Four times and we still don’t get it. When I give a message it is nice when people are complimentary.  I appreciate that.  However, my goal should not be that you like or agree with what I say, but that I say what you need to hear.  I hope I say what we both need to hear.  Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.  I am very comfortable and hear very little from pulpits designed to make me feel uncomfortable.

Matthew 25:31-46

 Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who 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 drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, 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, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The last verse says, “And these will go off to eternal punishment.” Has God set up an eternal torture chamber? Is God a monster? Is God less compassionate and merciful than the average person on the street? When it comes to “hell fire and damnation” Matthew takes the cake.

Matthew 13:42 ^“and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 10:28

²⁸ “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Did you ever think of it this way?

“If you do that again you are grounded for the rest of your life!”

Or, “Great.  You backed into our neighbor’s car. How many times have I told you to check the mirrors before you back out of the driveway?  Don’t ever ask to borrow the car again.”

 It is called hyperbole. We use it all the time.  Matthew is using hyperbole which is a rhetorical and literary technique where an author or speaker intentionally uses exaggeration and overstatement for emphasis and effect.

Matthew uses hyperbole a lot. 

Matthew 5:29-30.  If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

If you are going to interpret the hell literally, then you have to do that for the rest of the above section — which makes me wonder why there aren’t more blind, one-handed, fundamentalist, literalist Christians.  Maybe they are perfect?  I will not temper this next statement.  A literal interpretation is the least useful. It takes minimal thought and abuses the text.  But I get it.  If you can twist the text to end up with a God of violence, retribution and exclusion, then it gives you free rein to be the same. 

But we don’t want to throw out the symbolism of fire.   Scientist and theologian Ilia Delios said, “Real fire is destructive; throw yourself into a fire and you will be destroyed. God’s fire is destructive too, because it can swiftly eliminate all self-illusions, grandiose ideas, ego-inflation, and self-centeredness. Throw yourself into the spiritual fire of divine love, and everything you grasp for yourself will be destroyed until there is nothing left but the pure truth of yourself. “

Fire as a cleansing agent is a good metaphor. 

Back to the goats and sheep. The threat in the text is shouting to the reader, “This is really important and crucial.  Pay attention.” Hence Matthew’s use of hyperbole. To stress the point even more, the same verses are repeated four times which does not happen anywhere else in the gospels.  We better pay attention.

Nine of the ten commandments are “Thou shalt nots”.  The goats are not in trouble because of “Shalt not’s.”  They are in trouble because of “Thou shalt didn’t’s”.  The goats’ sins are sins of omission.

Go to church, pray, be nice  —  I am doing that rather well, thank you very much.  Feed the hungry!  What is that supposed to mean?  I give money to Catholic Charities and helped with grocery rescue.  Was that enough, or am I supposed to hand out sandwiches to the homeless?  I have never visited anyone in prison.  I came across information where you can get set up to be a pen pal to an inmate.  How about I just pray for the incarcerated.  Good enough?

Have you ever asked yourself this question?  “Am I really that much different than the nice atheist fellow down the street?  Am I a cruise-control Christian?”  

Matthew 5:11. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” 

Matthew 10:28. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannnot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

If I was accused of being a follower of Christ could they find enough evidence to convict me? Notice I did not say believer.  I said follower.  I am saying walking the talk.

Revelation 3:15-18 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.” 

Tepid Christianity changes nothing.  It just maintains the status quo which by the way is working very nicely for me.  I don’t want to change.  Do you?

January 11, 1927 “I like your Christ, but not your Christianity.” In these words of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. J.H. Holmes summed up the Indian leader’s view of Christianity in a recent interview with a CRIMSON reporter. Dr. Holmes, professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College and a member of the Society of Friends, has just completed a tour around the world, during which he spent some time in India. He had several opportunities of conversing with Gandhi. He was present at the meeting of the All-Indian Congress and had the honor of being the only westerner ever allowed to speak from their platform.

Continuing in Gandhi’s words, “I believe in the teachings of Christ, but you on the other side of the world do not. I read the Bible faithfully and see little in Christendom that those who profess faith pretend to see.

