Last Judgment Fr. John Dresko

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, amen. In this last Sunday,

before we enter into Great Lent next week, and

before that last lesson that we will hear next

Sunday, we are given every year this story about

the Great Judgment, the Last Judgment. This parable,

if it is a parable, and I'm not sure it is, it

may actually be our Lord literally describing

what is going to happen, is given to us in a

general way for a couple of reasons. A couple

of reasons that are very important today. The

first is that there is judgment. In our world

today, and maybe it's always been thus, An easy

temptation to fall into to think that our Lord

will not really judge us. Our Lord is compassionate.

He's loving. But we also forget that he's just.

And we forget when we hear parables like this

that he reminds us that there is judgment. That

at the end of our lives, there will be a judgment.

There's a kind of a temptation to a universalism

in our world today. that says God is so kind

of compassionate that no one will go to hell.

That he is so kind and so loving that no matter

what anybody did, no matter how far away they

turned away, that he would not allow them to

go to hell. The second general and overarching

theme, if you will, of this parable is that the

content of that judgment is very clear in the

words of the Lord. The content of that judgment

is mercy and love. That we tend to think that

God is going to be this judge in the sense that

we think of a judge in a court of law, where

he will hear the evidence, that I will stand

before him, and those who love me will give evidence.

Well, you know, he did this, and he did this,

and he was this way, and those maybe who don't

care for me will also present their case. And

that we think sometimes that, our Lord has this

kind of scale, this cosmic scale. And we say,

okay, Lord, here are all these good things that

I did. And the scale begins to tip in my favor.

And then the Lord says, but wait a second. We've

got to consider the other things too. And so

we consider the things that are not so good.

And the scale begins to come back up. And we

think that if the bad side outweighs the good

side, then... Game over. God isn't that kind

of judge. The judge that we are going to face

is a judge that will simply show us who we are.

That's going to be the content of our judgment.

He's going to open that book of life and he's

going to come down to my name and he's going

to rip open my chest and he's going to look at

my heart. And my heart will reveal where I belong.

My heart will reveal whether... I am a sheep

or a goat. There is no other content. If we have

a merciful, loving heart, it will manifest itself

in the way that we live our lives, and it will

show itself in the way that we treat others.

Now, in the parable, we hear about the judgment

being that he comes to the sheep, the people

who are on his right hand, and he says, come

all you blessed to the kingdom of heaven that

has been 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 drink. I

was estranged and you took me in. I was sick

and you came to me. I was in prison and you visited

me. You ministered to me. And they were all surprised.

All of them were surprised. When? When, Lord,

did we see you in any of these ways? They said,

when you did it to the least of these, my brethren,

you did it to me. And then, of course, it's the

opposite for the goats. You didn't feed me when

I was hungry. You didn't give me a drink when

I was thirsty. You didn't welcome me when I was

a stranger. You didn't visit me in prison. You

didn't take care of me when I was sick. When?

When did we not do that to you? And it's the

same answer. When you didn't do it to the least

of these, my brethren, you didn't do it to me.

And you are going to the place prepared for the

devil and his angels from the foundation of the

world. So we know that there are two places from

the foundation of the world that have been prepared.

The kingdom of heaven and the eternal fire that

has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

And the judgment is, where will we be? Where

will we be? So let's look at that chart, if you

will, of behaviors. I have to tell you a story,

and it's an important story because it happened

not far from here, just down the road in San

Francisco. quarter, back when we could still

travel as well as we did before COVID and everything

else, we would have diocesan council meetings

in San Francisco. And I was always there on Tuesday

for the advisory council on Tuesday afternoon.

And then we would go for dinner. And after dinner,

San Francisco is a lovely place to walk around.

And I would go for a long walk. And our hotel

was across the street, kind of catty corner from

a Walgreens. It's on the corner of Polk and Broadway,

I believe. And I was coming up to the end of

my walk, and there was a man sitting there in

front on a little stool with a can, and he was

begging. And as I came closer and closer, he

decided that he was done. So I didn't have a

chance to encounter him or anything. I didn't

have a chance to give him anything. and I went

past him, and I was waiting for the light at

the corner, and I watched him, and he folded

up his little chair, he picked up his can, he

walked into the parking lot of the Walgreens,

he got into a Lexus SUV, and drove away. Now,

you talk about a temptation. You talk about the

demons coming and poking you, saying, see, that's

why you don't have to take care of anybody. See?

