Volume 7, Issue 6, April 1998

PARABLE OF THE GREAT SURPRISE

The parable of judgment found in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew astounds the reader. The key to the surprise lies in the words of Jesus: "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,"

The key here is in giving help to others in their needs. This is the heart of Christianity and the true mandate of the church.

As followers of Jesus we must speak to our own age, about concrete conditions, responding to the stirrings of the life that surges about us. We must take the situation and material furnished us by the past and mould that into a fuller approximation of the vision of the divine within us. We must embody the prophetic stream of faith and hope and give life to the reality that the realm of God is within us. We must believe in the organic growth of the new society and patiently foster its growth, cell by cell. Every human life brought under control of the new spirit which Jesus and the early Christians clothed, and the succession of those true to it since, is an advance of the realm of God.

The church must continue to commit itself to working for the transformation of the national, social and religious life about us. All human goodness must be social goodness. We are moral when we are social; we are immoral when we are anti-social. The social-making quality in the Christian ethic is the virtue love. The church must live love and in loving build up the realm of God.

The United Church has shown that there is unity in diversity and at its best is a unitive experience of compassion.

The inclusiveness of the United Church is shown also in its sharing of beliefs with those of its members organized and calling themselves The Community of Concern, and The National Alliance of Covenanting Congregations.

Our contemporary society is suffering the destructive confrontations of governments, corporate bodies, and the dissolution of the welfare state. This selfish spirit affects churches as well. The United Church is no less spared.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.