The rich and poor. The haves and have-nots. We’re going to hear a lot more about those in
coming years, as the pressures on our society and environment grow ever greater. And for the
Christian, our response to people in need is integral to the gospel, for in responding to them
we respond also to Christ. That’s the theme of my prayer today, offering a reminder that
though faith comes first, works need also to follow.
Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but rather those who
do the will of my heavenly Father … ‘Get away from me,’ I will tell some of them, ‘for I
never knew you … Here’s the truth: whenever you declined to help the least of my brothers
and sisters, you refused equally to help me.’
Matthew 7:21, 23; 25:45
Is that you, Jesus, knocking on my door?
Is that you, seeking entry, asking for my response?
But I thought I opened it long ago;
that I’d welcomed you in,
acknowledged you as Lord of my life.
So why do you still continue to stand there?
What’s that you say?
It’s you pleading with me in the cry of the sick,
the sobs of the lonely,
the groans of the poor,
the agony of the starving;
you in the plight of the refuges,
the despair of the homeless,
the desperation of the falsely imprisoned;
you in the anger of the exploited,
the heartache of the bereaved,
the pain of those crushed by conflict and prejudice;
you in the turmoil of the anxious, weak, vulnerable and fearful.
So many faces, so many situations,
yet, in each one, you are calling, appealing,
knocking on the door of my heart,
inviting a response …
no: demanding it!
I thought I’d let you in, Lord,
but I see now I haven’t,
for it’s been too much about me,
too little about you and others.
Forgive me, and help me to change before it is too late;
before it ends up not just being you who never knew me
but I who never knew you.
Amen.