On Judgment Sunday we are reminded that God will judge us based on our inaction, not necessarily the sins we commit. We spend so much time avoiding sins, we forget the good things we are called to do by God. We forget to allow the love we say we have for God to translate into our actions toward other people. Doing nothing is not an option.
My brothers and sisters. Today is the Sunday of Judgment in the church, and I have to be honest. This gospel always worries me a little bit for my own soul’s sake, because I must be honest with all of you. I do not do everything the Lord wants me to do. And this gospel this morning, my brothers and sisters, is about how our inaction is our condemnation. Many of us live our life avoiding the bad things to do, avoiding sins. “Oh, we don’t steal. We don’t this.” All these bad things that we do not do, and we think that, that’s going to be enough to get us in the right with God.
But in this morning’s gospel, we hear a different message from our Lord and he tells us clearly that this is how the judgment is going to take place. And God always comes through with what he says. And so we should pay close attention to this morning’s gospel because this is how the judgment. He says, “When the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. He will gather all the nations. He will separate them as a shepherd, divides his sheep from the goats.”
And the sheep, my brothers and sisters, those who have done good, those who have allowed their love for God to be their actions in the world. God says, “Come you blessed ones. I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.” And they’re confused. They did all these things. They served the poor. They gave food to the hungry. And Christ says, “Whenever you did it to the least, it was like you were doing it to me. Come inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”
But those in hell had a different experience. They were willing to serve God. When God says, “You cursed, I was hungry, you didn’t feed me, I was thirsty, et cetera.” They said, “When did we see you and not help you?” He says, “When you didn’t do it to the others, you didn’t do it to me.” You see, my brothers and sisters, it’s our inactions of love. It’s when we don’t allow our faith in Christ, when we don’t allow our love to translate into our actions. This is when we risk our salvation. It isn’t if we’ve done one bad thing or another bad thing. Of course, we should avoid the bad things, don’t get me wrong.
But it’s when we ignore the good that we are asked to do by God. And it’s because if we love the Lord, we will look at every single human being as if we are looking at the face of God. If we see somebody hungry and we are not called to compassion, do we really love God? If we see someone on the side of the road begging and we have no compassion in our hearts, do we really love God? Of course, if we saw Jesus Christ sitting on the side of the road, we’d stop. But would we if we don’t stop for the people in our society?
This morning’s gospel, my brothers and sisters, is a great challenge to our hearts. It’s about time that our actions reflect the love we have for God and the love that we are called to have, not just for our family, not just for our friends, but for the lowest people of society. Christ says, “When you’ve done it to the least, you’ve done it to me.”
So my brothers and sisters, as we continue in this pre-Lenten preparation, getting our souls ready for great Lent, I just want to bring you up to speed and where we’ve been. The first week of the Triodion, we had the Publican and the Pharisee, and we talked about humility and we talked about false pride. Last week, we talked about the Prodigal Son and the love that God has when we return to him. And today, we talk about judgment. The judgment that is in fact coming to us.
And my brothers and sisters, the lessons we have learned from humility, to repentance have prepared us to deal with our judgment. You see, if this morning’s gospel calls into your heart the same concern that it calls into mine, it’s not the end. We’re not dead yet. We have a chance to repent. We have a chance to change our life. We have a chance to begin looking at others in society as if we are looking at God.
And I’m here to tell you, if our hearts can make that switch, then we are going to be told by God, “Come, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you.” But it rests in our hearts. Doing nothing is not an option. We must begin to put our faith into motion, into helping other people, into supporting the work of the church, not just the walls and the air conditioning. Yes, those have to be repaired, but the work of the church, feeding the poor, comforting the lonely. This is our responsibility for those who love the Lord. And this will be our judgment if we continue with our inaction instead of allowing our love for God to translate into our actions.
We only have one week left to prepare for great Lent. Don’t let another day go by. Begin getting ourselves ready today because we don’t know if we have tomorrow. We don’t know if today is our last chance to repent, to return back to him. And so my challenge for you, my brothers and sisters, let this be the day that the love you have for God translates into the way you treat each other. Not just in this church, but outside the church. Total strangers and the least of society. Let’s begin that work today. So if the Lord calls us back tomorrow, we will already have the answer, come, inherit the kingdom, which had been prepared for you. Glory to God for all things.
