The Apostle s Creed, A Lover s Quarrel: He Shall Come Again to Judge A sermon by Rev. Aaron Fulp-Eickstaedt At Immanuel Presbyterian Church, McLean VA On August 11 th, 2013 I John 3:16-21, Matthew 25:31-46 Today I continue my summer sermon series that I m calling The Apostles Creed, a Lover s Quarrel by looking at the phrase from thence he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead, or as more modern translations would put it, the living and the dead. The idea that God judges individual and communities, that there is One beyond us who takes what we and others do into account and metes out reward and punishment, is a concept that is deeply ingrained in the Biblical worldview. God is more than just Parent. God is more than just Creator, friend and confidant, God is one who has high expectations for those God has created. That s what the Bible wants to say. Our first passage is from the first letter of John to the early Christians he worked and worshipped alongside. Listen for how John casts God s expectations and God s judgment all in light of love God s love for us, made manifest in one who laid down his life and the idea that if that love abides in us, we will give help to those in need. But listen also for what John says about our hearts condemning us. What he says is that God is greater than our hearts, and knows everything. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God s love abide in anyone who has the world s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; Our second passage is the classic last judgment text. The passage comes at the very end of Jesus teaching in Matthew s gospel, and Jesus speaks of separating the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous, all on the basis, not of what they said or believed, but on how they acted, how they treated those in real need. 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. There is a marvelous scene in the new movie 42, the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. If you haven t seen it, please see it. It s well worth your time. It s a scene that has given me a new appreciation for the phrase, From thence he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead. Now I knew that Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Dodgers, was the one who handpicked the talented Robinson to integrate the game because he believed Robinson had the fortitude and courage to stand up to the abuse he was bound to take without responding in kind. I never realized, however, that when Rickey had his first conversation with Robinson, he put that need to meet adversity in that way by referring to Jesus and his words in the Sermon on the Mount. The scene I m referring to comes later in the movie, however. It s when the Philadelphia Phillies general manager Herb Pennock calls Branch Rickey on the phone to tell him that the Phillies won t take the field when the Dodgers come to town if the Dodgers insist on that boy being in uniform. When Rickey says that his name is Jackie Robinson, Pennock goes on to say we re not just ready for that sort of thing in Philadelphia. That s when Rickey says this. You think God likes baseball, Herb? When Pennock asks Rickey to explain what in the world he means by that statement, Rickey passionately replies,
It means someday you re going to meet God, and when he inquires as why you didn t take the field against Robinson in Philadelphia, and you answer that it was because he was a Negro, it may not be a sufficient reply! i I love that! This is why, as much as I have as I am with the phrase He Shall Come Again to Judge the Living and the Dead, I think we do well to reflect on it from time to time maybe all the time. Because it reminds us that there is One who will hold us accountable, one who has expectations for us and a vision for us and our actions in this world who wants justice to be done, who wants us not to refuse help when we see a brother or sister in need, who wants us to work for a world made new. It reminds us that there are standards, and a standard giver, to whom and to which we are held accountable. My lover s quarrel with the concept of judgment is not with the idea that there is one who hold us accountable in the here and now and the hereafter. This is a deeply biblical view. The concept of God s judgment on individuals and communities is firmly ingrained in the Bible. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge and are cast out of the garden. The people of Israel wandering in the wilderness complain and fail to trust and they make a golden calf and they endure punishment. David faces consequences for his transgression with Bathsheba but more than that for his killing of her husband Uriah--as both his family and his kingdom begin to unravel. Later the nation of Israel faces consequences for its idolatry and lack of caring for the poor and needy, despite prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet calling them to do so. To care for the poor and needy, to not practice idolatry. Micah saying, What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God? Jeremiah continually holding the people s feet to the fire around caring for widows and orphans. Amos holding up a plumb line to illustrate that to build a life and a community, just like to build a building, you need to have standard; and Amos saying that hat what God wanted wasn t feasts and solemn assemblies, religious observances, but for justice to flow down like rivers and righteousness like an everflowing stream Oh, judgment is part of the biblical story. But justice was about inclusion and righteousness was not about adherence to purity codes. My lover s quarrel with he shall come again to judge the living and the dead is that too often we fail to remember who it is that is responsible for doing the judging. It is God, not us. And the God who does the judging is the same one who came in Jesus to show us what it means to love: to transcend boundaries, to forgive our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to work for a world made new, where people who are excluded are made welcome and people who feel they can never be good enough, people who feel they ve messed up too badly are welcomed home.
