lives of
others for the purposes of Christ, whether or not they will ever be part of the
community of faith. Risk-Taking refers to the service we offer that
stretches us out of our comfort zone and has us engaging people and offering
ourselves to ministries that we would never have done if not for our desire to
follow Christ. Risk-taking steps into great uncertainty, a higher
possibility of discomfort, resistance, or sacrifice. It pushes us beyond
the circle of relationships that routinely define our church commitments. It
changes the lives of the people who are served as well as the lives of those
who serve.
Bishop Schnase
tells us that there is uncertainty in what we do when we reach out to others.
He says, “I can’t tell you how many times we go to great lengths… to
provide scholarships for people who then drop out. Or we build a home after a
flood, just to see the home wiped away the next year by the next flood. Or we
put ourselves on the line to work with somebody who’s on parole… to try to give
this person some network of support and a better chance, and it goes well —
until they walk off with the computer. Or we work with somebody who’s dealing
with alcohol and drugs… and they’re making it… and then we get that call in the
middle of the night that [tells us] we’ve got to start all over again. That’s
part of the risk of risk-taking mission and service. And that is as biblical as
you can get. It’s like the sower sowing seeds. There’s rocky ground, there
[are] the birds that come and eat is all, there’s the hard soil — there’s all
of that. But the promise of that parable is that,
by the grace of God, a harvest comes forth a hundredfold…. Part of the “risk”
is that this doesn’t work a lot of times, or that the difference [we make] is
something that we don’t see. We don’t know. We can’t see the results sometimes.
But… out of obedience to Christ, we’ve got to try. And we’ve just got to keep
doing it. Risk taking mission and service is one of the fundamental activities
of church life that is so critical that failure to practice it is some form
results in a deterioration of the church’s vitality and ability to make
disciples of Jesus Christ. We are admonished to be doers of the word and not
merely hearers. We are commanded to love one another. Have you loved today?
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