WEBVTT 00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:03.690 I start today with a little bit of advice. 00:00:03.690 --> 00:00:45.094 If you find yourself teaching this passage with a bunch of young people teenagers, let's say, maybe even you're on retreat with a bunch of teenagers and maybe even it is the culminating talk of the retreat and you're at the campfire and everybody's really pulled together and you're trying to solidify that theme and you begin to teach this passage and amidst all the I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. 00:00:45.094 --> 00:00:53.911 I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink you mistakenly say I was naked and you visited me. 00:00:53.911 --> 00:00:59.792 That is going to lose the teenager crowd. 00:00:59.792 --> 00:01:13.388 That is going to elicit laughs and joy and any real hope that you might have driven your point home about the value of service will be lost. 00:01:13.388 --> 00:01:17.881 You may as well just pull out the s'mores material and go for it. 00:01:17.881 --> 00:01:23.067 That's just my advice to you if you are teaching this. 00:01:23.067 --> 00:01:30.159 The irony is it's a pretty good story to open a sermon 25 years later. 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.465 Pretty good, I guess. 00:01:34.826 --> 00:01:44.975 Matthew 25, somewhat familiar passage, I think, probably people who have journeyed for a bit with their Bible and happened on this. 00:01:44.975 --> 00:01:50.549 It's a significant teaching from Jesus and Matthew, pretty straightforward too. 00:01:50.549 --> 00:01:55.265 We're supposed to serve others, right? 00:01:55.265 --> 00:01:56.987 Nothing too provocative there. 00:01:56.987 --> 00:02:00.240 We kind of know that was one of Jesus's things, right. 00:02:00.240 --> 00:02:18.231 But it is interesting when you actually dig in like you might getting ready for a sermon and like one question you might ask we got these sheep and these goats and we're all like dang, I don't want to be a goat, and it throws you into this place of well, where's grace then? 00:02:18.231 --> 00:02:20.407 That unconditional love? 00:02:20.407 --> 00:02:22.608 Where did it find its place? 00:02:22.608 --> 00:02:27.051 Is there no redemption for the goats among us? 00:02:27.051 --> 00:02:39.950 A second question is what's the nature of this blessing right, with the king separating sheep and goats, the sheep who served others and the goats who did not serve others? 00:02:39.950 --> 00:02:42.810 Is God handing out judgments? 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:44.695 Is that how this works? 00:02:44.695 --> 00:02:46.099 Is God handing out judgments? 00:02:46.099 --> 00:02:48.234 Is that how this works? 00:02:48.234 --> 00:02:57.719 Or is it something like maybe some sense of the work being the blessing itself, the serving of others being its own blessing? 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:02.508 It may help us answer this question of God's grace. 00:03:02.508 --> 00:03:08.604 In this passage, that grace, that unconditional love, is still there. 00:03:08.604 --> 00:03:09.467 It's just us. 00:03:09.467 --> 00:03:21.746 We cheated ourselves if we chose this goat route because we didn't get the blessing of being able to serve, to know what that feels like, to know what that relationship feels like. 00:03:23.288 --> 00:03:29.203 Now another interesting question about this passage, and we're doing like Bible study, to start this thing. 00:03:29.203 --> 00:03:32.030 Some of y'all really like Bible study. 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:33.881 So here's, you're getting a little bit of it. 00:03:33.881 --> 00:03:36.669 And another interesting question, this last line. 00:03:36.669 --> 00:03:47.534 The king says truly, I tell you, just as you did it to the least of one of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. 00:03:47.534 --> 00:03:59.262 Interesting little caveat there To those who did it to the least of those in my family, you did it to me. 00:03:59.262 --> 00:04:01.985 Who's that family? 00:04:01.985 --> 00:04:04.870 Would that be the Christians? 