When I lived in Las Vegas, and I was the pastor

of St. Paul's Church, Every way that we went

to church always ended up passing one corner,

Pecos and Sunset. For nine straight years, there

was a guy on the corner every time I came by

it, and he was holding up a sign. And it said,

need gas money for California. Nine years. And

I almost wanted to roll down the window and say,

how much gas do you need? All of that can pollute

the power of this story. When you look at those

categories, hunger, okay, I don't really know.

I mean, we can pass people in our journeys, but

I don't really personally know anyone who is

in danger of not eating dinner tonight. I honestly

don't. I don't know of anyone. who, if they really

were thirsty, could not find a tap of water to

turn on and drink. I don't know, by definition,

I don't know strangers, but I don't know in all

of the years that I've been on this earth, in

all of the years that I've been in the church,

I've only known one person to go to prison. One

person. I'm almost 70. One person in my entire

life that I know that has gone to prison. And

of course we know sick people, but oftentimes

sick people are so sick that we can't visit them.

So when I encounter these examples of the beggar

in San Francisco or the beggar in Las Vegas,

and I know that when I look at my own life, I

really don't know a lot of people who are hungry

and thirsty and naked and in prison and all those

kind of things. Does that mean that the Lord

then didn't know what he was saying to us? Does

that mean that what the Lord was saying was only

good to the people who were listening to him

back 2 ,000 years ago? Did he not know what the

21st century was going to be like for those of

us calling us as Christians to the same behavior?

I don't want to stand in front of God and say

that. I don't want to stand in front of the Lord

and say, you know, you really didn't know what

you were talking about. So then, what can we

look at? Does it mean that all of us have to

make that effort to go out, literally to go out

and work in food pantries and everything else?

Tell that to a young couple with four children.

Find the time to go do that. Find the time to

go and do all the other ministries. It does mean

that we can support those ministries. It does

mean we can pray for those ministries. But it

seems to me that Those people are also people

in our lives in a way that we sometimes don't

think about. There are people around us who are

so hungry. So hungry not for a hamburger. They're

so hungry for God. They're so hungry for light.

There are people walking around in darkness that

don't know anything. They're searching and looking

and they're hungry. And we have the food to give

them. But sometimes we don't. There are people

who are so thirsty for God, they don't even know

that they're thirsty for God, and we have the

rivers of wisdom, which is the Holy Spirit, to

give them. There are strangers among us right

now. Have we welcomed them this morning? We know

sick people. Not only people in hospitals, not

only people who have been diagnosed as sick,

but we know people who are sick. In a spiritual

way. We know that people are led astray by the

things of this society today. We know people

that are in prison. We know people who are imprisoned

in their own passions, imprisoned in their own

sins. So we know people in all of these different

categories. So what does that mean for me? What

does that mean for me? It means that when I know

someone is in darkness, I can offer them light.

When I know someone who's imprisoned by their

passions and by their sins, I can help lead them

to Christ. I can help bring them to the church.

All of those different categories, we know people

that are not so obviously sick, not so obviously

thirsty. And we can reach them with effort, but

maybe even more importantly, we can reach them

by the way that we live our life. And so I think

the church gives us this passage just before

Great Lent. Not to say, okay, during Lent, make

sure you go out and feed someone. Make sure you

go out and give someone a drink. Because I think

ultimately what this parable is given to us today

for every year is to remind us that when we talk

about taking care of the least of my brethren,

when we talk about taking care of the other,

we have to begin by being reminded by God himself

that I am the least of the brethren. I am the

other. And our Lord Jesus Christ has come down

to take care of me. And during Great Lent, we

make the effort at breaking away from our hunger.

We're fed by the Lord, but we go out into the

world and we feed ourselves with all sorts of

garbage. We feed ourselves with all sorts of

things on mass media and social media and all

these other kinds. We eat it by the spoonful.

And during Great Lent, it is a time that we try

to feed ourselves with the word of God and feed

ourselves away from that stuff. We are thirsty

because we have denied that Holy Spirit in the

way that we live our life. We are strangers to

God because we have walked away from him. We

are imprisoned by our own passions, by our own

sins, and we are called by God to be healed from

them by confessing and bringing them to the church

and letting God heal us. parable is given to

us on this last Sunday before we enter into Great

Lent next week so that we are reminded that the

only way we can attain salvation is to take care

of the other. That when Jesus tells us to take

care of the least of my brethren, he tells us

to do it because he has done it to us. As we

enter into that great fast and as we enter into

the rigors and the struggles against ourself.

May God strengthen us to begin that care of the

other, to begin that care of the least of the

brethren, by remembering that I am the least

of the brethren. In the name of the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.