Sheep and Goats

Ezekiel 34:11-17,20-24 and Matthew 25: 31-46

 Let us pray.  Creator and maker of us all – bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow in
us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth.  Amen.

I do not how many times we have heard the parable of the sheep and the goats – it is a well known story to many
of us.  It is a church favourite here in Hong Kong.  It is also one the passages in the Gospels that underlies what
theologians call “The Social Gospel.”

Every nation is gathered before the judge, before the throne of the Son of Man, before the King, and the King
separates them.  The right from the left, the sheep from the goats, and he judges them.  Only those on the right
hand side are save, and those on the left are condemned.

Most of us know this parable, and we know therefore the basis upon which the King makes His final judgement
about the various nations when they are gathered before Him.

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you took me
in..”

How well we know this story, and for some of us – those who measure things by how much they have done – it
serves as a warning – and for others, who also measure themselves by what they have done for others – it is a
comfort.

 Yet, despite all our knowledge of this parable, our being reassured that we know what it means, and that we
 know the God of whom the story tells us about, we may not have grasped the fullness of the story.

 I am going to ask you to think with me on the response of the sheep and of the goats who were standing before
 the King, and at the same time to consider with me the message that is found in the surprise that were expressed
by both the sheep and the goats.

 This parable is full of shocking, unexpected, dumbfounded surprises to everyone:

 -         surprise at the words and the judgements of the King

-         surprise that it is not our beliefts that are considered by the King, but our actions

-         surprise that it is not which denomination or how long we believe in Jesus that is being taken into
consideration but our compassion and our love.

Some theologians will tell us that this is because the judgement of the nations are just that, a judgement on those
people who are not joined to Christ, a judgement on those people who do not profess or follow Jesus, on those
who, as the Scriptures tells us, are judged by the law that is written in their hearts.

Others will say that the judgement of the King applies to all the people.  Whether you are a believer or unbeliever,
it makes no difference, that Jesus, in telling this story, makes no distinction between those who follow him and
those who do not.  For all people are expected by God to live by the law that is written in their hearts – that, as
 the Apostle James puts it in the second chapter of his letter to the church, “faith without works is dead”.

Whatever is the truth of the matter there is a judgement; and in that judgement, there is a great sense of surprise
in both those is the “sheep” and those who are the “goats”.

We, of course, might expect the goats to be dumbfounded at the words of the King.

They are supposed to be confused, shocked and surprised when they at last come fact to face with God, are
they not?  Their unbelief is meant to be condemned, is it not?  Their lack of compassion and of mercy for the l
east amongst us, is worthy of condemnation, is it not?

Yet, what makes the parable amazing is that the sheep were just as surprised.

The sheep, the righteous - those who have given the cup of cold water, who have visited those in prison, and
worked for many different causes in society for the poor and needy, and have given so much to charity, and taken
in refugees and strangers into their homes.  They were just as dumbfounded and shocked by the King’s judgement
as the unrighteous.

Both groups, both the sheep and the goats, asked the very same question of the King when he renders His
judgement.  Both groups asked, “Lord, when did we see you?”

Lord, when did we see you?  Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and
took care of you?

There was a time in my life when I thought that this surprise was a good thing – a very good thing that is for the
sheep.

I felt and believed that their surprise fit in well with the Biblical injunction, not to let your left hand know what
your hand is doing – especially when you are doing good.

I felt that the surprise of the sheep was good because it indicated to us that they were not simply doing nice things
to the people around them as a way of gaining credit from God; that it meant that their love and compassion for
other people was unstained by any selfish thoughts – unstained by the idea that they were somehow working
towards their salvation.

The words of surprise of the sheep seemed rather sweet to me: Lord, when did we see you?  When was it we
saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?

And so I let the more hidden message of the parable go by.

After reading and studying this passage once again, I have come to realize that the surprise of the sheep can be
seen in a different light, and I do not really know how to characterize what that light reveals, but I do know that it
makes me feel a little bit sad.

Why is it that the sheep, the righteous, were surprised?  Why is it that they did not see their Lord as they reached
out in acts of love and compassion?  What did they really miss?

What do we miss?

I think of the great joy I have had when I have been the recipient of other people’s kindness, the recipient of other
people’s love.

As a young man, during my first year in England, I joined a church over there.

I was not that well known to the people of the church.  I had just joined the congregation.  I was not involved in
much more than Sunday worship, and my skin colour is not even white.  But during my first Christmas there, I and
the people I shared the house that I was living in, were showered with boxes and boxes of food, and other good
things.

It was an incredible feeling to be so richly and unexpectedly blessed.  I felt cared for and understood, and I
praised God for those who had reached out to me.

Their act of kindness and others done by that particular congregation changed my life and helped to bring me
standing here in front of you today.

