November 24, 2002

Memory Loss

Matthew 25: 31-46

Read passage from The Message

I had a friend named Marcy in college. I met Marcy my sophomore year. Marcy was without a doubt the bubbliest, most cheerful, friendliest person I had ever me. Nothing ever got her down. She really astounded me . . . AND she really got on my nerves!
You see, up to that point in my college career, things had been pretty miserable. I had made few friends and had spent most of my time in the library. My family had gone through some significant trauma for most of my high school years and emotionally I was reeling from those turbulent times. So the shock of the new environment of college, and all the new pressures . . . well, it was more than I could handle at the time and my reaction was to withdraw, and I became a pretty critical, pessimistic person and I spent a lot of my time avoiding people.

So as I began my sophomore year, I was just as withdrawn and just as pessimistic as I had been when I left college the summer before. And I was probably even more so because my roommate – really the only person I had built any kind of relationship with – she didn’t return to school that year. So, needless to say, I was not a very happy camper as I headed into my sophomore year of college. I was NOT looking forward to the next 9 months.

So during that first week when I was trying to move in and get settled, who should get a room assignment right across the hall from me? None other than the most optimistic, positive, outgoing, bubbly person on campus . . . yep, you guessed it: Marcy.

And, boy, did she get on my nerves! ‘Surely no one could be as happy as her,’ I thought to myself. She’s got to be a put on. Why doesn’t she snap out of it and ‘get real’?? I really hated living across the hall from the gold medal award winner in chipperness. Marcy really got on my nerves.

Break

But you see, Marcy didn’t know that she got on my nerves. So she would smile at me when she’d pass me in the hallway, she would always cheerily blurt out a hello” or a good morning! And occasionally, she would even stop me to find out how my week was going. But despite all of Marcy’s initiative with me and her friendliness, mostly I found myself trying to avoid her.

Well, one day Marcy discovered I had a bike and she asked me to go on a ride with her. I reluctantly said yes – mostly, because I couldn’t think of a good excuse not to go. But I was pretty anxious about the whole thing – I couldn’t figure out why this popular, bubbly, outgoing person would want anything to do with me . . .

. . . And I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted anything to do with her. But I went with her that day anyway and, surprisingly, had a great time. After that, Marcy kept on asking me to go on bike rides and, for some reason, I kept saying yes.

Marcy and I rode bikes together a lot that year. We ended up having a lot of time to talk and get to know one another. I found myself laughing a lot, joking, sharing a lot of things with her. Marcy and I became good friends that year.

And as I left for home at the end of my sophomore year, I came to the realization that something had changed deep inside of me. There seemed to be only faint traces of the withdrawn, pessimistic, critical person I had been just a few months before. I left college that year a significantly different person than when I had arrived. And as I thought more about this change and how it had happened – I came to the conclusion that my friend Marcy had had a lot to do with it. It seemed that I was now experiencing, in small part, the joy Marcy seemed to experience in such abundance. And I was grateful . . . so grateful.

Break

Several years ago I was able to re-connect with Marcy when I was visiting Dallas where she lived at the time. There was a point in the conversation between us that day when I tried to verbalize to Marcy what kind of impact she had had on my life. I tried to tell her the story I just told you. I tried to tell her how she had helped me when I was in such desperate need – hungry for relationships and healing in my life.

But as I told her all of these things, Marcy just kind of looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face. She had no idea that the friendship she had so freely extended to me my sophomore year in college had made such a profound difference in my life. She was just being Marcy.

And her response to me that day after I told her this story, well, it reminded me of the response of the sheep in today’s Gospel lesson. Remember the sheep said: Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you? When did we ever do those things?

It seems that these acts of loving kindness flowed so freely from the sheep that they were, literally, unaware of all the good they had done . . . just like my friend Marcy had been – unaware of all the good she had done in my life.

In the story, the sheep are baffled at what Jesus says to them because they just can’t remember when they had done those things. They seem to be suffering from a temporary memory loss. But Jesus commends them, nonetheless, for their faithfulness and their faithful deeds. And, essentially, what I think Jesus is trying to say in this passage is this: to live this way is to be ready for the judgment.

