Ezekiel 34:11-24
For thus says the Holy One, our God: I myself will search for my sheep,
and will seek them out. 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. 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. 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. I myself will be
the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says God. 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.
As for you, my flock, thus says the Holy One: I shall judge between
sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: Is it not enough for you to feed on
the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your
pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet?
And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you
have fouled with your feet? Therefore, thus says God to them: I myself will
judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank
and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you
scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be
ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will set up over them one
shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be
their shepherd. And I, the Holy One, will be their God, and my servant David
shall be ruler among them; I, the Holy One, have spoken.
Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Human One comes in 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 Ruler will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you
that are blessed by Abba-God, inherit the realm 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, ‘Teacher, 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 Ruler 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, ‘Sir, 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.”
Please pray with me. Holy One, open our
hearts to your grace. Give me your words to speak so that our spirits and minds
are moved by your truth and love. In the name of your child, our saviour and
friend, Jesus the Christ, amen.
When I was about five years old, my
family lived in an L-shaped house—a long ranch style house with the living room
and bedrooms that was the upright part of the L, and a garage, joined to the
rest of the house by a breezeway, or closed porch, that was the short part of
the L. Inside that L was a patio, partially paved, where we had a sandbox and a
swing set and my mother had a garden. One very hot summer afternoon we set up a
wading pool and filled it with water. Two of my older sisters, me, and my
younger sister took turns jumping into the water. Over and over we jumped into
the pool, splashing water everywhere. I got the bright idea of running and
jumping into the pool, and stood by the back door to the breezeway, giving
myself plenty of room for a run. “Geronimo!” I shouted, and flung my arms back,
ready to run. Crash! My arm broke
through the glass on the door, and gashed my arm deeply. Blood was everywhere.
My younger sister—all of three at the time—stood and stared. One of my older
sisters ran, screaming. The other one, cooler under fire, grabbed a towel and
wrapped it around my arm, calling for my mother. My mother, after one glance at
the carnage, called a neighbour, Mrs. Barber, to ask for a ride to the doctor,
since my oldest sister had the family car. Now, Mrs. Barber’s daughter had
recently been in a terrible car crash, and Lori needed someone with her on a
regular basis. But when my mother called her, Mrs. Barber came, without
hesitation. She drove us to the doctor and waited to find out if the doctor
would stitch me up or send me to the hospital, so she could take us to the
hospital if that were the doctor’s verdict. She didn’t refuse at the sight of the
blood; she didn’t plead her daughter’s need of her; she didn’t even ask us to
put a towel on the seat. She simply drove us to the doctor’s office.
When Jesus says, “When you did it to the
least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it to me,” that is what he
means. That free giving to the person who needs whatever it is you have to
give. We had a desperate need of the doctor and no way to get to him; she had a
car. She drove us to the doctor’s office and waited to see if we needed to go
anywhere else. We needed a car, Mrs. Barber had a car, and she gave it to us.
Not literally—she didn’t just hand over the keys. She knew that Mom was in no
condition to drive, and besides, Mom had to calm me down. She couldn’t do that
and drive, too. Mrs. Barber gave us what we needed, not because she owed us
anything, or because we offered to pay her—although I think my parents took her
and Mr. Barber out to dinner a few weeks later—or because she was counting up
her brownie points towards heaven. Mrs. Barber helped us because we needed help
and she could give it.
This passage from Matthew is difficult
for many people, because it portrays Jesus as a judge who decides who will have
everlasting life, and who will not. It’s hard to think of Jesus, who loves all
God’s children, as a stern judge. But who better? Jesus is the child of God; he
is human and divine. Jesus knows what it is to be human; at the same time, he
is God. And so we know that Jesus is not arbitrary or without understanding of
human failings. But—there’s always that, isn’t there? The fundamental
requirement is still there. Earlier in Matthew, Jesus says we are to love one
another as we love ourselves. Well, this is how we show it—this is how we
demonstrate our love. We can’t just talk the talk—we can’t just say we love
others—we have to walk the walk; we have to show that we love others by our
actions towards them.
You know, I could say I love my neighbours, I
love everyone—but if I don’t help people, if I don’t show that love, then how
can anyone know that I really do love my neighbours? It’s easy enough to say
that I do, but to show it, to live it—that’s a bit harder. Jesus as ruler is
judging us on our behaviour not because God doesn’t know what’s in our hearts
and has to go by what we do. God knows us intimately, and God knows what is in
our hearts. But that’s not enough, to simply have that intention or that
thought, or belief. We have to act it out, make it real and tangible, in this
world, not hidden away in our hearts. What’s the Rogers and Hammerstein song
say—“love’s not love until you give it away?” Our love has to be visible in
order for others to see it, know it, benefit from it. If I’m hungry, don’t tell
me how much you love me—give me a meal. If you want to set an example, you
don’t just lecture—you do. It doesn’t do
any good to tell people to “do as I say, not as I do.”
