Sharing Christ’s Love: “THE Matthew 25 Passage”
Rev. Tully M. Fletcher IV
Decatur Presbyterian Church (DPC)
November 26, 2023
DPC, as I’m sure most of your know, we are Matthew 25 Congregation. We have held that designation within the Presbyterian denomination for a few years now, and we have that Matthew 25 logo on our website and printed in our bulletin every week.
Matthew is a long book of the bible, and we have been preaching on it since August. Chapter 25 is a Long chapter, and we’ve been preaching on that for the last 3 weeks. But the passage we are looking at today, is THE Matthew 25 text, that give purpose and guidance to our congregation.
When we first took on that label of being a Matthew 25 congregation, and committed our selves to being a compassionate & generous congregation, we covered this passage for several weeks in a row. We talked about the Matthew 25 goals of:
- Building congregational vitality
- Dismantling structural racism
- Eradicating systemic poverty
But it seems like it has been a while since we looked at those goals and this passage closely. So, let us dust them off, and look at them a new.
Matthew 25:34-45
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.’
The 6 things
This passage contains a list of 6 things, we are supposed to do.
- Feed the Hungry
- Give a Drink
- Welcome strangers
- Give clothing
- Visit the sick
- Visit those in prison
That list of 6 things is repeated in this story 4 whole times. Each time we get the list of commands, all 6 things are present, the list never gets shortened.
These 6 things are important.
- Feed the Hungry
- Give a Drink
- Welcome strangers
- Give clothing
- Visit the sick
- Visit those in prison
The Good place (a)
Before we really get into it, we have to address one strain of bad theology right away.
Doing these 6 things is important.
It is what God commands us to do.
It is how we meet Jesus Face to face.
But it is NOT how we earn our way into heaven.
Getting into heaven is a not like a credit score, or a grade from a teacher.
You don’t earn points by feeding people, or giving them clothes, and those points, if you did earn them, wouldn’t get you into heaven.
The Good place (b)
There was a popular show that ran from 2016 to 2020, called the Good Place.
The show was about what happens to people after they die,
do they go to the Good Place or to the Bad Place.
It was a fun and cute show that tackled some surprisingly heavy philosophical topics, and from time to time had some good theology. The primary Premises of the show, was that people in their life time, would do good things, and earn points, or would do bad things and loose points.
People who earned enough points, would make it to the Good place.
While a fun idea for a TV show, that’s not how it works in real life.
We don’t earn our way into heaven.
The show itself hinted at how flawed that system is, when they revealed how complicated the points thing was, and how people could lose points while doing something good. Being ‘Good Enough’ is impossible.
Spoiler alert for a TV show from 5 years ago, it was revealed that it had been over 500 years since anyone had earned enough points.
So, to be clear, we don’t earn our way into the heaven, we get into heaven because God loves us unconditionally.
That being said, we are still called to do these 6 things.
- Feed the Hungry
- Give a Drink
- Welcome strangers
- Give clothing
- Visit the sick
- Visit those in prison
We do them as a way of saying thanks to God for the Grace we have already received.
We do them because we are a compassionate & generous community.
Doing these 6 things is important, but also, these 6 things are only half of the equation.
Two feet
It is like walking on 2 feet.
One (right) foot is faith and prayer.
The other (left) foot is good works.
The first foot is Salvation by Grace.
The second foot is helping the least, the last, and the lost.
One foot includes
Belief, education, study,
spiritual practices of the heart and mind.
Is think, knowing, and feeling the right way.
The first foot, is being religious.
The other foot
It is putting your faith into action.
It is doing the things 6 things in Matthew 25
- Feed, Give Drink, Welcome, Cloth, Visit the sick & in prison
And here’s the trick,
If you want to follow Christ, you will need to walk with both feet.
I’ve known Christians who tried to hop around on one foot.
They would have revivals.
They would have prayer meetings.
They would sing the songs, recite the creeds
Share testimonial
They said all the right words.
But they had no works.
They had no missions.
They were the perfect Christians on Sunday Morning, but Monday through Friday, they didn’t help anyone.
They didn’t do any good works.
They didn’t show any love.
They were hopping around on one foot.
Likewise, I’ve known others, who did lots of missions.
They would cook and serve meals.
Provide water to those who were thirsty.
They would build houses, and coordinate donations.
They would do medical clinics, and provide glasses to kids who couldn’t see.
But they never talked about their faith.
They rarely went to worship, nor said their prayers.
They DID all the good things, but their actions were hollow.
They too were hopping around on one foot.
12 things
So maybe it is more like 12 things we have to do.
- Feeding the hungry
o Go to Worship
- Giving drink to thirsty
o Pray
- Clothes to the naked
o Confess our sins
- Show welcome to the stranger
o Study God’s word
- Visiting those who are sick
o Study the creeds
- Visiting those in prison
o Sing to God’s Glory
In doing those 12 things, we will be a Matthew 25 Congregation.
You will be the compassionate & Generous congregation God is calling you to be.
What’s next?
Now I know what you are thinking, “ok, but what do I do next?”
Who do I feed?
How do I find Thirsty people?
What clothes should I give away?
When should I welcome?
Where Should I visit?
Matt 25 Summit
Well I’m so glad you asked that question.
Pastor Emily, is going to help us out…
Emily from the Lectern
Closing
Tully from the Pulpit
If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, that’s ok.
It is overwhelming.
Being Compassionate & Generous is hard work.
But it is also inspiring work.
Stories of people doing these 6
To close my sermon this morning, I want to leave you with a question!
I want you to look at your bulletin, Every child of God ~ Belonging, engaging, being transformed.
That is our 2025 bicentennial goal.
Which we will be doing in less than 2 year from now.
What will our Tricentennial goal be?
Does our goal need to be more complicated than Matthew 25?
- Feed, Give Drink, Welcome, Cloth, Visit the sick & in prison
-What if our goal was to feed people every day?
-What if our goal was to provide something to drink, and we set out to build 100 water treatment facilities around the world?
-What if our goal was to welcome 300 refugee families?
Or to provide clothes to a thousand people?
-What if our goal was to visit everyone in the Hospital?
Not just every DPC member who is sick, but every single patient?
-What if our goal was to visit everyone in the prison?
What if our tricentennial goal was to eradicate Homelessness in the City of Decatur?
What if we dream big, and see what’s possible when we follow God’s lead.
Peace,
Tully
