Debbie Cato
Isaiah
58:6-12 and
Matthew 25:31-46 (The Message)
Normandy
Park UCC
November 26,
2017
Lord,
open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the
scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you
say to us this day. Silence in us any voice but your
own, that, hearing, we may be obedient to your will. Help us to live always for your glory,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
The Right and The Left
This is a powerful
passage. The story of the sheep and the goats. Those sorted on the right and the left. The Last Judgment as it’s titled. It is especially important because in Matthew’s Gospel, it is the final story in Jesus’ public teaching
ministry. It makes sense that the last
thing Jesus would say would be something that he would want us to remember;
something important – something with eternal consequences.
After this private teaching
to his disciples, a lot happens very quickly.
They go on to Bethany, where Jesus is anointed with perfume. He shares the Passover with His disciples. He
is betrayed by Judas. Jesus is arrested, beaten and mocked. He is crucified. Jesus dies hanging on a
cross. And then, three days later, Jesus
rises from the tomb. He is resurrected
from the dead.
And then, in Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus meets up with his eleven remaining disciples and hands them their
life’s assignment. Jesus says: “Go out into the world
& proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
And; if we
call ourselves disciples of Christ, this is our life assignment as well:
Go out
into the world and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven.
I think this powerful
passage that we read this morning is actually a reminder to us of what our life
mission is and how Jesus feels about his followers taking the assignment
seriously. It is another picture of what
the Kingdom of Heaven looks like. And
since this is the final teaching in Jesus’ public ministry, Matthew wants
imprinted on our conscience, a question that we won’t easily forget. Are we sheep?
Or are we goats? In the end, will
you be on the right or on the left?
This is not a new
teaching Jesus saved for the end of his ministry! Jesus gives us a glimpse of this new kingdom
at the very beginning of his ministry when he stands in the synagogue in
Nazareth, opens the scroll and says:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because God has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
because God has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
“Today,[Jesus
says,] this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Matthew’s thesis in his
gospel is that Jesus is all about heralding in a new kingdom; the Kingdom of
Heaven or the Kingdom of God. A kingdom
that is “upside down” from the world as we know it. A kingdom full of good news for the
poor. A kingdom where the oppressed are
freed, the blind are healed. A kingdom
where humility and service are valued. A
kingdom where there is a new kind of justice.
Where the weak are strong. A Kingdom
where the least are first. A kingdom
where physical, spiritual, emotional, & mental healing are the norm.
This is radical
stuff! What we would call, liberal
thinking today! But it’s not just Jesus’
words that are radical. Something about
His person is distinctive.
People swarm to hear
him teach; to be near him; to just touch a corner of his clothing. He radiates love and compassion! He heals the sick; He touches the
untouchables; He eats with sinners; He spends time with children; He talks with
women. Jesus feeds the hungry; He values
the “worthless”. Jesus hangs out with
people that normally nobody wants to hang out with! Ordinary, everyday people like you and
me.
When asked what the
greatest commandment is, Jesus says, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind …..
AND love your neighbor as yourself.” You see, Jesus knows that we can’t really love
God if we don’t love one another.
Jesus doesn’t focus on
the rules; on the letter of the law. He
cares more about the heart. He teaches about
love and justice and this “Kingdom of Heaven” thing. In fact, Jesus’ teachings are so radical that
he upsets the religious leaders. Jesus
turns the world upside down!
Jesus spends 3 years
teaching his disciples and the thousands of people who cross his path, how to
love and treat one another. For 3 years,
Jesus teaches what the Kingdom of Heaven is about – this upside-down place that
will come about by loving one another in the same way that God loves us. So, it really shouldn’t shock us that Jesus
says that the final judgment will be about separating the sheep from the
goats. And now when He knows His
ministry is coming to an end, He says:
“When he finally
arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son
of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations
will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd
sorts out sheep and
goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
“Then the King
will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by God! Take what’s
coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s
foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
Do
you hear it? Do you hear what Jesus is
saying? Have you loved the hungry? Have you loved the stranger? Have you cared for the poor? You see, the Kingdom of God is the goal of history. It’s the goal here on
earth! It is Christ’s goal, and so it must be the goal of every one of us who
calls ourselves a follower of Christ.
White Lake, North Dakota is a small, sheltered community. One Sunday morning late in November, members
arriving for worship were met by a disturbing sight. A homeless man sat on the front steps of their
church, wearing tattered clothing, a wool cap pulled down over his eyes, clutching
a bottle in finger-less gloves. They had never seen anyone like this in White
Lake. Not in White Lake.
Most worshipers simply walked around the man or carefully stepped
over him, as he sat there shivering.
Some muttered words of disapproval, and others suggested that he move to
another doorway before the Sunday school children arrived and saw him. One member told the man in no uncertain
terms, that the church was no place for someone like him. At one point, a kind woman brought the man a
Styrofoam cup of hot coffee, but not one person asked the man to come in out of
the cold, and nobody invited him to join them in worship.
Imagine, then, the people’s surprise during the entrance hymn,
when their homeless friend made his way into the church, staggered down the
aisle, and made his way to the front pew.
Just as someone stood up to physically remove him, the man took off his
dirty, old coat and cap. It was then
that the congregation recognized that this man was actually their pastor!
The pastor stood in the pulpit and began his remarks that
morning by saying, “I did not
do this to embarrass you or to poke you in the eye. I did it to remind all of us that this
homeless man is a person that Jesus loves, and Jesus calls us
to love him, too.”[1]
It’s easy to hear this and think to ourselves that we would
have responded differently. But would
we? How often do you drive past the
person holding a sign by the grocery store, saying that her children are hungry? Or the person sitting outside Starbucks, cold
and hungry?
How often do you call your aging parent who lives across the
country? Or visit them in assisted
living? Or call the friend with
cancer? Or the one recently widowed? We get busy and the weeks fly by, don’t they?
Do you speak up when someone is being harassed? Bullied?
Treated unfairly? Do you think
about what scripture teaches when you vote?
Do you wonder how policies will affect the “less thans”?
This passage warns us that Jesus will recognize the sheep and
the goats by the way we live our lives and Jesus cares more about the heart
than he does about the rules.
Wherever
there is a social injustice – and there are plenty! - Jesus calls on us to reach out and help. To be
radical. To speak up. turning things upside down; To be the correction
that needs to happen. Today’s passage teaches us that helping someone who is
hurting; helping someone in need; caring about those that God himself cares
about; is the same as helping Jesus himself.
We
live in a hurt and broken world. People
are suffering in many ways – all around us and all over the world. We don’t have to look far to see that. There is need everywhere. It can be overwhelming. Hopeless.
There is a story; perhaps you’ve heard it before. There was a young girl who was walking along a beach where
thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came
to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean.
People watched her with amusement.
She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her
and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t
save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another
starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up
at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”[2]
I think this Scripture calls us individually, and as God’s
Church, to have compassion and love at the very core of our being; to naturally
care about those who are hurting; those who go without. I think this Scripture calls us to see every
person as a person made in the image of God – a person that Christ loves. I think this Scripture calls us to serve and
to care and to love because God loves. It tells us that the way we live our
life matters to God.
Will Jesus tell you to go right or go left? Will I be a sheep or a goat? I guess I’ll find out. Until then, I’m going to keep picking up one
starfish at a time and throwing it back into the water. What about you? Amen.
