For I was hungry

Intro

I’m not sure how much you pay attention to the news, but I’ll admit I’m finding it hard to watch right now. We’re seeing a humanitarian crisis play out in Israel and Gaza, but that’s on top of all the other slow moving crises like in Myanmar, or Sudan, or Central Ameria, or Ukraine. We’re told of whole communities who are not just poor, but who are becoming poorer. Locally, we’re all aware that there’s a cost of living crisis, that essentials like food and power and going up and up. There’s a rental shortage with many people simply unable to find suitable accomodation. And then as we walk into wollies up here, we walk past people who ask us for anything we can spare.

It’s tempting to switch off. It’s tempting to put up a wall to push away the demands, to mute the voices constantly crying out for help. The needs around me are overwhelming. The news is constantly bad, the statistics are constantly depressing, the world is a deeply broken place.

It feels kind of selfish to say it, but sometimes its just easier to turn off the news, tune out the needs and distract ourselves with work or entertainment or family.

And then we read Matthew 25, and it hits us like a punch in the guts. Jesus words about walking past the hungry, ignoring the poor, closing our eyes to the homeless cut deep. And yet, I wonder if you feel trapped by them? Sure, they prod us to action, but how long can keep going when there is just so much need?

How can we overcome compassion fatigue and the feeling that our actions can’t possibly stem the tide of suffering in the world?

Are Jesus words simply yet another guilt trip?

We’ll as we celebrate Anglicare Sunday this morning, I’m hoping we will see that while Jesus gives a strong warning, his words are also surprisingly empowering. I’m hoping we see this morning that the love of God that can overcome our any apathy or complacency or even hopelessness that we may fall into.

From our position as loved and rescued people, we are invited to be transformed into loving people.

Prayer

Father God, open our eyes, stir our hearts and teach us your ways. may we act justly as you are just, may we act in love and mercy as you are loving and merciful, may we walk humbly with you as you walked humbly amongst us. Amen.

I. The "I" - Pondering the Person of Jesus:

Remarkable that Jesus so strongly identifies with us, that he uses the word ‘I’

The repeated word in our text is "I." When Jesus said, "I was hungry," He invites us to ponder who he is. This passage reveals God’s character. It shows us something unexpected: That God identifies so much with human need, suffering, and vulnerability, that he uses the term ‘I’.

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Matthew 25:35–36 NRSV

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.’

Matthew 25:40 NRSV

And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Explain

A. God's Nature Revealed in Jesus:

1. God's nature is revealed in Jesus, the way Jesus loved people, the way Jesus declared what is good and just. The way he knows the needs of people.

2. Jesus comes near to us, not watching from a distance, but actively participating in our lives, revealing what is Good and Just through his Holy Spirit as we read his word.

And what do we discover about Jesus as we reflect on his word?

As Jesus tells us in this parable, he might be a king, but this king cares so deeply for his kingdom that he shivers, he hungers, he needs shelter, he needs clothing.

This is the first great paradox of the Christian faith, that the all powerful, unending God shows us who he is by becoming one of us, and identifying with the lowest and neediest of us.

B. God Watches and Notices Everything:

Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows us intimately, observing our every action and thought. God’s knowledge of us is intimate. It is deep. He is aware of everything we are.

Often we present an image to the world that we know is different to who we are on the inside. Sometimes we may even find it hard to figure out the difference between this image and the real ‘us’. But God has no difficulty. As we hear in 1 Samuel 16:7, human beings look at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

The one who sees us, sees us truly. This is a confronting thought, especially when we remember Jesus words about the weight of our actions. There are no meaningless actions, no meaningless words, no meaningless thoughts. The way we respond to those around us, the way we treat those around us reflect what is going on in our hearts. Have we grasped who we are meant to be?

This is a confronting thought, it’s difficult.

Serving as if serving God: The Why of Christian Action

In this parable, we learn that God so closely identifies with human beings, especially the neediest of us. We also learn that he pays attention to how we treat one another.

That means that nothing we do is inconsequential, but that has the potential to sink us.

How often have we walked past someone in need? How often have we turned away from someone who was hungry? How often have we felt compassion fatigue? When there is so much need, it’s so hard not to turn away. And yet when we remember God’s knowledge of us, his knowledge that gets through our mixed motives, our excuses and gets to the real us, do we have any leg to stand on? Can we really give a good answer for our failure to love?

And yet, the gospel reminds us that God approaches us in grace. While Jesus words of judgement in this parable should be sobering, they need to be seen against what he will do for us at the cross.

What we see at the heart of the gospel is that God knows us intimately, and yet loves us completely. He pours out his love for us, his mercy, his infinite forgiveness for our failure to love. On the cross, Jesus bears the cost of every time we saw someone hungry and didn’t feed them, naked and didn’t clothe them, needing a home and didn’t provide it for them.

Jesus in these last few chapters of Matthew is making it possible for us to love by his own love.

“At the Cross of Christ, the flood of mercy and grace does two things.

it is firstly: a past event that has completely fulfilled and satisfied all that is required to deal with sin and offered as a gift to us, a way forward for those who believe and accept it. For those in Christ we have no fear of our failures in sin, our weakness and inability to meet God’s holiness. In Christ we stand redeemed, righteous, renewed. Jesus is a gift offered to all of us and it’s my great hope that everyone accepts this gift.

“The Cross of Christ is secondly also a present experience as it is lived out and modelled by Jesus as we display the mind of Christ” The Life, Truth and way of Jesus shapes and transforms the way we live today as a cross shaped community who serves and loves as unto Jesus and each other.

