Today is the end of the church year. The school year ends in June, and the calendar year ends on December 31, but the church year ends always on a Sunday in late November, and the new church year begins with the season of Advent. Next week, I’ll begin a sermon series called START HERE; appropriate for a new year, with a blank canvas standing before us. But as we today focus on the Reign of Christ, it also seemed like a good time to give you a prologue of where it all started. That’s what the START HERE series will focus upon.
I begin today asking us to consider where faith started for us. In truth, it started at the beginning of time, and when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s what John’s gospel tells us. The start continued on the day that some pastor, somewhere, sprinkled water on our foreheads and marked us with God’s promise. And perhaps faith started to become real for us when a loved one said to us “come and see, come and hear, about this man named Jesus.”
If we think long enough and hard enough, it seems like our faith is all about us. That Jesus came to bring us promise and purpose and peace and joy, and I suppose in that regard, it is all about us. But the moment we come to the realization that we are sons and daughters of the king…it’s not about us anymore. It’s about others. The church was never intended to be a closed circle where we sit around, singing “Kum Ba Yah,” and care only for ourselves. The church has always been about others. About one hundred fifty years ago, a young minister by the name of William Booth was captured by a passion for the lost and poorest in London, England. The organization he formed is known to us today as The Salvation Army. When Booth died at the age of 83, surrounded by his family, that last word that he spoke was “others.” One word - others.
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus is speaking privately with his and he tells them this parable;
“Imagine the king of heaven, sitting on the throne, surrounded by all the nations of the world, and he separates them; some on the left and some on the right. To those on the right he says ‘When I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick, and imprisoned and you visited me.’ And the people were shocked! ‘Lord, when did we feed you, or clothe you, or visit you?’ And Jesus said ‘Whenever you did it to one of the least, you did it to me.’”
It’s important to note that Jesus does not say, “You fed thousands. You clothed millions. You visited throngs of needy people.” What he said was whenever you did it for one of the lowly ones, you did it for me.
Jesus continues the parable by turning to those on his left; ‘When I was hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or imprisoned, or sick, you did nothing for me.’ And the people on the left were astonished! ‘Lord, when? If we had known that it was you, we’d have fed you a banquet! If we had recognized you, we’d have given you our own coats. If only we had known it was you who was sick, we would have come and prayed for you.’ Then Jesus said ‘If you refused to do it for others…then you refused to do it for me.’”
I taught this lesson at a Wednesday morning Bible study and we had a hearty discussion about it. And I had about six meetings that day, so I headed on my way, but first I decided to grab a quick hamburger at McDonalds, and when I walked in, I saw this scraggly, unkempt man sitting alone in a booth, sipping his coffee. The only empty seat that noon was about three booths away, so when I ate my lunch, I overheard him ask a man near him if he could give him a ride to Target. “No” was the answer that quickly came out of his mouth. Next, he asked a passerby for a ride to Target, but the man explained that the cab of his pickup truck was filled with stuff and there was no room. He yelled over his shoulder to two women sitting across the aisle, “Will you drive me to Target?” “We’re not planning to leave McDonalds for an hour or more” they said.
And then I began to pray for the man. But here was my prayer; “Lord, please don’t let the man ask me to take him to Target. I’m in a hurry, and he’s drunk, and I don’t want to get involved, so please Lord, don’t let him ask…” And my prayer was interrupted by a voice; “Hey brother” the man said, “can you give me a ride to Target?” “Umm, yes, I could do that.”
As he arose, he was so unsteady on his feet that I offered my arm, and as we went through the first set of doors, he fell flat on his face. The McDonald’s staff rushed over as the man spewed a string of four-letter words. One of the kids from McDonalds suggested that he sit back down and have another cup of coffee. “Yeah, that’s a good idea” I said, and I left him and walked out to my car. But I couldn’t leave. So I went back in and helped him into my car and we drove toward Target. “You a doctor or a lawyer or something?” he asked. “No, I’m not one of those,” I said, rather sheepishly.
He told me his name was Andy, and he used to drive garbage truck, but he broke his kneecap and he couldn’t drive, and he couldn’t afford a doctor, so it self-healed, but he was always in pain. He asked me if I had any money to give to him, and I happened to have $5 in my pocket so I gave him that. Again, with a string of four-letter words, he said that he had nothing, he didn’t have a blanking thing, and blanking this, and blanking that. “And now” he said, “I’ve left my blanking gloves at McDonalds.” So I handed him my gloves.
When we got to Target, I helped him out of the car and his own gloves fell from his lap to the pavement. “Hey Andy, you didn’t lose your gloves; look, they’re right here.” And he said “Okay, you take those and I’ll keep yours!” But I said, “You know, yours are all broken for your hands, so let’s just keep our own, okay?”
When we got inside, he sat on a bench and I shook his hand and said “God bless you, Andy.” And he responded, “He already has brother. He already has.” I don’t tell you that story to lift myself up; good grief, I tried twice to avoid Andy altogether. I tell you that story for the same reason Jesus told his parable; to remind us of others, all around us there are others who have needs that we can fill. And what if the Andy’s in our midst are Jesus?
In the coming weeks, we will begin preparing the bud- get for coming year. We will plug in a whole gob of money to pay our staff, money for our programs, purchase Bibles for our kids, send our teenagers to camp, and provide do- nuts and coffee for our Sunday morning fellowship. Lots of our $1.6 million budget will be spent to serve ourselves… but I wonder how much will be budgeted to serve others? It will not be a measure of our faith, or of our knowledge of scripture, or of our faithfulness in worship; it will be a measure of our mercy, and Jesus said that mercy is what will separate the sheep from the goats. It will be a measure of going and doing for others.
At the end of one church year, and a week before a sermon series titled START HERE, perhaps our serving is best defined by the words of John Wesley;
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
Because Andy is waiting for us. Thanks be to God.
Amen.