“We can’t look at the real worries of the world and say, ‘I’m not going to pay any attention to those because they’re political,'” says Bishop Hughes. Referencing Matthew 25, where Jesus says, “Whenever you did it for the least of these you did it for me,” she suggests that instead we ask ourselves, “How is God calling us to support people?” (Time: 5:31.)
Video Transcript
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark, and once again, I’m not in the Diocese of Newark. I was last week, but not when I taped and again, this week, I’m on the road. I’m headed to spend a week with the sisters at the Order of Saint Helena. I’m their Episcopal visitor, and annually, I go and spend time with them.
Traveling to get there has given me some time to think and think about the needs of our parishes, the needs of our congregations, the needs of the individual people, whether they are laity, deacons, clergy, and even bishop. What are the things that we need to be doing on Sunday morning, and to be thinking about and hearing about on Sunday morning. One of the things I’m pretty positive of is that at every one of our churches in the diocese, there were probably prayers for what happened at Camp Mystic, all the flooding around there that hurt those young girls, and then all the ancillary flooding – it wasn’t just the camp – and then more rain on the way there. I am sure that that made its way into all the prayers. I am guessing that there were also prayers of thanksgiving, for healing, for safety, for things that we’ve been wanting or needing. And I am pretty certain that in many of our churches, there was preaching very much linked to what was heard in the gospels, but giving people a chance to think through what is going on in the United States and in the world.
There’s this tendency to think that when we engage with these things theologically, that somehow that’s political, and I really do want to address that today. It may sound political to you because we’re talking about things like immigration, we’re talking about health care, we’re talking about taxes, kind of across the board, where do those who make the least and in those who make the most, how are they taxed? We’re talking about those things because they affect our day-to-day life. They affect our life just as much as the news we hear from the doctor, or if your job is secure or not, or that you’re praying for – trouble in the life of somebody that you know, or in your own relationships. That we take all of those things on because they are part of our life, and we believe that God is speaking to us about who we are, to be in those things. So I really do want you to reframe how you’re hearing sermons right now. That if that button in you is pressed where you think, Oh, hey, that’s political. I’m going to ask you to, at that very moment, say, All right, I know I’m thinking it’s political, but how is this Christian? How am I supposed to think about something that I’m trained to think about politically? How am I supposed to think about that as a person of faith?
This is our challenge right now. We can’t look at the real worries of the world and say, I’m not going to pay any attention to those because they’re political. That’s not how this works. When you read Matthew 25, when you hear Jesus talking about the ones who fed him, who clothed him, who helped him out of prison, who helped him with a place to stay, and the people said to him, When did we do that? And he said, Whenever you did it for the least of these you did it for me. So that notion that taking care of the least, taking care of those who are the most harmed, taking care of those who are without power or who have been trampled over by other people who have more power, for us to be asking ourselves, How is God calling us to support people? What are we supposed to do as a parish? How do we help people with a medical debt that is bound to come? How do we help people observe their rights? We actually do have rights written into law and into the Constitution of the United States. How do we help people observe their rights? How do we make sure that people are treated with dignity and with respect. Those are all Christian activities. Those are all faithful activities.
And my hope is that if you did not hear a sermon like that, that you will talk to the preacher and ask, How am I supposed to address these things, and let them know you’d like to hear it on Sunday morning. And for those of you who did hear that on Sunday morning, please thank your preacher, because it is a challenging thing to be a preacher, and to know you have to take on tough issues that you’re going to – no matter what you say – somebody is going to judge them as being political, and when all you can think is, Did you hear the Gospel message this morning. So please, thank them for giving that message. And for all of us in these times that we’re in, we have a calling, just like we had a calling all through COVID, it is to love our neighbors. That has not gone away, it’s only become more important.
God bless you. God bless your thinking. And know that as you decide how you are going to serve God and God’s people, God is guiding your way.
