Song: There is a redeemer
There Is A Redeemer - The Worship Collection - YouTube
Reading: Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25, verses 31 to 46
Song: Purify my heart
Purify My Heart, Let Me be as Gold - The Worship Collection - YouTube
Prayer:
Let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ for all those who need our compassion and care, for all those who commit themselves to the poorest and for those who are afraid to be involved. Let us say:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
For all who have lost their
way in life we cry out to you to make the Church welcome them and
give them you and your Good News to live for, we pray:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
With all people driven from
their homes, with the many victims of war and civil strife, with all
strangers living in foreign lands, we cry out that people may be
hospitable to them, and so we pray:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
With all those who hunger for
food, who thirst for justice, who crave for human dignity, we cry out
that we may hear your voice in them, and so we pray:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
With all those who care for
the sick and the handicapped, with doctors, nurses, pharmacists,
midwives, we cry out that we may recognize you in those who need
affectionate, loving care. And so we pray:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
With all those who are
imprisoned because of their convictions, with all those who are
persecuted; who are prisoners of their hatred, their greed or their
failings, we ask you to free them, and so we pray:
Lord,
make us serve you in people.
The voices that cry out to
us, the eyes that plead with us, may we recognize you in them, Lord,
and love you in them. Be near to us, now and for ever. Amen.
re-worship.blogspot.com
Song: Come thou fount of every blessing.
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing | Christmas Lyric Video | Reawaken Hymns - YouTube
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Do you like to be in control of matters? Or are you happy to go with the flow? Most of us like to be in charge, to have things sorted out. Take skiing. When the snow is fresh. When the wind is behind us, and the slope is not too extreme, swooping down the hill in long swooping curves is enjoyable.
But, if you are below a thundering avalanche, all sense of calm command will soon disappear.
In a similar way, this lovely pastoral story of sheep and goats being sorted, could lull us to sleep, as traditionally counting sheep will. However, if we look at the whole story, this is more of a thundering avalanche.
As far as the bible is concerned, this could be the wake-up call to end all wake-up calls. This is the final event, not in any one person’s life, but of the whole planet. As the pub landlords used to shout at the end of the day “Time gentlemen please”
There are three thoughts from this passage: The return of the king; The sheep and the goats; the application to today.
Some time ago, is summer It was noon. The conservatory was filled with a strange orange light. The whole sky had turned orange. A neighbour was heard to mutter “Is it the end of the world?” Jesus was certainly talking about the end of the world as we know it. He’s focussing on the time we would call The Return of the King. The end of time event when the King comes to rule in his kingdom.
There is a twist in the tale.
The only easy way to tell a sheep from a goat is that a sheep’s tail hangs down, and a goats tale points up. The twist is the tale is almost as if to say “Did you get it?”
The story begins “When the king comes is all his glory” This is not talking about Christ and the baby in the manger. When the King comes in glory, This will be awesome. It will be fearful and final.
He goes on to say “All the nations will be gathered before him” Not just you and I, not just a few of us, or a big crowd or city. The whole world gathered before the King on his throne.
This is when all our plans, pension funds, car maintenance plans, and travel documents are finally done with. This is the point when we are sorted out into just two groups, whether you are president or pauper.
A shepherd was asked how a shepherd sees sheep and goats. He expressed the opinion that sheep are not clever, where goats are. Chalk and cheese, couldn’t be more different. They can be kept together, but at the end of the day, they are usually put into two separate pens to avoid trouble.
Although we see sheep as similar, a good shepherd can tell them apart, they have different faces. This is a king who knows everything about us.
In this modern digital age, when there is a vast archive stored about each one of us, it is perhaps not too difficult to believe that The King could know everything about us from birth to now.
And how will the sheep and goats be separated? Here is where we approach the twist.
Verses 34, 37 and 40 tell us.
It can look like we are going to be judged purely on how we perform in this life, and it is to be a severe separation as verses 41 and 45 indicate. This is serious stuff. It one of the scariest stories in the bible.
Is Jesus saying that each of us will be judged only on what we have done? Is he saying that we should give money to the poor?; visit the sick?; help the prisoners? If this is the case, how money do we have to give?: how many sick do we need to visit?; how much time do we need to spend visiting prisoners? The story does sound like this, but a wider reading suggest that this is not actually what it is saying.
There is a second possible misunderstanding. Whilst Jesus may be saying that we will not be judged on our actions alone, he is not saying that they don’t matter.
We can do wonderful things, we can give to charities; but we can’t buy a place in the sheep pen!
This is the U.S.P. of Christianity. This separates us from other religions. We are nor saved by our good deeds. So what are we saved by? After all, sheep might not be clever, but we all want to be in the sheep pen, don’t we?
How does the King separate the sheep from the goats? Remember, in Jesus’ day it was the son who sits at the father’s right hand. It’s the son who inherits the whole estate.
In verse 34, the King says “Come you who are blessed by my father, and take your inheritance. So he is addressing those on his right as if they were family, sons and inheritors.”
In verse 40 he says “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.” What does he mean by “brothers of mine” It is clear that he is not referring to his siblings from Nazareth. This crowd are his spiritual brothers. They have been adopted into the family of the King by adoption.
The sorting into these two groups is done by the very precise measure. Are you in the King’s family or not? It’s a simple decision. Are you in or out? It’s binary. There is no halfway house.
How we treat each other is indicative of whether we are in the family of the King or not.
In the western world, we, as Christians, can feel a little marginalised, the targets of ridicule. But in other places, Christians are in prison, refugees and destitute. How we care for our brothers and sisters tells where you stand.
Do you know Jesus personally? Are you confident of who you are?, that you are his brother or sister?
Are you spending time developing that relationship? Spending time listening to him?
If you don’t know Jesus personally talk to someone now, talk to Jesus.
Find out how you can become a son or daughter of the heavenly father and inherit a kingdom that is beyond your wildest dreams.
Song: To God be the glory,
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