by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
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Jesus said, “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 that 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 who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 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; 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.”
—Matthew 25:31-36 (NRSV)
This is Christ the King Sunday, a name I bet Jesus would just loathe since he said he came to serve not be served, but that’s a sermon for another day. However, since it is Christ the King Sunday, I want to share a little humor before we begin.
The Kings Servant was walking towards the castle, when he saw a man lying on the side of the path. The servant asked if the man was ok, and he replied.
“Oh, hi, I'm Will. Nice to meet you! Would you like to buy me?
“What, you mean like a servant?” said the King's servant.
“No, just to have me around”
The servant was lonely, as he had to work day and night for the king, which he hated. He wanted to have a friend for once. But he had no money.
“Sorry man, but I'm very poor.”
To which Will replied, “You know what, you can have me for free.”
The servant thanked him and told him to follow him to the castle. As he entered, the King bellowed at the servant to give him a foot rub.
“No! I won’t do it”, the servant replied.
“I’m ordering you to!”, yelled the king.
“I don’t have to do what you tell me to now, ‘cause I have a free Will!”
Today’s gospel at first sight is a tough one and seems to commit a bunch of people to a very hard time in eternity and another group of people to a much better ending. But we should be aware it is a story about something that hasn’t happened yet. That gives us hope that something is going on we may not immediately see. In fact, maybe the story is another parable from Jesus as he tries to teach us an important lesson. I hope so. I’ll let you decide for yourselves.
Here is a quick paraphrase. Christ has returned and and everybody who has ever lived, or is currently living, is standing before him. That’s a pretty good-sized crowd. The purpose of the gathering according to the story is to separate the good folks from the bad, the sheep from the goats if you will. And so, Jesus directs the sheep to his right in the story and the goats to his left. Those on the right are righteous and those on his left are not.
What strikes me about the story is that everybody in both groups are confused about how they got to be a sheep or got to be a goat. Neither knows how it happened. Jesus replies that the decision was based on how they had treated him when he was in need. If they had treated him with compassion, they were sheep, and if they had treated him poorly, they were goats.
So, the big question gets automatically asked. “When did this happen? When did we treat you nicely or when did we treat you poorly?”
Jesus answers. Again, I paraphrase. “All people are members of my family. When you treated other people with compassion it was the same as treating me with compassion, and when you didn’t it was the same as treating me poorly.”
And so now we ask our own question. We understand Lord that we are to treat people with compassion as if they were you, but it seems hard to do consistently as we think about it. In the story you told some did treat others with compassion and some didn’t. They didn’t even know the importance of their actions it seems. So how can we avoid being goats and be sheep? How can we develop the compassion habit that you are obviously looking for?
One of my favorite movies is As Good as it Gets starring Jack Nicholson. In it he plays a writer who has all sorts of trouble being a human being. He appears to care only for himself in the most egocentric way possible. He has lots of money. His neighbor is a gay man having a rough life and Nicholson’s character couldn’t have cared less. In fact, he made fun of him constantly.
Anyway, Jack goes to the same restaurant for breakfast every day and apparently orders the same meal every time. Now Jack has all sorts of problems. He won’t step on a crack. He must always sit in the same booth. His breakfast must be identical every day and he insists on the same waitress each and every time.
The waitress is played by Helen Hunt and watching their relationship is the key to the storyline in the movie. Bottom line Jack is smitten with her but has no idea how to tell her or how to act when he is around her.
Helen has a child with some extreme problems. It is through that child that we begin to see that Jack underneath that unbelievably callous exterior indeed does have a heart as he provides the money and resources to do some special things for the child that will change the child’s life. But he is still Jack and demands a pay-back for what he has done. He wants Helen to go out with him and the truth is she is drawn to him in some very weird way. So, she agrees to go at the urging of her mother.
Several very funny and sometimes poignant scenes follow, but finally she has had enough of Jack’s crassness. He has crossed one too many boundaries and has been his nasty self, one too many times. She demands that he give her a compliment or she is going to walk out of his life forever, and what he says is the highlight of the movie.
“You make me want to be a better man.” Isn’t that great? Well naturally she is taken aback and forgives him.
How many people in your life have made you want to be a better person because you have had a relationship with them? Well I have a few. My grandmother comes to mind immediately as do my parents. I have had friends who have influenced me to be better and to do the right thing. Several of my teachers fall into that same influential place in my life.
And of course, Jesus Christ is the most important one. I cannot imagine the person I might be without my regular exposure to Jesus. It’s kind of scary to think about. But I do have that constant contact through church, my prayer life, the scriptures, Christian authors, and with like thinking people. Jesus rubs off on me. Exposure to him makes me a bit like Jack. I want to be a better man. I want to be one of the sheep.
So, our invitation today I think is to consider the impact Jesus has and can have in our daily lives. Are we spending enough time with him? Are we aware of the difference he makes? Are we a sheep more often than a goat? It’s interesting and worthwhile to think about and take an inventory. Spend some time with it. See what you find out.