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Sermon for 23 November 2014

FIRST READING Ezekiel 34:11–16, 20–24

11 For thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them:
I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22 I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
PSALM Psalm 95:1–7a

1 Come, let us sing to the LORD; let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to the LORD with psalms. 3 For you, LORD, are a great God, and a great ruler above all gods. 4 In your hand are the caverns of the earth; the heights of the hills are also yours. 5 The sea is yours, for you made it, and your hands have molded the dry land. 6 Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 7 For the LORD is our God, and we are the people of God’s pasture and the sheep of God’s hand.

 

SECOND READING Ephesians 1:15–23

15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
GOSPEL Matthew 25:31–46

31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

SHEEP AND GOATS
Like it or not, judgment is a fact of life. That’s true whether we’re talking about the histories of nations or the events of our own personal life. If we break the law, for example, then society will judge us. If we live foolishly or immorally, if we drink too much or over indulge our appetites, engage in sexual promiscuity, live a lifestyle of constant stress, then our bodies will judge us. We simply cannot escape judgment in this life or in the next. Another thing we don’t like to talk about is hell.
TV show after TV show, movies and plays all paint pictures of heaven and what happens to people after death. Most have to do with “going into the light” or seeing the face of a loved one just before death, but for the most part the message portrayed in these visual works is that everyone goes to heaven in the end. Unless the movie is one of the horror genre, hell is rarely if ever mentioned and is reserved exclusively for the devil and those who commit heinous acts of violence against others. Often people will argue that God is way to loving to send anyone to hell so in the end, everyone goes to heaven. Needless to say these shows and theories are full of theological holes and ignore the very words of Jesus.
Like it or not, Jesus is clear in both His teaching and parables that there is a place, we call it heaven, where “The King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.” And like it or not, Jesus is also clear that there is a place, we call it hell, where those on the left will hear Jesus say, “depart from Me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” But again, the latter is something we don’t want to acknowledge, because it sends a shockwave of fear through us; and it should.
The thought of someone, anyone let alone God Himself rendering an unfavorable judgment is something we don’t want to deal with. But whether or not we want to deal with the subject, these are the facts; heaven and hell are real and a final judgment before God is something we must all face. And in today’s gospel reading we have an example of what I’m talking about.
Jesus may have only spoke occasionally about the final judgment, of heaven and hell, but on this one occasion, He paints a picture, a pretty clear picture, that a final judgment will indeed take place. In our Matthew reading we find Jesus continuing His Olivet discourse with a parable that gives a strong jolt to those who would want to deny judgment and reject the notion of a place of punishment, except for satan and his minions and those who commit horrible acts against others. To those who want to deny God’s final judgment and hell, today’s reading comes as a shock.
How many remember the TV show Andy Griffith? It was an enjoyable show to watch, and one of my favorite actors on the show was Jim Nabors, who played the character of Gomer Pyle. Gomer Pyle was an interesting individual who was so popular they gave him his own TV series, Gomer Pyle USMC. Gomer was a wonderfully naive and funny character that seemed to be a cross between the innocence of Forrest Gump, and the folksiness of Andy Griffith. Probably his most famous line in both the shows was, “Surprise, surprise, surprise”! You can almost here Gomer using this line to announce our gospel lesson today since those at Christ’s right and left hands, were both surprised at the statement He makes.
In Jesus’ continued effort to answer the disciples’ question about the last days, Jesus tells the story about how a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. And in this story we hear that on the last day there will be a great division; our final judgment will occur. According to our Lord and King, those on His right hand will be allowed entrance into the kingdom, while those on the left will be denied it. The great surprise comes when our notion of who’s in and who’s out is greatly challenged. The line isn’t as clear as we might have thought.
