A Moment Aside ---- 24 November 2020
This passage from Matthew’s Gospel was
used in Sunday’s readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary, the list
of reading we use at the Sunday service. It is a rather stark passage and a
rather stark image. Certain images from our own time come to mind, and we might
be reminded that no nation or people are exempt from this.
“And the king will say ‘Whatever you
did/did not do for one of the least of these, you did/did not do for me.’ “
This is tough to hear and I’m reminded of the words of our Confession before
Holy Communion: Most merciful God, we
confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned
against you in thought, word, and deed, by
what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you
with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the
sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. This is referred to
as “sins of ommission.” Rather than committed, they are things left out,
glossed over, forgotten, unnoticed. I’m guilty of such things and you might be
as well.
Awareness is the remedy. Not simply
awareness of the presence of God all around us, but awareness of the presence
of God in THOSE around us. It’s hard since people can be such an ornery bunch,
given to anger, selfishness, and nastiness.
… Just like us.
It’s often just as hard to recognize and
realize the presence of God within ourselves. It’s not something we deserve,
but a grace-filled gift. I don’t know whether to start looking for Jesus in
myself or in others. In any event, we’ll need to humbly find Jesus in both
places.
Advent – the church season about to start –
would be a good time to renew this awareness. All of us are made in the “image
and likeness of God.” (Genesis 1: 27 -- So God created humankind in his
image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.)
Each of us in an “icon” of the Almighty and Jesus came among us as one of us.
(John 1: 14 -- And the Word became flesh and lived among us…) To see
the human person is to see Christ in a particular way.
“Whatever you do the least of these, you
do for me.” Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our King, assures us of
this. He is the Word made Flesh, who came to show us the way and in a
mysterious way, to suffer and take us beyond death by his own death. He died
and rose and leads us beyond ourselves and our lives here, for he was and
remains
….Just like us.
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