Matthew 25:31-46

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The last few weeks have highlighted a theme of judgment. This is the last Sunday of the church year, so we are not surprised to hear once again about the Last Day, the Day of Judgment. The reading sobers us, as it should. Our faith would not be faithful to us if it did not warn as well as console. This morning I want to ask: what exactly are we being warned about? What will the Day of Judgment actually judge? I want to lay out two misconceptions concerning judgment, and suggest a true conception in their place.

Matthew 25: 1-13

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According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus told this parable of the ten bridesmaids during that intense week between Palm Sunday and Easter. On Palm Sunday he entered Jerusalem for the first time and to great acclaim. Five days later he was dead. In that brief interval he focused most of his teachings and parables on end times. His disciples wanted to know when the end would be. What sign should they look for that the end was near? Jesus responded, in effect: that is not yours to know. Only God knows the time of the end. Your job is to live in such a way that no matter when it comes, you will not be taken by surprise. You will always be ready. This parable of the ten bridesmaids serves as an alert.

Matthew 5:1-12, All Saints Sunday

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Since the fourth century the church has celebrated All Saints Day. What makes that Day so important? Who are we celebrating? We are celebrating the lives of people like you and me. All of us are saints-in-the-making. All of us shine forth with the light of Christ to some degree. In the great saints the light of Christ shines forth to a great degree. So we celebrate this day, because the great Saints remind us that we hold within us astonishing possibilities. They inspire us.

Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Matthew 22:34-46

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Today marks the last of the Moses stories. For weeks we have been following Moses and the people of Israel in their pilgrimage, and exploring Moses’s immense stature as a spiritual leader. We have also seen similarities between him and Jesus. Today I want to call attention to one, last similarity. We read, “Then Moses, servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab…. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab… but no one knows his burial place to this day.” How amazing! A man of such stature and no one knows where he is buried! Neither does anyone know Jesus’ burial place. If you have been to Jerusalem you were probably taken to visit two places, each having a plausible claim to be Jesus’ tomb. But even supposing the true place could be identified, his was an empty tomb. The point in common is this: no one can worship a tomb they cannot find; nor can they worship an empty tomb. Tomb worship is out, either for Moses or Jesus.

Exodus 33:12-23, Matthew 22:15-22

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When we lived in northern California Stuart and I used to visit the mineral baths at Wilbur Hot Springs. The water was piped into a series of large, concrete pools about four feet deep. They were arranged from tepid to scalding. On our first visit, being neophytes, we slid into the middle pool first thing. What a mistake! We shot out and waited for the pain to subside; then we entered the tepid pool. After ten minutes or so, it felt cool, so we got out and entered the next warmest pool. And so we continued right on into the pool we had tried first. No pain! After growing accustomed to that temperature, we moved on to a hotter pool and another even hotter. I am telling you this, because it helps to understand the reading from Exodus.

Exodus 32:1-14, Matthew 22:1-14

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What is the true nature of God? Compassionate and forgiving? Severe and punishing? No question matters more, because we are asking about the basic character of reality. What is the ultimate context in which we live out our lives? How can we know? A good bet is to turn to the Bible, and yet even here the testimony does not speak with one voice. Today, for instance: suppose we had to live with the God portrayed in this reading from Exodus or from the Gospel. They present a wintery spiritual landscape. In the one, God says, “Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” And Moses replies, “Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.” In the other reading, Jesus’s parable, God says, “Bind [the wedding guest] hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If these were our only intimation of God’s nature life would be bleak indeed.

Exodus 20:1-20, Matthew 21:33-46

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Often the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Take the Ten Commandments. We cannot dispense with any one of them, yet if we step back and consider their entire structure, as such, we get a broader view of the mind of God. That is what I propose to do this morning, with two questions in view – two of humanity’s deepest questions. Who am I? What am I here for?

Exodus 14:19-31, Matthew 18:21-35

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Perhaps you recall reading about the Oakland Firestorm in 1991.  It burned over fifteen hundred acres of hillside in Oakland and Berkeley; and it destroyed over 3,000 homes.  When the fires died out, one house stood – against all logic – unscathed amidst a neighborhood of burned out homes.  The owners of that house put up a large, hand-lettered sign in their yard: “Thank you, God, for sparing our house.”  I think of that sign when I read the story of the crossing of the Red Sea.  How could the people of Israel sing and dance and hug their children while so many Egyptians floated face down, leaving widows and orphans back home, keening in grief?  Did they really believe God was on their side, with indifference – or even animosity, toward the Egyptians?

Exodus 3:1-15, Matthew 16:21-28

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Take a chunk of gold ore fresh from the ground, and it looks like a rock. Burn away the dross, however, and you have pure, glowing metal. A similar smelting process produced the Lord’s Prayer. In the burning bush we call Jesus, extra words and extraneous thoughts went up in smoke, and laid bare a prayer utterly pure and spare; and yet it contains all that prayer can encompass. Call it a miracle of distillation. The prayer has five parts. First, it addresses God in praise and worship. Second, it addresses the world’s needs. It concludes with three petitions for our individual well-being. This morning I want to focus on the second part, “…thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven….”

Matthew 16:13-20

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This is not merely a turning point for Jesus’ disciples here at Caesarea Philippi; they make a U-turn.  In fact, it is a U-turn at three levels: physical, emotional and spiritual.  Here at Caesarea Philippi they have reached a place of crisis, where life is challenging them to turn from the known to the unknown, from holding on to control to letting go, from security to adventure.  This passage churns with tension, as it should for us, too.