Blindsided (Matthew 25:31)A homily delivered July, 2003
St Clement Liberal Catholic Mission; Frisco, TX
Rev. Wynn Wagner
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, "Come, you who 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 drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." Then the righteous will answer him and say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?" And the king will say to them in reply, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me." Then they will answer and say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?" He will answer them, "Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me." And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
--MATTHEW 25:31-46
I have a mental picture of one of those right-wing televangelists when he first heard the Supreme Court had tossed out the Texas anti-gay sodomy law. I imagine the reaction was disbelief, especially when he heard the ruling was so strong that it made it really hard for Texas to change the law a little and put it back into the books. In short, the ruling was a huge deal for gay people in America. And I imagine the televangelist was blindsided: he didn't see it coming.
Okay, back to the gospel. It is really harsh. Today's gospel comes toward the end of Matthew. The parables have stopped. The nice stories have stopped. This gospel takes a sour turn and sounds like it is Fire and Hell and Damnation. The Son of Man separates people into two groups: those who fed the hungry and those who didn't... those or helped the needy and those who didn't. And those who didn't were standing around scratching their heads, saying "What?" Matthew quotes the Son of Man: "What you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me." But still, they said they didn't know. They were blindsided by the whole deal.
And look at the other group... the group that fed the hungry and visited those in prison. They said "What? We never saw you hungry or thirsty." The Son of Man said "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." Who knew? Nobody apparently. Everybody was blindsided in today's rather harsh gospel.
I was too. I read an early version of this sermon to Rick, who told me in ways that could not be misunderstood that my sermon was harsh. He was right, but I was blindsided.
The whole country was blindsided on 9/11. Did anybody see that one coming? Looking back, there were hints. The FBI certainly knew about Osama Bin Laden before 9/11, but the country was blindsided by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And we all lost more than just destroyed buildings and lost lives. Those obvious things were bad enough. But more: a whole generation of young people lost their innocence, and they can't ever go back to get it.
Did anybody see the stock market crash coming? I know a retired couple who lost 75-percent of their retirement savings. Today they only have 25-cents for every dollar they once had. Both are working again, instead of enjoying their golden years. They were blindsided. They didn't see it coming. One is selling his Harley, and you can't get harsher than that.
So what does the gospel tell us? Could it be Matthew's way of scaring us into paying attention? It certainly tells me to buckle up and be prepared to be blindsided.
Three final notes, then....
- First, I suspect that those who think they won't be blindsided are cocky and will be the first to fall. Just a hunch, but that happened into today's gospel.
- I think if we are to know what we're supposed to do personally, we have to be quiet sometimes. We have to be in a position to listen. There's an old Latin phrase - SILENTIUM EST AUDITORIUM SPIRITUS SANCTI - that is so close to our English words, you almost don't need a translation. SILENTIUM EST AUDITORIUM SPIRITUS SANCTI... Silence is the lecture hall of the Holy Spirit. Silence is our classroom.
- The final point is to chill a little. The Liberal Catholic Church teaches that we will all reach our eternal reward eventually. We will all "get it" in the end, but still it would be nice to stack the deck a little. In the example from today's gospel, everybody was blindsided so I'm not going to stand here and tell you there's a sure fire way around that. On the other hand, listen to the words of one of our Liberal Catholic creeds. It covers all the bases in today's reading, and does so without being so harsh...
We believe that God is Love and Power and Truth and Light; that perfect justice rules the world; that all His sons shall one day reach His feet, however far they stray. We hold the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man. We know that we do serve Him best when best we serve our fellow man. So shall His blessing rest on us and peace for evermore. Amen.
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