Matthew 25

Matthew 25 has always been a favorite of mine. Recently, I read a wonderful reflection on Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa carried the Gospel in her hand without a book. Sometimes when asked to describe the Gospel message, she would take her listener's hand and pinch each finger, saying, "You. Did. It. To. Me." You did it to me. This five-finger gospel, taken from Matthew 25:40, summed up for Mother Teresa the truth about the body of Christ and showed her the way to love the God she could not see in the brother or sister she could see.

Father Jonah Teller, Magnificat, June 2023, p. 245

Why do we give?

Six years ago I wrote this thought about giving, alms, charity, and mercy and the long term benefits.

"I read the Columbus Catholic Times, a hand off from a family friend. I'm learning a lot. Just this week I noticed a difference in how Catholics and Protestants use the concept of giving. Catholics suggest "works of mercy" or "works of charity," and Protestants say we will change poverty, schooling, politics, the environment, etc. if we just chip in $10 for the food pantry, or a backpack for Highland school child, or cleaning up a town after a flood or tornado. There's a huge difference. We are to give because Jesus gave first, not because we will end poverty (we won't) or make up for the terrible home of a child (we can't). According to Matt. 25, we will meet Jesus in those acts of kindness and service, so we do them without expecting the reward of change. Meeting Jesus is the reward."

Supporting the Democrats on abortion

On Resurrection of the Dead day you'll be asked about your support of the party that has killed millions of helpless babies, because Jesus IS coming back. He said there are sheep and there are goats. He has said some go to Hell and some go to Heaven. By their own actions he'll know who has done what. Matt 25 makes that clear.  You've said you don't approve, yet you support the Democrats and all the media that push abortion for any reason and any stage of life. No one gets elected as a Democrat if they don't support the euphemism "Women's health," or "Women's right to choose." Pelosi and Biden defy their church's teaching, yet you support them. And the Bishops who look away will have to answer to Jesus some day.

According to CDC in a decade 143 babies were born alive during an abortion out of about 9 million. Is 143 struggling, squirming live babies left to die OK with you? If you include the previous decade the number is 362. What number is good for you? And those 8 or 9 month aborted developed babies, not born alive whose brains were sucked out or limbs sliced off in utero so they wouldn't be "born alive" and therefore legal. Their body parts are sold. Do you go along with Democrats on that? If you read through the Gospels, Jesus can ask some really tough questions. I don't think "I don't vote" or "I didn't approve" is going to get you past that judge.

Churches using government money to fulfill their promise to Christ

Christian relief groups, particularly churches like the Catholics and Baptists, are really in a bind. Christ commanded us to help the poor, imprisoned, hungry, etc. but NOT by taking grants from the government to do it. We Christians are cooperating with evil by providing humanitarian care for the caravans--many funded by traffickers and drug cartels. And it isn't just this administration, it really geared up under "thousand points of light" of GHW Bush, although it was common before that with building contracts to help clean up poverty and farm surplus for food pantries run by churches.

 
When Jesus comes back and asks how we followed Matthew 25, I fear he'll find the churches there with the goats, and not the sheep who know him. We're not to be siphoning off tax money and becoming dependent on the government.

Unfortunately, this invites anti-Catholic hostility from other Christians, while tying the Catholics even closer to poorly managed, dead end government practices.  Plus, many Christians who are critical of this, are ignorant of what their own denomination is doing with government money.

Dissenting Catholic Charities: Separating Church & Welfare State? - Capital Research Center

Catholic Church collects $1.6 billion in U.S. contracts, grants since 2012 - Washington Times

Churches Take Action to Help Children at the Border As Leaders Debate (churchleaders.com)

Skipping church on purpose during pandemic panic

It was such a pleasant change to be able to attend church services here at Lakeside two weeks ago. Even in a park, even with social distancing, even with no hymns, even wearing a mask.

But not today. First, it's only about 50 degrees, and it will be much cooler near the lake (service is in the Steele Memorial gazebo). But second, it's a Methodist service, and if I know anything about Methodists, we'll have a lecture on race relations. Methodists, like Catholics, are always in the forefront of social issues, and they do an excellent job. Of all the Protestant denominations, Methodists are the closest to Catholic in obeying Christ's commands in Matthew 25. It's not just "me and Jesus," but it's the Holy Spirit changing the heart for service for God. And I get it. But I don't want to sit in the cold, after the churches, all churches have abdicated their leadership role during this time of unrest and pandemic. They simply closed their doors, closed down their ministries to those mentioned in Matthew 25--poor, sick, imprisoned, thirsty--and decided that skyping and zooming and preaching online was just fine and met their obligations. Even churches with huge parking lots paving over acres, could not seem to find a way to call their congregations together in worship and service. Like ours. UALC with two locations and two huge parking lots and loads of technology.

So I'm not going to sit in a park in a gated community that is 99.9999% white and be lectured about systemic racism and how we white folks need to do better. I don't want to listen to an academic preach it who hasn't studied the statistics about government transfer programs, who are the victims of crime, how many millions of contacts do we have with the police and how many end badly (virtually none) and what is the role of the media. I just won't listen to one more harangue when I know the 60 years of government and business policies that have made things worse, but more often better.

There are no goats in heaven

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus explained who will be in heaven, who enters the kingdom, who gets the inheritance; no goats, only sheep the shepherd recognizes. How will the shepherd know the sheep? It's not about who voted for a poverty program or closed down the bad prisons, or who marched for open borders while keeping locks on their homes and passwords on their computers. It's not even about mega churches and fabulous musicians to bring in the crowds. In fact, it's a huge challenge because he demands personal responsibility for changing our own lives, not society. These are the opportunities to meet Jesus face to face. "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’"

Again, help where you can; be compassionate and kind. Maybe that's volunteering at the food pantry, but it could be inviting the new widow for dinner. It could be not coddling your adult children so they can learn to be sheep also. It could be picking up someone else's trash. You will definitely NOT change the world or even transform a life, but it will make you a better person because you've met Jesus.

God's Wife

I rarely repost internet memes, but this one in Rusty’s e-mail really had appeal.  It reminds me of the Gospel of Matthew 25, and also the form of Communion we used/use in the Church of the Brethren which is a community meal and foot washing.

An eye witness account from New York City: On a cold day in December, some years ago: A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

A lady approached the young boy and said, 'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!' 'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,' was the boy's reply. The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel. By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes.She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be more comfortable now..'

As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her:

'Are you God's wife?'