Not Through Faith, But Action
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 24, 2025
Again Jesus tells us that the difference between heaven and hell can be detected in the way we treat others. Do you see it in the actions of the bad servant who chose hell?
"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. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
How simple this is! For Jesus, our Lord and Savior, there is only one criterion for those who choose heaven over hell and that is how we treat the poor, the immigrant, the homeless, the sick, the prisoner and all those who are in need.
St. James writes in his Universal Letter (James 2:16), "If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm and well fed and does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?" Jesus says much the same in Luke 6:33, "If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that."
In Matthew 8 Jesus heals a man with leprosy, touching someone society proclaimed to be "unclean". Who do we call unclean?
We cannot shut our doors and build a fortress against the world when Jesus tells us to open them and invite everyone to come. In the Parable of the Master's Wedding Feast (Matthew 22) when those who were invited found flimsy reasons to refuse the Master said to his servant, " Then go out into the highways and byways and compel all you find there to come to the wedding feast so that my house may be filled." The nave of our parish is not yet filled and the byways right outside are filled with people we could invite with the open heart of Christ.
Isaiah 58 says, "Is this not the kind of fast that I have chosen, to loose the chains of injustice and set the oppressed free, to share your food with the hungry, and shelter to poor wanderer." Proverbs 31 tells us to defend the rights of the poor and needy. Michah 6:8 says, "Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God."
The command to care for the poor appears dozens of times in the Bible and many of today's hot button issues are not mentioned once by Our Lord. I think it is far wiser to stick to the Word of God and let everyone else deal with conflicting ideologies. Christianity is not an ideology. It is simple. It is Truth.
They will know we are Christians by our love. When love becomes challenging (and it always does) it behooves us to find a way to meet the challenge in favor of the Lord's clear and inescapable commandments and to compassionately address any concerns that may arise. I am sure of two things.The Gospel comes first always and must be obeyed and two, all concerns can be addressed in creative and Christian ways. It is up to us to find them.
When I was in seminary in Tulsa after I had become an Orthodox Christian, I read everything I could about my new faith. One book that inspired me was written by a Russian priest, Fr. Dmitry Dudko. One Sunday he was asked, "Where can I find a Bible?" He answered, "Whatever you seek for, you will find."
If we look for the shining light in the people we meet, wherever we meet them, under any circumstance, we will most certainly find it. If we are already intent on seeing the darkness, then that is what we will see. What we see reveals who we are not who the other is. Why do we see the speck in another's eyes? Because the log that is in our eyes makes us see only wood.
It is not through birth one can be considered a follower of Christ, but rather through actions.
Lets end with a prayer from Psalm 139.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any way in me that is grievous, and lead me in the way everlasting."