Scripture Lesson

From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25:

³¹ ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for 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, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And 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.”

"Experiencing Christ Through Serving"

A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

and Youth Mission Trip Participants

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Did you know that you are mentioned every week in our worship bulletin? If you would look at your Notes & Notices bulletin, you will the line – above my name, mind you – that each member of this church is a minister. That means YOU!

Now before you start to panic that I’m going to invite you up to this pulpit to preach the sermon, let me explain what the term “minister” means. It’s simple, really. To “minister” means “to serve.” Servanthood was one of the fundamental practices of Jesus, and as the body of Christ, the church, we are called to do what he would be doing if he were here in earthly form. The church is called to serve – to minister – to people. Serving others, it is a fundamental practice of being a Christians.

And when we serve others, we are not only doing so in Christ’s name, but we are also serving Christ.

In our scripture lesson this morning from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us that whenever we feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, or serve drink to the thirsty, then we are feeding, welcoming, clothing, caring, visiting and serving Jesus himself.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who served the poor and dying in Calcutta, said it this way: “Be Jesus to everyone you meet, and in everyone you meet, see Jesus.”There are many ways we can touch the world around us by serving, and through our serving, encounter the living Christ. This morning we are going to hear how the Mission Trip participants ministered in Christ’s name to others when they traveled to Rocky Mount, North Carolina…[Talk]

When we look at the cross, we see it is both vertical and horizontal. If the vertical is our relationship with God, then the horizontal is our relationship with others. You can’t have just the vertical; only with the horizontal, can it be the cross. In the same way, we can’t just have a relationship with God; because having a relationship with God requires that we also relate to each other.

¹This imagery is adapted from Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), p. 71ff.