God is Just: A sermon for the Third Sunday of Epiphany

A transcript of the sermon given by Revd Naomi Nixon, SCM's CEO, at St Mark's Church Leamington Spa on 26th January 2025.

Readings: Matthew 25 31-46, and Luke 1 46-55

When Marcella first asked me to speak this evening it was a hasty doorstep conversation, so very sensibly she followed up the next time we spoke. On both these occasions she mentioned the theme ‘God is Just,' but I hadn’t remembered how I had responded to the theme in the earlier conversation. When Marcella told me what I said, I was perplexed. Apparently, I said, “Well that would be interesting, progressive Christians don’t often preach about God is Just.” When she mentioned it the second time a couple of months later, she told me what I’d said. I was baffled, progressive Christians talk about ‘God is just’ all the time! I went home puzzling about it, and I’m embarrassed to say it took me a while to work out what had happened in my head.

I had two ‘first reactions’ to the theme. The first time, I heard God is just as the God of Judgement, with images like those in our first reading, judging the sheep and the goats. The second time Marcella said it I heard it as the God of Justice, the God we see in the second reading, loving, liberating, making things right.

So, I thought it would be really interesting to look at these ideas together and see where the light shines through.

If we are honest, it is confusing that Jesus tells us about the thunder of God’s judgement and the abundance of his compassion. The complexity of this is what puts a lot of people off faith and makes a lot of other people anxious. I’m not suggesting I can resolve every question we have about it in one sermon, but I think looking at these two readings together can help.

It all depends on who is the main character in the story. One of the things I love about my job working for SCM is that I spend a huge amount of time with brilliant young people, who as well as being brilliant are often very funny. Of course, the risk of this is that I pick up humour from younger people and then sound like one of those middle-aged clergy who I used to cringe at for trying to be cool. So with that warning in mind, I’m going to risk talking about Main Character Energy! Lots of you will know the term, and if you don’t, you’ll recognise it pretty quickly. Main Character Energy is a pretty cutting way of describing someone who behaves as if everything is about them; they are the main character, the people around them are supporting cast. Reality television is a particularly rich ground for seeing this in action. Some of you will have been watching The Traitors for example. There are people stomping around declaring that the traitor must be someone they are close to because otherwise, why are they still there? As if there aren’t 25 other people playing the game and most of it is all a bit random! But there are people in the show who just see the whole game with themselves at the centre of it, and it blinds them to trying to see either complexity or randomness alike. Talking of people being blinded by Main Character Energy, I couldn’t really talk about it without talking about Trump. Having someone lead a country when they really think it is ‘all about them’ turns the phrase Main Character Energy from a devastating put down to a chilling feature of global politics. But what does it have to do with the Bible?

We can all have a bit of a habit of bringing some Main Character Energy to our reading of the Bible. We have our reasons, we know ourselves to be beloved children of God, worthy of his attention to our prayers, beneficiaries of the cross. But God loving us all individually does not make Christianity an individualistic faith. We are almost never the main character, and that changes the way we read the Bible. Bringing Main Character Energy to our reading of the Bible makes us worry about whether we are sheep or goats. Are we headed to punishment, or to life? This approach isn’t just anxiety inducing, it also gets us into deeper theological tangles like how often do we have to visit prisoners or care for the sick before we earn our way into heaven? Not to mention if we earn our way into heaven what was Jesus’ sacrifice about? Starting in the wrong place just gets us more and more lost.

If we shift our focus on the Sheep and the Goats reading from it being about us, we have the space to ask who it is about. The best way to interpret scripture is to use scripture, and that’s where the second reading comes into play. The Bible is filled with passages like these, though the song of Mary is an especially beloved example.

He has shown strength with his arm;

    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

    and lifted up the lowly;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,

    and sent the rich away empty.

This reading also has both the poor and disadvantaged and the selfish and proud in it. But we are used to reading this passage as just being about the lowly. Again and again, Jesus tells us that the outcast, the stranger and the needy are the focus of his attention.

When he starts his ministry, he declares:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Why would we think that any other reading which talks about the same groups would suddenly be about us rather than about them?

If the sheep and the goats reading is about the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner, suddenly the images both of God as the judge of the end times, and of God as liberator, are both about the same thing: focus on what matters, see the world with God’s eyes. Focus on who is left behind, care for who is hurting, lift up those who have stumbled, feed people who are hungry. We shouldn’t be thinking about what it means for us, only a theological tangle lies in that direction, as it should, because Jesus never asks us to think mostly about ourselves. What we should hear in the reading is the passion, the urgency of the command, to do as much as we can to help the other beloved children of God around us. Not counting whether it is enough to win a reward, just again and again looking to see where we can do more, because that is where the focus of our saviour is.

And when the chips are down, what will it mean for us in the end? When we are bereft, alone, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty and desperate, the whole focus of our God, God who is Just, will be on caring for us. And that’s where the whole of his church should be too, so let’s make it true.