In this parable we hear that it’s those who thought they were religious, who turn out to be not as good as they thought, and those who thought they failed were told they did a better job than they supposed. The problem we must face is that on the Day of Judgment, there will be a lot of people, “good people”, people who attend church, people who never really did anything bad to speak of, who will find themselves among the crowd on the left. This is a very unsettling notion and it’s understandable why we would want to ignore and sweep this teaching under the rug. But ignoring the facts won’t change them. A better use of our time is to see what Jesus is teaching here and then apply the lesson to our lives.
In an effort to understand what Jesus is teaching, I’d like to suggest three key points that this parable is attempting to make. First, the parable suggests that we’re to view each individual as though he or she was Christ himself. “Lord, when did we feed you, clothe you, or visit you in prison?” was the question that was asked. To this Jesus responds; when you did it unto the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.” There’s an old children’s story, one that perhaps most of you have heard.
The Knight’s aide advised the mayor of a small village that his majesty was going to be making a visit to their humble little village. With great fanfare the mayor began to make the appropriate arrangements. On the day of the arrival the mayor, dressed in his finery, waited in joyful anticipation. The hours slowly ticked away but no one ventured into the village. No one, that is, except a lonely lame beggar who asked the mayor for a drink to quince his thirst. Irritatingly he brushed him aside. He had no time for dredges such as this, for he was waiting for the King. Yet, at the end of the day the mayor stood alone; the King had never arrived. Furiously he wrote the King’s aide asking what had gone wrong, only to be told that the King had indeed passed through his village that day. The aide said, “He was traveling incognito.” He had come in the disguise of a lonely lame beggar. Who is Christ? Christ is the one who comes to us when we least expect it.
There will be those who say, “But master if we had only known that it was you, we would have responded.” This is precisely the point. If the Bethlehem innkeeper had known that Mary was carrying within her womb the long awaited Messiah, no doubt he would have made room for them on that fateful night. If the Sanhedrin had known that it was God they were arresting on that fateful night, in the Garden of Gethsemane, no doubt they would have followed Him. Our goodness must be uncalculating; it must become as natural as saying hello to someone we know in the supermarket. If we do an act of kindness simply because we think that it will assist us in gaining entrance into heaven, then our motivation was not love but selfishness.
Second, Jesus’ parable suggests that in the end the criteria by which we shall all be judged will be simple acts of kindness. In the story our Lord and King allows entrance into His kingdom not by affiliation with any particular religious group, or fame, or fortune, or credential that might be listed in an obituary. No, the final judgment is based upon how kind an individual was: feeding those who were hungry, showing concern for those in prison, taking care of those who didn’t have sufficient clothing. Who would ever have thought that such simple acts would carry so much weight on the final day?
Who would ever believe that a person would be judged for what we view as slight oversights? When we think of divine judgment we think of a few life-making decisions, but according to this story, judgment comes every single day in the little commonplace things that we do or we do not do. Piety, orthodoxy, sound theologies don’t count for everything. Jesus is saying that the main business that we’re in is the business of kindness, and it’s this criterion by which God will view our life. In another parable, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made it clear how we’re to treat others and who was our neighbor. The two who crossed the road refusing to assist were excluded, the one who helped was the one praised. These teaching make it pretty clear that to ignore the law of kindness means we will perish.
How many here remember the movie Sound of Music. At the beginning we find Baron Van Trapp ruling his household with an iron fist. Every time he blows a shrill whistle the children come marching out of their bedrooms like well-seasoned troops. He then turns to Maria, the new governess, and curtly informs her that her signal on the whistle will indicate thus and such. She very quickly informs him that she does not answer to whistles. She introduces a new mood and slowly the children begin to respond to her and the house is transformed from a military barracks into a home. Of course, you can’t miss the point. It’s kindness that has won the day. But we must recognize that there is a drawback in kindness.
Kindness means nurturing and nurturing takes time. Blowing a whistle will get you a more immediate result. But in the end shouting and ultimatums will never win the day. The Apostle Paul admonished the church at Ephesus: “Stop being mean, bad tempered and angry. Instead, be kind to one another, even as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ Jesus.”
