In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Over the last few Sundays, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has divided the world into two groups. We started with the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:10–14) where we witness the humility of the tax-collector and the pride of the pharisee. We take away a simple message, “Be like the tax-collector and not the pharisee.” We heard next of the two brothers in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), and we take away a slightly more nuanced message, “Repent like the younger son and don’t refuse the celebration as the older.”
Yet we cannot ignore the context in which they lived. The tax-collector, despite his humility before God, collaborated with the Romans and cheated his own people to make himself rich whereas the pharisee, despite his boasting, had done his best to follow the Law of God; the older brother stayed close to the Father and did not squander his inheritance as did the prodigal. We cannot use these parables to justify sin—sin against God, sin against our neighbour and sin against ourselves.
And so, in her love for you and her love for me, before we start Lent the Church sets before us the Last Judgement. We want to pass it by, to consider it as a parable like the others we have heard: yet if we consider it truly and humbly, it is awesome and terrifying.
When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.
The Lord has told us,
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24:36–39, 42, 44
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. …
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. …
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Because we, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are called to emulate the prodigal in his repentance, to emulate the tax-collector in his humility, but not in their way of life. We do not know the remaining days of our own lives, the remaining days of this Age, and we must repent because Judgement is at hand. And we will be judged according to our actions towards the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned: towards those who hunger for the Word of God, thirst for his love, are estranged from his Church, need to be clothed in him, are sick through sin and imprisoned by fear of death. Towards all who are in need our loving actions bring the Kingdom.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not use the parables we have heard in the last few weeks as a justification for inaction but live our lives as Christians. The Lord is calling us to turn to him now, while we have time, through serving those who are in need. And if we can do this, if we can be the human persons we are called to be, then the Lord will receive us and honour us as righteous and number us among the elect.
May this be, that we offer all praise, glory and honour to Jesus Christ, the one who was and is and is coming, (Revelation 1:8) together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol’s temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
— First Corinthians 8:8–13, 9:1–2
The Lord said, “When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of 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, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, 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, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
— Matthew 25:31–46