November 2, 2025

Just Desserts!

Sometimes our coffee hour becomes a time of enjoying just desserts (with two s’s).  But, of course, there’s a play on words at work here. It has to do with people getting what they deserve – their “just deserts” (with one s) – in other words, justice.  I suppose if you carry the pun far enough it comes ’round to the idea that you all will get, on those dessert coffee hours, just your just desserts (with two s’s) – the desserts you deserve.  Well, before I get too carried away, let’s move on.

Justice.  That’s what people getting their “just deserts” means.  I’ll never forget the great preacher Sandy Ray telling all of us liberal Protestant preachers at a conference that we keep crying for justice.  He said, “You don’t really want justice, because justice means getting what you deserve, and, trust me, you don’t want what you deserve.  You don’t want justice; you want mercy.”  Well, I suppose he was right.  But if we take a moment to listen to Jesus as he spoke to the disciples in our reading from Luke, it turns out that justice and mercy are pretty much the same thing.  He said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  I think he’s saying that doing justice means showing mercy.  I love the comment I heard a while back from an author who was being interviewed on television (I don’t remember who) he was talking about this “golden rule” of Jesus’s and he said, “I don’t get this ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’  Instead of assuming that they want to be treated the way you would, why not just ask them how they wish to be treated?”  A good point, I suppose.  It’s really just a further statement of the underlying principle, though: that if we wish to be just in our dealings with others, we must be ready to show mercy.

So, what’s all that got to do with our  everyday lives?  Just this: treating others as we would be treated, going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, giving of our resources for the nurture, growth, and well-being of others are all part of one basic approach to life.  It is the kind of living that Jesus spent his entire ministry trying to get across.  And in many quarters the message has yet to sink in.

One clear example has to do with food stamps (known as the SNAP program).  I’m sure you all have read lately about the cut in food stamp funding due to the government shut-down.  But even if the shut-down gets resolved, under the current legislation Millions of people who receive food stamps could soon see smaller benefits or even get kicked out of the program, according to several analyses from the federal government and public policy think tanks.  About 2.4 million people could lose access to food stamps in an average month, because of the new law’s changes, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimation.  Millions more will see their monthly benefit amounts shrink because of other changes mandated by the law. The total pool of people who will either be cut off from SNAP or see smaller monthly benefits could reach 22.3 million U.S. families, according to a July analysis from the Urban Institute.

It’s argued that some folks out there are taking unfair advantage of the food stamp program – not getting their just deserts, so to speak; maybe they’re just getting desserts.  So, the obvious solution is to cut the legs out from under families in need.  But the budget shows they’re not prepared to cut government subsidies to oil companies (the richest corporations on the planet); that’s referred to as “bad policy.”  In other words, it’s the same old story of trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

And what has “do unto others” got to do with this?  I would be interested to see the golden rule applied to Congress.  I would be interested to see how any of those congressional representatives and senators would feel about these decisions if they were unemployed for two or three years, went through all their assets, and it were their own families who ended up subsisting on food stamps.  I wonder if they would consider government subsidies to oil companies to be a higher priority than food stamps.

But it’s not just Congress, is it?  You and I are part of a whole culture that is driven by a “me first” principle, an ethos that says if everyone seeks his or her own good, the whole society will benefit, and those who fall through the cracks are either unworthy or regrettable but acceptable collateral damage in the battle for economic progress.  That doctrine is pounded into our heads from the time we are born, and is reinforced night after night on the television.  And it takes weekly, and sometimes daily, reminders to keep bringing us back to Jesus, and helping us remember that we are part of a counter-cultural movement, that our loyalty is to a larger kingdom, and our fidelity to a higher cause.  To a large degree, that’s what we do when we write letters to our congressional representatives urging them not to cut food stamps; that’s what we do when we bring our boxes of Wheaties and cans of soup for the food pantry; and that’s what we do when we offer our pledges and our weekly offerings.  They provide that reminder to ourselves of who we are in this world.  And the more sacrificial the gift, the more powerful the message.

But in the words of Jesus we heard this morning there is also a caution for us as individuals and as a church.  He plainly and boldly says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled,” and “. . . woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”  In other words, we need to be aware that having our cake and eating it too (that is, having just desserts) is likely to lead to receiving our “just deserts.”  And the church needs to be aware that it is not here to get rich either.  I for one don’t think Jesus would be impressed with crystal cathedrals.  Richard Halverson put it well.  He wrote, “When the Greeks got the gospel, they turned it into a philosophy; when the Romans got it, they turned it into a government; when the Europeans got it, they turned it into a culture; and when the Americans got it, they turned it into a business.”¹  If the church is to remain faithful to our calling, our resources must be used humbly, thoughtfully, and with justice and mercy always our priorities.

So, the Trustees are currently planning a church pledge campaign.  And it isn’t just about raising money to sustain the ministries and missions of this church, as important as that is.  It’s also about raising awareness.  It is an annual ritual in which we all tell ourselves and one another that there are more important things in life than storing up treasures for ourselves, more important things than finding personal comfort and security, more important things than even (I hate to admit it) the Red Sox.

As I mentioned, yesterday was All Saints Day.  So, today we can celebrate an All Saints Sunday.  And as we remember today all those beloved ones who have gone before us, we take a moment to consider what they have bequeathed to us: a church, a ministry, a spirit, and a message – a message that consistently reminds us how pleasing it is sometimes to have just desserts, but how much more pleasing it is when we help all of the world’s children get their just deserts.

¹ Church Between Gospel and Culture: The Emerging Mission in North America, Edited by George R. Hunsberger and Craig Van Gelder, Eerdmans, 1996, p. 77.