Seeing What We've Learned to Ignore

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[0:00] Well, we are in chapter 2 of our book, My Body is Not a Prayer Request, and our reading for this morning is from Matthew 25, 31 through 46. This is a passage that our author has brought up in this book. And because we have such a strong commitment to Scripture, I'm actually going to preach on this Scripture passage a fair amount and also talk about the book. So we always try to keep the Scriptures at the center. But I really appreciated that the author included this parable. It's a parable, as we'll see. It's a really powerful parable. It's a really thought-provoking one in all sorts of different directions, which we're going to find out.

[0:37] But as I said, we're going to look at chapter 2 today and then this afternoon, and on Thursday night, we will study chapter 2. And I just want to give a recap of chapter 1. Just remember that chapter 1 started off with an unsolicited prayer for the author's disability.

[0:53] And that was kind of a... That kind of summed it all up, really. It was this sort of...this assumption that somebody has more spiritual power or authority and knows what to do to help this person. And as the author says, it really is their anxiety and their discomfort with her disability that leads them to miss a lot of boundaries, which is interesting. And then also this offering of unscientific remedies, which was kind of hilarious but also sad that somebody would do that.

[1:22] And then one point that she made. One point that she made in chapter 1 is that she had a distinction between a cure, which is sort of a temporary cessation or stopping or sort of fixing of a physical ailment, whereas healing in her mind was far more holistic. It was about the whole person. It was about the spiritual life as well. And I think that's going to come back to us in various ways. So that's an important distinction. And her understanding was that she has healing already, but she doesn't have a cure, and that's for certain. So our passage this morning, again, is the parable of the sheep and the goats. And our author is comparing the church. The church. This is the challenge. So like I said last week, when the rest of the world is doing better than the church, that's a five-alarm fire, and we're not even – we don't even hear it. You know what I mean? So the author is comparing the church to the people who did not take care of Jesus when he came to them as the sick and the imprisoned and the homeless. Right?

[2:29] Right? Right? Right? He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. And the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me.

[3:23] Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?

[3:46] And the king will say, I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of these, one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. Then the king will turn to those on the left and say, Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink. I was a stranger and you didn't invite me into your home. I was naked and you didn't give me food. I was sick and you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison and you didn't visit me.

[4:29] Then they will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you? And he will answer, I tell you the truth. When you refused to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.

[4:51] And they will say, You will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous will go into eternal life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word, this challenging and difficult word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus name. Amen.

[5:12] So, did I get your attention? Not me. Did the scriptures get your attention? I hope so. And in terms of... It seems like the parable is saying that you will go to eternal reward or eternal punishment based, in this parable at least, just this parable, only on what you do or don't do. Did it sound that way to you? In this parable, in the logic of this own parable, the ones going to salvation were because they did the right thing. And the ones going off to eternal punishment, because they didn't do the right thing. That's this parable. Okay? So here's the challenge. Because that's... We have to kind of unpack this a little bit. And one thing that we always have to do when we're dealing with parables is what? Remember that it's a parable. Right? Parables have their own logic. Parables have their own function. Right? So sometimes a parable is hyperbole. It's sort of this overstating something to make a point. This parable might be hyperbole. We don't know.

[6:11] Sometimes a parable is meant to make you think. It's kind of supposed to sort of drill into your mind and leave a seed there. And it's going to... That seed will kind of grow. Over the next week. And go, oh, yeah, you keep thinking. And that's actually happened to me as I've been kind of pondering this. Right?

[6:29] Sometimes it's going to leave us with questions. Sometimes it's going to help us make connections. Sometimes a parable is going to make us uncomfortable. This is one of those. Right? It's meant to sort of poke at our conscience. And that's a good thing. Always a good thing. Right?

[6:45] So I think, personally, I think most of us could worry that we don't do enough of these things. And that we're headed for eternal punishment. So I want to say really clearly to you today, if you haven't visited anyone in prison ever, or if you haven't ever been to a hospital to visit someone who's sick, or if you've never given... You know what I'm saying? If you haven't done these things, I'm not telling you here that you're going to eternal punishment. I'm not going to say that. Why?

