No Parable: Works that Judge Us

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Annunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox Church, sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily.

The Name of the Father and Son the HOI Spirit

Gord to Jesus Christ, beloved in Christ. I wish you

all a blessed feast of the meeting of the Lord

in the Temple. Today we commemorate the fortieth day after

the birth of Christ, at which time, in accordance with

the Jewish custom, his parents were make an offering in

the temple. And on that day it has said that

Christ was taking up in the arms of Saint Simeon,

the God Receiver of whom it was prophesied that he

would not taste of death until he had seen the Messiah.

In that day he did, and he proclaimed it at

the prayer of Saint Simeon, which we sing every Vesper's Lord.

Now let us know thy servant, depart in peace. But

this Sunday is also the third Sunday of the Triotian

and we come to the Gospel account of the Last Judgment,

and having first called us to humility with the publican

and then to repentance with the prodigal, the Church further

prepares us for our Linton struggle with the reading from

Matthew of Christ's account of the Last Judgment. In today's reading,

the Lord describes the time of the dread Judgment, when

the Son of God will come in his glory, and

he will gather the nations before himself, separating them into

the sheep and the goats. And the criteria he gives

for making this decision are both simple and terrifying. Those

found to be sheep are those who served Christ by

feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison,

quenching the thirst of those that are parched, clothing the naked,

and taking in the stranger.

In.

Christ poses each of those actions as if they were

done personally to him. And when the people, when these

people who had been judged righteous, humbly ask Christ, almost protesting,

when did we see you hungry and fed you were thirsty,

and gave you drink? When did we see you sick

or in prison and come visit you? And Christ says

to them, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as you

have done it to one of these, the least of

my brethren, you have done it to me.

But the goats are judged by the converse.

They did not feed a hungry Christ, or quench his thirst,

or rejected him as a stranger. They didn't visit him

sick or imprison And they make the same protest, Lord,

when did we see you sick or in prison, or

hunger and thirsty? And he says, in the same way,

I say unto you, inasmuch as you did this not

to the least of these, you did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the

righteous into life eternal.

Now, before we talk.

About what this means, I want to say upfront something

that is very important in understanding this Gospel passage, and

that is that the Orthodox Church understands this Gospel reading

to be an account of the Last Judgment, not of

parable and that's incredibly important for us to know. It's

also very easy to discern through the language of the

text and from the Church slectionary. As an example, the

account of the Last Judgment is found in the twenty

fifth year after of the Gospel.

According to the Holy.

Evangelist Matthew, that chapter begins in a different verse, The

Kingdom of Heaven is like unto ten virgins who took

their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

So he's telling us immediately.

This is an effort to explain the Kingdom of Heaven

using example of something that is quite apparently not the

kingdom of heaven. Ten virgins, kingdom of Heaven, two different things.

But that's the comparison that he used, and this is

confirmed when we look at the lectionary, which tells the priest.

When we read the parable of ten virgins, it starts

with this introduction, the Lord spake this parable, the kingdom

of Heaven is like under ten virgins, And a few

verses later we get a similar introduction, The Kingdom of

Heaven is as a man traveling into a far country

who called his own servants and delivered them his goods.

Now again comparing the heaven to something that is clearly

not heaven, and the electionary for those verses, again the

priest starts, the Lord spake this parable. But when we

get to today's reading, there is no The time of

judgment is like unto anything. It simply starts, when the

Son of Man shall come in his glory and all

the angels with him, then shall he sit on the

throne of his glory. And we look at the electionary.

This is how the Church says we're to introduce today's reading.

It's not the Lord's fake is parable. It's just the

Lord said the Lord say. There is no parable being

spoken with today's Gospel reading, because rather than describing the

judgment as something that is clearly not a final judgment,

which he does in all of the parables, he then

proceeds to describe the final judgment as exactly that, the

judging of all nations at the end of days. Now,

understanding that what we read is an account rather than

unparable impact, how we understand.

What is set before us?

