APRIL 1, 2007

This morning we continue the series on the Apostles’ Creed with the words, “from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” This title, “The Quick and the Dead,” was a title used for a western movie a number of years ago and then reused in a movie more recently. A great title for a western about gunfighters, “The Quick and the Dead.” In the old west, if you were a gunfighter, you were either quick or you were dead and so that’s where the title of this sermon is rooted, in part, from the title of those western movies.

The fact is that this term, “quick,” is an antiquated term for “living” or “life.” Jesus is to come and to be the judge of the living and the dead. It is interesting that Jesus is the one who is the judge, it’s no one else but Jesus. He sits at the right hand of God, which is the seat of judgment and He is the one who is to judge…not anyone else, not any one of us but Jesus himself.

This morning’s scripture lesson resonates with these words from the Creed; “from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” I think it expresses that essence. It’s a very clear-cut lesson, really. Jesus is indeed the judge and it is the criterion that Jesus lays out that really are the ones that count. It is Jesus’ role alone to judge. The standard really boils down to this. “Do you love Jesus?” It’s that simple. “Do you love Jesus?” If you love Jesus, you are bound for the Kingdom of Heaven; you are bound for life eternal. If you do not love Jesus you are not bound for the Kingdom of Heaven, you are not bound for life eternal. It is that simple and yet, more to the point, the question is, “How do you do that?” The question is “How do you know that; that you love Jesus?” Peter had denied Jesus three times as Jesus predicted he would. And as Peter denied Him, their eyes met and Peter was crushed. Jesus then encountered Peter after he was raised from the dead and he said to Peter, as they are alone, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter said, “You know I love you.” He said, “Feed my sheep.” Then he said again to Peter, “Do you love me?” And Peter said, “Lord, you know I love you.” He said, “Tend my lambs.” And a third time he asked him and Peter was distressed and said, “Lord you know I love, “ and Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” Now Jesus was not about to open a mutton business or a wool manufacturing plant – he is referring here to taking care of God’s people, looking after the flock of God, the people of God. This love is something you do; it is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It is not an emotion, primarily, it is something you do. It is the way you treat people, the way you look after people. And so it begs the question, how are you doing with that? How are you doing in looking after God’s people? How are you doing in looking after the least of these, as Jesus has it? Do your words and your aspirations match your actions?

When I was in my 20’s, some friends and I had a number of projects we were working on. We did some demo tapes as a musical group; we produced an album that was used by Young Life and other ministries. We had a coffee house that we established and ran and there was a lot of excitement in all of that. One person, in my parent’s generation, approached us. He was pretty excited about all that was going on and he said, “If there is anything I can do, let me know. Anything I can do.” So there was something he could do and I asked him if he could do that – a small thing, a small part of one of the projects we were working on. I realized, as soon as I asked him, he really didn’t want to do it. And I was embarrassed. I realized I had misread his statement to me. He had said that he wanted to do something, was enthusiastic, but he really didn’t mean it and I had misread that. I wasn’t angry or upset, but I was embarrassed that I had misread him. His intentions and his aspirations didn’t match what he was really willing to do or what he was going to do. I think that’s true in our relationship with Jesus Christ as well and this story, I think, points that out. People say all kinds of things, make all kinds of promises, and have all kinds of purposes in relation to Jesus Christ. We desire to have the life Christ offers but the requirement is that we love Him. Do you love Him?

When I was in eighth or ninth grade, in youth group, we went to Oglebay Park at the end of Holy Week and stayed overnight. The youth leader is a saint. We stayed overnight in a cabin, the night before Easter, and one of the things we did was to listen to the album, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It was new then, and I can still remember the impact it had. It caused me to start asking questions, for the first time, about Christ for myself. One of those songs was, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” You may remember that. That’s really a profound statement, “I don’t know how to love Him!” How do you do that? How does that look? Well, Jesus seems to say it has a great deal to do with the least of these, His brothers and sisters, His family members. To the extent we have loved and cared for them, finally that would be the extent to which we really have loved Christ and received the free gift of grace in Christ, by aligning ourselves with Him. We cannot earn it, we cannot perform well enough to receive life eternal, we simply align ourselves in trust and loyalty to Jesus Christ and receive that free gift.

But the question for us to ask is, “How are we doing with that?” This passage is not to examine the person next to us. I’m pretty good at examining Mary on these terms. I could examine the person next to me but the question here is really not anything about the person sitting next to you or across the table, or across town, or across the world. The question is “Where are you in this?” This is a barometer of how you are faring in your allegiance to Christ. Have you really received the gospel? Have you really received this free gift of grace? Are you really living in it? Do you really love Jesus Christ or are you a “poser” in all of that? I don’t know about you, but this passage has always made me very nervous. It’s a passage that I find makes me uncomfortable. When did you feed, clothe, house, and visit the sick or the imprisoned? When did you do that? As you did it, you did it for me, says Jesus. When you did not, when you just ignored persons or didn’t pay any attention to the needs of people you ignored, or did not pay any attention to me. Well, how do we measure that? How do we measure how we are doing in all that? I think one of the most measurable parts of our lives, as I’ve mentioned here before, is what we do with our money. Also something that makes us somewhat uncomfortable. But it is perhaps the most measurable way we can determine where our allegiances are, to look at our checkbook stubs and our financial statements. Are we giving of our means to the work of Christ? The last time I checked, Presbyterians on average give about 2% of their income to the work of Christ. Does our action match our profession? Another way we can measure that is how we give our time. If you look at your calendar, how much of your time is given to things that are pleasing to Christ? That is, things that serve His people and encourage them to serve others and encourage His people in their lives and faith and in orientation to Jesus Christ. Some things are less tangible. How much time do you spend in prayer for people in your life and people in the world? How much prayer support do you supply to those people and the people around you?

Jesus said, “Do you love me?” Tend my lambs, feed my sheep. As much as you did it for the least, or did not do it for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did or did not do it for me, says Jesus. And one day finally we will all arrive at that point where we will stand alone before God and we’ll know, with crystal clarity, exactly how we fared. This parable takes us to that point now and says, “Where do you stand?” Examine yourself. When you get to that point, standing before God, how will you have fared in life? Will you have followed through with this aspiration to serve God and to be a real, true, genuine human being in the Kingdom of God or will you have blown it? This is the time to assess that as you stand here in this congregation of believers, not when you stand finally before God. And finally it will have to do with the way in which we have loved the least of these my brothers and sisters. Who are those people who are the least of these? When you are in school, in middle school, junior high, high school, college, how do you treat the people in your community who are the least of these, who are really marginal, who really aren’t cool, aren’t very “together,” aren’t regarded very highly by anyone else? How do you treat those people in your workday world, and the community? How do you treat those people who are marginal, those who don’t have very much, and those who don’t seem to be in step with others? How do you treat those people who are in need? How do you treat your enemies? Jesus said, “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.” How do you deal with that? The words of Jesus come echoing down through time to you and me, “Do you love me?” “Will you love me?” “How will you love me?” As you did it to these, the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me. That day, when we stand before God, will be one either of great jubilation and affirmation or one of terror and devastation. The time to consider that is now, as we are living this life, so that one day we may arrive at that point excited about the possibilities...To hear our Lord and Savior say to each of us, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of my Kingdom.” That is finally a free gift of a gracious God. But this passage calls us to examine ourselves, to see if we have truly received Jesus Christ and if we are truly loving Him by the way in which we love others…To reassess our own lives so that we can be genuine children of God in every day and in every moment and in everything that we do.

May God bless us to be a blessing to others as we follow Him into a bright future.