Billy Nomates

Friends or . . . . ?

We all know the situation well enough. You get to a meeting and there’s one chair left. Its next to the one person who no-one wants to sit next to. Billy Nomates is on his own as usual. He smells a bit. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer – and the only free seat is next to him. Billy looks up and smiles broadly as you sit down. Dread rises in you. Despite yourself, you start talking to him. That’s when the surprise kicks in. He is actually quite an interesting character and you find yourself enjoying the chit chat. Then another dark thought or two or even three kicks in.

Hang on, do I really want to be identified as Billy’s ‘friend’? Can I afford to be seen talking to him like this – you know – friendly like? Oh Lord – supposing he jumps on me every time I come to a meeting. I mean, Lord, he’s always here and nearly always on his own. The Lord answers you with one phrase, “Inasmuch as you did it for the least of these . . . . . .” You try hard to ignore that – and Billy, who by now is in full flow, actually, he’s making a lot of sense and he is very interesting too !! Well well, surprise surprise – Who’d have thought it? Billy Nomates is a really interesting old chap after all. Why has no-one found this out before now?

I don’t need to go on do I? There are millions of very lonely people in the world. Men and women aching for just one person to talk to – only for five minutes – that’ll do. What is more, they are not at all as we first perceive them. How do we first perceive them? An elderly man, shuffling painfully down the street. Pinched face telling the truth of the poverty in his circumstances. People avoiding his piteous glances into their faces – looking for even a ‘hello’. What you don’t see is the well educated boy who did well in business. He rose to the most powerful offices in industry but he made a mistake. Being the man responsible, the courts took their toll on him and stripped him of nearly everything, leaving the poor old man you now see.

I am making this all up about Billy of course, but there are thousands like him even in your town. He asks for nothing more than the state allows him except for a little bit of human contact once again. I recently bumped into one in my old home town. I did actually speak to him and he blossomed like a thirsty flower after a rain shower. We parted five minutes later. Me back to my wife – him back to wherever he lived but with a slight spring in his step and a smile on his face. I saw him again a few days later and he brightened as I approached but, to my ever-lasting shame, I was in a hurry so I ignored him. I could just see as his face fell back into the resigned look I saw when I first saw him – perhaps a little sadder now.

We, as Christians, have an injunction from Jesus Himself to nurture such as these – the poor, the lonely, the run-down, the outsiders of society. The friendless who so yearn for human contact and fellowship

Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)

The Sheep and the Goats

“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. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 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.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”