[7:12] Because the gospel is not entirely contained in this parable. The gospel is expansive. And it's way beyond this parable, too. Right? You could actually ask yourself, have I paid more attention to the people who needed it than I have to... than I've ignored the people who needed it? And you ask yourself if there's some sort of scale. Like, you're going to pile up the good things here, and you hope that they outweigh all the bad things. And that's actually a different religion. Other religions kind of talk about this. Like, the scale will just slightly tip this way or slightly tip that way. Just barely you made it. Just barely not. Then you're gone. But we don't do that. We don't do that as Christians, right?

[7:55] So, the Christian view of salvation is that you have never done enough. I'm going to say that again, because this is the most important thing. The Christian view of salvation is that you have never done enough, and you will never be able to do enough. Because you are a rotten sinner to the core. And I mean you. And me. This is who we are. This is the Christian view of salvation. Is that we can never do enough. And only by the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross do we have any hope at all. So, it doesn't have to do with what we're able to do. It has to do with trusting and giving our lives to the one who will do it for us. That's the important difference. But here's an interesting way through, and I wanted you to pay attention to this part, because this parable, even though it could seem like this parable is not a gospel, kind of is contradicting the rest of the gospel, it doesn't though. Because here's the really interesting thing. And I know some of you noticed this, right? We know that the goats had no idea that they weren't helping Jesus. They said, when did we see you and not help you? As if they would have, maybe, I don't know. But the really interesting thing is the righteous people

[9:08] also didn't know that they were helping Jesus. They were just doing life. They were just who they were. And I would say this is like, they were filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit just made them help people. Now again, this is a parable, so don't take any of this too literally, like this actually happened. This is a parable.

[9:28] Paul says, By grace you have been saved through faith, and not by the works of the law. And the way through to connecting that to this parable is this, the believer has changed, and he's made righteous. This righteousness is a gift. This is a gift from God. And what's great is the truly righteous don't know how righteous they are. And to stay righteous, they need to continue to be ignorant of their own righteousness, which is a real paradox, but there it is. Okay?

[9:59] Because if they did know how righteous they were, or start to count it up, they would be sinning. You know, it's kind of funny. So the parable that my father used to tell, which I've probably told you before, and I just think is hilarious, is he says, There once was a man who was so humble that the people in his town gave him a medal for it.

[10:21] And then he started wearing it around. So they took it away. That's the parable. And I'm like, yes! How many of you heard me say that before? I'm sorry to be such a broken record. Come on, just one, two? Okay, thank you. I mean, but some of you hadn't heard it before, so it was worth it, wasn't it?

[10:40] But, you know, I just remember, my dad told that one often, and it just really stuck with me, you know? So the righteous don't know how righteous they are in this parable. And I think, honestly, the righteous people I've met, and you're all righteous, you're all sinners, but you're also all righteous. The righteous ones, when they're being righteous, truly righteous, they have no idea what they're doing. The Spirit is working through them. It's the fruit of the Spirit. That's intact, right? So, but I want this parable to keep working on us in another way. And this is where the parable has burrowed into my mind, right? This sort of this haunting thing is what Jesus says in verse 42. I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink. I was a stranger and you didn't invite me into your home. I was naked and you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison and you didn't visit me. And I have this image of somebody who's stuck in their house, sick, and nobody's coming, you know? And they're thinking to themselves, is anyone going to come? Where are my friends? Where are the people who care? And somebody in prison who's like, I'm still here. Where is everybody? Or somebody that's in slavery on the other side of the world,

[12:01] in human trafficking, and they're saying, is anyone going to come rescue me? Like, is anyone in this whole world going to come rescue me? Or does nobody actually care about this at all? Does anyone know that I'm in this? Does anyone see it? And even if they saw it, would they care? And so you think of this person, this soul, this child of God, whoever they are.