Another thing about making our love
visible: we have to do things simply out of love, not because we expect
anything back, not even the satisfaction of having helped someone. Anyone who
has worked with the public, or in social services work can tell you that even
when you have helped others, it is not always appreciated or even recognized.
We do things out of love for love, not for anything at all in return, even our
love returned. Once we expect something in return, the relationship becomes an
economic one—“I give you a drink of water and you give me gratitude.” “I give
you a place to stay and you give me $100;” well, that’s a hotel. Or “I give you
a meal and you give me a morning’s work in the yard.” Those are trades. Love simply gives: “You’re
hungry; here’s a meal.” “You’re ill; let me bring you some soup.” When I was
going through chemotherapy, one of my friends called me on Friday afternoons to
find out what I wanted for dinner—and then brought it by. She didn’t want me to
pay her, she didn’t even expect me to sit and visit with her for a while—she simply dropped the food off,
without coming in, simply giving me what I needed, without any expectation of
return or an exchange.
Notice something else here—we’re not
expected to solve the person’s problem for them. We give them water to drink;
we don’t dig a new well for them. We comfort people who are sick; we aren’t
expected to heal them. My friend couldn’t ease the side effects of chemo, but
she could help me deal with them.
I
find this very comforting, because it means I don’t have to take on the world.
If I thought I had to take care of each person’s problems, help him or her
solve all the issues in their lives—well, I wouldn’t get very far, would I?
Elsewhere Jesus says that we will always have poor people with us. He didn’t
mean we should give up on the issues of poverty! He meant that poverty is not
our problem to solve; it is beyond our capabilities to eradicate it completely.
What we can do, what we are called to do is to make the sting less, ease the
burden on those who are poor. Now, that we can do.
Think about this. Jesus himself did
these things. He reached out, he comforted and fed and encouraged. He loved others,
and acted out that love in tangible ways, most powerfully and ultimately on the
cross. He did not expect anything back from anyone. He knew what he had been
called to do through love, and he did it.
And there is this too, my friends. We
all are called to something—each of us has gifts and talents to use in God’s
service. And those gifts may not be the obvious ones—the ones you use to make a
living or that you share every day in your family. While it is good to see the
retired high school teacher lead the youth group, it is, to me, even more
fulfilling to see him head up the altar guild or coordinate the care of the
memorial garden. But whatever it is, God has called you to—something. And when
we are called, we have no option, in the end, but to answer that call—because
that is only way we feel fulfilled. And so we respond to that call, and act,
and do.
Now, before anyone starts thinking
“Works righteousness” at me, let me say that the works alone are not the
answer, either. “Works righteousness” is the idea that all the good deeds we do
are marked down to our benefit in a sort of heavenly ledger or bank account. We
cannot earn our way into God’s realm by doing good deeds. We do these things
because we love God, because we love another. There’s a real question as to the
understanding of what Jesus says—are the sheep blessed because of what they do,
or do they do those things because they are blessed? Which came first? Or do
they feed each other?
We are saved by grace through faith, as
shown in our works, in what we do for others. It is because we have faith that
we do works—we do not do these works to gain faith (although works strengthens
faith), nor to earn grace. You cannot earn grace—it is freely given, before we
are even aware of our need for it. When we care for others, when we love our
neighbours as ourselves, it is because we first loved God, and then we could
love our neighbours and ourselves. We are blessed by what we do for the least
of these our sisters and brothers, and because we are blessed we do these
things for our sisters and brothers.
It goes without saying, I think, that
those who “butt with head and shoulder,” who push away the hungry sheep in
order to eat all the grass themselves—they are not doing the works of God, and
that is why Ezekiel reports God as saying that “I will save my flock and they
shall not be ravaged;” God will not allow God’s children to be destroyed.
Mrs. Barber loved my mother and me. She
drove us to the doctor because it was what we needed—not what was convenient
for her, but what we needed. She couldn’t stitch up my arm, but she could take
us to the doctor. Mrs. Barber reached out in love and did what she could, what
she saw that we needed.
Remember what Jesus did. Remember what
he says to Peter elsewhere: “Feed my sheep.” Remember that he told us to love
our neighbours as ourselves. Remember that when we feed or clothe or visit the
least of our brothers and sisters, we do it for Jesus. Jesus, the child of God,
who fed the hungry and strengthened the weak and loved every other child of
God.
Go thou, and do likewise, in all God’s names. Amen.
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