I said no.
My wife came out immediately afterward, and as we walked to the bus station, she asked me what was wrong (my wife always knows when I'm upset about something). I told her what happened, and the more I revealed, the worse I felt, until I decided that she and I would search the building for the man so I could give him our pizza.
We didn't find him.
I know some of you have finished reading this story thinking, "What's the problem?" After all, the institutional church tells us, we live in an age of grace, and God isn't going to get upset over a little box of pizza, is he? Besides, the man was probably scamming for whatever he could get from me, right?
If that's your point of view, you may find the following passage--words quoted directly from Jesus himself--somewhat disconcerting:
But when the Son of Man [Jesus himself] comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left.
Then the king will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 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; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to 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? And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?" The king will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me."
The he will also say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been 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; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me." Then they themselves also will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of you?" Then he will answer them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
--Matthew 25:31-46
I know--and have heard--a lot of preachers loudly proclaiming the stakes of not being right with God, that eternal life in hell awaits those who do not fall before the feet of Christ and allow their souls to be surrendered to him, but hellfire is not simply for those who fail to recite a 60 second loyalty oath to Jesus Christ in a church. It is for those who, turning a blind eye to the suffering and needy, prefer to cater to their own selfish desires rather than risk life and possessions for others. In this respect, then, people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini represent the cream of the crop in terms of hell-worthiness, but the rest of us, particularly those of us who live in and actively pursue the cultural priorities of the United States, may not be far behind.
Jesus came to me yesterday, and asked for the equivalent of a loaf of bread . . . and I turned him away.
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