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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So as I began my sophomore year, I was just as withdrawn and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
