Sermon: "Serving or Swerving?"

Delivered August 12, 2007 by Rev. George Antonakos.

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Well, the subject of today's or the idea for today is about serving and it has been wonderful hearing from two women who have given us the nice balance between serving someone in the best way possible and sharing your faith with someone and seeing them come to faith and then Vicki who is sharing in such tangible heartfelt ways to the poorest of the poor. It is just great to have that balance.

In last week's sermon, Pastor John said more than two things that really caught my attention, but there are two specific things that I want to recall for us. The last line of his message; I am sure you all remember the last line of his message, don't you? "God wants our faith to be more than words." That really ties into the scriptures that we will be soon reading. The second thing that he said that really caught my attention was that the Orioles really have no post-season playoff chances, and being a long-time Baltimore native to admit that is much more painful for me than for him, but I still agree with the wisdom of his second point as well. All you have to do is do the math to see that the Orioles will be hard-pressed to avoid their tenth straight losing season. I mean if they go 500, consider it a major accomplishment, but that sad possibility makes what happened a couple of weeks ago all the more special for Orioles fans. Do you know what I am talking about? Cal Ripkin's induction in to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. It was attended by over 70, 000 fans; the largest crowd ever to go to one of those things and more Hall of Famer's were on the dais or up there on the platform than any other Hall of Fame induction and believe it or not that also, that event also ties in to the scripture that we are about to read.

And so let's listen to a passage of scripture that I think is one of the most gut-check, oriented passages of scripture in the whole Bible and before we do let's pray. We could easily entitle this passage, the return of the king. So let's pray:

Lord, we ask that as we speak your words, as we think your words, as we hear them read, that your Holy Spirit would make them more than human words, that they would be your very words to our hearts and that we would follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Matthew 25: 31 and following:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put 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; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Well, compare that to Cooperstown; the Son of Man in all of his radiant glory seated on his heavenly throne, surrounded by thousands and thousands of angels. All the nations and the people of the world gathered before him, not as an audience, but as subjects ready to be judged. In amidst all this grandeur there are no Hall of Fame induction speeches, there is nobody standing up saying, "I want to thank all the little people who have helped make this day possible." What we have here is humanities Hall of Fame, according to the king of the universe. They are referred to as the righteous. They are called blessed by God the father. They are called inheritors of the kingdom that God prepared before the creation of the whole world. They are the sheep of the fold of the Great Shepherd and although the word is not used in this text, in the most basic of terms they are servants of God, because they are servants of other needy human beings. As we read this text, we hear the repetition over and over again of the questions, of the statements, both the sheep and the goats say the same thing. Jesus says the same thing. And you get the distinct impression that some amazing discoveries are being made in this repetition. And I just want to share two of them with you today.

All of human history is pointing to the moment that Jesus describes and we make the first surprising discovery that the great judgment of all time will be based on deeds done in Christ's love. It won't be based on our theological understanding, our church attendance, or whether we were in a small group or not. It won't be based on any of those things. It will be based on small deeds done in the name of Jesus Christ. There will be a judgment to face according to this text. Clearly there are some to whom the king will say, "Come to me. Because you have pleased me by serving others in your life"; and there are others to whom the Lord will say, "Depart from me because clearly you have aimed only to please yourself in this life and you did not serve others." And at first glance when we look at it, one could assume that entrance in to heaven is based on whether we do enough good deeds or not. Hey, if I do enough good deeds I get into heaven. And if that is the case, then an atheist social worker or a long time rotary club member is going to make it. But if we would say that, then we would say that salvation would be based on something that we do rather than on what God has already done for us. In fact, that distinction is true of every world religion except Christianity; that what we do determines God's grace or not, but not Christianity. Titus 3:5 could not be more clear and we need the frame of Titus 3:5 around this Matthew 25 passage to be very clear about it. He saved us speaking of Jesus, "not because of the righteous things we had done, not because of the righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy he saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit". In other words, I don't think Matthew's passage is saying that you can work your way into heaven by doing good deeds, which is a good thing, because it would drive us nuts knowing whether or not we have done enough good deeds to make it.

