Pilgrims and a Moveable Feast

Scripture: Matthew 25.31-46

Theme: For the Christian, nowhere is home on this earth, and everywhere is home.

I would like to recommend a little light reading for you – “A History of Hicks Memorial United Methodist Church” by Cloyd Neely. The history was prepared by Cloyd (with the help of a committee) at the 1984 centennial celebration of the Methodist Church. I perused this history the other day in preparation of our Anniversary Sunday and found some interesting notes. Our church dates back to 1856 and the circuit riding preachers who came through the area. The building that predates this one is next door, the Capitol Printing Press building. It was the Duncansville Methodist Episcopal Church.

With a little over $20,000 the family of Captain Alfred Hicks and the leadership of the church built our present structure in 1920. The twenties and thirties saw real growth in the church in numbers and ministry. There was a class or group known as the Knights of Methodism whose stated goal was to win every young man in the area for Christ who was not already churched. This group sponsored both a baseball team and a tennis team. And they built tennis courts in Duncansville on the John Kyle property. Then and later were established area Sunday Schools - one in the borough, one in Foot of Ten, in Newry, and as far away as Claysburg. Each Sunday School had its leader, which I take, served as director and in some sense, spiritual leader. This is the model that John Wesley started, and today we would call them cell groups, or Home Fellowships. The Foot of Ten Sunday School, for reasons not made clear in this brief history, was in 1956 incorporated into the Foot of Ten Independent Bible Church. How about that? There was a Sunday Class that met in this building which called themselves the C.B.’s and the U.B.’s – the Claimed Beauties and the Unclaimed Beauties. I liked that one.

All of which is to say that we don’t have a monopoly these days on creative outreach and ministry. Our forebears were doing some pretty good stuff. No doubt some of their methods would also seem outdated to us (C.B. and U.B. class anyone?) but that’s just how it goes in life and ministry. Methods and styles change, but the mission does not.

Just as ministry is marked by the times in which we live, ministry is also characterized by the country and culture in which we are raised. To be a Christian in America is different from being a Christian in the Czech Republic or in Nigeria. And know that God watches over the nations and God knows what is on the evening news.

We should remember a couple things. Americans are no more special in God’s eyes than citizens of Nigeria or the Czech Republic. But that does not mean that God is indifferent to what our Founding Fathers called, “the American Experiment.” The lowliest beggar on the streets of Calcutta is as precious in God’s eyes as the President of the United States. And it is precisely because God cares about the littlest and least that warrants our belief he takes an interest in the realities that affect billions of people on earth. America and its role in the world is such a reality.
When the Pilgrims came to this country they looked on it as coming not only to a fresh start, but in their imagination, as coming to Jerusalem, maybe even the New Jerusalem. And for better and for worse they were married to this land which welcomed them as exiles and vagabonds. And these exiles had their feast and thanked the Creator who in his divine plan brought them here. Ever since our country has been “a home for the homeless.” We are a nation of strangers and pilgrims in search of a spiritual home. G.K. Chesterton said, “America is a nation with the soul of a church.”

I think he is right. But I also think “to whom much is given, much is required.” Someday we will be accountable for what we have done as country with the power and resources at our disposal. We do have a special responsibility as a power in our world. On judgment day, we will finally know the truth about how we did. With the War in Iraq, the Global Aids Crisis, Poverty and Hunger, threats of new viruses and pandemics, and ongoing genocides, we will see what the nation with the soul of a church did with its time of opportunity.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

If you are wondering, what does all this mean to me, what can I do about it? Here’s the thing. Jesus follows his glorious pronouncement of judgment with a very individual and personal story. “When I hungry, you fed me; when I was lonely you visited me.” Or, “when I was thirsty you never offered me drink; when I was sick you never came to see me.” The locus of responsibility goes from nations and continents all the way down to what you and I do.

Jesus put this way in another story about a victim of assault and a Samaritan who did the right thing. “Who then acted as this man’s neighbor?” The one who helped him, even though he had no family, race, or religious tie to him. Who then is our neighbor? Whoever needs our help, wherever they are.

“To the God who marks every sparrow that falls, everything and everyone matters.”


We are strangers in a strange land. Since nowhere in this world is our true home, then anywhere and everywhere can be a temporary home. Places and faces, times and methods change, and we change with them. We take our thanksgiving feast wherever God leads, with whatever he provides. It’s a moveable feast. Remember, we show our true allegiance by the little things that we do – the hungry we feed, the sick and the prisoner we visit, the sinner we forgive. It is by our deeds, more than our words by which we know and are known.