“The Christians above all others are seeking after wealth. Their aim is to be rich at the expense of their neighbors. They come among aliens to exploit them for their own good and cheat them to do so. Their prosperity is far more essential to them than the life, liberty, and happiness of others.

“The Christians are the most warlike people.” 

Me: 100 years later and not much has changed.

When speaking of the sheep and the goats, Jesus does not say, “Whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, was as if you did for me.” He says, “Whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” The connection is total and direct. There is no gap. The face of the poor, the stranger, the hungry, the sick, the naked, thirsty and imprisoned is the face of Christ. The pain and suffering of the poor, the stranger, the hungry, the sick, the naked, thirsty and imprisoned is the pain of Christ. Christ is not up there. Christ is right here, right now in the flesh of our brothers and sisters.  WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. The Palestinians, the Israelis, the Ukrainians and the Russians are the body of Christ. The immigrants on the southern border are the body of Christ.

If you knew that Jesus had come back and was sitting on a Sprague sidewalk homeless and hungry, you would not hesitate to go pick him up, take him home, feed and house him.  Well, he is sitting on Sprague.  How has so much of Christianity gotten it so wrong? Young people are not bailing on Christianity because of the influence of secular humanism.  They are bailing because of Christian hypocrisy gone rampant.  True Christianity has not been tried and found wanting.  It has never been tried.

In the past Christians burnt people at the stake because their beliefs were wrong.  The church has never punished anyone because they didn’t give drink to the thirsty or clothe the naked.

People that fight for the rights of the LGBTQ are ostracized from their church community.  I doubt the same community has ostracized a member because they did not care for the ill or visit prisoners.  The Catholic hierarchy teaches that divorcees that remarry without an annulment are sinners, and the second marriage is considered adulterous. However, Catholics in their first marriage that are greedy, degrade the poor, want more people jailed and the homeless shipped to Death Valley are good to go.  Why do we get uptight about the non-essentials and down loose about the essentials? Why? Because it is easier.  We can puff up our chests with our sense of moral superiority. I do it and it is nothing but bovine excrement. 

Next time someone asks you if you are a Christian, before responding ask yourself this.  How many coats do I have in my closet?  If it is more than two, then think twice about saying, “Yes, I am a Christian.”  Luke 3:11. If you have two coats give one to the poor.  If you have food share it with the hungry.”

I try to judge no one.  I do not know where you are on your path of spirituality.  Some of my message has been harsh, but mediocrity doesn’t cut it.  The problem is not out there.  It is in here.   If you want to see tepid Christianity, you need look no further than me.

Now here is how we get off the hook, kind of.  In the Revelation verse I cited, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.”  The community John of Patmos is writing to is under heavy persecution.  Declare Caesar as Lord or you will be killed.   Some Christians are even caving and squealing on their brothers and sisters. Times are tough.  You have to make a definite choice.  John is using hyperbole.

But does God really want to vomit us out of his mouth?  I don’t think so.  We are loved beyond belief. Our names are written in the palm of God’s hand.  Decide to give all you have away and go to Ecuador to be a missionary.  God will not love you more.  Decide to chuck it all, ruthlessly accumulate as much wealth as possible and become mean-spirited.  God will not love you any less.  Unless my last two statements were true, then it is not love.  It is a transaction.  Quid pro Quo.  Do this to get that.  For love to be love, it has to be unconditional.

However, I can’t help but think that the Divine mystery carries a profound sense of sadness.  Sad that her comfortable children that could do so much to alleviate the suffering of her other children are doing nothing. So much potential and here we are, like 40 year-olds living at home, mooching off our parents, eating pizza and playing video games in the basement.

Two weeks ago at the end of the meeting, an announcement was made that someone was in the lobby that needed gas.  Last week Ken made the announcement that a member needed assistance helping a homeless family.  I trust that the response was overwhelming. I hope that I have been preaching to the choir.

This message was given to Spokane Friends by John Kinney during Sunday morning worship on March 10, 2024.

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