So if that is true, we can't work our way in to heaven, then what is Jesus telling us in Matthew 25? I think he is telling us that if we truly are his children, if we are truly following him that we will be known by our good deeds, just as he was known by all the good that he did for other people. I think it is telling us that those good deeds will not be the root of our salvation. They will be the fruit of our salvation. I believe that this passage is telling us that we are not to love and serve others to avoid God's punishment, nor even to gain God's reward, even though that is going to happen, but with a spontaneous sympathy for the good of others in need. Yet as soon as we say that, we have to ask the question, who can love like that? Who can love the unlovable? I think those who know that at one time they themselves appeared unlovable and ungrateful because they took for granted the love of God. Who can show this kind of mercy and serve compassionately? Only those who understand that they receive the compassion and touch of God's mercy. Who can really forgive? Only those I think who have received to know they have received a massive eternal forgiveness through Jesus' death and resurrection.

Notice the description of the sheep that Jesus gives. He says, "Come you blessed of my father." Who are the people who are blessed of the father? It's those who give the same answer that Peter gave when he was in discussion with Jesus, when Jesus asked the two most important questions ever to be asked in the whole Bible. He sat his disciples before him at Caeserea Philippi and he said, "Who do people say that I am?" They gave a whole bunch of answers and then the most singular question to everyone of us here today, every single day; who do you say that I am? And the answer that Peter gave; if it were a game show he would have won both showcases, he would have one everything. He would have won the big prize. He said, "Lord you are the Christ, the Messiah, the one sent from God, the son of the living God." And what did Jesus say to him? He said, "Blessed are you of my father in Heaven." He said, "Blessed are you Simon, son of John, because flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. My father in heaven revealed this to you." What's the great work of God? To believe in the one that he has sent. And so out of that great heartfelt confession flow the deeds that Jesus speaks of here in this text. Not to earn salvation, not even to demonstrate salvation, but to show that those deeds come forth because of Christ's love flowing in and through us. It's not about being obligated to do something. It's more about we just can't help but do it.

The greatest Christmas story next to the nativity itself I think is Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge's, A Christmas Carol. At the end of that story, we have all seen it. We have all read it. Ebenezer Scrooge was redeemed. The evidence of which wasn't that he was giving Bob Cratchit the day off or a raise to earn God's favor; you get the clear and distinct evidence that he had to do it. He had to do it. It was just something that came and flowed out of his heart. He couldn't help but do it. So being great in God's eyes is getting away from a focus on ourselves. Listen, even a focus on our own spiritual development as important as that is and focusing on a life lived in service to others.

And that leads to a second amazing discovery, perhaps the most amazing of all, that the small deeds of the heart that flow from the love of Christ, done in service to those who are in need are actually service to who? They are actually service to the king who is sitting on the throne himself. Both the sheep and the goats are not aware in either their doing or their not doing, that they were doing or not doing to Jesus and this drives home the truth that to say that we love Jesus and not serve other people, it's impossible. It is in serving others that we express our love for Jesus and he is so concerned about that that he identifies himself in solidarity with those who are in need.

The literal rendering of the phrase ministering "unto the least of these" means a single one of these. If you minister to a single one of these; if you minister to anyone at all in need, you have done it unto me. Very similar to Jesus' words to the lawyer when he answered the question, who is my neighbor? The neighbor is anyone in need, whatever the need is, physical, spiritual, emotional, whatever. One person trying to drive this point home of the need for specific, intentional, sacrificial help rewrote Matthew 25 in this way.

"I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release. I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me. You seemed so close to God, but I am still very hungry and lonely and cold."

The person who wrote that realized that if we only talked about doing good for Jesus then we have an empty, powerless faith. What's amazing to me is that this list of deeds which is not exhaustive, it's descriptive. What is so striking about this list is that the deeds that Jesus mentions are not great things to do. They do not require great skill to do, but they do require our attention and sacrifice of our time. I think that is the difference between the sheep and the goats; the attention and the giving of self and time.

You know we look at our world and we see so many problems and we think I will never make a dent, but Jesus is saying if you do one small thing to anyone who is in need you are making a dent, because you are ministering to me. And this is a great help to us, because every single one of us I know that you would not be here today, you would not be here today if you didn't have some part of your being that wanted to do exactly what Jesus is saying, but we all know when our heart is in something or not and we all know what it means to struggle with selfish interest. All of us know the distraction that comes in paying attention to our own needs. And all of us know the general weariness that can accompany serving, but in our heart of hearts we know that it is only in activating our faith that we find soul level satisfaction and all of us have opportunities every day to pay attention to how Jesus comes our way in the disguise of the needy no matter what that need is and it will be something that you can do. It won't be great skill. It will be something simple that you can do to give attention from yourself to that person; eye contact or something that says you are present.