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:06.973 Is it the Christian family? 00:04:06.973 --> 00:04:12.286 Is he implying that this king's family is just Christians? 00:04:12.286 --> 00:04:20.949 Right, and we know the king is supposed to be talking about God and God's kingdom, meaning the whole world. 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:28.807 So is he talking about just the Christians or was he really implying the king's family, god's family, being all of humanity? 00:04:28.807 --> 00:04:34.802 Are we to only serve the least of just the Christians? 00:04:34.802 --> 00:04:39.149 It's an interesting distinction to me. 00:04:39.149 --> 00:04:42.423 As I'm reading it I'm like, oh well, that's disappointing. 00:04:42.423 --> 00:04:46.992 You complicated this, matthew, you got it in there. 00:04:47.180 --> 00:05:01.605 And Matthew, for those of us who study our Gospels we know he's a little more hierarchical, he's a little more tied to the Judaic origins, so these kinds of distinctions sometimes are a little easier for him. 00:05:01.605 --> 00:05:17.620 But it's to me a little bit of a scary distinction, because we're creating this kind of separation, this illusion of a hierarchy amongst humanity that one is better than another. 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:35.824 And my problem, my concern, my anxiety does this lead to some real division in a culture, in a community, in a society, a division where everybody thinks, well, they're in the right, right, we're in the king's family, you're not in the king's. 00:05:35.824 --> 00:05:38.117 Well, you know why you're not in the king's family. 00:05:38.117 --> 00:05:39.081 It's because you do that. 00:05:39.081 --> 00:05:46.795 Well, wait a minute, I'm in the king's family because I do this, and you can see how the divisions would start. 00:05:46.795 --> 00:05:51.391 And it may look a little bit like our culture looks today. 00:05:52.182 --> 00:05:59.812 I don't know, but I would put this passage up against a story, maybe from Luke's gospel, the story of the Good Samaritan. 00:05:59.812 --> 00:06:04.526 Some of you, many of you, another famous story we'll remember. 00:06:04.526 --> 00:06:16.110 It's the story of the man who gets robbed and beaten, left for dead, on his trip right, and other folks who are supposedly the ones who would help him. 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:17.533 Don't help him, but who helps him? 00:06:17.533 --> 00:06:19.300 The good Samaritan. 00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:26.134 And I'll remind you, we were kind of rivals, slash enemies, with the Samaritans. 00:06:26.134 --> 00:06:31.172 So for the Samaritan to stop was actually not expected. 00:06:31.172 --> 00:06:34.346 That was contrary, that's counterintuitive. 00:06:34.346 --> 00:06:41.060 And so Jesus was pointing out, when he asked the question, who was the real neighbor, and it was the good Samaritan, the one who helped him out. 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:43.701 But Samaritan the one who helped him out. 00:06:43.781 --> 00:06:55.125 It really does help us get a fuller idea, I think, of what Jesus means when he says we got to love our neighbor, and who our neighbor is. 00:06:55.125 --> 00:07:04.490 It's not just members of the king's family, but it's all of us, even our rivals, even our enemies. 00:07:04.490 --> 00:07:18.576 Nobody should be bereft of the love that we have been given to share with the world, in whatever forms we share that love, in whatever forms we offer it to others. 00:07:18.576 --> 00:07:22.076 We wouldn't want to pretend that everybody's all lovey-dovey. 00:07:22.076 --> 00:07:30.504 We know the world can be challenging, but there's always a form of love that we can share, you know. 00:07:30.524 --> 00:07:41.851 Taken with this emphasis, it's easy to me why people find comfort in this passage about helping the least. 00:07:41.851 --> 00:07:47.791 We like the idea that the least are being taken care of. 00:07:47.791 --> 00:08:01.954 Even in our current cultural environment, where we have concerns about whether we can afford to care for everyone, it's very few of us, I think, who don't want the needy to get the basics. 