Alex Haley, the author of the story ‘Roots’ tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a similar act of
kindness.

He was the youngest of eight children, living in a farming family.  Everyone in the family was needed to help with
the crops.  After several years of schooling, the family will pressed each child to work on the farm.  Fortunately
for the boy, the mother intervened on behalf of this child, and he was allowed to stay on in school.

When he completed secondary school, he chose the Lane Institute for his university education, working as many
as four jobs in addition full-time studies.  It was all physically and emotionally tiring.

During the summer holidays he worked as a porter on a train, and early one morning when he was working on
the train, he met a man who could not sleep and wanted someone to talk with.  This man was impressed by a
black porter working to earn money for university and tipped him the princely sum of five dollars, which was a lot
of money in those days.

When the summer holidays came to an end that year, Mr. Harley had to make a decision as to whether he should
use his summer earnings to purchase a mule and began to work on the farm, or to complete his last year of
university.  He took the risk of completing his university education.

Alex Haley tells us what happened next.  When his father arrived on campus, the president called him into his
office and showed him a letter he had just received.  The letter was from the elderly man whom his father had met
on the train, and inside the envelope was a cheque for the sum of $518, enough money to cover his father’s tuition
 fees and living expenses for one full year.

The kindness of an unknown person made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley’s father, Alex Haley himself,
and every succeeding generation of that family.

As a person who has been in need of help in the past, I know what the acts of love and care performed by a
stranger can mean to oneself.

Each of you here, I am almost certain, also knows what it can mean.

Each of you, I am almost certain, has a story like mine, or like that of Alex Haley’s father, stored away somewhere
in your personal history in your family’s history.

So – what are we really missing, when, as the doers of these deeds of kindness, we are surprised when the Son
of Man says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and
you welcome me?”

What are we missing when we feel burned out, tired from giving to too many worthy organization, worn out from
 working on too many worthy causes?

What are we missing when we doing good deeds and yet feel that we have not yet met God?

I think that the answer is simple.  We are missing the sense of holy in the ordinary.  We are missing the sense of
the imminence of God.

It may be stretching the point of the parable of the sheep and the goats a bit far, but I just cannot get away from
the feeling that we all to often lead our lives as if Christ did not exist.  Our moment and our days, even when
filled with doing good deeds, often are not sanctified, blessed, made fully alive by the sense of Christ’s living
presence.

My best moments as a human being, are not just the moments when I show care to one of the least of my brothers
and sisters.  My best moments are when I do so in the awareness that I am ministering to my Lord and Saviour:
when I am aware that Christ lives inside the least of my brothers and sisters, whether these brothers and sisters
are the less fortunate of those of us who are joined to Christ, or the pagans and gentiles amongst us, the ones in
whom no form of blessed can be detected.  Those of whom, we do not consider to be our brothers and sisters
because of who they are or what they may have done.

Such a sense of awareness serves to keep me humble.  Such an awareness serves to keep me alert.

It is an awareness that should all be cultivating.  This awareness that Christ may be found and found especially
amongst the poor, and the lonely and the sick, amongst those in prison, and those who simply needed nothing
more but a drink of cold water.

Let us all think of it, think back 2000 years ago, when the Son of Man, the one who is King of Kings and Lord of
Lords wandered this earth as a poor preacher in a poor land, having no home to call his own, much less a throne
of righteousness.  Think if when the Son of God was put on trail for blasphemy and flogged 39 times, and then
was hung on a cross as a common criminal.

Lord, when did we see you?  When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of
you?

And think of it today, 2000 more years later. 

Where is Christ to be found?

Is it not among us, as it was so very long ago?

Is he not, according to His own words, to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters, in those who are most
neglected, scorn or despise?

Thinking about where Christ is to be found transforms what I do and helps me to transform into who I am.

It gives a rich meaning to my actions, it lifts up my spirit in hope and in worship.  It makes me wanting to praise
God, even when I am feeling tired and worn out.  It gives me new strength.

What a privilege we have, each and every one of us, when we reach out and touch someone, for in doing so, we
 may be, no, we are, in fact, reaching out to touch God, reaching out to touch Christ.

I understand the surprise of those on the right side of the Son of Man.  I understand the feeling of shock and
surprise of the sheep.  I understand it because it is so very easy for me to forget the privilege that I have.  So
easy for me to start living a life as if Christ was not actually here in this building, this town, and this place we call
Hong Kong.  So easy for me to do what I do as if it were a burden, rather than as a glorious service to my God

I understand, but at the same time, I do find it a little sad.  Sad, not because doing good has no effect, but feeling
sad, because seeing Christ in those around us is so enriching, so helpful, as we walk the walk that he calls us to
walk, and yet seeing so many losing the way in this walk.

Lord, when did we see you?  When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care
of 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.

May you be with Christ in your walk, day by day.  Amen.