Because these are Christ's own words describing the basis of

our judgment. This is not a theoretical comparison offered to

the hearers because the truth was too difficult. Quite the opposite,

Christ gives the most difficult message to those who are

there to hear it, the message of eternal life with

the Father for those who have done good, but for

those who have failed to do good, everlasting punishment and

the fire. Consider that things like the difficulty of the

rich entering to heaven or the possibility of being left

behind because of the lack of preparation. Those topics he

used parables, But when it came to the judgment himself,

there is no parabolic rhetoric involved. It is if Christ

is saying, this is too important to leave any ambiguity,

So let me spell it out for you. Now that said,

let's consider what this account tells us. First, it tells

us that there will absolutely be a judgment of all nations.

And then Christ explains who will be counted among the

sheep and whom among the goats, and he judges both

by the same criteria, just with inverse findings. I was

hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and

you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you

took me in naked and you clothed me. I was

sick and you visited me. I was in prison and

you came to me. So feeding the hungry, giving drink

to the thirsty, taking strangers, clothing the naked, visiting.

Sickly in prison.

Now, in our western brains, being the legalistic little things

that we are, we hear this, and we immediately start

trying to give structure to this. Well, is this a

conjunctive test? Do we have to meet all of those

whereas one enough?

If we do it really well, do we bounce it out? Well?

If I feed lots of hungry do I have to

go visiting one in prison? This is how Western brains

work with the legalists. And of course this thinking about

this is entirely wrong because the first thing that we know,

the first thing we know is that as fallible humans,

no deeds, no actions that we could ever do, are

going to be so great as to merit our salvation,

as to earn our salvation. Even if we do all

those things, ultimately we are still relying upon the mercy

of God as he sits on that judgment seat.

There's one sinless man to live, which is Christ, and.

The rest of us, the rest of us, fall short

of the glory of God even when we truly try

to live out our faith. And that's really what this

list is about. It's a real challenge to sort of

the faith alone or soul of fee to a crowd

because apart from Paul, who unabashedly says that the Lord

will render each man according to his deeds. Now we

have Christ speaking his own words and telling those who

hear him at the time of judgment, our fate will

be revealed by our deeds. And this shouldn't shock us. Really,

I mean, we can unclutch our pearls even if we

come from that background, because we know that James told

us clearly, faith without works is dead. Faith without works

is that you can't talk about faith.

Without talking about the works that flow from that kind

of faith. Nowhere in today's gospel reading does Christ suggest

that we're going to be judged by some sort of

abstract conception of our faith. But rather it's that our

deeds on our time on earth will reveal our faith.

James said, you have faith and I have works. Show

me your faith without works, and I will show you

my faith by my works. The two can't be separated.

And what ought to be most important here, and I

say this as a man with a family full of

Protestants and non denominationals, is that the utter rejection of

good works in Western Christianity is a dangerous spiritual trap

and it can ensnare the people that we love the most.

I'm talking to you today as Orthodox Christians or Orthodox

catech humans. And what I really want to do is

open the door and shout it to you know, everyone

on the street who never bothers to drive a few

driveways over and come to church as well. Open the

doors and shout them and say, you know, good works

are necessary. They're not of themselves salvithic, but that doesn't

mean that they're not needed. When faith in works become inseparable,

the one who seeks to separate them is usually one

who's lacking on either one end or the other, either

a lack of works or a lack of faith. If

you have the faith in the God of the Bible,

you can't help but do good works out of the

love for mankind. We understand of salvation ar theosis to

be accomplished by the synergy of God and man through

the mercy of God. Of course, God offers his grace

and calls on us to cooperate with it through our faith,

living it out in repentance in faith and yes, in

good works. Now, while there's no benefit to us pondering

whether there's some formula for salvation based on these works

that are listed in the Gospel reading, a very fair

question to ask is whether these items that mentioned by

Christ in the reading, whether these factors constitute the exhaustive

list of the criteria by which we'll be judged. And

the answer to that is rather apparently no, certainly not.

The list that Christ gives in the Gospels a prophetic

foretelling of the judgment, and it's intended to communicate the

expected life of a faithful Orthodox Christian. It's not a checklist,

and thinking of it that way.

Is missing the point. We are to do good to others.

Why not because there's a checklist, not because Christ gave.

