The Final Score

As sometimes happens, this sermon took a different turn after I had named it and put together the bulletin. The initial idea was the issue of this new database that the Defense Department is putting together, that has the civil libertarians up in arms over the loss of privacy. Because no matter how good a job Uncle Sam manages to do, it’s not going to hold a candle to the book Jesus will have in front of him on judgment day. I’m much more concerned with that record. Because not only will he have my medical, financial, and academic record, he’ll have my thought life as well.

The illustration really fits much better with the final judgment scene in Revelation, and this passage doesn’t talk about that book at all. In this scene - although they’re both pictures of the same event - Jesus can tell at a glance between the sheep and the goats. No need here for DNA analysis, a thumbprint on your ID card, or the new reti-nal scans that are even better than fingerprints. No, what you are is instantly visible to Jesus because his heart-scan technology is even more foolproof than those.

So then I got to thinking about how he can tell. What’s the core difference between the sheep and the goat, on the inside, that is, which is where it counts? Well, it really boils down - like so much else Jesus cares about - to relationships. Goats are solitary, and sheep are communal.

It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s where it begins, with being connected to other people. It goes far beyond that, of course, because people - like sheep - mostly connect to other people from selfish motives. What Jesus is after is a different kind of connection.

Gary and Ken had been in school together ever since Ken transferred in from another district in 5th grade. By the time they both graduated, they had been friends for 7 years. They became friends soon after Ken arrived. This is how it happened. Ken was really skinny and wore glasses and braces and always knew the answers to everything in class. He was kind of clumsy and clueless, was always the last person to be picked for any of the games during recess, and the other boys got into the habit of being pretty mean to him, playing not-so-funny practical jokes like hiding his glasses or tripping him when he was carrying his lunch tray so that he’d drop it. One day Gary was coming out of the main door to walk home when he saw some bigger guys “accidentally” knock into Ken so that the big stack of books he was carrying fell into a puddle left over from the morning’s rain. Gary felt sorry for Ken, went over to help pick them up, and offered to walk home with him and help carry the books. They got to talking and Gary found out that Ken was really interesting to talk to, knew all kinds of neat things, and to make a long story short, they became very good friends over the next few years. Ken helped Gary with homework and science fair projects, and Gary coached Ken at sports, even though he never became particularly athletic.

On the day they graduated, Ken took Gary aside, saying he had something important to tell him. “You didn’t know this,” Ken said, “but you saved my life.” “What do you mean?” asked Gary. And Ken proceeded to tell him that that long ago day when Gary helped pick his books out of the mud, Ken had been going home to commit suicide. Gary’s act of kindness stopped him.

You never know how important a small act of kindness can be. Most of us aren’t intentionally cruel to the people around us, but too much of the time we never even notice them. How many opportunities to do good, to make a real difference in someone’s life, do we miss because we just aren’t looking? And how often do we decide not to do anything because we’re “too busy” or we “don’t know how” or “it’s someone else’s responsibility?”

There are so many hurting people in the world. Jesus gives a list, in today’s Scripture passage. There are people who are hungry and thirsty, even in our town. There are people who are - not exactly naked, at least not in this country, but cold. Maybe they don’t have winter coats, or boots to keep their feet dry. Or maybe they just have shabby clothes, or clothes that don’t fit. There are an awful lot of people in prison. Some are in prisons with locks and bars because they’ve committed crimes. Others may be in a different kind of prison, perhaps they can’t get out to visit friends or even do their grocery shopping, or perhaps they’re afraid of being rejected. And what about strangers? How do you treat the new person in your school, on your block? How easy is it to accept them when they’re different? A person can be a stranger even if they’ve been around a long time - if people leave them out because they’re different. Jesus tells us that we can’t get away with looking the other way, saying, “It’s not my responsibility” or “What can I do? I’m only a kid.”