00:08:01.954 --> 00:08:06.250 We want to know people are being taken care of. 00:08:06.250 --> 00:08:08.725 We like this ethos, we like this belief. 00:08:08.725 --> 00:08:28.788 I think also that is why we like this teaching, because we all recognize that in some ways, in certain aspects of our lives and in our hearts, in our journey, we are the least of these. 00:08:28.788 --> 00:08:33.250 We know what our own vulnerabilities are. 00:08:33.250 --> 00:08:43.153 Maybe it's not water, maybe it's not food, but maybe it's love, maybe it's confidence, security. 00:08:43.153 --> 00:08:59.684 We know there are times when we are the least of these, or at least feel to be the least of these, and so we're comforted by this passage that says the least of these are going to be cared for, they're going to be looked after. 00:08:59.684 --> 00:09:10.990 It lands me right back to this guiding vision of the United Methodist Church here in 2025. 00:09:12.913 --> 00:09:17.923 And we tackle the second piece today serving joyfully. 00:09:17.923 --> 00:09:39.470 Serving joyfully, pay your taxes Joyfully, clean your room Joyfully, do all the detail work Joyfully. 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:41.264 Doesn't it feel a little bit like that? 00:09:41.264 --> 00:09:49.732 Serving Wait a minute, Okay, we do it because we're supposed to, but don't put this marker on it. 00:09:49.732 --> 00:09:51.857 I don't have to be happy about it, am I right? 00:09:51.857 --> 00:10:09.393 Clearly, we're being urged by the United Methodist Church and through this passage, really from Christ, from Christianity, really from Christ from Christianity, to serve others. 00:10:09.413 --> 00:10:14.157 So in the journey, it took me to a story of my own life. 00:10:14.157 --> 00:10:16.538 I did a lot of youth work. 00:10:16.538 --> 00:10:18.179 I was one of those. 00:10:18.179 --> 00:10:21.082 For a while I thought I might be a lifer. 00:10:21.082 --> 00:10:25.246 You know that was what I was going to do, that was my calling. 00:10:25.246 --> 00:10:37.668 And then I got tired of sleeping on the floor at lock-ins, got to recognize your call. 00:10:40.049 --> 00:10:50.576 But one year, many years back I'm in the 90s, right when Nancy was doing her work here with your youth and we would go and take our church youth to Sierra Service Project, which I think you did a few times. 00:10:50.576 --> 00:10:53.105 I think that is part of your history here. 00:10:53.105 --> 00:10:56.374 Yeah right, sierra Service Project great program. 00:10:56.374 --> 00:10:59.381 You go off and you work on Native American reservations. 00:10:59.381 --> 00:11:08.955 You do work on their homes to get them more safe, get them more sealed and protected, and you learn about another culture too, which is kind of cool. 00:11:08.955 --> 00:11:17.722 Well, I remember when I first learned about Sierra Service Project and I was reading through and I says, oh and look, they pay you $150 to go to this thing. 00:11:17.722 --> 00:11:30.666 Then you read a little further and like, oh, no, you pay them $150 for the capacity, for the ability to go and serve. 00:11:31.791 --> 00:11:32.653 So I ended up. 00:11:32.653 --> 00:11:34.219 I thought, well, this will never work. 00:11:34.219 --> 00:11:36.879 But then I ended up at a church that goes every year, right. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:41.822 So I start going and I'm okay, I get this, I get this. 00:11:41.822 --> 00:11:44.519 I feel the warmth in my heart from this. 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:46.174 I feel like our young people are learning the value of this. 00:11:46.174 --> 00:11:46.626 I feel the warmth in my heart from this. 00:11:46.626 --> 00:11:47.544 I feel like our young people are learning the value of this. 00:11:48.884 --> 00:12:08.360 So we went to SSP every single year, and there was one year I had been going enough that some of my kids were now going to be going to their fourth SSP and I thought, okay, I can feel they're ready for some movement, right, something. 