Sermon for the Last Sunday after Pentecost: The Reign of Christ, November 26, 2023

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24+Psalm 95:1-7a+Ephesians 1:15-23+Matthew 25:31-46

Many years ago, I was at a conference that included a talk by Jim Wallis, an evangelical theologian and activist who founded Sojourners Magazine and the Sojourners intentional community in Washington, D.C. Wallis told a story about a feeding ministry that the Sojourners community participated in with its regular array of guests and volunteers, misfits and outcasts all. Each day as the volunteers prepared to open the doors, one of them offered a prayer. They tended to rotate that responsibility. On one particular day, one of the faithful volunteers, not far removed from the kind of poverty that brings people to a soup kitchen, offered the prayer. She said, "Jesus, I know you are going to be coming through that line today. Help us keep our eyes open to see you. Amen."

The parable of the great judgment, the separation of the sheep from the goats, isn't so much about what they did or did not do, at least not as I read it right now. What it is really about is seeing Jesus as we go about the business of living. Neither the sheep nor the goats really saw him. Even when those one his right hand were feeding and clothing and visiting, they didn't know that they were doing those things for Jesus any more than those on his left did not know.

This is a subject I have spoken about many times here, how we look past those in need who surround us, not even respecting their dignity enough to make eye contact or to mumble a good morning. I believe that to truly see Jesus is to see him in those we would rather not even look at.

This parable is the culmination of a series of "better be ready" parables that Jesus tells in the days leading up to his arrest. It is where the rubber meets the road, and while we might get lost amidst the talk of bridesmaids and lamps and slaves and talents, what is impossible to miss is that Jesus is trying to impress upon his followers one more time that what lies ahead will not be easy, and it especially will not be easy for the poor and the marginalized, and their job is to take care of the least of these.

Yet it isn't just about taking care of the least of these as if they are not also part of us, as if they do not also bear the image of God, as if we cannot see the face of Christ in them, as if they are not us.

I imagine it came as quite a shock to the original listeners of this parable to hear, though they may have followed Jesus from the outset, that they were included among the goats, that they are included in the unprepared bridesmaids who pound on the door to be let in but are not recognized by the bridegroom. Or, as Jesus says way back in the Sermon on the Mount, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (7:21).

If all these parables and the talk of end-times give you anxiety about whether or not you are doing it right, take comfort in knowing that the sheep in our story did not know that they were, either. Yes, there is a lot of talk in Matthew about having an active faith, even as this contrasts with much of what Paul says about salvation being through faith alone. I will not wade into a theological muddle right now, but I do believe that the fruits of our faith - the evidence that we are followers of Jesus - is made known in how we live. We live as followers of Jesus by doing the things that Jesus did - teaching, healing, feeding, and truly seeing the person right in front of him, whether a demon-possessed outcast or woman begging to have her daughter healed.

I was deeply saddened this week to hear the news of Rosalynn Carter's death. This was partly because I can't imagine being married to someone for 77 years and then losing them. Another is because I so admired her unpretentious life of service. She was a fierce advocate for mental health care and support for caregivers. Alongside her husband, she became the poster child for Habitat for Humanity, working on houses for those who needed them into her 90s. Perhaps most emblematic of her belief in the dignity of every human being was her support of Mary Prince Fitzpatrick, a woman convicted of felony murder who, on work release, became a nanny for Amy Carter in the governor's mansion in Georgia. The Carters always believed in Fitzpatrick's innocence and petitioned to have her join them in the White House to continue as nanny to the family with Jimmy Carter serving as her parole officer. This raised a lot of eyebrows, but Rosalynn continued to claim that she was wrongly convicted because she was poor and black and did not receive adequate counsel. After the White House years, Ms. Fitzpatrick returned with the family to Plains, Georgia, where she became nanny to many Carter grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And yes, her conviction was overturned. Amy Carter's nanny was but one woman serving time in Georgia that Rosalynn Carter helped through advocacy and using connections acquired when Jimmy was governor and president.

The Carters' deep faith was well-known. People would flock to Plains to attend Sunday School, taught for years by Jimmy Carter. Rosalynn may not have been president, but she used her position as First Lady both during the White House years and for decades after, to make life better for those for whom life is hard. It was how she lived as a follower of Jesus.

I cannot speak to how this parable judges the sheep and the goats and tosses some into the outer darkness. That judgment is way above my pay grade. Our concern is not about some far-off heaven or hell but in the kingdom of God, as Matthew calls it, right here on earth. And because that is so, our work as Christians is to do those things Jesus did as faithfully as we can and in whatever capacity we can as if we are serving Jesus himself. I believe this is how Rosalynn Carter lived her life, and perhaps my sadness over her death is that it seems there are so few who go about the work they are given to do with such steadfastness. As we prepare to begin yet another year according to the Church Calendar, modeling that kind of faithfulness might be a good place for us to begin again.