Sermon Tone Analysis

We are continuing our series on ‘the Masters’ looking at people who have had a profound impact throughout the history of the Christian faith.

We first looked at Augustine in the 5th century and his confession of guilt and confession praising God.

Its a model for all of us as we reflect on our past and see how God is at work in all of life.

Last week we looked at Martin Luther who declared that ‘faith alone’ was all we needed to be saved.

He helped move the church away from some clearly flawed practices, like sacerdotalism, or paying money to be forgiven of your sins.

We were left with this idea that truly faith is all you need to be saved, but I bet that didn’t quite sit right with some of you.

Some folks would say, “wait, what about our actions?”

Don’t we have to do something with our faith, otherwise its meaningless?

In our Masters small group study on Monday we wrestled with this idea.

The book of James even says in chapter 2 what good is faith without works?

If you see someone who is sick or starving and wish them well what good is that?

And he concludes in verse 17 “Thus…faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

How can we declare faith alone saves if we also need works?

I’ll note that Martin Luther hated the book of James.

He called it ‘the book of straw’ because he felt like it corrupted this important rediscovery that it is truly faith alone that saves.

So let’s work this out - and who better to turn to than a woman whose works brought grace and dignity and faith to hundreds of thousands of people.

We turn to our next master - Mother Teresa.

Her devotion has transformed so many, and her guiding scripture was the one we are about to hear.

Kathy/Eric is going to read from the Gospel of Matthew.

This is the story of final judgment at the end of the world.

Jesus was with the disciples after teaching at the temple there and the disciples are describing how beautiful the building is.

And Jesus turns to them and says all of this is going to be destroyed.

There won’t be a stone left here.

He describes how difficult life will be for those who see this awful destruction and how important it is to watch carefully for Christ’s return.

After a couple of parables that point out this important lesson he then turns to the judgment of the nations.

Hear now the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25:31-46.

And from 1 John 4:20

This is the word of the Lord for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray as we consider this Saint and scripture today.

God, may we be an inclusive community passionately following Jesus Christ.

May we have faith that is alive, Lord.

Teach us what true faith looks like as we seek your wisdom today.

In Christ’s name we pray.

Amen.

Mother Teresa is not her real name.

She was born Agnes Gonxha (gonja) Bojaxhiu (boy-uh-jew) in Albania.

Her childhood was chaotic with her citizenship changing from the Ottoman empire to Serbia to Bulgaria to Yugoslavia all without moving.

Her father died when she was just 8 years old and it was in the next few years that she heard of the missionaries serving in India.

At 18 she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland to learn English and then to be a missionary in India.

She would never see her family again.

But her vows were so important to her.

She was a teacher at her convent school and eventually became the principal of the school.

She loved what she was doing, but she was more and more dissatisfied with what was happening around her. Calcutta was in deep poverty.

Muslims and Hindus were in conflict and one particular day known as ‘Direct Action Day’ led to the Calcutta killings of 1946, leaving 4,000 people dead.

Just a few weeks later she was on a train to Darjeeling where she was ordered to go for rest and recovery after nearly working herself sick.

On her way to the retreat center in the Himalayas she heard the call of God - that she was to go back to Calcutta, go into the streets and minister to the poorest of the poor.

She heard God say, “come carry me into the holes of the poor…come be my light.”

By 1948 she had left the order of nuns she was a part of, and with their permission, began ministering in the streets.

Her goals was to, “help them live their lives with dignity and so encounter GOd’s infinite love, and having come to know him, to love and serve him in return.”

This was her second calling - the first was into her vows of justice and peace with the Loretto sisters, now, on her own, they were vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and free service to the poorest of the poor.

She took a basic medical course so she could offer physical relief for those in pain.

After a few months of work on the street of Calcutta she found a building to be the headquarters for her missionaries of charity.

This lasted just a short time before dozens of young women joined her and she needed more space!

It was a tough first year though; she had no income, had to beg for food and supplies.