[12:22] And they're asking, in a way, they're asking, where is that person who is going to come and help me? And if that person never shows up, right? And I think that's what Jesus is getting at. This is the real offense of this parable, is a vulnerable person in need, and nobody even answers. And that's really, so that's where the parable kind of gets in. So that's why I can forgive the parable. I don't need to forgive the parable, but you get my sense. That's why I get why in this story the king says, away to eternal punishment with you, because of how grave that is. Right?

[13:10] Right? Right? Right? Right? You'll get a lot more out of it in the book study and also by reading the book. But our author in Chapter 2 says something really chilling, which is basically that churches have been among the worst when it comes to accommodating people with disabilities. And that stings, and it should sting. And so it turns out when, if you were alive then, I was in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in Congress.

[14:01] And that was way overdue and also flawed law, as our author says. It was, it didn't have any, it didn't have any requirements that existing places had to conform to it. So there's some grandfathering in there, but also that there wasn't, it wasn't like the city was going to go around and find all the businesses that weren't adhering to the law. That only, the only rectification for that was the fact that the city was going to have to adopt a law that was for a disabled person who had standing to sue that business. What a hassle that is. And that takes forever, right? So there's this, we're giving you this justice, but you're going to have to claw for a lot of it yourselves. Now, in fairness, new buildings that are built, right, new street projects that are done by the city, they all have to conform to those things. When we had to change some things at the church, we had to put in those yellow, this sort of yellow bump things and a person's cane who's visually disabled will bump into them and they know they're at a, they know they're about to cross a street or a driveway. So, so we've been, some of our grandfathering as our church has been taken away by any new projects that we've done, and that's perfectly good.

[15:15] But there were churches that opposed this legislation in the 1990s or leading up to 1990. And they even got a carve out for it for churches saying churches are poor, churches are, but the message was churches don't have to do that. Churches don't care about the disabled. Churches see the disabled as an extra burden that we don't want to deal with. And so that's, that's kind of the theme of chapter two is that disabled people are seen, if they're seen at all, are seen as a burden because they consume resources, but they don't produce resources, which is also false, right? Many of them do produce things, right?

[15:53] Another chilling statistic was the number of people who are disabled people who are murdered by their caregivers. And I had never known that. So there's this sort of this learning that's coming in. So I think that's why this book is good. It's like anything that can take away any of our misperceptions is good. Anything that can inform us of something that we were ignorant about, but that is actually very important is good. So I'm glad we're reading this book.

[16:17] We don't need, probably don't need to be reminded, but she talks about the Auschwitz concentration camps. It wasn't just Jews that were sent to Auschwitz, but it was in some cases the disabled. Because the Germans had that very utilitarian view of not just they have the master race, and so the Jews don't belong in that, so the Jews have to be exterminated. But the strength of the race depends on us not having weak parts of even of our own race. And so people who were mentally disabled or physically disabled, some of them were sent to the concentration camps, right? And I just kind of have a note to myself here. Whenever the Nazis do something because of their warped view of freedom, they're not going to be able to do anything. So if we are free from humanity, we should be very worried if we ever find ourselves agreeing with it. You know what I mean? I'm not calling anyone a Nazi, because that's like, you're losing your, if you call someone a Nazi, you've lost the argument. It means you have nothing kind of intelligent to say about it anymore. But if you start agreeing with the Nazis like, oh, they were kind of, they were good on that one, you know, then you've lost, you've kind of lost it. You've lost, kind of lost the plot there.

[17:24] So the mindset, she says, well, the other thing she talks about is is that she had teachers in her high school that were legally required to give her accommodations who wouldn't do it. It's really interesting. I don't know if that, I mean, I don't know what state she grew up in, but all of our teachers have been good. I guess some of them have been a little reluctant, but most of them are pretty happy about it. I mean, pretty helpful about it, but I can imagine some teachers like, "'No, I'm not gonna do that. "'That's too much work for me.'" But here's the mindset that she identifies, the mindset of the abled population is that abled people are normal and good and better and stronger, right? Because they can produce, they don't consume, right? But disabled people are bad or stupid or not worth resources. And the question is, how do we get that way? How did we get that way, right? And it seems like a society should be evaluated on how it treats the vulnerable in its midst, the homeless, the mentally ill, children, the elderly, the disabled, the stranger, and the lonely. Right? Right?

