Are you a pretender or a believer?

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Matthew 25: 31-46

Are you a pretender or a believer?

Let us Pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you my Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Jesus used parables to teach his disciples and us to be ready for his return. This parable is no different. Pastors and other theologians look at this gospel reading and they think this parable is about judgement day. We are going to separate the good people from the bad people. The do-gooders and the not so do-gooders. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you work, how much money you earn, how important you are, in this gospel reading we are either a sheep or a goat. You know we don't have to be afraid of judgement day because all our sins, they are forgiven and forgotten for what Christ did on the cross for us all. All the things in our lives that are rotten and filthy, and all the things we are shameful of or have never have dared to share with anyone, will be erased. In place of all this sinfulness will be the magnificent things Jesus did.

When I read this gospel parable I read kindness and LOVE. I read instructions on what we should be doing. We should be giving someone a drink when they are thirsty, something to eat when they are hungry, and cloth the naked. Just simple acts of kindness. In these passages they serve as a guide for us to live in the presence of God’s eternal Love and not his fury! LOVE always WINS!! The love of giving and the love of selfish love and kindness.

My heart gets so filled when I do something out of my heart and not for anything in return. The kindness and love Pastor Ruth in Uganda and Smile Africa had for Esther for raising a young baby she found in the trash. To give that little baby something to drink, clothes and food to eat. Our senior and junior high youth in our congregation that sign up for mission trips when they don’t have too. For our students to experience something that they can’t explain when they get back. It’s hard to describe an incredible experience in which you were asked to get outside your comfort box and experience something you didn’t know you could have done. How amazing is that for our students to experience. That is why for confirmation we have our students do a minimum of 10 service hours. So they can experience this Love that Jesus has for us and the Love they can give back to our brothers and sisters. Simple kindness and Love goes a long way.

I was an okay athlete growing up and I had a coach tell me this and I often remember it and I want to share with you. My coach told me: Are you a believer or a pretender? Are you just going to pretend and go through the motions and do things okay just to get by, put no heart into it and not have coaches get on your back or are you going to believe in your ability, work your butt off, put your heart into it and give your all no matter how hard it is and yes sometimes you’ll stumble but it’ll be giving your all. I know you are a believer, Raul. I’m the type of person that I’m all in. I’m not going to give a little bit of me, I’m going to give all of me. There will be days when I am going to stumble but that is why I have Rhea to look at me say say stop being dumb or I have colleagues, relatives and all of y’all to show me love. But not only me we should keep each other in check and see how we are doing?

It is only by the grace of God that we been found, when we are lost and wondering. It is only by the grace of God that we have been given the precious gift of Jesus’ Love.

In your hands as you walked in you were given a church bulletin and a fork with a tag on it with a verse from Matthew. We all just celebrated Thanksgiving and visited with relatives, family and friends and ate a meal together. At the end of your main course you were probably asked to keep your fork because here comes dessert. Here comes something good. There is also a story that I have heard and read that some people want to get buried with a fork because they want to know that something better is coming. I give you this fork now with the verse from Matthew 25: 40, “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.”

I want you to know that the best is yet to come. Why wait till you are dead. Jesus tells us to serve. Are you a believer or a pretender? There are so many ways in which you can serve outside the walls of our church and within our congregation. We are a small church but we serve well. So let’s grab a hold of our forks and look forward to what we will do next because the Best is yet to come...

Amen.