In her loneliness and struggles she wanted to return to her old convent, but she did her best.

Anyone in need was welcome with no regard to race or religion.

She worked with local government officials to turn an abandoned temple into a hospice center.

There the Quran was read to muslims, water from the Ganges was given to hindus and Catholics received last rites.

As more hospice centers, orphanages and leper houses opened, more women joined and donations began to pour in.

By the 1960’s they expanded to other countries.

In 1982 during a war between Israel and Lebanon 37 children were trapped in a hospital.

They eventually agreed to a cease fire so Mother Teresa could be escorted in to the hospital to rescue the children.

She would go on to win the Noble Peace Prize, but in her speech she shared the reason she did all that work.

It was not for riches or fame; she said that it was because at our “hour of death we would be judged on what we have been to the poor, to the hungry, naked and the homeless.”

She went on to describe how Jesus “makes himself that hungry one, that naked one, that homeless one, not only hungry for bread, but hungry for love, not only naked for a piece of cloth, but naked of that human dignity, not only homeless for a room to live, but homeless for being forgotten… Whatever you did to the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.”

She closed her speech by sharing that the poor are great people, lovable people who deserve our respect.

She shared a story of a man she will never forget, “a man from the street, who was covered with maggots; his face was the only place that was clean.

When they brought him into their home for the dying, he said just one sentence: I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel.”

He was loved and cared for, and died a beautiful death.

Today more than 5,000 sisters 500 brothers and 600 missions are a part of her order, with schools and shelters in 120 countries.

Many would credit her with transforming the lives of thousands upon thousands of lives for the better.

When we look at Matthew 25 we can see how understood these words in a simple and literal way, caring for any and all as though they themselves were Jesus the Christ in hidden form.

Now many people will tell you, myself included, that these verses from Matthew are more likely to be referring not to how we treat the poor, but to how we treat missionaries - people who leave their homes and families to tell the world about Jesus.

If you treat them well, even if they are hungry or thirtsy, have no clothes or are put in prison for preaching, that’s when you know you are part of God’s family.

You support God’s people; you are doing what you can to further the Good News of Jesus Christ.

But Mother Teresa and other advocates for the poor, often use this passage to say we need to support all people who are poor, all who are hungry, thirsty, or imprisoned, and I have to say, who am I to disagree with Mother Teresa?

There are plenty of other verses that support this same idea.

Proverbs 19:17 says “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

In Luke 14 Jesus says, “when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”

These are very general statements about helping everyone who is in need.

The problem is that lots of verses in the Bible are actually specifically prioritizing family members and Christians.

Whenever you see “brothers and sisters” its not usually talking about humans generally.

Its saying brothers and sisters in your family, or, brother and sisters in your spiritual family, the church.

So I don’t want to miss that; that’s the first thing we need to make sure we are doing, but Mother Teresa obviously felt called to help all those who were poor or suffering.

She saw that in helping others she was doing something for Christ.

She was making the connection between the image of God that is in all people and God’s love for his creation.

God’s love doesn’t end just because we don’t believe in him yet.

We are all on the way; we are all journeying and God loves us from start to finish, coaxing us to a deeper, fuller relationship with him.

Poverty doesn’t make a person less worthy of that love; in fact, it might make them even more special.

One verse in 1 Samuel says God raises the poor from the dust…and they will inherit a throne of honor” (1 Samuel 2:8).

So she took on this task; she wanted to raise up the poor to their seat of honor even in this life.

She gave them dignity by treating them the way God would treat them.

She loved them the way God wants all of us to love them.

Now I think this is commendable.

We would do well to live our lives modeling Mother Teresa, prioritizing the poor and marginalized.

And I think she helps us see what faith alone looks like.

At our Bible study on Monday we were wondering about faith and the works we do.

I posed whether faith alone really was enough and I love that we had two people that said, “well it could be.”

If there is no opportunity to do good works, if you put your trust in God and then you die, faith alone will save you.