JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM

One of my heroes growing up was Sgt. Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department, chief character in the "Dragnet" television series. Joe Friday's tag line was, "Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts."  Anything else anyone had to add to his questioning was addendum and, for him, a waste of his time.

Facts are important, of course. They help solve the crime. They help discern what needs to be done or why what was done was done. Someone once said that there are two realities: reasons and results. Reasons don't count. There are, of course, more than two realities in life; but of these two, results are what count.

Jesus was always about results. The Pharisees were about reasons. They were always giving Jesus reasons why he could not and should not do what he just did, like healing on the sabbath. They had perfectly good reasons why he should not: The Law said so. And Jesus himself said that he did not come to change the Law, not even a punctuation mark in The Law.

In my own life I find it easy to give good reasons why I do not do what I sometimes know I should do: like being too busy, like someone else could do it better.  And sometimes I do what I should do for all the wrong reasons: like pride, like praise or rewards. It is wrong to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. It is worse do not do the right thing even with a good reason. Jesus had a good reason not to heal, but he did it anyway. He had a very good reason to walk away from the cross and Calvary, but he did not and died anyway.

The fortunate part for you and for me, as it was for Jesus, is that when we disregard a reasonable excuse for not doing what we should do, we don't stand naked and alone. The grace and strength of God is with us. Jesus knew that if he was going to be about his mission and ministry, where he would meet opposition every step of the way, the only way he could fulfill that mission and do that ministry was with God's grace. If not for that, he would have done what any reasonable person would have done –would do – walk away quietly.

It is easy to walk away. We probably won't be called on it, not even by our best friends. They'll understand our reasons for doing so. They would do the same were they in our place. They do the same; that is why the silence.  But as Joe Friday would say, the facts, Ma’am/Sir, are that you overlooked that one main fact: you really did not have a choice as a Christian. Results count. Good reasons make results more satisfying but they are not an excuse for not doing what we should do.

Easter is a promise that when we do not walk away, when we die to self-interests, do what our faith demands of us, as difficult as that may be at times, we will find life, new life. It will not be easy, as Good Friday reminds, but God’s promised grace and strength will see us through. Those are the facts, Ma’am. That’s all we need to know; and knowing those facts: Happy Easter.

THE ONE CRITERION COME JUDGEMENT DAY AND TODAY

My suspicion is that we do not think about judgement day, the day when we meet God in death, on a regular basis if at all. Maybe we will do so when we know, our health being what it is at that time, that our life is coming to an end. Then we will spend some time reflecting upon the life we have led and wonder how we will be judged by God. When that time comes, our reflection may give us pause to worry.

So how will God judge us? Will we be judged because of our faith or even lack of it? No. Will we be judged because we were Catholic or Protestant or Jew or Muslim or Hindu? No. Will we be judged by the color of our skin or our sexual orientation? No. Will we be judged by whether we were married or celibate or divorced. No. Will we even be judged because of the sins we have committed, things done and left undone? No.

Then how will we be judged by God? We will be judged by how well or whether or not we have lived out what I would call The Rule of Life Jesus laid out for us in the 25^th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. There are three parables there: The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids, The Parable of the Talents, and then the Parable of the Last Judgement. They are not three separate parables but one leading to another.

The Parable of the Bridesmaids reminds us that we must always be prepared to live out our faith when the demands of that faith are called upon. The Parable of the Talents reminds us that, following the first parable, we must be prepared to use whatever talents, gifts, with which we have been endowed by God to the very best of our ability. Our ability to do what? That is where the third parable comes in.

Mathew 25 reminds us that come Judgement Day we will be judged by how well prepared we were to use the gifts we were given to seek and see and serve Jesus in everyone we met in this life, especially the last, the least and the lonely in this world: if we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned and whether or not we actually did so. That is how we will be judged come judgement day.

Of course, our faith reminds us that we are not to wait to that day or the days immediately preceding that day to reflect on how well we lived out the criterion upon which we will be judged. We should be doing that day by day come the end of each day before we fall off to sleep. At the end of each day we should reflect upon the day that is just passed by and ask ourselves whether or not we were prepared this day to use whatever talents we had to serve the people we encountered.

Even more, have we done anything to serve those most in need of our service: the sick, the lonely, the forgotten of this world, or have we simply forgotten about them? We need not wait and should not wait to be judged by God. We can do that each day of our lives, and so we should.

YOUR NEED IS MY NEED

My wife is going to remind me that in a very short tome it will be Spring Cleaning Time around our house. Right! I mean, it’s not as if we have not cleaned out a lot of what needed to be cleaned out when we moved a year-and-a-half ago or that we have not been taking stuff we have been storing for our adult kids who have their own attics and cellars back to them. There is still more. There probably always will be.

One of the fastest growing businesses in this country is the self-storing companies that are building new facilities and expanding others. The local Macy’s is now a U-Haul renting and storing facility. Just up the road a very expensive three-story building is almost ready to accept those belongings of others that they have no room for in thier homes. Many of my neighbors don’t park their cars in their two-car garage because the garage is already loaded with stuff.

We all seem to have much more than we need. That’s why SCT is good, good for us and good for others. Last year at this time daughter Tracy was into SCT. While she was cleaning out a closet, Carter came up to her with some toys. He told her that she could take them to Goodwill because he didn’t need them anymore and knew that there were other kids who could use them and love them as much as he had.