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:10.875 What's the next step we could take here? 00:12:10.875 --> 00:12:16.453 And so we started looking at a Mexico mission and we were up in Northern California. 00:12:16.453 --> 00:12:19.642 So that included more of a drive than it would have been from here. 00:12:19.642 --> 00:12:22.513 But a Mexico mission split my youth group. 00:12:22.513 --> 00:12:24.754 I'm going to take my older kids to Mexico. 00:12:24.754 --> 00:12:37.910 My younger kids we're all going to go to SSP again, and that year we took it was 63, I think unique people on mission in that summer, and so I wear it. 00:12:37.910 --> 00:12:40.013 It's a stripe I got. 00:12:40.013 --> 00:12:42.813 We took a lot of people on mission. 00:12:42.813 --> 00:12:48.136 Here's how I plan this out though young and foolish, we go to SSP. 00:12:48.778 --> 00:12:50.619 We come back on a Saturday. 00:12:50.619 --> 00:12:56.842 I sleep in my own bed one night and on Sunday we drive to Mexico Back-to-back missions. 00:12:56.842 --> 00:13:01.946 Second one, a mission we hadn't done before, so it's a first go. 00:13:01.946 --> 00:13:05.727 So we take our younger kids, we're all up at SSP. 00:13:05.727 --> 00:13:11.894 It's a really good trip, the kinds of things you would do. 00:13:11.894 --> 00:13:18.812 We learned about roofing, we learned about building wheelchair ramps, we learned about building decks. 00:13:18.812 --> 00:13:28.701 We're doing drywall in the houses, a lot of painting actually, because that's something that doesn't take too much training to be able to do. 00:13:28.701 --> 00:13:37.979 But we're getting into these homes and especially the kids are looking and they're seeing the need and then they're getting to fill that need. 00:13:37.979 --> 00:13:43.863 So it really was every year just such a good experience. 00:13:43.863 --> 00:13:48.490 But we come back, we have some car troubles, the whole deal, you know. 00:13:48.490 --> 00:13:49.312 And I get back. 00:13:49.312 --> 00:14:01.383 It's Saturday and I'm sitting on my couch and I'm thinking I got to go to Mexico tomorrow after this whole SSP adventure. 00:14:01.383 --> 00:14:10.375 Right, and I think we were in Paradise Valley that year, which is the desert, and I was on roofing, so I was roofing in like 105 degree weather. 00:14:10.375 --> 00:14:14.779 So I'm like, all right, here we go, tough guy's going to make this work. 00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:18.582 So we show up on the Saturday, I get one night in my bed. 00:14:18.842 --> 00:14:41.817 The next morning we brought both groups together into church, we celebrated the younger ones coming back, we sent off the older ones, we all hop into vans and we start cruising down Interstate 5, coming down to go to Mexico, and we start realizing that hot air is blowing through the vents onto everybody. 00:14:41.817 --> 00:14:43.541 In my big bus, you know. 00:14:43.541 --> 00:14:51.740 So, all nine, 10 people that are behind me, and there's one of these, uh, uh, well, 15 passengers with the van with the back bent, taken out. 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:55.054 That's really hot, right, and we're like what's going on? 00:14:55.054 --> 00:14:55.756 What's going on? 00:14:55.756 --> 00:14:58.510 Meanwhile, driver, this guy is blowing. 00:14:58.510 --> 00:15:00.812 Fine, I'm getting cold air, it's great. 00:15:00.812 --> 00:15:05.196 Well, the teenagers behind me are like, oh, it's all fine. 00:15:05.196 --> 00:15:10.360 But I look back, they're taking their shirts off, they're sitting there in the back like, hey, it's hot. 00:15:10.360 --> 00:15:11.500 And what am I going to say? 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:12.782 It's really hot. 00:15:12.782 --> 00:15:14.663 And you know, put your jackets on. 00:15:14.663 --> 00:15:15.663 I can't say this. 00:15:15.663 --> 00:15:17.365 So we get down. 00:15:17.365 --> 00:15:18.326 We're halfway down. 00:15:18.365 --> 00:15:19.907 We stay at my folks' house. 00:15:19.907 --> 00:15:26.134 There's 25 people in my folks' house. 