Actions speak louder than words

Here is my sermon from yesterday's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

How do we react when the most significant person in our life isn’t around? Teenagers sometimes throw a party and trash the house when their parents are away. Workers might put their feet up and relax when their boss has gone away to a conference or training course. In the parables of Jesus that precede the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25. 31 - 46) we hear of a servant who got drunk and beat his fellow servants when his master was away while another buried the money he’d been given in the ground and did nothing with it for fear of what the master would do to him if he lost it.

Jesus told this parable and those that precede it, to prepare his disciples for his death, resurrection and ascension. He was going to leave them but he was entrusting them with the responsibility of continuing his mission and ministry in his physical absence.

He wanted them to be like the servant that kept the household running efficiently and well while the master was away. To be like the young women who prepared well for the bridegroom’s absence so that they had enough supplies to welcome him when he did return. And to be like the servants who used the resources their master gave them before he left to increase and develop his property. Through these stories Jesus was telling his disciples at the time and his disciples through the ages to be prepared and ready to continue and to develop his work after his ascension.

So what was and is the work that they are to be prepared to continue and develop? Well, the answer comes in this parable, which is the last in the sequence.

Each of the preceding stories has included a moment of crisis or judgement in which the most significant person in the story – the master or the bridegroom – returns and it becomes clear whether those who were left behind have responded well or badly to his absence. This story is no different, only this time the central figure who returns is Jesus. Previous judgements were on whether the master’s work had been continued, whether the women had been prepared, and whether the master’s resources had been used or developed. But what is the master’s work, what are we to be prepared to do, what is it that we are to use our resources to develop? The answer comes loud and clear in this parable because Jesus’ judgement is on our compassion.

The measure of judgement used is how we have responded to those who are hungry or thirsty or strangers or naked or sick or in prison. Have we fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked and visited the sick or those in prison? When we do, we do these things to Jesus, when we refuse, we are refusing Jesus.

Actions speak louder than words, they say. In this Parable, Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

Jesus said, in this Parable, that God’s judgement on us will be based on our actions; giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting those in prison. These actions are to be the end result of our faith. St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’

Vincent de Paul was influenced by the Franciscans through his education. He was born in 1581 at Ranquine in Gascony and was ordained at the age of nineteen. He was something of a token priest until his conversion in 1609, when he resolved to devote himself and all he owned to works of charity. He founded communities for men and, with Louise de Marillac, helped to begin the Sisters of Charity, the first community of women not to be enclosed and which was devoted to caring for the poor and sick. Vincent worked for the relief of galley slaves, victims of war, convicts and many other groups of needy people. He became a legend in his own lifetime and died on this day in the year 1660.

If we need a role model in order to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome to the stranger, clothes to the naked and visits for those in prison, then Vincent provides an excellent of devotion to those who are in need. We would do well to follow in his footsteps.

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M Ward - Epistemology.