The needs of some children were being met by Carter’s need to share with others, give away actually, what he didn’t need any more because he had outgrown those toys. Somehow Carter realized what I/we often seem to forget. It is not so much that we realize how blessed we are, that we have way more than we actually need. Rather it is when we recognize a need, whatever that need, it is a reminder that that need needs to be attended to by me as best I can, somehow in some way. Your need is my need.

The needs of others, real needs, are many and impossible to be met by any one person or society. But because the magnitude of those needs are so great does not mean we get a pass from doing the best we can to help those we can when we can. Carter in his small and unselfish way was doing what he could do to make life more enjoyable for someone he would never meet but who would be thankful for his kindness and generosity.

For me SCT is a yearly reminder of how blessed I am, that I have more than I will ever need and that I need to ask myself if I am doing what I can to help those in need. Yes, taking all that stuff to Goodwill or some other organization like that is a starter, but only that. There is always more to be done, more needs to be met. Given human nature there always will be.

It’s easy, of course, to turn a blind eye to the needs of others, to blame them for the situations they are in. The truth, however, in all honesty and in all thankfulness for my blessings, is that but for the grace of God go I.

OUR INHERITANCE

Over my years of ministry I have seen some serious family fights, thankfully very few. But the ones I observed from the sidelines were doozies. Those fights for the most part revolved around the family inheritance: who gets what; why one sibling gets more than another; etc. Those fights have split families apart. And sometimes that division was never healed to the detriment of all involved.

The sad part is that none of those squabbling over the inheritance did anything to earn that inheritance. It was being bestowed on them by the one who actually earned enough and gained enough possessions to actually leave something for those who lived on after they themselves passed on. They should have been thankful for what they received and not angry for what they did not. But they weren’t.

Sometimes we miss that truth, that being that we have done nothing to inherit what someone has decided to bestow on us. That is especially true when we think about our personal life of faith. There is a part of us, in fact part of too much preaching and teaching that eternal life is our inheritance because we have done something to earn it. In fact, it is said, that we actually have to do something to inherit the life to come. Not so. That life is God’s free gift to us.

What we have inherited is this life. It is God’s gift to us through our parents, through birth. The same question that is asked of those who inherit something from someone who has died is the same question God asks of us and we have to ask of ourselves: what are we doing with what we have inherited? What are we doing with this life that is now in our hands?

That is the ongoing question that we should be asking ourselves and asking daily. In a way, I suspect, if there is any question God might ask of us once we are given God’s everlasting gift to us which, again, we have not inherited, is what we have done with what we actually inherited: our life in this world that has no come to an end. If you are like me, the answer given may not be so reassuring.

When we have received an inheritance in this life, our goal should be to use that gift to the best of our ability so that it will be pleasing to the one who left it to us. We want our parents to be proud of us even though they are no longer with us. We always told our kids not to do anything they would be ashamed to tell us about. So, come that final day, we should not be ashamed to tell God about this life we have inherited. Will we?

THE GOOD SAMARITAN: AN OXYMORON

The parable of the good Samaritan is one that is almost universally known no matter what one’s personal beliefs may be. Even atheists and agnostics understand the meaning of the term “Good Samaritan.” Whenever someone does a good deed for an unknow other, the person who does the deed is labeled “A Good Samaritan.” My local newspaper publishes articles under the title “Random Acts of Kindness.” Same thing. 

Yet in Jesus’ time, when he told the parable, for the average Jew there was no such person as a good Samaritan, and vice versa. They were arch enemies, at least that is what the ordinary lay person was led to believe by those in authority. The woman at the well was flabbergasted that Jesus would deign to speak with her because, as she said to him, Jews and Samaritans were enemies.

That is what made the parable so astounding to those who heard it for the first time. Why would anyone stop to help an enemy? An enemy is an enemy and one must treat that person as such. That is how it was in Jesus’ time and, unfortunately, that seems to be how it is today, the parable of the Good Samaritan notwithstanding. What is even worse, as with back then and, it seems, so now, we are being told who are enemies are.

The Good Democrat? Not in the eyes of Republicans, and, it seems, vice versa, if we listen to those who are in power. Well, at least that is what we are led to believe. Yes, it is true that there are sharp divides when it comes to politics. Always has been. Always will be. There is no one right answer to the problems we face as a nation and as a world. Would that there was, but there is not.

Thus, there will always be differences about how to resolve issues but that should not be any reason for us to live in animosity and even hatred of those who disagree with us. They are not the enemy. The issue at hand is and how we resolve that issue will depend totally on whether or not we respect the other as an equal, as someone who is good and has the best intentions.

The sad part is that at the present moment our leaders, or at least too many of them, think making those who oppose them are the enemy, and play it for all its worth. Why that is so I do not know. What I do know and what I do believe is that deep down they – we – all know better. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and they is us.” We are the only ones who can change this way of thinking and acting.

Jesus’ parable reminds us that we are all in it for the short and long haul. We need one another to make it or we will never make it. The Good Samaritan was, back then, an oxymoron. Today, it must become a reality. But for that to happen each one of us must do our part. We can agree to disagree but we cannot and must not let our disagreements stand in the way of working together as one nation, even one world.