Community and Social Action

Jesus' Sermon on Community and Christian Action!

Breaks Your Heart Doesn’t It? Hearing someone say, “If I were Gay, I would have lots of friends and a ready-made community overflowing with emotional and even practical support! If I was sexually promiscuous, I would have lots of friends and bars to hang out in filled with like-minded people! If I were a drug addict, I would have like-minded persons to associate with who were also into the ‘lifestyle’. But I am simply a Christian who is also poor, and I have no one at Church who wants to willingly know me because of my struggles with material poverty (which they confuse with ‘having an attitude’ or being a ‘downer’ or even being “without humility”!), and people in ‘outside’ society do not want a friend who will ‘dampen the mood’ with all those moral concerns in their natural ‘God-thinking’ way of doing things, either. So I am all alone!” But Jesus preached this sermon about ‘Community’ and Christian ‘Social Action’, in St. Matthew 25:31-46… A Message that none of us can afford to miss or simply ignore! “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him, He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who 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 a drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you? And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, 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 no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”