THE KING SPEAKS (50 OF 52)
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
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The King Speaks (50 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 25:31-46
Hearing all of what someone says is difficult for us. We live in a world of sound-bites, where the context and fullness of another's position, argument, or communication becomes reduced to the spin we want to give it, the box in which we want to bind the speaker. We rely on snippets of conversation to paint people and their positions with broad brush strokes absent much if any nuance. We are more interested in propping up our own positions, traditions, and perspectives than actually learning from what another brings to the conversation. While we want to charge directly to casting them as disagreeing or agreeing with us, we avoid fine-tuning our own positions to take other perspectives and nuances into account. When God's words are more complex than the sound bites of our bumper sticker doctrines, how do we respond?
We have a love-hate relationship with Jesus' words in today's passage. We have issues with them on more than one level. We like the parts that might establish us as superior to those who would be cast into the outer darkness. We like the framing of the gospel as caring for people whose lives have become desperate through no fault of their own. We like the image of waging a war of personal compassion. We like the sentiment of handing someone a glass of cold water or providing a plate of food. We like the idea of making a $20 donation to some charity seeking to meet the physical, emotional, or educational needs of someone. We like to consider that very small acts of compassion might be enough to swing the tide to our benefit. Those whose lives are consistently lived in this vein, we make out to be saints, far removed from the reality of life we inhabit.
While those are aspects of these words we like, our issues with them readily come to the surface. We would like to be absolved from these words impacting us beyond the most meager expressions of benevo ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 25:31-46
Hearing all of what someone says is difficult for us. We live in a world of sound-bites, where the context and fullness of another's position, argument, or communication becomes reduced to the spin we want to give it, the box in which we want to bind the speaker. We rely on snippets of conversation to paint people and their positions with broad brush strokes absent much if any nuance. We are more interested in propping up our own positions, traditions, and perspectives than actually learning from what another brings to the conversation. While we want to charge directly to casting them as disagreeing or agreeing with us, we avoid fine-tuning our own positions to take other perspectives and nuances into account. When God's words are more complex than the sound bites of our bumper sticker doctrines, how do we respond?
We have a love-hate relationship with Jesus' words in today's passage. We have issues with them on more than one level. We like the parts that might establish us as superior to those who would be cast into the outer darkness. We like the framing of the gospel as caring for people whose lives have become desperate through no fault of their own. We like the image of waging a war of personal compassion. We like the sentiment of handing someone a glass of cold water or providing a plate of food. We like the idea of making a $20 donation to some charity seeking to meet the physical, emotional, or educational needs of someone. We like to consider that very small acts of compassion might be enough to swing the tide to our benefit. Those whose lives are consistently lived in this vein, we make out to be saints, far removed from the reality of life we inhabit.
While those are aspects of these words we like, our issues with them readily come to the surface. We would like to be absolved from these words impacting us beyond the most meager expressions of benevo ...
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