As wonderful as all of these mission trips are that we are doing and I would send anybody on a mission trip in a skinny second, but as wonderful as they all are, some of you are saying, "It's a long shot for me to go on a mission trip." Don't feel second-class. The things that Jesus says we are going to be judged for you can do every single day, anywhere at all. One night a woman dreamed that she was having a conversation with God. She was angry about all of the suffering and all the evil that she saw around her and so she complained to the Lord, "God, why don't you do something about all of this?" And to that God gently replied, "I did. I created you."

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call out of the blue from my best friend, a guy who was my best friend in high school and we had not been in touch with each other for a few years and he called to inform me that his father had died suddenly. I spent many wonderful evenings at the home of his parents during high school years and some college years and he asked me if I would do the funeral service for his father since I had some personal connection with him, that coming Friday, even though I was scheduled to do a funeral service the next morning on Saturday. And it might sound to you as I share this illustration that I am patting myself on the back, but what I want to share with you is the internal debate that was going on as I was listening to my friend and taking in the information. In my head I was saying is there anyway I can tell him that I can't do this. Can I make it really sound good and tell him that I can't do it? There must be another person that he could call on. He is really not part of the congregation. He really has no claim on my time. But then the other thought was well, but you know you knew my dad and I think it would really be special if you did it and so all of this is going on and all of this in 30 seconds and then another voice, but he is asking you. He needs your support. He doesn't have a lot of folks to ask and he is asking you something that you can do. You have done it a 100 times before. You can do this.

Now most of you do not get calls to do funerals I don't think, but the calls you get come in many other forms whether it's on the phone, whether it's all of a sudden something catches your attention and I am so thankful to be part of a congregation that responds to people to way you all do, in your vocations and your spare time. And while we must be able to keep good boundaries and I am going to be teaching a class in a couple of months on boundaries in Sunday school, we mustn't use that language to say no when Jesus comes to us in a person's need. I am the first one that says we have got to balance self-care and other's care, but we can't hide behind that and say I can't meet a need when it's right in front of me and it's something that I can do. As we were wrapping up at the graveside of my friend's father he came over and whispered in my ear and he said, "I haven't told any of my family members this, but tomorrow or Monday I go in to the hospital for what I think is going to be angioplasty." I said, "How do you know it's going to be angioplasty? Do you know?" He goes, "No." I said, "Well, call me if it is something more, because I really want to be able to support you." And he called me and said, "Well, I guess its not angioplasty. I am looking at a triple bypass tomorrow." And I said, "I will be there in the morning." And so because one step led to another step, I was able to come alongside and pray with him and his wife and his daughter. Again, I am not saying that to pat myself on the back, I am saying it to say that because I fought through that stuff that really there was a part of me that said I don't want to do this, it led to another step. I think the key to what this text is about again is the giving of ourselves and in that giving we discover amazing things that we wouldn't discover unless we took a step and gave.

We have already heard from two special women in the congregation. I want you to hear from a third, our director of Children's Ministry Anne Nielsen. I said, "Anne, I think they best way to get this across today about serving in Children's Ministry is to have a 5-year-old come up and say, "Look this poor little kid is not going to have a Sunday School teacher unless you help." And she said, "No, no, no, no, I think it's better if I tell a few stories of what can happen when you serve in Children's ministry. And so she won and she is going to tell her stories, okay?

Anne Nielsen speaking: Well, when we do serve we are responding to God's call and when we say yes to him he blesses us in many ways. There is a woman who serves in Children's Ministry who, we come to worship here and she really felt like everybody else but her fit in and she didn't feel like she had much to offer and it was so bad that she was deciding whether or not she should stop coming to worship at all. And I mean it wouldn't be like, oh I will try out another church. No, I won't go to any church. But she stepped up and starting serving in Children's Ministry and discovered that she really does have gifts and then when she comes to worship on Sunday's she feels a part of the body and that has really deepened her worship time. Because of serving in Children's Ministry she spends more time reading her Bible and God has really blessed that by strengthening her marriage and helping her parenting. She attended a Children's Ministry conference with a group of us at another church and she experienced blessings there as well. She came to recognize some fears that she had, but at the same time God came around her and helped her realize how much he loved her.

