The Gospel for Christ the King Sunday is Matthew 25:31-46.
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. 32 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, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 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; 35 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, 36 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.' 37 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? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40 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.' 41 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; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 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.' 44 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?' 45 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.' 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
What good news do you see in this text?
What don't you understand?
What questions do you have?
What applies to you (or us) today?
Give and ye shall receive.
ReplyDeleteCould it really be that simple? Give to others, donate, volunteer, etc. and you get into heaven. I feel like just because you don't give back or volunteer doesn't mean you are a bad person. I feel like this makes it very specific and sets the standards very high for those that may just not be in a position to give to others.
How can we possibly live up to this? Do we always live in fear that we aren't giving enough and will end up on the left side?
At our meeting on Wednesday night, the Peace council discussed this text. Here are some thoughts from our conversation:
ReplyDelete-This does give a positive spin to doing good works.
-But it is confusing. Doesn't the idea of "you didn't do it so you're damned" fly in the face of grace?
-What about our nice, gentle Jesus? We try to paint him that way, but sometimes he comes across as rude and short.
-It's easy to think about this text in terms of the scales of justice. It could be very black and white.
-This affirms our call as Christians.
-There are choices and consequences--we can choose to ignore the needs of the world and there are consequences for that. We can choose to help the needs of the world and there are consequences for that.
Great insights and conversation. Thanks council!