November 17, 2024 - Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - From Possible Judgement to Perpetual Invitation

Creator's Bible Study group is reflecting on each Sunday's lectionary readings on Wednesdays. They have changed my perspective the past few weeks in many ways. For example this week's Gospel was Matthew 25:34-46. Jesus' teaching on the final judgement.

All of us felt uncomfortable whether they would be separated as "sheep" or "goats". This brought up the question of how and why our discomfort is triggered and whether it helps us love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.

After her prayer Pastor Emillie on Sunday opened her sermon with whether we felt a twinge of guilt when hearing this passage and wondering if we had done all these things. She then went on to emphasize all the good Creator does for the community. The general discomfort on our judgment of ourselves probably varied by individual after what she detailed. How can our support for Creator truly count in the final judgement Jesus describes here in Matthew? Is this simply a rationalization as Mike asked our Wednesday group they day after our session?

This passage, in the end, deals with absolutes and we simply don't live our lives in such absolutes. Why do we forget all the times we did the Lord's work rather than those times we did not when encountering this passage?  I have continually judge myself on the "cursed" side when reading this Gospel for years without being motivated to directly transform my entire life or actions. 

Certainly the dilemma of faith in relationship to works comes into play but motivation by threat of eternal punishment rings hollow and arbitrary for me in my life. I admit I have not always fed the hungry or thought about it but there are many times I have. How would a "final" judgement play out? Would the Lord say "Sure, but according to my tally you didn't feed the hungry often enough." Or might God say "Yes, but you did it for selfish reasons so off to eternal punishment " 

And, if God's tallying, when I tell my wife I am hungry and she feeds me, does that "count" as feeding the hungry? Should that be judged the same as feeding someone who does not have the means to get food?

I currently think the discomfort I have felt when encountering this passage is a poor motivating factor, in and of itself for me, to do God's work. Instead, I will be more cognizant and grateful when God opens my heart to understand the work I should be doing, This may happen more intermittently than I would like but when it happens I experience the "kin-dom".

This Gospel places the final judgement as a one time event in the afterlife. Instead I read this passage today as a perpetual invitation, rather then judgement, to act and bring about God's vision for life to the here and now. I know in my heart when that becomes even a momentary reality and this will better encourage me to see and bring about what is good.