We have reached the end of the Liturgical Year. And still the Reign of Christ has not come in full glory. But we look for signs of it breaking into our lives as we transition from one year to the next.
The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 25:31-46
The Sermon title is Which Did You Do?
Early Thoughts: How were and are you an agent of the Kingdom of God? Would you be a sheep or a goat?
It can be hard to tell sometimes. Sometimes you have to look closely, or so I have been told, to pick out the sheep from the goats when they are mingled together. Moving from the literal to the metaphor of the parable, sometimes we are sheep and sometimes we are goats.
WE live in a world where we are often told that the secret to passing the final test is to be a "good person". Some define that be the religion you follow, or the form of religion you follow. Some measure goodness by what you have accomplished in life. Jesus, it seems, measures it by how we supported and loved our neighbours.
When we are called to account for our lives, the parable suggests, we will not be asked about how often we prayed, or our understanding of various Christian doctrines, or even if we call ourselves Christian. We will be asked if we fed the hungry, or visited the lonely, or comforted the afflicted. No mention of worrying about "accepting Jesus as Saviour and Lord" as some Christian groups insist is mandatory for acceptance. No mention of having lived a sinless life, no mention of having been an unrepentant sinner either. No mention of anything other than how well we lived out the commandment to love our neighbour.
Makes for a pretty basic test doesn't it? One single question. Mind you it is a pretty hard question when you get right down to it.
Christians declare that the Kingdom or Reign of God is both present and yet to come. We live in the Kingdom and we wait for it to break forth. On Reign of Christ Sunday we embrace that dichotomy. One definition of the church is that we are to be a testing ground for the kingdom. To me that means we are called to live as if we are citizens of a different type of place, a place where love is the rule and norm, a place where all our choices are made considering how they will impact our neighbours.
SO part of being a sheep (in a good way, not the way it is often used in current discourse) may well be to wear a mask and keep our distance and limit our outings as we collectively work to end the Covid-19 pandemic. Part of being a sheep is to be a good steward of the "stuff" in our lives. Part of being a sheep in a democratic society is advocating for a system that ensures all have basic needs met.
Are we sheep or goats? Being a sheep might come at a cost. Then again so might being a goat.
--Gord
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