Hello,
A couple of years
ago, I went back to my hometown, Hinsdale, Illinois, for my 40th
high school reunion, and among the many things that I discovered was this; high
school reunions tend not to draw those who have “failed” in life. Although I am certain that every one of the
people who attended that reunion had scrapped their knees more than once over
the course of those 40 years, I don’t remember running into anyone for whom
those 40 years were an overwhelming struggle, a struggle that had gotten the
best of them.
The reason that I
write of that reunion experience of a couple of years ago is because of what I
heard on Sunday as I sat in a pew of the church (I am currently on break from
work, but next week I am sticking my toe back in the water of parish
ministry.). The Biblical passage on
which the sermon was based was the one where Jesus makes an accounting of those
who visited the sick, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned saying that
those who did or did not do these things did or did not do them unto the Lord. Sheep who did….goats who did not.
The gist of the
message that I heard was that those who were in the pews were obviously among
those whom Jesus was naming as sheep, people who did the things which Jesus was
accounting, and they needed to go out and tell those who were not in the pews
that they, too, were worthy of being called sheep. There is certainly a strong ring of truth to
this message. The small things that
people do are of divine importance.
But here’s the
thing that caught my ears. Why do we
assume that the people who gather in church on Sunday morning see themselves as
“sheep”? When did Sunday morning worship
become the place of High School reunions where only “sheep”…..people who have
their lives in good order…gather. Those
whom Jesus gathered together certainly would not have fit that mold. As a matter of fact, those who thought they
had their lives together did not like Jesus because he was rubbing shoulders
with those whose lives were deemed despicable.
This is not the
first time that I have heard this “sheep” assumption coming from a pulpit. Some years ago, I heard a pastor laughing to
his congregation that of course none of them might be folks whose failures have
placed them on the front page of the paper.
I have heard good intending parents tell their children that they should
go to church to find a “good boy or girl” to date. Even the assumption that church folks should
never fight is an assumption that the church is only a place for those whose
actions would dub them sheep.
Fact of the
matter, at least as far as I can tell, is that by virtue of their deeds, every
person who sits in the church pews on Sunday morning deserves the name goat….including
me who stands in the pulpit. But that is
exactly why I go to church every week, and also why the doors are thrown open
for everyone else to come…to bring the sheep out in me, and put the goat in me
to rest. If you take a look at the parable in the Bible (Matthew 25:31ff)
notice that both the sheep and the goats were willing to do what Jesus was
accounting. For the sheep, their deeds
came natural. For the goats, their deeds….well,
they acted like goats and to act like a sheep took unnatural intention.
So, that is what
Sunday morning church is all about….bringing out the sheep and putting to rest
the goat. I take seriously God’s transformational
power that has made a new creation out of the work of Jesus Christ, the power
to make sheep out of goats. That is what
happened on the cross. And I take
seriously God’s transformational power to transform my mind to think as the new
creation that God has made me to be, a sheep, not a goat. That happens every Sunday morning in church.
So, if you wake
up this Sunday morning and take a look at the life you have lived this week and
see the markings of a goat….well, it is for you that the doors of the church
are opened. I don’t know when people started to think that Sunday morning
church was meant to be a gathering of those who were unquestionably sheepish
(if that were true, then the pews would be empty, and the pulpit, too). It is clear to me, however, that Sunday
morning worship is meant for those who are sheep in goat’s clothing, for whom
God is at work to bring the sheep out…and put the goat to rest.
Maybe churches
should put a sign out on their lawns, “Goats Welcome”.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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