Matthew 25:31-46

JustFAITH is Not Enough

There’s a popular parable making the rounds these days that I first heard from Jack Jezreel, the founder of JustFAITH, the program that Mary Fields spoke on during our Moment for Mission.  It goes like this:

“On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude life saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but a few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.

 Many lives were saved by this wonderful and little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought, and new crews were trained. The little life saving station grew.

Some of the new members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped.

They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in an enlarged building.

Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they redecorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a sort of club. Less of the members were interested in going to sea on life saving missions, so they hired life-boat crews to do this work. The life saving motif still prevailed in the club decorations, however, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was considerably messed up, so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted on life saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a “life saving station.”

But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life saving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life saving station was founded.

History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but today must of the people drown. (BIG PAUSE)

Is that us?  Is that you?  And I ask myself, is that me? Is the parable about this church, our denomination?

What this parable alludes to, I think, is best described in our Gospel lesson for this morning in Matthew.  It’s called Social Justice and if I read my bible right is a non-optional component of what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of God. It is not peripheral.

Let me ask you this: If someone showed up at the door of our church and asked, “What time does your worship service start this morning?” and you responded, “Oh, we don’t do that here.”  I’m just guessing that that person would think it a little odd.

In the same manner, it SHOULD be just as odd if someone asked, “How can I help meet some basic human needs of the poor in the community?” and we had the same answer. Unfortunately, many churches do.

Not to say they don’t have compassion.  Everyone bemoans the fact that unemployment is on the rise, as well as homelessness, hungry people … the list is endless.

But when faced with the challenge to do something about it, some respond something like this “There’s so much pain out there. I suppose someone’s got to address it, but why should I have to do it? I mean, I’ve got my hands full right now, what with working 60 hours a week and my family and all. Besides, I’ve worked hard to get what I have. Why shouldn’t I be able to enjoy it?”

That’s what’s called the “I’ve Got Mine” theory of social justice: I’ve got mine; let someone else take care of these problems.

Others have this response: “Yes, I know. The world is full of injustice and all. It needs to be corrected, but that will take a better person than I. It will take a Martin Luther King, Jr., a Gandhi, a Mother Theresa. Maybe all three rolled into one. I can’t to that; I’m just an ordinary sort of person”

That’s called “The Great Healer” theory: It takes a few great people, and since I’m not a great person, I’ll wait for one to come along and follow that one. In the meantime, there’s not much I can do…

Then many say: “There’s so much to do I wouldn’t know where to begin. I need someone to tell me. In the meantime, all I can do is wring my hands.”

That one at least has the merit that it does not pretend to be anything but an excuse for not getting involved.

There has to be something better, something that really will motivate people to get involved and touch the world with love. But how?

The classical approach is an appeal to guilt. It goes like this: “How can you possibly just stand there and do nothing? The world is falling to pieces all round you, from famine to racism. And if you don’t do anything about it, you are complicit. You are as guilty as those who perpetuate the pain, because your inaction allows the pain to continue and grow.

“Edmund Burke was right when he said: ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing.’” That’s an appeal to guilt, right?

True confession: I know I’m guilty of using this tactic from time to time – I’ve even preached it on occasion. It can get things started – but it doesn’t motivate people for long.

Guilt, of course, can be a helpful emotion. Truth be told, there are times when we should feel guilty, namely, when we really have done something wrong, something for which we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Or have not done that we should have.  But that’s more about our own actual behavior.

Beyond that, something more even basic than guilt is needed. And there is something more basic: there is compassion. And there is love.

Compassionate love. That’s what Jesus exhibited during his time on earth AND it’s the kind of love he calls each of us to today.

Here at Santa Teresa Hills, I think we are good people. For the most part we support each other and care for each other. But is that enough?  Maybe we should consider becoming “Kingdom people” versus “Church people.”

Howard Snyder, a distinguished professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto explains it this way:

“Kingdom people see first the kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns for justice, mission and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”

So, that being said, what is our responsibility to the poor, to the dispossessed, to those who are discriminated against?

There’s a passage in the Book of Hebrews that says, “Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies”(13:1-3 NLT).

To serve others as though we ourselves were one of them – whether it be the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the prisoner, those who are discriminated against for any reason, to take our place along with those who suffer, is “compassionate loving” at it’s best. This is what Jesus did for humankind – he took his place among us, alongside us, as one of us, bearing our burdens, going to the cross for each one of us.

It is hard to get started.  Part of it is attitude. Part of it is desire.  Part of it is making time.  That’s why I hope some of you will seriously consider taking our JustFAITH course.  It will transform you … and then help transform those you love.

In 13 days your Session will go on retreat for a day.  During that time we are going to wrestle with questions like, where we want to go, who we want to be, and what do we want to attract as a church.  We need your prayers. 

This is an exciting time to be a part of Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian Church.  We have a committed Session and a loving and caring Board of Deacons.  And we have each other. 

May each of us be blessed to hear God’s calling us into greater and deeper relationship that if we are faithful in responding will result in our being able to live out our Old Testament text from Isaiah.  Let me read it one more time – listen with Godly ears:

Isaiah starts by listing those things we should be doing – the things Jesus invites us to…And if we do them – this it the promise:

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.

Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ … Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.”

      I’d like that, wouldn’t you?

          AMEN!