Third, this parable suggests that in the end we will be judged not on the bad that we do, but the good that we don’t do. Those on the left hand of the King were denied entrance into the Kingdom. Why? Because He said, I was thirsty and you gave me no water, I was in prison and you never came to see me, I was without clothes and you never gave me any. We think of divine judgment as opposite of this. We think that the thing that will get us into heaven is by refraining from certain sins. Conversely we think sin will send us to hell. A religious person is one who doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, doesn’t curse. The problem is, that misses the point.
There are many in church who are fine, decent respectable people who aren’t doing anything for Christ. Just last week we heard Jesus’ story about a man who took his master’s investment and buried it in the ground. Technically, by the world’s standards, he did nothing wrong. He didn’t steal his master’s money, he didn’t squander it away on luxury items to make his life better, he didn’t embezzle a single denarius. As a matter of fact he kept it safe. So why did Jesus condemn him? Not because of misuse, but because he did nothing with it. Those on the left side were kept out of the Kingdom of God, not because of what they did, but because of what they failed to do. In Confessional terms, it wasn’t for sins of commission, but for sins of omission.
How many honestly stop each week and consider our confession. “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in our thoughts, words and deeds by what we have done, (sins of commission), and by the things we have left undone, (sins of omission). We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Have mercy on us.” Those on the right lived a renewed life in Christ so that their charitable actions toward others was a part of their life, they didn’t even think about it, while those on the left were focused only on themselves; they failed to even see those in need.
I like the story behind a man named Henry Dunant. He was born to wealthy parents in Switzerland in 1828. A deeply compassionate man, he devoted considerable time assisting and encouraging young people, especially the poor. At about eighteen years of age, he founded a Young Men’s Christian Union.
In 1859, at the age of 30, Dunant was traveling in northern Italy. He had only one object in view and that was to get the support of the Emperor of France for a business project in Algeria. But the Emperor, Napoleon III, was busy driving the Austrians out of Northern Italy. Arriving on the day of the Battle of Solferino, Dunant couldn’t believe what he saw. That day the French victory over the Austrians left 40,000 dead, dying and wounded scattered over a bloody terrain for the vermin and vultures to consume. Dunant never saw the Emperor, but what he did see changed him and the world forever.
Dunant joined in the work of relief, sent his horse drawn coach to bring supplies, and wrote to his friends in Switzerland for aid. He labored for three days at this horrible task. Then he returned home and he began writing. He made an appeal against the terrifying inhumanity he had witnessed. He hoped he could influence people to prevent or to reduce the suffering of soldiers. The result of his writings was a book: A Memory of Solferino (Un Souvenir de Solferino), printed in Geneva in October 1862. This famous book, mailed by the author to influential people throughout Europe, excited them beyond all expectation.
In the last chapter of his book he made some proposals on make-shift hospitals, trained volunteers, and the necessity for international cooperation. Finally, five years later, at the Geneva Convention of 1864, sixteen nations signed accords-modeled on Dunant’s proposals, acknowledging the neutrality of medical personnel in times of hostility. For their banner and symbol they chose a white flag with a red cross. And so the Red Cross was born!
The gospel lessons for the past three weeks are a challenge for us. Jesus’ teaching strip away the notions we like to hold of judgment, heaven, hell, of who’s in and who’s out. The five virgins who failed to prepare for the Bridegroom’s delay weren’t bad people, they simply failed to prepare. The slave who chose to bury his master’s investment didn’t commit a crime, yet he was thrown into outer darkness for what he didn’t do. And in our lesson for today, it wasn’t an act of aggression that surprised the goats on the left, but the sins of omission. The message for us today is that we need to stop looking at God’s actions through the lens of the world. We need to live our lives in a manner worthy of our calling.
We need to ask God to renew our lives so that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can, without even thinking about it, look upon each person as though he or she was Christ. Our lesson for today is clear; kindness is one of the criteria by which we will be judged. For the average person, it isn’t the bad that we do that will keep us out of heaven (through God’s divine mercy, we’ve been forgiven for our sins of commission); rather, it’s the good that we did or fail to do that that will make us a sheep or a goat.
Amen.

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