00:15:26.134 --> 00:15:28.158 How many beds do you have in your house? 00:15:28.158 --> 00:15:34.298 They had about the same amount in my parents house, right, and so we're staying there. 00:15:34.298 --> 00:15:36.727 We took them down to the community pool. 00:15:36.727 --> 00:15:39.658 We hosed them all off, so they were, you know, clean them up. 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:45.534 But I had to go down, take the van down, to figure out what the heck was going on with the cool air and the hot air. 00:15:45.534 --> 00:15:50.683 And so finally, I'm talking to the Chevron guy and he asks me this question right? 00:15:50.683 --> 00:15:54.255 He says, all right, there's a flap in there, it's broken. 00:15:54.255 --> 00:15:55.677 You've got to choose. 00:15:55.677 --> 00:15:59.311 Do you want all hot or all cold? 00:15:59.311 --> 00:16:02.378 I almost punched him in the face. 00:16:02.378 --> 00:16:08.850 It was July and we're going to Mexico, punched him in the face. 00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:10.214 It was July and we're going to Mexico. 00:16:10.214 --> 00:16:10.934 Cold please, I said without sarcasm. 00:16:10.955 --> 00:16:12.197 But then we go down. 00:16:12.197 --> 00:16:15.933 You know, and I've never done this thing I'm taking a bunch of kids into Mexico. 00:16:15.933 --> 00:16:16.856 They've got this thing. 00:16:16.856 --> 00:16:18.383 They escort you over. 00:16:18.383 --> 00:16:20.650 You're like, okay, I hope this all works well. 00:16:20.650 --> 00:16:23.957 And we get in and everything seems to be going all right. 00:16:23.957 --> 00:16:27.907 And then we get to the site, get in and everything seems to be going all right. 00:16:27.907 --> 00:16:36.538 And then we get to the site right, the site where we're going to more ministries you camp, so we have all of the equipment you need to camp, right. 00:16:36.538 --> 00:16:50.058 And you walk in and it's just this clearing, maybe football size clearing and they're like okay, just find a spot on dirt and I'm looking around, I'm not a camper, I had campers with me, I'm not a camper. 00:16:50.058 --> 00:16:53.681 And I looked around and I went what have you done? 00:16:53.681 --> 00:16:58.371 You brought all these kids to this crazy place, and you know. 00:16:58.371 --> 00:17:00.019 So I'll be honest with you. 00:17:00.019 --> 00:17:06.217 I grabbed a chair, I sat down and I said I need to sit for a while. 00:17:06.217 --> 00:17:07.375 You guys get started. 00:17:07.375 --> 00:17:09.826 Cool thing happens, though. 00:17:09.826 --> 00:17:12.708 That thing was set up in a half hour. 00:17:12.708 --> 00:17:15.008 They had dinner going in about 45 minutes. 00:17:15.008 --> 00:17:16.981 They all came together. 00:17:16.981 --> 00:17:21.393 This crew of young people and the adults that I brought down really came together. 00:17:21.393 --> 00:17:24.000 It was really pretty cool, right. 00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:30.594 And so the next day we start on our work adventure with the more industries you're doing kind of real work. 00:17:30.594 --> 00:17:38.813 We had to lay a slab, then we were going to build up walls and then have stucco walls and then we were going to have a roll roofing kind of roof. 00:17:38.813 --> 00:17:40.984 But we're building a building. 00:17:40.984 --> 00:17:43.652 We're not fixing stuff, we're building something. 00:17:43.652 --> 00:17:53.211 I remember day one we had extra large crew because it was our first go and I decided I'd rather do that than do two houses, right? 00:17:53.211 --> 00:18:03.342 So we get about two-thirds done with this slab that needs to be built and it starts getting dark and I'm looking at my kids again figuring. 00:18:03.342 --> 00:18:07.951 We got to drive back to our work site and I foolishly asked the workers. 00:18:07.951 --> 00:18:13.050 I said, well, can we stop at two-thirds and then we'll do the rest of the slab tomorrow? 00:18:13.050 --> 00:18:18.136 Any builders out here? 00:18:18.136 --> 00:18:19.041 How dumb a question was that one. 00:18:19.041 --> 00:18:21.327 Right there, you start a slab, you got to finish the slab. 00:18:21.327 --> 00:18:22.711 That's just how it works, right? 