In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus tells a haunting parable. You should read it now-or let me summarize and you can read it later for even more effect. What He tells us is at the end of time there will be a sorting of people. One group will have people who cared for others less fortunate than themselves and another group who didn’t. The big reveal comes at the end when the group who didn’t care protests and Jesus utters those immortal words “what you didn’t do for the least of these-you didn’t do for me.”
The parable is so powerful, beautiful and terrible you
should read it-word for word. We will be held accountable for what we do and
don’t do in this life to help people. When we see people in need, we should see
Jesus in them and do accordingly.
I could go a lot of directions with this but I want to keep
it simple. For as long as I’ve ministered here at smc there has been a coordinated
team of people who visit those who are unable to attend our worship regularly,
live alone or in a care center. There are also people who just would like a
visit. This means someone goes and sees them once a month (or more as arranged)
to maintain connection as the church, the literal body of Christ. Visits can be
as long or short as the visitor wants them. I think it’s great to pray for
people and have them pray too-but that too is the choice of the visitor.
I like to think that some day if I am alone and or lonely
the church will offer me a visitor to come and see me. Unless the Lord has
other plans we will all get older, more limited in our ability to be out and
about, and our world can get small. Visits give a window out to the world for
the person who’s world is small and maybe getting smaller. You could be that
window. Ruth Reifsnyder is our coordinator and would be glad to talk to you
about opportunities to visit people-her number is in the smc phone book. I’m glad
to assist with any questions you may have about visiting too.
The other need that has grown quickly is the need for
transportation to our worship times. We have people for a variety of reasons
who can’t drive. This is an opportunity for those of us who can drive to serve-on
Sunday morning!
Doing this says I care about you, I value our worship and I’m
glad to serve Jesus! This is also a great way to build relational bridges-road
trips (even to worship) bring people together. If you could pick up one person
a month it would be great! Kathy Lehman
at the church office is fielding all the requests and is overseeing networks to
help rides happen. Rosters are being developed and if lots of people do a
little no one needs to do a lot. Again, if I can assist in any way let me know.
I’m sure someone is thinking-time for a church bus-to which I
would say until every car that pulls up to smc on Sunday is at capacity-no bus
needed. 40 years ago peoples vehicles were smaller (no mini vans or SUVs) and
fuller (families had 5 or 6 kids) but today we roll up with empty seats-let’s
fill them up with people who want to be at smc!
My prayer is that God is calling you to volunteer in some way at smc-perhaps it’s visiting or driving some one in need-and in doing so
you serve Jesus. Now go read Matthew 25:31-46 and ask Jesus what you should do
next :)
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