‘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: 31-46

This is Christ the King (Reign of Christ) Sunday. In the account of the sheep and the goats, the Son of Man is the King coming in glory, sitting on the throne.  The King…hidden in the suffering people of the world!

This morning’s scripture speaks to us very strongly about the necessity of loving other people in very practical ways.

In the Mission Statement on the back of our bulletin it states, “Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church is a Welcoming Community that worships joyfully, thinks broadly, serves gladly, gives generously, nurtures children intentionally, and cares for others as Jesus cares for us.”

19th century Danish philosopher and Christian, Soren Kierkegaard, said that only by investing and speaking your vision (or your mission) with passion can the truth one way or another finally penetrate the reluctance of the world.

May RHPC continue to be known as a church that is passionate about its Mission!

The parable of the sheep and the goats contains a passionate plea. We’ll get to the turkeys in a little bit!

The story of the sheep and the goats is a very dramatic, often symbolic description of the last judgment confronting us with the question: “What is our responsibility to those in need?”  

The story makes us very uncomfortable! It is intended to!

There are multiple interpretations of this passage, centering on the question, “Who are the least of these who are members of my family?  Are they Christians, or Christian missionaries—or does the phrase refer to any needy person?

I believe that the basic message in this text is that when we respond to human need, or fail to respond, we are in fact responding, or failing to respond, to Christ.

The scene encourages and warns us that what will count in eternity are deeds of love and mercy on behalf of human beings in need.*

NOW…when we read this passage we might worry that we haven’t done enough for others and that we will be going off to eternal punishment. We might think to ourselves, “I am a goat.”  

But that raises the question, “Is our eternal salvation based on good works?”

Since the year 2000, Bill & Melinda Gates have spent over 6 billion dollars to address health issues in the Third World.  Do Bill & Melinda get to be at the head of the line into heaven?  Do good works gain access for us into the welcoming arms of a loving God?

We understand that we are saved by God’s grace: For by grace we have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing.  It is the gift of God and not as the result of works. (Ephesians 2:8-9)  Good works do not get us into heaven.  Only one thing makes the difference…the faithful sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on our behalf.

We are called to accept our acceptance and be transformed by God’s love and grace in Christ, which naturally overflows into acts of mercy for others. 

Here’s a question that we can ask ourselves.  How many of us have fed a hungry person or welcomed a stranger or given clothing to someone in need or helped a sick person or visited someone in prison or done any act of kindness to someone else?  I know all of us here this morning can say, “Well yes, I have extended some kind of help to others.” 

So we are all sheep!

But then we ask the question.  How many of us have turned away from someone in need, have not welcomed a stranger, have been inhospitable, ignored human suffering?  I know I have.

So we are all goats! **

Christ’s words make us evaluate our lives and our faith. Jesus is using a dramatic form of speech called “apocalyptic imagery” to make his point.  Apocalyptic imagery has to do with graphic portrayals of the future.  To make the listener sit up and take notice!

Jesus is also using hyperbole—overstatement—to get his point across, for example, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out.  If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.”  Sadly, there have been people in the history of the Christian faith who have taken those words literally, gouging out their eyes and cutting off their hands, when in reality what Jesus is saying is that we are to deal radically with anything that will keep us from following him completely.

In this morning’s text we understand how critical it is to back up our words with our deeds.

God is not a vicious being who practices retribution rather than compassion, healing and grace.  By his life, teaching and his suffering death on the cross, Jesus rejected wrath, retribution, and force. 

In the scripture we discover the expectation of God worded in such a way that we can’t forget it.

In the story the righteous answer in innocent surprise. They have been doing good deeds out of the inner transformation of grace without being legalistically bound to do so.  The surprise of the righteous is perhaps the most moving and touching part of the whole parable. (NIB)

The good they did flowed naturally out of the love in their lives.

Rev. Dr. Robert K. Martin is the Associate Professor of Church Leadership and Practical Theology, Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program & Chair in Church Leadership at St. Paul School of Theology. He writes:

“This is what I think the parable is saying to us. Not that Jesus is going to throw billions of people into a fiery pit. Rather, something wonderful happens as we join the God who seeks the lost and welcomes the outcast: a little bit of our goat is thrown into the lake of fire. Our fear of those who are different from us is thrown into the fire; our haughtiness is thrown into the fire; our pride, likewise –  into the fire. It is like separating the wheat from the chaff or burning impurities from gold.

I yearn to have the goat inside me thrown into the fiery pit to be burned up forever; I yearn to be cleansed of my self-preoccupation and of my fear of those who are different from me. I want to be more fully a sheep that is welcomed by the Good Shepherd into eternal life.

But the decisive test is not how we treat those like us, those in our family or even those in our congregation. The true test is what we do to those who are most different from us, those who scare us, who disgust us, who repel us: what do we do to the least and the lost, the forsaken and the outcast, all of whom are in God’s family.

Jesus is calling us to render loving service to the most vulnerable in society.  And only when we do that, when we lovingly serve the least in our human family do we reflect the image of God in which we are made. Only then is Jesus’ life and ministry manifest in and through us.

So now when I hear the Word of God proclaimed through this parable of the sheep and goats, I hear a Word of hope not fear, of encouragement not despair. When we show compassion to the least of those in God’s family, there we will meet Christ; there we will be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ, who is the true Lamb of God.”***

Sheep, goats, and…what about the turkeys? This past Thursday week we gathered for Thanksgiving.

In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate the first meal on the moon. 

Do you remember what it was?  Turkey with all the trimmings! 

Ben Franklin proposed that the national bird of the United States of America be the turkey! (I’m glad it’s the bald eagle!)

Our Thanksgiving meals remind us that we are blessed to be a blessing, that we are called to go forth into our neighborhoods, our city, and our world with deeds of mercy and grace overflowing from our lives as Jesus continues the transformation process within each of us.

* For an excellent presentation of the interpretive issues in Matthew 25:31-46, see M. Eugene Boring’s Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew in Volume 8 of the The New Interpreter’s Bible. Material has been adapted from Dr. Boring.

** For a thought-provoking book dealing with questions of heaven and hell see, Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God, by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn.

***To read Robert Martin’s entire sermon, “To be or not to be … a Sheep or a Goat,” go to QuickToListen.org and click on “Robert Martin.”