00:18:22.711 --> 00:18:28.426 But we hammer it out and we're doing the thing and we're mixing concrete. 00:18:28.426 --> 00:18:34.407 Next day we get our structure together and putting all the things in and finally we're climbing on the roof and we're putting all the roofing on. 00:18:34.407 --> 00:18:35.450 We do the stucco. 00:18:36.211 --> 00:18:43.468 It was just an amazing adventure because we thought we had seen need on the Native American reservations. 00:18:43.468 --> 00:18:46.020 Right, we thought that was real need. 00:18:46.020 --> 00:18:52.193 Then we went to Mexico and we're like holy smoke, there are houses that had garage doors. 00:18:52.193 --> 00:18:59.905 There are houses that had garage doors, likely from up here in the States, that were roofs that they had just put on the top of what was going on. 00:18:59.905 --> 00:19:03.471 And obviously you're not going to seal a house that way. 00:19:03.471 --> 00:19:05.693 You're just sort of shielding yourself. 00:19:05.693 --> 00:19:11.565 And it was such an eye-opener I remember distinctly at our work site. 00:19:11.565 --> 00:19:20.470 They pointed to a big, tall fence that we were maybe 50 yards away from and they said to me that's America. 00:19:20.470 --> 00:19:39.277 It was the weirdest thing, because we have this such a huge distinction between Mexico and the United States, and then to be staring at the literal distinction, which was just this tall fence, that we as human beings decided should go there. 00:19:39.277 --> 00:19:46.673 It was just such an eye-opener to the way our world has worked and the way it's been established. 00:19:47.942 --> 00:19:48.965 But we had a great time. 00:19:48.965 --> 00:19:52.550 We were camping in the evening and cooking and then we were working all day. 00:19:52.550 --> 00:19:54.768 We got this house pieced together. 00:19:54.768 --> 00:20:13.531 We ended up coming back on schedule, which was cool, and had a little fun on the way home, went to Laguna, laguna, maine Beach, played a little basketball, even got all the way home and I remember after the first week I was like I need a break. 00:20:13.531 --> 00:20:24.094 I got to take a couple of days when we finished the second trip, got back on a Saturday, had church worship on a Sunday. 00:20:24.094 --> 00:20:28.692 I showed up to work Monday morning ready to go. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:41.307 I think there's some secret that Christians have, and some other groups too, but we Christians we're kind of focused on it a little bit. 00:20:41.307 --> 00:20:48.265 The secret is we know the joy in serving others. 00:20:48.265 --> 00:20:49.769 We know the blessing that comes to us when we serve others. 00:20:49.769 --> 00:20:53.980 We know the blessing that comes to us when we serve others. 00:20:53.980 --> 00:21:03.454 We know the best way to get a blessing is to be a blessing. 00:21:06.122 --> 00:21:19.449 So when I see something like we need to serve joyfully, I don't hear it with that sort of odd connotation you need to clean your room joyfully. 00:21:19.449 --> 00:21:23.250 You need to get your house in order joyfully. 00:21:23.250 --> 00:21:27.151 You need to take your car into the mechanic joyfully. 00:21:27.151 --> 00:21:29.988 I don't hear it like that. 00:21:29.988 --> 00:21:46.952 I hear it as a reminder of the joy that comes from being part of the team that delivers joy, that delivers wholeness, that delivers healing, that delivers love to the rest of the world. 00:21:46.952 --> 00:22:04.490 We know there's joy in recognizing and having an experience of being part of the body of Christ and the empowerment that comes from feeling that I'm not just working alone here. 00:22:04.490 --> 00:22:21.207 I'm part of this movement that's blessing this world, that's building this kingdom, that's strengthening the love with which God has given us to share, serving joyfully. 00:22:21.207 --> 00:22:31.211 It can feel like a command, but we know differently, don't we? 00:22:31.211 --> 00:22:33.923 Amen.