2. As we grasp the sacrifice of Christ so that our status in Christ it overflows with love. In Romans 6:13b So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Colossians 3:23-24 teaches us to serve with our whole hearts, as if we are serving the Lord Himself. We read “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for mankind, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

“God’s story is not just about what God has done, but also about what God, through his church, is doing now. God is still writing the story and incredibly, God has invited us to participate in that writing.” (Myers, 2007. p23)

II. The Hunger and being Hungry - Recognizing the Need Today:

Today as we celebrate Anglicare Sunday, we’re responding to Jesus call to respond to the needs all around us, as if we were responding to him. So who are the hungry in our neck of the woods? And how do we best feed them?

A. One in Six Australian Children Live in Poverty:

1. Current statistics reveal that one in six Australian children is living in poverty, today.

2. Families struggle with homelessness, and tent cities are emerging due to rising rental costs.

Example 1: Across Australia, only five rentals were affordable for a single person on JobSeeker out of more than 45,000 listings. Just one is affordable for a person on Youth Allowance. All are rooms in share houses. Couples out of work, single parents on Centrelink payments, and people on the Disability Support Pension all face a market where 0.1 percent of rentals are affordable, while a person on the Age Pension can afford 0.1 percent of listings. A person on the minimum wage is barely better off, as wages fail to keep up with spiralling rents. The children are sleeping in cars, in tents, in Caravans in poverty. (Anti Poverty Week, 2023)

Example 2: Our attempts to respond to need can be thwarted. In a book by John Flett titled “For I was Hungry” we read in Chapter 9 an interesting case study of the Salvation Army multimillion dollar contract with the Australian Government to provide a service to refugees and asylum seekers on Mannis Island (including children) and found themselves caught in the middle of contractual service delivery that was counter to their mission. Their hope was to give food for the hungry, clothes to the naked, care for the sick and vulnerable. P181-p192

The Government changed its policy and wanted to make a point. They wanted to make it as difficult as possible for people as refugees. The contract was now to minimise any care, to retract services. It was unbearable for those whose mission from Christ was to care. The moral injury experienced by Salvation Army staff asked to serve in this space was astronomical. What does it look like to be followers of Jesus Christ using Government money that ties our holistic caring hands behind our backs. Do we partner at the cost of our own mission? These are big questions many Christian agencies are grappling with in this present context.

Illustrate

As we realise more and more that our calling as followers of Jesus is often at odds with the government’s policy, we need to explore new ways of serving the needy. I think one suggestion put forward at our synod gets it right:

There was a motion that encouraged the Bishop in Council to priorities work with any parishes which may have surplus land that could be used for accommodation of those who experience homelessness or are at risk of experiencing homelessness. This will cost us. It will mean we may be less comfortable. It may mean we can’t do things the way we did before. But it is also a clear act of service to those who cannot repay us, something that reflects God’s love. For how could we possibly hope to repay God for his love?

It’s a way we can join in the writing of God’s story of love to those who are so often ignored.

III. The Choice as Response:

In the final section of our text, Jesus presents two contrasting groups: the blessed and the cursed. The Wise and the Foolish. The ready and the not ready, The Sheep and the Goats. Those who love others and those that do not.

A. Matthew 25:40 - Righteous Responders:

1. Those declared as Righteous in Christ demonstrate that they have understood God’s love for them, and have reflected that love to the vulnerable.

2. Their actions are done as if done for Jesus Himself.

When you frame what it means for our actions to be for Jesus, it means we do not consider serving others as a burden. Followers of Jesus focused on Jesus alone take joy in loving God by loving people. To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. To love your neighbours as yourself. These aren’t in competition.

And they’re not in competition with salvation by grace. God loved us first, and invites to love in return.

B. Matthew 25:45 - Unresponsive:

1. Those who neglected the needs of others are rebuked and warned.

2. Their lack of care is likened to not caring for Jesus. And this is the key. Their lack of care shows they don’t understand the love that God has poured out for them in Jesus. Their lack of love for those whom Jesus’ identifies with ‘whatever you failed to do for the least of these, you failed to do for me’, shows that they don’t recognise Jesus.

Conclusion

We are faced with a profound choice. Jesus' words in Matthew 25 remind us that our actions matter, our response to the needs of others matters, but eternally and most importantly our relationship with God matters. We live in a world filled with suffering, but we also serve a God who calls us to be instruments of His love, compassion, and transformation. We are called to worship God not only with our lips but in our lives as a well.

So practically, how can we join in God’s story of love? A couple of ideas about how we can use our partnership with Anglicare to get involved:

Make a donation: By making a donation, you enable Anglicare to provide critical assistance to vulnerable families and individuals in our area. You enable Anglicare to do what the government can’t or won’t. You free Anglicare to be able to love people with no strings attached.

Volunteer: Anglicare are always looking for volunteers and there’s many different options, from long-term to short-term to one-off events. When you vonlunteer, you get to be at the coal face, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, serving people as if you are serving Jesus himself. There’s tons of options, I know we do the pantry appeal but you might like to volunteer to help someone in a retirement village record their life story, or you could be part of a disaster recovery team. There’s plenty of ways to get involved.

Become a foster carer: in an ideal world, children would be cared for by their parents, but sometimes that can’t happen. Sometimes even their extended family can’t care for them. And when that happens, you just know we’re talking about a really vulnerable situation. Anglicare facilitates foster caring, matching children with people who can love them, support them for a time, and give them hope.

These are just a few ways, there’s many more on the Anglicare website I encourage you to check it out.

As we remember Jesus words: whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.