10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹ For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." ¹² So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

As a kid, I grew up watching the movies that my parent’s liked to watch, and one of my dad’s favorite movies is ‘Ben-Hur’. I’m not sure when I saw it for the first time, but I know that I was too young to understand what was being talked about. But that didn’t mean that there weren’t enough action sequences embedded in the story to keep a young boy’s attention. Obviously, there are the chariot races which are, and from my perspective, be some of the greatest scenes ever put to film. Love them.

But the reason that I bring up this movie this morning is because of the sequence that takes place toward the beginning of the film, where the (love him or hate him, but you’ll always remember him) Charlton Heston character of Judah, has been unjustly arrested and he is imprisoned aboard a Roman ship that ends up battling pirates that are stealing from the empire. Judah’s sentence is to sit next to other convicts and row an oar to whatever beat is drummed. For he most part, the beat is temperate, but during the battle sequence, the pace picks up until the Roman captors shout out, "Ramming Speed!".

Now, some of you may be wondering why on God’s green earth I’m talking about a film sequence from Ben-Hur, and here’s why: look to your left. Now look to your right. Whether or not we like to admit it, whether or not we believe it to be true, we have more in common with those people to our left and right, then will ever make us different.

In the movie, Judah was a Jewish nobleman, a prince, unjustly imprisoned. And yet there he sat, chained to the convict to his left; chained to the convict on his right, rowing as hard as he could. As different as their upbringings could have been, as different as the crimes they were convicted of could have been, they were all in the same boat.

This is the message that Paul is trying to get across to his readers, and to us here today. He’s saying, "all you may see are the differences (what you eat or don’t eat, how you live or don’t live). But in the eyes of God, we are all in the same place: we are all equally guilty of sinning against God, and against our neighbor. We are all in the same boat." The question is, what are we going to do with that information? Are we going to act as if it isn’t true, and find ways to continue to separate ourselves anyway? Or are we going to try and grow beyond the sinful biases that keep us separated? To put it another way: are we going to live in sin, or in God’s redemptive love?

Unfortunately, there have been way too many times when the former has absolutely been the case, where we have tried to find the things that distinguish us, and say, "you really need to work on that because you’re wrong, and I’m right. So if you don’t correct your course (to look real similar to the life journey that I’ve set) then you’re going to end up crashing and burning on the rocks of life."

We obviously find this sort of mentality as the political elections have begun to speed to their conclusions. You have one candidate (and their surrogates) talking about all the things that their opponent has done wrong, all the while ignoring the fact that they have skeletons that are literally creeping out of their closet. The other side is the same way. I’m sorry, but just because what you are saying may be true in some manner or form doesn’t mean that you are any different. A different shade of gray is still gray.

I use the example of politicians because that’s one of those topics where I can get most (if not all) of you agreeing with the concept that is being offered up. Here’s the thing: none of us, none of us, would be able to stand the light of public scrutiny and say that we are without blame or misstep.

And even if we could, would we be able to hold that same claim in the light of the Almighty? When we, as it says in our passage this morning, stand before the judgment seat of God, will you be able to say that you are without blemish? The answer is no, we wouldn’t. I say that not as somebody who has it all figured out, but as someone who time and time and time again (ask my wife, she’ll tell you how right I am) takes the wrong step and makes the wrong decision. Yes, I try and do what is right, but there are so many times when I fall short.

We are all in the same boat of sinfulness and regardless of how serious or inconsequential the sin that we may carry may be according to the standards of society, that sin puts us all in the same place: separated from God.

But before you give up hope, before you throw your hands up in the air and say, "so in the eyes of God, I’m toast", let me remind you that we have a way to navigate through the sea of sinfulness that separates us from God: we have a way to get back to God. That way is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the oar that will allow us to begin to move from this place of isolation from God, to a place where we are welcomed back into the fold. And the best way to make that journey, is by sitting down, side by side with all of those people that you consider so different from you, and recognize that despite the differences that are there, there is more that connects you, then distinguishes you. Time to sit down and work together, taking the oar in your collective hands and rowing as the Spirit of God calls out the beat and tempo that we need to follow. We in the church need to realize that the church is not the place where all the good and right people come to hang out with one another. Instead, it is the place where the sinners come together and begin to row with one another back to the Creator of all.

This past summer, my family and I headed up to the Adirondacks, Old Forge to be specific, to see if we might be able to handle this strange and quite foreign animal. You might know it as camping. It’s something that we’ve never done before and having no experience doing it, we had no idea if we would be any good at it. We stayed at a place called the Old Forge Camping Resort, which has cottages, cabins, places for tent set-ups as well as RV hook ups. As far as we could tell, this was a pretty large place. But again, as well prepared as we tried to be, we were rookies.

Here’s what we immediately realized: the only way those days camping together were going to work was if we worked together, as a family. Were there certain times, when we may have wanted to do our own things? Sure there were. But we had to all get on the same page, or else that vacation could have been an absolute crash and burn. It wasn’t. It ended up being a really good time and it ended up that way because we were willing to work together.

The amazing thing is, when the people of God begin to work together as we are called, a wonderful thing starts to happen: progress is made to help bring the kingdom of God into the here and now! When the lost and the broken begin to recognize their dependence on God, the Almighty leads us in the ways that we need to go so that others might come aboard and understand that as lost and alone as they may feel, they are now in the good company of those brothers and sisters who have made those same missteps in different ways, and that together, listening to the rhythm of the Holy Spirit and leaning upon the support that is offered through Jesus Christ, we will be lead into a fuller relationship with the divine.

So here’s your oar! Let’s start moving together to the One who is calling for us to recognize all that we have in common. Let’s us start moving together to God.

Holy and gracious God, we so desperately try to find way to distinguish ourselves and show how different we are from everyone else. However, in Your eyes, we are all in the same boat, all needing Your gracious presence to lead us to You. God, help us to recognize this truth so that we may come together, even in our sinfulness, so that we may begin to follow You, different though we may be, as a family united in our faith and reliance on You. Lord, hear our prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.