Break

Now, we’ve been talking about ‘end times’ kind of things for the last few Sundays. We’ve talked about the need to be ready for when Christ comes back (parable of the bridesmaids), and the need to make the most of every moment with all that we have to give (parable of the talents), and in this last passage in Matthew 25, Jesus does a ‘rap’ on the ‘end times’ theme by painting a vivid picture of what judgment day might look like. And he tries to explain that the criteria by which we will all be judged is this:
When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me drink? When I was homeless, did you give me a room? When I was in prison, did you come to visit me? . . . my child, as you lived your life, did you notice the overlooked and ignored along the way?

On judgment day, it doesn’t appear that God is going to give us a pop quiz on the major doctrines of the church! As author Tony Campolo said recently in chapel at MidAmerica’s campus: “Jesus isn’t going to ask us about the virgin birth in multiple choice fashion: ‘agree,’ ‘strongly agree’, or ‘disagree,’ ‘strongly disagree’? . . .” Judgment day isn’t going to look like a comprehensive oral exam (so all the college students can relax)!

No, when the end comes, it would appear, from this passage, that what Jesus is going to ask us is questions more like this – When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me drink? When I was homeless, did you give me a room? When I was in prison, did you come to visit me? . . . my child, as you lived your life, did you notice the overlooked and ignored along the way?
BreakA while back, a friend sent me a story (via e-mail) that, I think, captures what

Jesus is trying to get at here. It goes like this . . . a nurse writes:

During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

Surely this was some kind of joke! I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say “hello.”

Break

On judgment day, how would you answer a question like that? Would you have noticed the cleaning woman? Would you have known her name? How will you answer questions like these?: When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me drink? When I was homeless, did you give me a room? When I was in prison, did you come to visit me? . . . my child, as you lived your life, did you notice the overlooked and ignored along the way?

Break

If you go back to the response of the sheep and the goats, and you look at how they answer those questions, you realize that both the sheep – those who have been faithful to God – and the goats – those who haven’t – surprisingly, their response to Jesus in the same: they are both genuinely baffled.

The goats are baffled, because, try as they might, they cannot think of a time when they had ignored Christ when he was in need. Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?

And as we already know, the sheep, try as they might, cannot remember a single time when they had helped Christ, even though he insists that they did.

But Christ, the judge, he ends up basing the sheep’s reward and the goats’ punishment upon these facts, these incidents that neither group of defendants can seem to remember! The sheep can’t remember what they did to deserve such an incredible inheritance and the goats can’t remember what they did to deserve such a tragic punishment.

And that’s why I think forgetfulness is ultimately the point of this passage . . . . . . you see throughout Jesus’ ministry, he talked about the Kingdom of God as a radically different way of looking at life, and at people – looking at them with the eyes of Jesus . . . a different way of looking at life and at people that would become such an integral part of us that all of our actions and attitudes would flow from it. And Jesus envisioned that this ‘Kingdom’ perspective would become such a part of who we are that we wouldn’t even be aware of those times when met the needs of the overlooked or ignored with a compassionate act, a kind word, a sacrificial gift. We would have no memory of it.

Break

And so, in the end, the sheep stand in awe before Christ the King who tells them that their eternal reward in based on these small, ordinary things that they have done for no one in particular – these things they can’t even remember having done. Sort of like my friend Marcy who offered me kind words when I so desperately needed them and invited me into her life without a second thought.

And so, in the end, Jesus says, to live this way is to be ready for the judgment.

Break

When we consider our normal, everyday lives, we may be hard pressed to think of someone in Johnson County who is hungry (physically) but it is easy to think of someone who is hungry for meaning in their life. We may be hard pressed to think of someone who needs clothing in Johnson County, but it is easy to think of someone who is emotionally naked and vulnerable.

Hungry, naked, hurting people are a part of our regular, normal everyday lives and to live in such a way that we react to them with compassion, loving-kindness and acts of mercy without even thinking and without even remembering them – to live this way is to be ready for the judgment.

Break

Our song of consecration today challenges us to live in such a way that we bind the brokenhearted, heal the wounded, and fill the hungry without a second thought . . . Let’s pray that we become those kind of people.

City of Refuge