Sermon for Sunday, May 25, 2008

Dear God, I can explain…

By

Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture:  Matt. 25:34-46

³⁴Then 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? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' ⁴⁰And 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.

⁴¹Then 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,  ⁴³I 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.' ⁴⁴Then 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?' ⁴⁵Then 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.' ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Part of my challenge today is to explain a scripture passage that is one of the best known in the Bible. In ten minutes. What can be said about the “to the least of my brothers…” passage. There is a big part of everyone here that has to hear a voice inside them saying, “treat others with kindness…we got it” I even caught myself saying to myself, isn’t anything I say going to be stating the obvious? I found myself thinking, at its core it is saying be good to everyone you know. But it is actually going one step further. It isn’t just asking us to treat those around us with kindness and compassion; it is asking us to treat the least of these.  Not just those around you—those around you is easy. They look like you and talk like you, and eat the same foods you do. Not so easy to talk about so instead I decided to talk about…Baseball.

It is baseball season. The Herships clan has not been to a ballgame yet this year, but I have been to more games in the 3 and a half years I have lived here than I have in my previous 40 years. It is an amazing sight to see all those people in one place.  When it is packed it is crazy. How many people have been to Coors field when it is packed? We went last year for the Fourth of July game and fireworks. This picture is of the people on the field. They empty the, what do they call it? The Rock Garden? The Rock Pit? The Rock Pile? Whatever. It was packed to the gills. It was a trip. We are coming into a time when the sports and the weather and the hot dogs and beer can make us forget about our troubles.  Spring and Summer is an awesome time to live in Denver… provide it doesn’t snow.

That is part of the reason why it is hard to talk about this scripture passage. It is a passage that reminds us not to forget. It is a passage that tells us that there are lots of people on the planet that don’t have distractions like LoDo and giant foam rubber hands.  Don’t get me wrong. I am a fun guy. I LOVE being a fun guy. Most people say to me, “you know Jerry, you are a fun guy.” I find myself agreeing with them. Laura, not so much. And at the same time, I find that sometimes my job is to not be a fun guy. In fact, sometimes my job is to be…dare I say it, a prophetic voice. Prophetic voices are not generally fun voices. Moses was a lot of things but it is safe to say, most people of his day would not have said he was a real knee slapper.

It makes it even harder when we are coming off the heals of a 12 million dollar campaign to expand our church and the work we can do. People reached deep and gave until it hurt. It is amazing what we can do. One of my struggles is best exemplified with the ending of “Shindler’s List.” It is the scene in the movie at the end when he pulls off his ring and says, “How many more people could I have saved if I sold this ring?” After having saved hundreds of people, he still felt it wasn’t enough. It is hard because it does beg the question, “when is enough, enough?” If you are thinking that thought….I would bet the farm you aren’t alone. 

 The problem is that there is so much need in the world. One of the places where the need is great is in Sub Sahara Africa. AIDS is destroying an entire continent? Lead singer of U2, Bono, asks the question, “Will American Christians stand by as an entire continent dies?” “Next year, more than 10 million children’s lives will be lost unnecessarily to extreme poverty…nearly half will be in Africa.”

We then have to ask ourselves when we look at this passage, who are the sick, poor and hungry today? Who are the least, the last and the lost today? There are few groups of people that fit the bill quite so well as those folks that are living in Africa today.  And among those people, there are few that are poorer, sicker, and hungrier than the children of that continent.  AIDS has been a major contributor to the pain, heartache and sorrow that those children have had to experience. To date 15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS. Sometimes those kinds of numbers are hard to wrap our head around. Let me put it in a visual many of you can relate to. Let’s go back to Coors Field. It holds over 50,000 people. You could fill Coors Field everyday for six months and not come close to the number of children orphaned by AIDS. As a matter of fact…you could fill Coors Field….and the Pepsi Center…and Invesco Field everyday for six months…and still be a million kids short that have been orphaned by AIDS. These are just some of the people on this planet that Jesus is talking about in our passage from Matthew. These are the hungry and the thirsty and the stranger and the sick. We are called to help. Now I will say, I could never STAND when I felt manipulated by a preacher during a sermon. I had a Pastor that use to say, “God doesn’t want your emotional response…God wants your spiritual response”. The truth of the matter is…we can’t give to EVERYTHING. You can give to this. There is a table after the service where you can learn more about Children of Hope. You can just write Children of Hope in the memo of your check. Or maybe your money goes to something else. What you have to ask yourself is, “What is the thing that breaks your heart?” Is it this? Is it homelessness in this country? Is it breast cancer? Is it worldwide hunger? Is it Veterans? This is Memorial Day weekend—honoring people that have and continue to give the greatest sacrifice for this country. There’s a cause that breaks a lot of folks heart. We have a wonderful Veterans ministry. Contact me and I’ll tell you all about it. I believe whatever it is, if it breaks your heart, you are hearing God speaking to your heart. Listen…then act. But don’t wait too long to act. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS in Africa. That would be more than another 40 in the time it took me to preach this ten minute sermon. Listen to these chimes. Each one represents another child. While you listen to these chimes, close your eyes and ask yourself, what breaks your heart? Then do something, because the last thing you want to do is find yourself in front of the most powerful being in creation and saying, “Dear God, I can explain…”

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