“Reign of Christ Sunday”

(Matthew 25:31-46)

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.  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, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 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, 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.’  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?  And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?  And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?  And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’  Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I 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.’  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?’  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.’  And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”

Well, you’ve heard about sheep and goats and shepherds and kings.  All that comes from this famous reading from the Gospel of Matthew that is familiar to many of us.  The thing it says is that the Son of Man is going to separate people the way the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  So, if we stay with that verse only we are going to get hung up on the question of who are the sheep and who are the goats, right? 

Our usual way of looking at that text is to get wondering about that.  When we’re not sure who we are, we might get a little worried.  And I guess the flip side of that worry (and another common way of dealing with it) is to be quite sure that I’m a sheep, but I’m not so sure about the rest of you turkeys.  

But, really, I think we’re going down the wrong road when we do that because it puts all the emphasis on our own issues regarding how God views us.  Instead, this text is really all about our willingness and ability to help those who are in need.  It’s about behaving properly now whether or not we are being watched.  It’s choosing to do the right thing now because it’s the right thing, not because we’re afraid of what?  getting whacked. 

             No, this text is not so much about us as it is about the concern for all of God’s creatures, not just us Christians, not only this church family, not only our family at home.  Jesus really is redefining how we think about family.  He’s pushing out the limits of our capacity to love. 

Now, I want to take a minute to talk about this business of thinking we’re going to heaven because we behave well.  Sheep or goats?  Sheep or goats?  That thinking is just going to backfire on us.  It really is.  First of all, none of us will ever measure up to what we think the standards are.  We are going to make mistakes—little ones a lot and big ones now and again.  It’s inevitable.  If we’re honest with each other, we ALL have stories about our biggest mess-ups.  Preachers make them too.  We run our mouths when our brains are not attached.  We are reactive when reflection is what is needed.  And then sometimes we even try to defend our bad behavior. 

I know that you do all that stuff too.  And people get hurt when we misbehave, whether it’s purposeful or on accident. 

The thing is, we know that the gift of residing with God for eternity is not about good behavior, though we all get involved in thinking that way sometimes.  We’re going to spend eternal life with God because we belong to God, because we are forgiven—because our God is loving, merciful and gracious.  Jesus is in our hearts because we need a Savior, not because we can possibly obey all the religious rules and follow all the laws.  The thing is, God is in charge of all this, not us nor is any of it about the rules and regulations.  And that includes the rules and regulations that have grown up around how we think about Jesus.

…So, now let’s look again at how Jesus wants us to treat all God’s children.  The king says, “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.  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. 

There were those who had lived their lives in a righteous way, helping folks, responding to needs, not because they thought there was some reward for it, but simply because it was the loving and right thing to do.  They said, “When did we see you hungry or thirsty or in prison?  The king answers, “When you have done it for the most needy members of my family, you’ve done it for me.”

This “doing the right thing” as an unself-conscious mode of action is precisely what Jesus is calling us toward.  This is the opposite of being calculating, being transactional like this: “If I do this amount of good or say these particular words, that should get me to heaven, provided God is paying attention at the right times.”  The unself-conscious way is not even a method or a program.  It is simply us making ourselves available to those around us.  It’s us responding to the needs of God’s children without judgement.  It is us living lives grounded in love.  It is us being clueless—in a good way.  “When did we see you hungry or imprisoned or sick?”  We were just doing the right thing, the natural thing of taking care of our brothers and sisters, looking after people who are in need. 

…Wouldn’t it be something if we could be that unaware of how we’re perceived and whether we’re getting points for the good that we do?

Or it could be that we are aware of what we’re doing, but others’ opinions don’t affect us.  We do it because we love to show care and compassion for others.  We don’t see good works as ways to redeem ourselves or qualify us or anything of the kind.  It’s simply what we are called to do.  What a wonderful world this would be if that were so, eh?

Imagine a world in which we did the right thing without exception.  Now, I have an older brother who smokes constantly.  When he gets sick it does occur to me that he has brought it on himself, but I get over that and try to bring my best self to be present with him, to take care of our relationship.

We, and I mean all of us, have to watch it with this blaming and judgement.  When someone says, “I am hungry,” be careful that we don’t say, “Yeah because you were lazy.”  Or when someone says, “I was thirsty,” we gotta be careful that we don’t say, “Yeah, because you don’t work hard enough to take care of yourself and your family.”  Jesus tells us that he is in each of these folks.  Here’s the takeaway from today’s story.  Since Jesus is the Word made flesh there is no flesh that we can ever despise…. 

I pulled a book off the shelf a while back wherein the author has taken quotes from speeches and writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., and reflected on them briefly.  One that speaks to today’s message is entitled, “Healing the Community of Faith.”  Here is the quote from King.

The church is called to be a community of forgiveness, healing and service to the world.  But what it seeks to be for the world must be true of its own inner life.  Hence, the church itself must be continually converted and transformed.

When we in the church forget our primary mission, we have made ourselves meaningless and invisible in the world.  On the other hand, when we cry out, “Lord, heal us so that we may become a blessing to others,” we are preparing ourselves for the work of loving others. 

Such a community of faith will be a people of worship, a people of fellowship, a people of nurture and care, and a people that seeks to be in service to the world.  It’s who we are.  God’s blessing to us in forgiving and loving allows us to respond with gratitude. 

Though the day of Thanksgiving has recently past, we have a moment today to reflect before the season of Advent begins.  Let’s keep the intention to live in God’s great love for us by unself-consciously looking after those in need. 

When that is how we structure our lives we needn’t worry, then, about whether we have done the right thing when the king says to those on his right hand, “Come, you who are blessed by the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” …because we will have been living a life of love and compassion. May it be so.  Amen.  

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