There is another woman who serves in our ministry who really values preschoolers and she just loves their childlike face. She loves the way they worship. She loves the immediacy of everything that they do. She also has a great love for this church body and sought to serve in a way that would help her meet people that were outside of her typical family sphere and her life passage sphere. And as a result of her service, she comes away encouraged by preschoolers. She gets to meet children and their parents and she gets to invest in these people's lives and that has in a very meaningful way, which has blessed her and blessed others.

We also have a young man who serves with us and he is an assistant to a teacher and I asked him one day, "Have you ever noticed any difference in your life because you serve in Children's Ministry?" And he told me, "Well, it might have taken 7 or 8 years to learn all I have learned in 9 months." And I said, "Well, why is that?" And he says, "Well, I have to be prepared. These kids ask me a whole lot of questions and I have to have answers." So because he needed to read his Bible, he was doing that and I was like, "Well how much did you use to read your Bible?" and "Well, I am supposed to do these devotionals, so you know I sometimes do them and sometimes I don't, but now I read it all the time. In fact, it's no longer I have to read my Bible. It's I want to read my Bible." And so God has blessed his life with not only his ministry work, but also a love for his word. Children's Ministry has opportunities for service and if God is calling you, I would love to chat with you and I will be out in the concourse at the Children's Ministry table at the end of the service. Thank you.

Rev. Antonakos speaking: You know some of you may hear this call to ministry or a call to serve in other areas of ministry. Again, Vicki is going to be having a luncheon after the service and talking about really ministering to the poorest of the poor and you think that you would like to do all of that, but then all of these other thoughts just like me on the phone come in to your head, right? I am not adequate for that type of thing. I can't do that. I am too shy. I am afraid that if I get involved it will cost me too much. I don't have the time. My heart's not in it. I am afraid I will not do a good enough job. I am too old. I am too young. I have messed up so badly that God can't use me. When God calls us to minister in the simplest of ways, he doesn't call us to dwell on our limitations, but on his power. See, here is a little illustration; this is you. Here is your brain. Here is your brain on drugs, no. This is us apart from God's power. This glove, pick up something. Pick it up, go ahead. It can't do it. Alright. You are useless until its power is working through you, but when you give of yourself, when you make yourself available to God and his power connects with your uselessness, it becomes useful in his hands. The giving of your presence, plus God's power is what Jesus praises in this text. God doesn't call us to get involved so we will fail, but so that his power will work through us, but that requires us and not just our things.

Let me just read to you an excerpt from a little booklet that Mother Teresa penned. It is hard to believe that she has been gone for ten years. But she said,

"One day an Australian man came and made a substantial donation, but as he did this he said, "This is something external. Now I want to give some of myself." He now comes regularly to the house of the dying to shave the sick men and to converse with them. This man gives not only his money but also his time. He could have spent it on himself, but what he wants is to give of himself. I often ask for gifts that have nothing to do with money. There are so many other things that one can give. What I desire is the presence of the donor, for him to touch those to whom he gives, to smile at them, for him to pay attention to them. All of this is very meaningful for those people. I urge people to join our work for our profit and for the profit of everyone. I never ask them for money or any material things. I ask them to bring their love, to offer the sacrifice of their hands."

During WWII a church building in Strasbourg was destroyed and after the bombing the members surveyed the area to see what was left and they were so pleased to see a statue of Jesus that was in front of the building that was still pretty much intact, but on closer inspection they noticed that a beam had fallen and severed off the hands of Jesus, as he was extending them to those who had come to him. Another sculptor came to the church leaders and said, "I would be very happy as a gift to the church to restore these hands for no charge." The church leaders got together and they started to deliberate and after much prayer they said to each other, "No, let's decline the offer. It is so important that when people come in that we are reminded that we are the hands of Jesus to the world." And so the call today is to be the hands of Jesus, to anyone in need, to love with what you have been given, even in the smallest most unnoticeable of ways knowing that Jesus notices when it happens and knowing that you are touching Jesus himself, as you touch the life of another in his name.

Let's pray: Lord, thank you for this word. Seal it to our hearts because we so often forget and help us to understand that to follow you and to do what you did for your power is what pleases you. So we ask this in your holy name and we ask that you would give to us a sense of doing this together, as well as individually, so that the whole body might be strengthened in the Holy Spirit, in whose name we pray. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org