Us this and today's costumer.

We're to do good to others because our God is

good and we must be transformed in love to be

like him, which is to be good all good. The

criteria given by Christ in today's Gospel reading simply reflect

the goodness that we need to be filled with. Should

we do those things? Yes, whenever the opportunity is given

to us? What else should we do?

Well? The list could run two thousands good.

How many opportunities do we have to love to serve,

to minister to our neighbor every single day? And how

many times do we find other things to do instead?

And why it can't be due to for God doesn't

demand that we do all. He demands that we do

what we can right. Christ doesn't say I was sick

and you didn't heal me. He doesn't say I was

in prison and you didn't bail me out. He just

asks us to do what we can do to visit

to comfort. Saint John Christen says, being gracious requires only

what is within our power, and even less than that

at times, so that we have more to exist to

exert through our generosity in the future and blessed the

Apholt tells us that notwithstanding the inexhaustible list of the

ways in which we may become more like God, more good,

more christ Like, there's still a reason why the criteria

Christ listed are sending us a message.

To care for the poor and the needy.

He writes, By the least brethren, Christ means all the poor,

for every poor man is Christ's brother, for the very

reason that Christ to spend his life in poverty. He says,

see also God's righteousness, how he acclaims the saints, and

see the good disposition of their mind, how they deny

even having.

Ever served Christ.

But the Lord accepts as for himself the things that

were done for the poor. So yes, the list gives

examples as opposed to the universe of good we may do.

But we should also give that list special attention for

those that are close to Christ. Finally, I want to

speak briefly about a bit of very specific and meaningful

language the evangelist Matthew records in this gospel reading.

When Christ speaks to those who are.

On his right side, those who have done good, those

who are going to be accounted. Among the sheep, he says, come, you,

blessed of my Father inherit, the kingdom prepared for you

you from the foundation of the world. But when he

speaks to the goats, those that are headed to internal punishment,

he says, depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire,

prepared for the devil and his angels. Understand from this

distinction God's intended relationship with mankind. When Christ welcomes the

righteous into his celestial realm, he describes as a domain

that was prepared for them since the world's creation, a

realm of boundless joy that he intended from the beginning

of time for mankind, the object of his love, and

the intended cohabitant of his kingdom. However, when he declares

the judgment upon the condemned, his words take a markedly

different tone. He describes as an eternal flame prepared not

for them, but for the demons and evil spirits, their

partners in wrongdoings. This is not a place intended for man.

God never willed for man to be lost in the pit,

But the condemned, through their own negligence, their own hard hardness,

their own lack of love, they have willingly thrown themselves

into it.

The unfortunate men and women.

Now realize that it is they themselves that are the

sole cause of their own torment and anguish brothers and sisters,

as we draw ever closer to great lent, the Orthodox

Church gives us its version of fire and brimstone today,

but it's very different on our end, because we know

we know that God intends mankind to dwell with him,

that he has prepared his kingdom for us from before

the foundation of.

The world, and we know that all He asks of

us is.

To do what is within our power for those that

we encounter, and so laid before us is another message

that whispers prepare, be ready at all times for that

stranger who may be an angel and aware see Christ.

And the beggar not your reprobate over.

Older brother, who needs to be visited, who needs clothing,

who needs shelter, just a near to listen to, a

shoulder to lean on. Always be ready to answer those

questions in your day to day life.

Do you love God? Do you love your neighbor as yourself?

Because when you boil it down, that's what all those

criteria that Christ gave us are.

Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. And on this

we will be judged.

And no, Christ doesn't ask the question intellectually or in

the abstract.

He is true to his word. It's our words.

Our deeds are a lack thereof by which we essentially

will be judging ourselves. So as we depart today, may

the same God who is prepared before time his kingdom

for us to share and give us, ever open and

ever ready hearts to truly serve.

Those in need.

May he strengthen us in our faith, and may he

bring it the full flower and the glorious deeds of

love done for His name. So we on that dread

day may here come you bless it, My father and

find ourselves in number and on one of the sheep,

and the name of the Father and Son, the Od Spirit.

Glory to Jesus Christ.

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