Matthew 25:31-46

The Sermon for the Valley Ridge District Conference November 9, 2024

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I lived within a certain set of assumptions, ones that were rarely, if ever questioned, explored, or critiqued. They just were. These assumptions were taught to me in school and reinforced at home, or taught to me at home and reinforced at school, and the children and youth of my generation were expected to consistently abide by them. These assumptions included things such as being told at the dinner table that when I said I was full, I must at least finish the meat on my plate. When I competed in little league baseball and was standing in the batter’s box, a pitch was a strike if umpire said so, regardless of how obviously low and outside it was.

Perhaps the most unquestionable assumption of my childhood, one that no matter where I found myself, at school or at home or anywhere else, was that it was always dangerous to swim less than an hour after eating. If you did this, I was told, you were guaranteed to drown. I am the descendant on both sides of my family of more Chesapeake Bay watermen than I can count, and I assure you that you do not have a childhood infused with this kind of influence without hearing terrifying stories of people drowning, which made all of this worse. 

When I was a child, my family were members of a local pool and during my elementary school summers, before I was afforded the privilege to ride my bike to go swimming, my mother would pack lunches and accompany my brother and me for a day at the pool. On those days, this was the kind of conversation that would occur after we had eaten our sandwiches:

“Now boys, I want you to go sit those chairs until I tell you to get in the pool.”

“It’s hot. Why can’t we swim now?”

“You just ate. You need to wait an hour before you go swimming.”

“Why?”

“Because you will drown.”

“But if that is true, why does the pool have a snack bar?”

“Go sit in your chair. I will let you know when it is 1:30.”

As an aside, I once went on a cruise and saw people eating and swimming at the same time. Do with that data point what you will.

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