The Sheep and the Goats. Every time I read this, I am reminded of Kieth Green's song, "The Sheep and the Goats". It still moves me today.
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who 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 drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Those on His right, the ones who clothed, cared, fed, visited these "brothers of the king". They served (unaware)as seving the king himself. Oh, to be able to see the face of Jesus in everyone we meet. The prisoners, the homeless, the rich, the poor, believers and nonbelievers, gay, straight, black, white and on and on. Why is it so hard to do this? Isn't it easier to send "missionaries" to do it for us? After all, that's what we pay them for right? Which are we, sheep or goats? It is too easy to be surrounded in the "safety" of our "Christian circles". But as Lewis says about Aslan, "He is anything but safe!"
OK, off my soapbox.
"Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you accursed,
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 no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.”
The sin of omission. Yeah, I'm guilty. Not beating myself up here but today's Gospel is pretty clear on the difference on what we do and don't do. Sola Fide doesn't seem to work here. Sola, alone. As if we are saved by faith alone. As if our salvation has nothing to do with "works". Works without faith is dead. Faith without works...well, what kind of faith is that. Can we earn our way to heaven? No. Do we have a ticket though for just believing? Even the demons believe and shrudder. I know there are many divisions especially between Catholics and Protestants on what it means to be "saved". That's a bummer really.
Getting on another rabbit trail. There I go again. The soapbox!
Christ calls us to action, a living faith, an active faith. Not to be bench warmers. Not to be "goats". But to be sheep, His sheep. Let us be thankful today for the Good Shepherd and in that thanks serve one another as if we are doing it to the Lord.
God bless and have a great week.
2 comments:
great thoughts! i always have struggled with this passage. i want to be a sheep, but am desperately afraid that i will be counted as a goat. a thought that just came to me is the passage about women being saved through childbirth (i'm not good with addresses...). i often think my ministry is here at home before i go out to minister to others and i often feel like this is a cop-out for me. but i think that is the world talking-our worth is defined by acts/works that the world sees. i hope that my work as a mom and wife is seen by God as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. and that as our little Christs grow, we will be able to look a little farther outside the walls of our house for Jesus in the face of others and act.~the wife :)
Tom,
Good blog. Loaded with good stuff but I'm going to focus on the paid persons in the church: It is necessary to pay people to do work we CANNOT do such as those serving the local church or missionaries, but it is an entirely different thing to pay someone to do something that we DON'T want to do.
Though we cannot be on a foreign mission field for real, this does not absolve us of the missionary spirit Christ announced at His ascension. If only we could see the opportunity and not make it merely a drudge-filled duty would we see Christ in every person we meet.
God grant us the wisdom to know our part from Your part and to remember what is impossible for us is always possible with You though we may not see the end result. Amen.
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