| We Christians like to be very nice, and can be very sentimental while we’re at it. But this is a passage calling us to be discerning, and, yes, discriminatory, even critical; we don’t find ourselves comfortable with this. There are a lot of attractive things and ideas out there, but not every attractive impulse is of God. We have to exercise our judgement, and that is not always easy.
There are insistent spirits, pulling us in all sorts of directions, not all of them helpful. There are the membership statistics to increase – or a decrease to stem. A few more socials, or meals, should do the trick. Nothing the matter with this, of itself. But the cart goes behind the horse, not in front. Bible Study can be boring, but it should lead, not follow. A fellowship spiritually forged can well be cemented by bands of fellowship and food, but it doesn’t often work in reverse order.
The story of the Sheep and the Goats is a salutary one. There are far too many starving people around, certainly for a nation as rich as we are. It is an authentic spirit which leads to support Food Banks, and also to ask why they are needed. But if we let this take over, the authentic spirit drowns out a siren voice, which can lead to political action becoming an end in itself, rather than a proper consequence of Christian witness.
One of our denomination’s leaders has pointed out that we are not called upon to be successful, but we are called upon to be faithful. Or maybe it is that an authentic spirit enables us to see success in God’s terms, rather than the world’s. Those are surely the only relevant criteria. |
