Judgement

Jesus tells a wonderful story about how we will be judged as human beings in Matthew 25, starting at vs. 31. It is the only time he ever really mentions the criteria for judgement -- and he does it in his weird, Jesus-in-your-face way. He talks about separating animals -- sheep and goats. In his time, at the end of the day when the farmers came in from the pastures where the livestock grazed, they had to count the number to see if they returned home with all the ones they had left with in the morning. And when they counted, the separated sheep and goats. I don't know why -- maybe because sheep don't get along with goats. But, sheep are so dumb and stupid and slow, it seems like they could get along with anybody.
Anyway, Jesus the Good Shepherd, has a soft spot for the sheep, I guess, because he beckons them at judgement to come and sit at his right hand. The goats -- well -- they get consigned in another direction, and go off left -- to eternal hell and damnation.
Pretty tough spot for the goats.
But Jesus didn't have anything against goats. Neither did he express love for sheep more than anyone else. What he had a soft spot for is those who recognized him in others -- particularly others who are in need -- the sick, the sad, the prisoner, the hungry, the lame, the thirsty, the marginalized, the alien among us. What the sheep did that the goats missed was, according to the parable, see him in the faces and lives of others who are usually ignored.
This Sunday, Pastor Grant and I will do a dramatic dialogue sermon between one of the sheep (Sammy) and one of the goats (Greta) to get their personal take on the experience of judgement. Advent is traditionally a time of waiting, but not of comfort -- not the warm cuddly kind. It is a time when we have the Holy Spirit confronting us daily in our encounters with others to see if we, too, recognize the Christ in those nobody cares about, has time for, or wants anything to do with.
Come see -- if you are a sheep -- or a goat.
See you in worship this Sunday.
Pastor a.