Is the Turkey thawing out slowly in the ‘fridge’? Do I have enough yams for the sweet potato lovers in the family? Will anybody really go down in the basement this year or can I skip cleaning it this holiday? Those are some of the usual suspects of things undone that can pre-occupy our thoughts this Thanksgiving week. When was the last time I checked the level of the transmission fluid in the family car? How about those air filters on the furnace? Are the fire extinguishers in the house up to date? Those are some of the un-usual suspects of things undone that can lead to trouble. And then, there are these: Have I clothed the naked, have I fed the hungry, visited those in prison, or cared for the sick? According to our Lord, those are THE ONES that can lead us to everlasting trouble.
What is undone in your/our world today?
For the St. Louis/Ferguson community, I suspect it is the things that are “UNDONE” that will be at the heart of whatever protest appears. The Michael Brown shooting was a terrible, but perhaps preventable tragedy on BOTH sides. But what has followed, is less about Michael Brown and more about what has been undone. We have not loved our neighbor as our selves. We have stayed silent as our Normandy education system slid further and further away from helping people out of poverty. We have not ended the addictions that fuel the drug battles that ended with two more dead on the streets Friday night. We continue to let the racial and economic divide between the haves and have not’s influence policy and laws and actions. We have left many, many things undone.
In today’s gospel, both the righteous and the unrighteous are surprised by the sentence that the King passes upon them. It was you that we loved or didn’t love? Though we can reflect on both groups, perhaps in light of whatever the events the coming days will send our way, we might do some fruitful praying around “what has been left undone.”
The second group is not judged for committing the seven deadly sins, or for endangering or rioting or theft. The only thing the King says as he judges them is that they failed to act in love, withholding love when they could have extended it; failing to notice or to care in the face of human need. In our time, what was undone for decades, both systemically and individually, has left us in quite a mess.
And here is perhaps a hard truth about things left undone. It does not matter “WHO” didn’t do them, they are still undone. (It doesn’t matter who didn’t replace the fire extinguisher when you need to use it and it doesn’t work.) Things left undone leave NO ONE off the hook. Not the protestors, violent or non-violent, nor the police officers, good or bad, nor the citizens of Ferguson, nor the people of our beloved St. Ann community, nor myself. What is left undone in our communities is a task for all of us. It is a task for us all.
How many acts of injustice have gone unchecked in our society, like weeds growing amuck in an untended garden, simply because good people failed to care, or to risk getting involved? This past Wednesday, the state of Missouri killed its 9th inmate to prove that killing is wrong. The Affordable Care Act, according to the website “Priests for Life”, uses tax payer monies to fund abortions. Our welfare system works against the family unit and often discourages people from seeking gainful employment and careers. Again and again, we are undone by those things we have left undone.
As we acknowledge our Savior to be our King, we are invited to do a little reflecting this weekend. Let me share with you one of the confession prayers in the Anglican Book of Common prayer. It is a slight variation from our own penitential rite, but hopefully different enough for us to really ‘hear’ today’s gospel message:
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against thee
in thought, word and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved thee with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
If we are all honest, there is MUCH that we have left undone. As we honor Christ the King this week, make a decision to do at least ONE of those undone things for the least of our brothers and sisters in Ferguson. Cross it off the list. Get it done. Get it done…