[18:42] Right? Right? this is good. We have racism, we have ageism, we have a lot of isms, and I think it's good to define ableism because that's an actual thing, right? So ableism is the view that the disabled are not important and not fully human and not worth the energy to accommodate, is where I would kind of summarize where that is. And I want to read, and this is the part some of you probably underlined in page 31. She writes this, the way that ableism works so brilliantly, which is kind of sad that it's so brilliant, the way that ableism works so brilliantly is to make itself invisible. That's really poignant, right? The way that ableism works so brilliantly is to make, it's like the devil, right? The devil's best trick is convincing everybody that he doesn't exist.

[19:44] I remember, I'll tell you a Norwegian seminary story, because I said a lot of fun things happened there. So my cousin, who was a professor there, not an amanuensis, because he was the youngest full professor ever at the, he's really smart. Anyways, that's not, that's no credit to me. He's, because he's married to my cousin, so he's not genetically related to me at all. He's just a smart guy.

[20:04] But he was in a class with a bunch of African pastors were coming up for a semester, and I was in that class too, because I was an international student. And we were talking about the devil in the class. And the African pastor, he was a Christian, he was a Christian, he was a Christian, he was a de but I count on him. He's, you get it? So he doesn't believe in the devil like you would believe in God, but he knows he exists and he counts on him getting into trouble. Anyways, I guess I could have left that one out. Just strike that. Just take the video and just do the cut and paste. What's that app? Final frame, whatever it is. Okay. Okay. The way that ableism works so brilliantly is to make itself invisible. It is the air we breathe, the water we swim in, the culture we all consume. It becomes automatic and uninterrogated so we don't even realize we are worshiping idols of success and self-sufficiency rather than the living God. Ableist ideas about some bodies bearing more than they can bear are the ones that are most important to us. More of God's image than others lingers like an app in the background. We don't even notice that we are giving energy to sustaining their existence. This deceives us into thinking

[21:48] ableism is natural and therefore unavoidable. Wow. So here's the strong word. Ableism is ultimately idolatry, right? Idolatry is the worship of power and ability and able-bodiedness, and it's not the worship of God. Any idol is going to take your focus away from God. And I think it's really interesting that a lot of our idols are the ones we don't see. Like, I would say to myself, do I see the idolatry of wealth? I don't unless I go looking for it, right? Because it's usually unchallenged and often it's praise like, oh, good job. God is blessing you. There's all sorts of ways we can do this, but there can be an idolatry of wealth. You can have a good view of wealth or you can have an idolatrous view of wealth, but we don't see it. It's especially in America. This is the air we breathe. This is the water we swim in. We don't ask ourselves these questions. We don't ask ourselves these questions. We don't ask ourselves these questions. And if we do see some of these things, we minimize them. So that's the other strategy is to minimize. Oh, yes, it's a thing, but it's not that bad, right? And so I'm going to do the top 10 lists, and this is a top 10 list of minimizations. So this is good. Like David

[22:59] Letterman, I like that she goes in reverse order, descending order, starting at number 10. But these are the at leasts, the top 10 at leasts. This is a whole set of ways to minimize. So if you're in the middle of the음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음음 what they're experiencing to make yourself feel better. It's always about us feeling better about ourselves in the presence of a disabled person. Isn't that crazy? Because the last week it was, here's all these things that I'm going to use to fix you, because then I'll feel better about myself, not that you would feel better about yourself. So here's the top 10 at least, the way of minimizing other people's disability. So folks say these to me about being disabled, usually to make themselves feel more comfortable with my body. Isn't that interesting? That's what she says. Number 10, at least you'll be running in heaven. Nice. Number nine, at least you're only physically disabled.

