Another way of judging that we are doing the right thing and going in the right direction is the command of Christ in Matthew 25:
31When 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.' 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life"(NSRV), (underline, mine).
We are going in the right direction when we
1)feed the hungry, 2) give water to the thirsty, 3) welcome the stranger, 4) clothe the naked, 5) visit the sick and imprisoned.
We are going in the right direction when we do as Luther tells us in the 3rd commandment:
Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise God’s Word nor the preaching of it, but deem it holy and gladly hear and learn it.
We are going in the right direction when we do as the explanation to the First article of the creed reminds us:
I believe that God has created me and all that exists, that God has given me and still preserves my body and soul; eye, ears, and all limbs and senses, reason and mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, fields, livestock and all property- along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life. God protects me against all danger and shields and preserves me from all evil. God does this all out of his pure, fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness of mine at all. For all of this love I owe to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.
When we do all of this we as a church are going in the right direction. We are serving our neighbor, we are hearing God’s Word of Love, we worshiping and giving thanks to God.
When we are going in the truly right direction, the numbers will naturally follow. Do we have enough people going in the right direction?
All we need to do to show to the world that we take our Baptisms seriously:
LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE ALL PEOPLE THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. (from the Sacrament of Holy Baptism).
Shalom and Pax,
Pastor Bob
