Just One Slice of the Pie?
Matthew 25:31-46
 
Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (Day of Fulfilment, Proper 29)
 
Pastor Harry Wendt tells the following story in his Divine Drama Bible study series:

"Pastor Smith was very popular during his first few months in the congregation. Everyone commented about his pleasant nature, and about the fact that he was easy to get along with. No doubt, many were glad just to have a minister again; they had been without one for two years.
 
However, after Pastor Smith had been in the congregation for a few months, some of the members began to get disturbed. One night he just did not show up for a meeting of the Church council. When the chairman eventually spoke to him about his absence, he smiled and said that he just happened to meet up with an old friend who had invited him to attend a social evening where someone gave an illustrated lecture about his vacation travels. He accepted the invitation also because he felt he was only one - and there were plenty of others who would be at the committee meeting.
 
Some of the members got a little upset when Pastor Smith began to attend only occasional meetings of the Adult Bible Study Fellowship. When one of the really zealous supporters of this venture spoke to him about one of his absences, he replied that his wife asked him to repair some plumbing in the kitchen - and he thought that he had better do it then and there to keep her happy.
 
One night he failed to show up for the evening service. True enough, a visiting preacher was engaged to conduct the service - but the members thought that their own minister should have been there also. After all, evening services were poorly attended as it was. However, Pastor Smith said that he and his family had gone for a drive that afternoon, and he was rather tired when they got back. He just did not feel like going to the service that evening.
 
Things really came to a head when he began arriving late for the regular morning services. He would arrive about ten minutes late, and then walk out to begin the service as though nothing had happened. When the elders spoke to him about his lack of punctuality, he replied that he had got into the habit of getting up late, and did not seem to be able to do much about it. There came the day when he did not come to the service at all. It was a beautiful day in late autumn, and he and his family wanted to make use of this last opportunity to see the autumn colours. He thought he would not be missed because he saw so many of his members out driving anyhow.
 
The congregation called a special meeting, and passed the following resolution:

"Be it resolved that Pastor Smith be relieved of his pastoral duties in view of the fact that he cannot be the minister of this parish if he insists on acting just like the rest of the members."

 ('The Divine Drama', Rev. Harry Wendt, “Heresies Ancient and Modern” p.347).
 
Why do you think the congregation passed that resolution?  People don't expect pastors to behave in that way!  However, in passing that resolution they also admitted the hypocrisy of their own Spiritual lives.  They had a casual, take-it-or-leave-it approach to the ministry of Christ (to them and through them) in their lives. In judging their pastor's behaviour they had also passed judgement on themselves.
 
Today’s Gospel reading speaks about the day when God will finally pass judgement all people.   What will be his criteria for judgement?  How will he decide whether people are welcomed as sheep or dismissed as goats (v. 32); whether it will be commendation or condemnation; heaven or hell? 
 
Here Jesus reminds us that there is more to faith than simply saying that we believe.  In fact, on judgement day there will be no atheists (people who don’t believe there is a God) or agnostics (people who are not sure).  Everybody will believe Jesus is real because they will see him sitting on his royal throne as the people of all the nations are gathered before him (v. 31, 32).  Not everybody, however, will have allowed their lives to be affected in the same way by the Good News of Jesus Christ.
 
The first group of people, those who are welcomed into the kingdom prepared for them ever since the creation of the world (v.34), are welcomed because their lives have been lived in response to the Good News of Jesus.  Jesus said, ' I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me into your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.' They do not present this list of good deeds before the judge as the reason they should be accepted into heaven.  In fact, when the King reminds them of what they have done they reply, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you ... a stranger and welcome you… naked and clothe you… sick or in prison and visit you?  The King says to them, "Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me." (v.35-40).
 
Without even being conscious of it, these people had ministered to Christ in their daily lives.  They had lived in the assurance and joy of God’s free gift of salvation through the death of Jesus Christ.  They had also shown their faith was alive by the way they acted. Their 'creeds' led to 'deeds'.  The King points to those deeds as proof of a living faith in Christ.  That living faith - not the deeds themselves - is the all-important thing for the judge.

What about those people to whom the King said: 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! (v. 41)?  It is obvious that these people have known about Jesus and claimed to have faith.  So what is the problem? 
 
Their 'creeds' didn't lead to 'deeds'.  Though they knew Christ, they didn't live for Christ, in Christ, or with Christ in their daily lives or consider the needs of others.  Jesus said: 'I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty, but you would not give me a drink.  I was a stranger but you did not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you did not take care of me.'  Then they will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and fail to help you?" (v. 44).
 
These people were rejected and sent off to eternal punishment, not because they didn't know about Jesus, but because they refused to recognize him in the affairs of their daily lives and share his grace and compassion with others.  They didn’t take their calling as his children seriously, just as Pastor Smith had not taken his calling seriously.

Now let's apply Jesus’ criteria for judgement to our own lives.  We could think of our life in terms of a pie.  The individual slices of the pie are the various aspects of our life: our job, our money, our house and possessions, our family life, community interests, sport, leisure and so on.  If we called one of those slices "Church" or "Christian faith," how big a slice of your pie would that be? 

Actually, God doesn't want us to think of our Christian faith as just being 'one slice of the pie'.  He wants us to think of our faith in Christ as the delicious topping sprinkled over every other slice of our lives, giving a distinct flavour to everything we do. 

One of the biggest dangers or 'heresies' held by people in the modern-day church is the false belief that their church life is just one small slice of the total pie of their life.  It is so easy to consume all those other slices and find ourselves refusing the final piece of the pie because our lives are full-up.  We couldn't fit another piece in!  Some other important event crops up on a Sunday, so we can't fit worship in.  It's a pleasant Sunday morning and the garden needs work, jobs have piled up, so we give church a miss.  There's footy or netball, tennis or cricket on Saturday so we can't go to youth on Friday night.  Then we're too tired for church on Sunday.  We have homework, or phone-calls to make or a TV program we want to watch, so we have no time for family devotion.  We forget to invite Jesus to be our guest at meal-times, or acknowledge him as the head of the house.  A neighbour, or stranger, needs help, or prayer or our care but we're too busy with our own interests.

The question we must all ask is this: "To what extent has the good news of Jesus taken hold of my life and motivated my actions in the world?"  It will not be these actions themselves that save us.  Faith in Jesus Christ alone saves us, but these actions are an indication of whether our faith is truly alive or whether it is dead - and therefore no saving faith at all.  James wrote: Faith without actions is dead (James 2:17).

Christ calls us to let our faith in him be the 'topping' on every piece of life's pie.  Without thinking of it in terms of 'good deeds', we minister to others, wherever we are, with the love we have received from Christ.  Christ makes a difference to the way we work, play sport, spend our money, live in our family and organize our priorities.  Our time for God's Word and worship is top priority, without a question, whatever else is on. All other things give way to this priority because his love compels us.  As naturally as we take time to eat and provide our family with physical food, we take prime time to feed ourselves and our families with the bread of life.  We are moved by the compassion of Jesus Christ to respond to the needs of others before our own.  Without often being conscious of it, we are ministering to Christ.

We will still make many mistakes; we will still sin; we will fall short of what God wants many times, but our faith which leads to deeds, always leads us to find comfort in the fact that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

How would your Christian life measure up before the committee that dismissed Pastor Smith?  More importantly; how will your spiritual life measure up before the King of heaven and earth when he comes to judge all people?  Let's not think of our Christian faith as just a small slice of the ‘pie’ of life.  Rather, let's see the grace of Jesus Christ as the delicious topping that flavours every slice of life's pie; let us respond to his grace in acts of Christian service and welcome the day he comes again as judge.