[24:04] Number eight, at least it's not cancer. I don't know. Yeah, true. Actually, that one makes sense, but because cancer is horrible too, but why do you even have to say that? That's the thing. Why do you have to say that? To make yourself feel better, right? Cancer is bad. At least you have a husband to take care of you. Okay, so that's more about somebody else, right? Yeah. At least you don't look disabled. What does that mean? At least if she's in a wheelchair, I don't know. That looks, walking with a cane, that looks kind of disabled to me. What are your eyes telling you? At least you can count your blessings. Okay. No, why don't you count them for me? I don't know what to say. Okay. At least you don't let your disability define you. Okay. At least you've inspired others. At least this is part of God's plan. Ouch. How do you know that? Good Lord. And number one, always the funniest, at least you get good parking. Some consolation, that is the parking spot. Okay. So minimize, right? Let's minimize. If we see it, then we can minimize it. It's still ableism because we're trying to unsee it, right? We're trying to unsee it. So actually what we need to do is to examine ourselves. And that's a biblical idea. Think of Psalm 139, verse 23. You know this one.

[25:20] Verse 23. So there are sins that we commit without knowing. And if we take the time, and I don't always want to do this, God would reveal to us what they are. So that's a very powerful and I would say a courageous prayer that I don't often pray. God, tell me what I don't know.

[25:51] Right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. want to know what my blind spots are in this world. I want to know what my sins are that I'm not aware of. Okay? Because the...

[26:28] Let's see. One tantalizing thought that comes from the parable is that when we help people and... Oh, thank you. That helped. I was really having problems there. So, all right. This thought that comes from the parable is that when we help people in need, we're helping Jesus. Did you catch that in the parable? As you did it to me, you did it to the least of those, these my brothers and sisters, as if you had done it for me. And he also, as the king says, I was... Did you hear that? I was sick, and you visited me.

[27:09] And that's how this parable works, too. It gives you this idea. And again, it's just a parable that Jesus is a bit like a sort of a secret agent going around, and he puts on a disguise, and he dresses up as a person in need, and he comes to your door, and he knocks, and he waits to see... He tests you to see if you're going to actually help him or not, and he keeps track. That's it. That's this parable logic, but that's not how Jesus really is, because that would actually violate that real person's personhood of whoever actually is in need. He doesn't need to go around and disguise himself, right?

[27:46] I would rather see it as we should treat the vulnerable, and in this case, the disabled, as if they were Jesus, right? So when we see another human being, we should see their full humanity, the incarnational Jesus in them, right? So we should see them, and we should understand that... We should understand ourselves, that we're programmed to ignore them and minimize their condition. We should understand that our anxiety may make us say stupid things to them and to shut up, right? And we should be willing to embrace them as full members of any community that we're in, and that's the challenge, right? So that's the accommodation, is some disabilities need accommodations, and to treat... And she complains. Some churches have... A disabled person comes to the church, and the church says, oh, we have a group for you.

[28:37] We can keep you... We have a ministry for you, so you don't come to the normal stuff because you make us uncomfortable. You just go to your group for all the other disabled people. No. That's not what she wants. She wants to be completely invited to every aspect of the life of the church, as if she were a normal, normal, non-disabled person. You know what I'm saying? Like, of course we're all normal, or very abnormal. It just depends on who you are.

[29:02] But that's the thing. It's not enough even just to say, here's, you know, separate but equal is not. That's what she says in the book, and we know that too from Plessy versus Ferguson and all the rest. So we have to make it... We have to make it possible for them to participate and not segregating them into their own group. So that's the challenge. Okay, I'm going to end here. That's the challenge. We'll read more about it in the coming week. I think there's a lot of... We have a lot of learning yet to do in this book. I'm excited about it, and I think we're going to learn a lot. The takeaway today is to be aware of our own hidden attitudes and practices that marginalize the disabled. And so there's some introspection that I'm inviting all of us into. Let's pray.

[29:40] Father, thank you. Thank you for this difficult word, both the difficult words in this book and the difficult words in your book and this parable. Let it burrow into our hearts and our minds. Let it leave us with questions.

[29:53] Let it leave us with some connections that we need to make. And Father, help us to see what we're not seeing. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.