Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 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; 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, 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.” 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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 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.” 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; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 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.” 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?” 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.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

The real God is not far away. He is as close to us as the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned; and they can be uncomfortably, even embarrassingly close. At times, we prefer a God who is far away, because then we can get on with running the world as we see fit. But the real God urges us to work with him in running the world as he sees fit, according to the law he has given.

In our culture, we think of law as a necessary evil, a kind of straitjacket to restrain wayward human passions and protect fragile human rights. But for the Bible, the law of God is among his greatest gifts. The Bible begins with the Exodus, the liberation of slaves from Egypt. That was a great historical event, which had later generations saying: ‘That was wonderful for our forebears in faith, but what about us in our time? How can we come forth from the Egypt’s we know, from the slaveries of our time?’ The answer Scripture gives is: Obey this law which God gives and you will come forth from every Egypt. For the Bible, the law of God means liberation, and again we see how the mystery of a liberating obedience lies at the heart of Scripture.

In the Gospels, Jesus gives a new law and the promise that, if we obey his law, we will come forth even from the Egypt of death. And his law is that we feed the hungry, give the thirsty a drink, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, tend the sick, and visit the prisoners. This is not hard to understand, but it does take us out of our comfort zone and doesn’t allow us to look the other way. If we do look the other way, we are condemning ourselves to slavery and, in the end, death.

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