November 22nd 2020
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Would you like a copy of the Community Thanksgiving service mailed to you? Let me know!
- Let’s take a moment for considering our holiday plans… I know some of you will stay with just your own households. I know some will meet with other households of family and friends. Please try to keep your “bubble” as small as possible. Your bubble is everyone you have met in person over the past 2 weeks – every store clerk, every waiter, every relative, every coworker. AND every person they had met over the past two weeks.
o My bubble is myself, my husband, and my daughter.
But that means it is also my daughter’s teacher who visited us. So her classmates, classmate’s parents, classmates friends, teacher’s family, teacher’s friends.
And my husband’s mother who we visited. So everywhere she’s been in the 2 weeks leading to our visit is now part of our bubble. The stores, the restaurants, the other relatives.
o We have seen 2 people in 2 weeks… but we interacted with almost 70 people through those 2. - Please be careful during our holiday season. Please be aware your bubble is much, much larger for every in-person encounter you have with another outside of your house.
We light the candles to remind ourselves of the light of God among us. I invite you to light a candle and join me in a centering hymn.
This is a call and response song by Laurence Cole called Let Us See the Beauty. Join in!
Part One:
Let us see the beauty every day
And source our lives from its presence.
Part Two:
I want to know if you can see the beauty
Even when it’s not pretty every day
I want to know if you can see the beauty
And source your life from its presence
PRAYER
God, our source, our beauty – let us see your beauty! The beauty of creation. The beauty of your hands. The beauty of life. The beauty of death. The beauty of you – who encircle us from cradle to crypt. Even when things are not pretty. Even when we face horror. Even in the shadow of the cross: let us see the beauty. Come, holy God, our beautiful creator, and hear our thanksgiving for our beautiful world. Amen.
SCRIPTURE
It is the end of the church year. What a year. Last Thanksgiving we had no clue. Not a one what 2020 would be like. We didn’t know our personal sorrows coming – the loss of people we love deeply. We didn’t know of the community sorrows coming – the neighbor against neighbor in political divides. We didn’t know of the national sorrows coming – the storms, and fires, and floods, and mass shootings. We didn’t know of the global sorrows coming – covid-19. Quarantines. Isolations. Mass graves.
It’s okay to admit it. To feel it. Sorrow. Anger. Frustration. Depression. Helplessness. Hopelessness.
God promises to bless those who feel these awful things. Promises there is justice yet. Righteousness yet. That God will still yet correct the wrongs and set things good again.
Matthew’s Gospel is addressed to this community who is near the end of what they can handle. No Jesus. No Jesus’ return. Friends and family shunning them. The community misunderstanding them. And many sitting in prison awaiting trial. To these hopeless, helpless, depressed, frustrated, burnt out , lonely, desperate, angry and sorrowful people… Matthew writes Jesus’ story of what Final Judgment shall be…
Matthew 25:31-46
Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘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.’
Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me 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 nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
These are the words about God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God~!
SERMON: Give Thanks! Beauty Every Day
We are told that when the Son of Man comes into his glory, he’ll sit on his throne. Around him are the sheep and the goats all live together in one flock. They are all the nations – all the peoples – of the world. The shepherd-king divides them into their two groups. To one group the King says, come inherit the kingdom. My kingdom. The one God has been planning from the beginning. Come because you are blessed. Come because you helped me when I was helpless. And the peoples are surprised – you? When did we help you? The king explains – when you helped even the smallest, most insignificant child of God, you helped me.
And to the other group the King says be gone. You didn’t help me. They too are surprised. You? The King of Kings? Where were you? Again – the King replies when you did not help anyone, even the smallest, most insignificant child of God, you ignored me.
When Jesus is asked to explain what is the most important law of scripture he says it is to Love God. He follows up with the second most important law is to love others. He concludes all of scripture can be summed up as these two commandments – Love God with your all. Love others as you love yourself.
This parable to me is an elaboration of Jesus’ summary. By loving others, giving to others the good that they want too, for themselves, the sheep have loved God. Through their love of God, they have helped others – even others who couldn’t pay them back, who couldn’t do tit-for-tat – even others who were their enemies.
Sheep and goats look really similar. But we can see the difference. Jesus can judge the difference between those who are doing good not looking for reward, but because they love God. And those who are doing good only when its required. And it is the ones who are living into the kin-dom now – here on earth – who are invited to continue to live in the kin-dom.
It was socially acceptable to ignore the people awaiting trial in prison. There were no rules saying you had to go and feed them, care for them. It was okay to not visit the sick. Then, and now, there are no rules saying ‘You must visit your mother when she has the sniffles or face a fee.’ By society standards, the goats did nothing wrong. The sheep were just over the top merciful and kind. Beyond what was required.
We’re told this is all the nations too. So plenty of non-Jews and non-Christians. People who don’t read or know the scriptures we do. So they especially didn’t have a list of rules on how to be ritually clean, how to be a good Christian, how to observe Sabbath, and how to baptize. All of these things we draw from scripture they weren’t judged on. The world is judged on the much more universal rules of…
Kindness. Showing love.
Our rituals and our rules are important for our culture, and society, and religion. But the universal law – when everything is summarized to its root – is just as Jesus says: Love.
Love God. Love each other. Love yourself. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Do good.
Not because scripture tells you to. Not because laws order you to. Not because you want rewards.
But because you want to love.
Scripture doesn’t actually have a Hygensis 20:20 saying “Thou Shalt Mask.” There’s no laws saying you cannot celebrate Thanksgiving just like you did last year with a big family gathering. No one is going to pay you to be considerate of others.
To love cannot be written down in specific rules for every situation. Scripture offers lots of specific situations to say what was loving then. But what is loving now?
Sometimes it is masking. Sometimes it is not masking. Sometimes it is gathering. Sometimes it is not gathering.
Do what is loving. Do what is considerate of others. Go out of your way; do something you’re not required; love when there’s no reward given. Because love, itself, is living in the reign of God. Love, itself is entering the master’s joy and investing the talents. Love is our identity.
When things are sad or depressing, when things are lonely or aggravating. When we are imprisoned, when we are sick, when we are poor, when we are hungry, when we don’t know folks and are scared – we remember that tiny act of mercy and love. Pass it on. Pass on the love. Love and love and love and love and live in the love of our loving God.
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 