Giving Faithfully Part II
Matthew 25:31-46
You remember that the Gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish at this point, the early followers still consider themselves to be Jews reforming Judaism. This scripture comes right before Jesus’ final hours so his words are heavy and filled with urgency. He describes a sort of final judgment and seems to be putting forth a way of living even when he is gone. It sounds something like a parental preparation where the children are being told how to behave even when Jesus is not looking.
I am not sure I have been honest with you. I am not sure that I have taken enough time to share with you what I have witnessed because of you. I am not sure that I have expressed to you what I have seen in this place because of your willingness to let God in. And I am not sure that you even know all that has unfolded and all that has happened because of your commitment to God’s work in this place.
As much as I have loved you from the beginning, I admit I was a bit skeptical. I admit that I wasn’t sure you would come through with bold actions even after you told me and God that you wanted to follow with your arms out and your heart open. I wasn’t sure because it was last year at this time that the shadows hung. It was last year at this time that I was told not to get too far ahead, I was told not to make too big of plans, or to dream too big, I was told that we were projected to have a nearly $40,000 deficit and that it wouldn’t be wise to count on much at all. But I never doubted that God would be faithful, I never doubted that love would prevail, I never doubted that we had everything that we needed to do what God was calling us to do, but as much as I believed in God, I am not sure I believed in you. I didn’t believe you fully when you said you wanted to follow God with abandon and I didn’t believe you with my whole heart when you said, “Here we are Lord!
But I was wrong. I was wrong because since we last put forth the commitments of our heart, since we last pledged our treasure to God’s work in this place miracles have happened here. I don’t think using the world miracle is an overstatement. God has worked miracles in this place, but the funny thing about miracles is that even though God usually gets all of the credit, miracles require an open heart, a singing soul, miracles require a profound belief that God will come through.
Today I stand in a spirit of confession that I was so busy working on growing my faith in God that I forgot to grow my faith in you. It turns out that believing in God is sometimes the easiest part of the life of faith. It is believing in people, it is trusting that you care as much about the journey that your brother in Christ is on, as your own and it is being willing to put ones’ faith in another that often requires more from the fragile human heart. Maybe the hardest part, is believing in each other.
With conversations about repairing our roof and fixing our heating system, with talk about the decline of endowments and what to do about the basement, it is with ease that we might forget that church, that our church was never a building, or a few buildings or a physical plant in which God just might show up, the church has always been a collection of flawed and hungry, seeking and searching human beings. The church is all of us.
It’s funny that we forget this so easily because Jesus didn’t speak about a church. He was a faithful Jew seeking to reform his own tradition, but he did speak a lot about people and he did it with deep passion. He talked about people of all kinds, people from different economic groups, people of different ethnicities and genders, people from different levels of education and knowledge and people whom other people believed should not be spoken of at all. Jesus spent a lot of time talking about people. And maybe it is because he believed that God’s realm unfolds in and through people. He believed that God’s very being was present in and through the gathered community of the faithful.
So it is not much of a surprise that Jesus was deeply critical of the religious leaders of his time, who forgot this fact. He thought that they had gotten a bit off track and that they had become more concerned about their place of worship than the people who hung around outside. He thought they had gotten lost and confused about whether they were worshiping the rituals and laws that they had created or whether they were worshiping God. Jesus, wanted them to believe that the people searching for God, that the people hungry for God were just as worthy of faith as God himself.
Which is why, it is with such intense urgency that he speaks of the Kingdom, of the Realm and Presence of our Loving God. 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 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, 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.' 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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 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.” Jesus was telling them, don’t get off track, don’t get confused or misled, loving God is not about buildings or ritual or status, loving God is about people. Loving one another, believing in one another, investing in the journey of those gathered around us, is in itself a wildly faith-filled act of holy love.
Dominic Crossan said it best I think when he said that Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God and what we got was the church. And as I survey the months since we last made our commitments to this place, it often feels easier to believe in God than to believe in one another. So as I make my promise to God, as I offer my pledge and the commitment of my heart today, I offer it as a gesture of giving in faith not only to God but also to each of you. I offer it as a promise to believe in you and I promise to look for God in each of you.
God has worked miracles in this place this past year, not in spite of you, but because of you. The list of miracles is long: Chair Yoga, Vacation Bible School, worship on the beach, renovating Bruce Hall, Flu Clinic, Prayer study, Living the Questions small group study, Mashpee Village, experimenting in worship, new music, old music, all committees meeting together, Children’s Choir, bringing flowers to shut ins, overcoming a deficit and I could go on. And perhaps the miracle of all miracles, we even did some evangelism! This year has been one of renewing old things and imagining new things. We have grown in worship, we have grown in prayer, we have grown in service, we have grown in generosity, we have grown in our hunger for learning more about who we are and who we are becoming with God.
As we dedicate our pledge and hopes, as we dedicate the treasure that we dare to believe belongs to God, we do so not just because of our faith in God, but because of our faith in one another. We offer these pieces of our hearts because Jesus asks us to find him in one another. Barbara Brown Taylor says that, "We are called into relationship even when that relationship is unlikely, momentary, or sad. We are called to look at each other and see Christ....” And may the very act of seeing Christ in one another change us. May the act of seeing Christ in one another move us. May the act of seeing Christ in one another create a holy disturbance within us. May our act of giving in faith lead us to more faith in one another. May it be so.