St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on the 31st Sunday of the Year, 9 November 2008

"keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day not the hour." Mt 25 v 13)

Some of the more popular television shows, not only in South Africa but also in U.K. and U.S.A are those involving contestants having to prove themselves e.g. 'Strictly come dancing' 'Idols' or 'Sing Gospel'. Those who present themselves are judged by a panel whose remarks can be both positive and negative, complementary or derogatory – in fact it seems that one of the judges is usually expected to make some scathing remark. But what is important to note, it is always about the performance and it is not the person who is being judged.

The section of the gospel we had read today forms part of Our Lord's teaching about the hour of judgement and each of the parables in Matthew 25 has a particular emphasis – today we are told

“keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

As Christians we do not take kindly or welcome the idea of judgment and it is in part because we imagine ourselves in court, standing as the accused in the dock, awaiting sentence. We assume a guilty verdict and then condemned to hell. How many of us grew up with that picture literally held before us in some painting – the road to heaven with a few pious people and the road to hell which was thronging with people enjoying themselves. That is not what the Scriptures have in mind because the one who is our judge is also our Saviour, Jesus Christ. What is judged is our performance on the stage of life, our actions but also our inaction, our failure to love. So we are judged not by some remote distant figure but rather by one who not only shares our humanity but was also tempted as we are even when he was hanging on the cross.

“ He saved others; he cannot save himself ... Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him ....” Mt 27 v 42

Then too Our Lord is teaching that it is not at some future time that we are to face judgement but for us we are being judged here and now. The parable of the ten bridesmaids, I have sometimes seen such a large retinue here next door in the Gardens, point to the fact that: “ the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” v 4 This parable needs to be read regularly in South Africa where many of us believe that the new democracy means, as Archbishop Desmond said back in 1994, that houses and Mercedes Benz will fall from the skies- well, it has for some it seems. God has equipped each one of us for life but we cannot depend on the other to live for us also e.g. when l was in a parish I would sometimes have someone, prominently wearing a Mothers Union badge, coming to ask on behalf of someone else about baptism or marriage. This is like saying: “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” v 8

It would be so much better to encourage the person to go themselves, rather than expecting to hang on to someone else coat tails. We are judged by our own performance and if we fail to respond to God's grace today and wait for another opportunity, we may well hear those aweful words: “Truly l tell you, l do not know you” v 12

The prophet Amos likewise warns about the day of the Lord, that we cannot escape from it. Again the prophet warns that what God is concerned with is our right actions, right living, not just our religious behaviour, it is how we choose to live with one another: “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like and ever-flowing stream.” 5 v 24

God's concern is about right relationship, about treating in our case, everyone fairly in South Africa. It is not about the future, it is about now, about our response to God's grace in each one of us and God's grace through one another in building each other up in love. And we can do it we can use above ourselves as we saw early on Wednesday morning, when against great odds, Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States of America. That he believed in himself and that he believed in the electorate brought him to that place where standing before thousands in Chicago he said “Yes, we can! Yes, we can! the crowd responded. And God says to us through Our Lord Jesus – yes, we can. We can all contribute to the transformation of our nation, we can all be instruments of God's healing grace, not begging oil from others but as our Archbishop put in his charge ' sekgo se metse' vessels bearing God's grace, God's love, God's life.

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