In Marilynne Robinson s book Home ii, which is a companion to her book Gilead about the fictional town in Iowa and a congregational minister there and his Presbyterian minister colleague, you get a better glimpse into the character of Jack Boughton. Jack Boughton is the Presbyterian minister s son. He s an alcoholic, the black sheep. He s a prodigal. Jack comes home as his father is declining in health. His sister Glory is there taking care of his father. Over time Jack and his sister Glory and Glory means presence of God, right? develop a relationship over time, a relationship they didn t have when they were kids. She really welcomes him home. Her care for Jack is deep and she comes to understand in the time he spends there just how deeply Jack is wounded. Near the end of the book, Jack has a conversation with his father and the congregational minister about predestination and the notion that some people are just doomed from the beginning to never know and embrace God s grace. And at one point, the old Congregationalist pastor Ames, in response to Jack Boughton s comment that sometimes the sins of the sons are visited on the fathers, says, If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts. iii Here is Jack, living a life of regret, mistakes, and doubt. And here is the old minister Ames, speaking a word of grace that even he doesn t understand. If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts. Too often we forget what the plumb line is, what the measuring stick is by which we are judged. It is the measuring stick of love. It is the plumb line of compassion. Sometimes the person who most needs compassion is the caregiver. Sometimes the person who most needs compassion is the one who cannot feel it for himself or herself. I will never forget the conversation I had with a parishioner. She was wracked by guilt, tormented by it. Feeling like she let her husband down by not being present one night during the last week of his life when he asked her to please stay. She didn t have it in her to stay. She had to go home. She had to get rest. A week later he died, and she could not forget or forgive herself for that night when she went home. Years later she came to talk to me. And I suggested this. What if you imagine that that person who went home and got some rest that night was you, but that was you then? Think about it. What if that person were somebody else? Would you be able to have compassion on her? Would you be able to say that she was only doing what she needed to do at the time. My God, give her a break! Can you do that? I asked. Can you imagine her as somebody different than you and extend compassion and forgiveness?
We serve a God who judges yes, but who judges in light of Jesus, who knows what it is to live in a body. We serve a God who judges us through the prism of love. Does that mean we are off the hook? We are forgiven whatever we do, so anything goes, sin boldly so that grace may abound? No. I think that means that day in and day out we need to remember that we are not just judged at the end of time, or at the end of our lives. We may be judged by God, but day in and day out we are also judged by the people who watch us. So a couple of thoughts as I close. Number one. What if we made it a practice to engage in the spiritual discipline of examen? To take stock at the end of every day and answer certain questions about the day that just passed. Where did I see God at work in my life and in the world today? What did I do right? And what do I wish I would have done differently? What if at the end of every day you and I go through, we took the time to engage in that practice, the practice of examen? Not to waiting until some end days judgment, but in mercy and grace and compassion for ourselves to say, This is how the day went for me. Here s what I did it right. Here s where I didn t. Second thing. At the Vacation Bible School picnic I was sitting and talking to someone who is not a member of this congregation. Her kids were here participating in the school one of them helping lead recreation, the other two were in classes. She said to me, I am reading a book by Og Mandino and it is great! I thought to myself, Who is Og Mandino? And then I remembered he was the guy who wrote The Greatest Salesman in the World. Then she says to me, There is this really interesting idea he has in the chapter I just read. He says that what we should do when we go through life is to treat every person we meet as if it were the last day of that person s life. She said, That s kind of weird, isn t it? No, I told her, not really. And I thought about judgment, and about how we typically cast that, live every day as if it is your last day. But what if we go through life and treat everybody we meet as if it might be their last day on earth? What kind of grace and mercy and compassion and love might we express to them? Think about it and act on it. In Jesus name. Amen. i 42 was written and directed by Brian Helgeland. You can get more information about the film here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453562/ or watch the clip to which I m referring here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmxkeuxlo8s ii Marilynne Robinson, Home (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2008). iii Ibid, p. 188.