31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 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. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “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. 35 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, 36 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.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “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. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 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.’
44 “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?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Click through for thoughts on this description of Christ's ultimate reign...
On Sunday we talked about most people hearing this story and jumping right to the sheep and goats part, trying to figure out which they are and which their neighbors will be. Ironically we spend all our time worrying about the part of the Gospel we don't control, as the sheep-goat thing involves God's decisions, not ours. True to form, though, we're not content with that. We want to play God by deciding which is which before the time has come.
In doing so we tend to ignore the part of the text that is in our control. Jesus says sheep are sheep because they feed the hungry, offer water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, invite in the stranger, visit and comfort the downtrodden. He also knows the goats because they fail to do these things. He makes an astonishing claim: that all of those sick, lonely, hungry and thirsty people are actually him! When we do a kindness to the least of God's children, God accounts it as something done directly to and for himself.
Faith becomes pretty simple, then. Take care of the details of the day: service, love, forgiveness, reaching out to people in need. Do that each day and you need never worry about tomorrow. But if you spend all your time worrying about other things (even if it's your own salvation) you will neither be fulfilling your purpose nor making God happy. Even good things aren't good anymore when we view them solely for the benefit of the self.
Everybody wants to be a good person in the abstract, just like everybody wants to write a novel or be a successful boss at their company. Some people actually do the little things that make their life good and giving while other people are content with just the wanting, just like some people actually write that novel or learn enough to become a great boss. The difference between intention and reality, the theoretical and the actual, can be vast. If you want to be good at something you have to practice and work at it. This is true with fulfilling God's will as well.
The specific thing that Jesus asks us to be good at is identifying the people who are least advantaged, least regarded, even least liked in our lives and tending to them. (Ironically, these are the people we were most likely to label "goats" initially.) That's a skill to practice. It's not easy to do either! Normally we think about pleasing and serving the people who will give us the most credit or advantage. Pleasing and serving people who have little to offer but thanks takes a whole different mindset.
We're not just talking about homeless folks and the like here either. (Though they would certainly be included in Jesus' mandate.) In every situation--including those you'll find in a church--you're going to find some people who are advantaged and disadvantaged. Our job isn't to preserve the status quo by catering to the people who already have power. It's to find the people who have been left out, marginalized, and give them the same respect and heed and power as the most respected among us. This is why it's valuable sometimes to sing a hymn that only one person is enthusiastic about or to say "YES!" to things we haven't thought of before. Some of the most godly things in our midst are also things we've pushed to the side. That holds true of people too.
I've told the story a couple times of my interview for a youth ministry position back in the day. The folks in charge of the interview invited me to a youth event they were running. Amid the forest of smiling, laughing kids eating pizza I saw one young man sitting by himself. I grabbed my plate and sat down by him, saying hello. The room froze. He was the one guy there with learning disabilities, a fact I hadn't noticed before I sat. He couldn't really talk much. All he could do was clumsily eat his pizza and make noises. But what could I do? If I hopped right back up again I'd seem crass and cruel. So I sat and ate with him. You could almost feel the waves of embarrassment (for me) washing across the room. I had picked that kid. From a social standpoint it was an epic fail. From an interview standpoint too. Who was going to ask him what he thought of me and whether I should be hired? In the end we didn't really have that much of a conversation and I didn't get the job either (for many reasons besides that probably). But looking back, even young and untrained as I was, I probably did the right thing from a theological perspective even if it wasn't the right thing for the interview. Everybody else sat with friends that night and had a great time. I sat with Christ. And I'd do it again, even forewarned knowing the situation. We all should.
Christ is the King first and foremost of the people that everybody else leaves out: the prostitutes, the sinners, the broken and battered, the poor and hungry, the sick and crippled...everyone who doesn't get a fair chance from anyone else. As his emissaries we are tasked with showing his Kingdom among all people, even the ones we're not used to or comfortable with. Our duty runs deep but the reward even deeper. Where others only encounter God in places and people of their own choosing, we get to see him everywhere in everyone. Where others serve him in particular times and places and stand powerless when outside of their comfort zone we find our greatest power precisely in those moments where we are farthest beyond our norm. When others would remove God from common moments, keeping him holy and trapped in a building, we get to express him through shared sandwiches, conversations over tea on a couch, moments of sympathy and remembrance, games played with children, and a thousand other ways that affirm the life and importance of our neighbors. Most importantly of all, while others have to wait for a moment of ultimate decision to see God's Kingdom we get to experience it now every time we reach out to our neighbor in compassion and create more love in the world.
What reward--eternal or temporal--could be better than that? And it all happens every time we return to God's Word and remember our duties today: love, serve, share, and in his name embrace everyone he sends us. As far as job descriptions go, that's a pretty nice one to have. Enjoy doing so this week!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
We're not just talking about homeless folks and the like here either. (Though they would certainly be included in Jesus' mandate.) In every situation--including those you'll find in a church--you're going to find some people who are advantaged and disadvantaged. Our job isn't to preserve the status quo by catering to the people who already have power. It's to find the people who have been left out, marginalized, and give them the same respect and heed and power as the most respected among us. This is why it's valuable sometimes to sing a hymn that only one person is enthusiastic about or to say "YES!" to things we haven't thought of before. Some of the most godly things in our midst are also things we've pushed to the side. That holds true of people too.
I've told the story a couple times of my interview for a youth ministry position back in the day. The folks in charge of the interview invited me to a youth event they were running. Amid the forest of smiling, laughing kids eating pizza I saw one young man sitting by himself. I grabbed my plate and sat down by him, saying hello. The room froze. He was the one guy there with learning disabilities, a fact I hadn't noticed before I sat. He couldn't really talk much. All he could do was clumsily eat his pizza and make noises. But what could I do? If I hopped right back up again I'd seem crass and cruel. So I sat and ate with him. You could almost feel the waves of embarrassment (for me) washing across the room. I had picked that kid. From a social standpoint it was an epic fail. From an interview standpoint too. Who was going to ask him what he thought of me and whether I should be hired? In the end we didn't really have that much of a conversation and I didn't get the job either (for many reasons besides that probably). But looking back, even young and untrained as I was, I probably did the right thing from a theological perspective even if it wasn't the right thing for the interview. Everybody else sat with friends that night and had a great time. I sat with Christ. And I'd do it again, even forewarned knowing the situation. We all should.
Christ is the King first and foremost of the people that everybody else leaves out: the prostitutes, the sinners, the broken and battered, the poor and hungry, the sick and crippled...everyone who doesn't get a fair chance from anyone else. As his emissaries we are tasked with showing his Kingdom among all people, even the ones we're not used to or comfortable with. Our duty runs deep but the reward even deeper. Where others only encounter God in places and people of their own choosing, we get to see him everywhere in everyone. Where others serve him in particular times and places and stand powerless when outside of their comfort zone we find our greatest power precisely in those moments where we are farthest beyond our norm. When others would remove God from common moments, keeping him holy and trapped in a building, we get to express him through shared sandwiches, conversations over tea on a couch, moments of sympathy and remembrance, games played with children, and a thousand other ways that affirm the life and importance of our neighbors. Most importantly of all, while others have to wait for a moment of ultimate decision to see God's Kingdom we get to experience it now every time we reach out to our neighbor in compassion and create more love in the world.
What reward--eternal or temporal--could be better than that? And it all happens every time we return to God's Word and remember our duties today: love, serve, share, and in his name embrace everyone he sends us. As far as job descriptions go, that's a pretty nice one to have. Enjoy doing so this week!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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