Sheep and Goats

Jesus told his followers: “When the Ben Adam comes in his importance, and all his messenger with him, he will sit upon his important throne. All the Goyim will be assembled before him. He will separate one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right, and goats on his left.

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. 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.’

The righteous will answer him and say, “Kyrie, 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?’

The king will reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the accuser and his messengers. I was hungry and you gave me no food, 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.’

They will answer, ‘Kyrie, 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, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ These will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” When Jesus finished all these words,* he told his followers, “You know that in two days’ time, it will be Passover and the Ben Adam will be handed over to be crucified.”

Some half-century ago, I worked under a Senior Chief, Theodore, Gift of God, (in his own mind) Bronson. When I first arrived at his command he would, in my mind, be my mentor. Both of us conservatives, we thought much alike. When I left his command I knew only three things about my values. The first, Jesus is my NAME and savior. The second was and is that all the religious words I had bandied about my past would in the future have real, tangible meaning. The third is that I wanted to be nothing like Senior Chief Theodore Bronson or anyone else in his command as all supported what he was doing.

One of those religious terms is “Righteous,” a word bandied about in this passage early and often. Another word is “Justice” and its cognate, “Justified.” A Lutheran at the time, I firmly believed the “Justified by faith” thing without having any idea what “Justified” meant and means to this day. What Bronson had taught me is that his faith, and mine at the time, was firmly rooted in docetism. Docetism is the belief that Jesus is that fluffy white thing out there somewhere or just a crust of bread we eat on Sunday. He is decidedly not a first-century Jew with a first-century Jewish world view and a first-century Jewish way of seeing the world. Docetism is the belief that the words really need to have no meaning. They are just something beautiful to hear during Sunday Liturgy.

It so happens that Hebrew has two words for “Justice.” The first literally means, “That which comes from the lips,” as in God’s lips. What comes from the lips is Mitzvah, the Hebrew word for a Commandment. Many do not realize that different denominations divide the 10 Commandments differently. If you go through the list in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, and Leviticus 19 you will find three different lists and none have 10 Mitzvah.

The count varies somewhere between 14 and 18, depending upon the list, where you start counting, and when you stop.

According to Deuteronomy 5 and in the Jewish count, the First Mitzvah, the first words coming from God’s mouth are, “The NAME, the one we are to call upon, cut a Brit with us at Mount Sword. Not with our fathers^* did the NAME cut this Brit, but with us, alive, here, this day.

Face to face, the NAME spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, while I was standing between the NAME and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the NAME, since you feared the fire and would not go up the mountain:

I am the NAME the one you are to call upon, who brought you out of the land of Egypt/Oppression (the Sweatshops of the American North. The Irish Potato Famine, the European 18^th and 19^th wars with their poverty and famine, and out of the house of menial labor.” You will remember what it was like to be there and you will remember your rescue.

Our Gospel follows this reading and takes it one step further. Jewish teaching is that if you are not personally at Mount Sword that day the Mitzvah does not apply to you, but neither does the promise. There is no promised land for you. The Hebrew verb has no past or future tense. Everything is completed or not completed at the present time. All memory is in the present. All thinking about what might be is in the present. Jesus suffers his passion for the first time, each time, we celebrate the Eucharist. Jesus suffers his Passion for the first time and each time we see suffering and do nothing. Jesus is therefore truly in the blessed host which we consume to become, get that to become, more like him.

This brings us to the second word for “Justice” and the word for “Righteousness,” Tsaddik.” If you want to know the meaning of this term, watch the movie, “Schindler’s List. Herr Schindler was a Tsaddik. He violated the rules so that he could have justice. Read the Nativity. It is coming upon in the coming month and we are reading Matthew’s account where Joseph is called a Tsaddik and he also violates the rules for the greater good.

Then look up at this first Mitzvah. Remember what it was like to be abused and remember your rescue. Then, when you see others suffering, do something. This is the first Mitzvah. This is Justice. This is Charity. This is righteousness.

This is also what our Gospel is about. Tsaddik are those who sometimes violate the rules to make sure all are fed, clothed, housed, and visited. They make sure all our welcomed into our communities. This means there is no room for such “tough love” in the first Mitzvah. There is no room for building huge ugly border walls to keep out the neighbors. We remember what it was like to be the neighbor in Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and other places, trying to find refuge over here. We welcome the stranger because we know that if we don’t…

Here comes the second part of our Gospel reading. First, we notice how Jesus identifies with the poor and outcasts. As you did to the least of these, you did it to me.” Notice the last sentence, Matthew 26:1. This is his Passion. By “His,” the passage means both Jesus’ Passion and the Passion of the stranger, the less fortunate a-front you. As you do it to the least of these you participate in the Passion. In the Exodus, we read about how Pharaoh treated the least of those in his charge. God gave Pharaoh free swimming lessons. In the Gospel of John, chapter 9, the story of the man born blind ends, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” We claim to know better so there is no excuse for cutting taxes on the wealthy and then saying, “There is no money in the budget of our minimalist government to help ‘the least of these.” Remember, our Gospel this Sunday is “An Address to the Nations,” and not an address to the church or individuals. It is an address to the nations and we are wise to listen to its advice. As Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.”