November 24, 2008 — 9:52 AM
Don't be such a goat!
Texts:
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Matthew 25:31-46
When I read the texts for today I started laughing out loud. You may think that is a strange reaction to have when reading scripture, but let me explain. As I read, this song popped into my head.
[play Cake "Sheep Go To Heaven" chorus]
Now, wouldn't you laugh too if that happened to you?! The first time I heard that song I was really confused. I couldn't figure out why anyone would write a song with those lyrics. And then I came across the Matthew text for today and it clicked. Cake didn't write the lyrics, they were just quoting Jesus!
But why was Jesus talking about sheep and goats? And why, five hundred years earlier, did Ezekiel choose to do the same when prophesying to the exiled Israelites in Babylon? What is it about sheep and goats that appealed to both Jesus and Ezekiel?
Let's explore that imagery a bit together. Okay city-dwellers, what do you think of when you think of sheep and goats? Are they different in your mind or are they pretty much the same thing? Have you had any interactions with either sheep or goats?
[get reactions from the congregation]
A quick glance at Wikipedia gives the following information on sheep and goats:
Sheep:
- have a natural inclination to follow a leader and that leader will most often simply be the one sheep who started moving first
- have a tendency to congregate close to other members of the flock
- primary defense mechanism is simply to flee in the face of danger
- but if they are cornered they will either charge or threaten to charge
- are frequently thought of as unintelligent, although that is not really the case
o long-term facial recognition
o able to differentiate emotional states through facial characteristics
o have problem-solving capabilities
For the most part, these characteristics have taken on a more negative connotation throughout the years. Calling someone a sheep tends to not be a very flattering thing. Especially in the American culture that so highly values individualism and the whole myth of pulling oneself up by one's boot straps. Being a follower or sticking with a group is just not something we value.
And then there are goats. According to Wikipedia...
Goats:
- are extremely curious and intelligent
- are easily housebroken
- can be trained - especially to pull carts or walk on leads
- are known for escaping their pens
o they will test a fence until they find a weakness that can be exploited
- are very coordinated and can climb and hold their balance in the most precarious places
- can climb trees when they have even a slight angle to them
These are all characteristics that are highly valued in our culture. These are the characteristics of a maverick - a term that used to be a positive thing until it got beaten into the ground during the just completed election cycle. Goats seem to be everything that sheep are not - individualistic, self-sufficient, real go-getters (to the point of even climbing trees!).
So what's so bad about goats then? Why did Ezekiel and Jesus call people on being like goats and condemn them for that? Let's take a closer look at the situation each was facing.
The passage from the book of Ezekiel for today gives us just a piece from two separate but related exhortations from the prophet. First Ezekiel speaks God's words to the Israelite leaders. Then he turns and addresses the Israelite people in general.
For Ezekiel, the fall of Israel into captivity to Babylon is the result of the poor leadership skills of those whom God chose to lead the nation. Because the leaders did not keep God's commandments, they now find themselves in exile and the Israelite community is split in two - those taken away in exile and those left behind in their land. In Ezekiel's reading of the situation, the leaders were like goats looking out for their own interests ignoring the fact that the Israelite people were like sheep following them down the wrong path away from God's commandments. The leaders had failed the people and in so doing had failed God who chose them to be the leaders.
After rebuking the leaders for this failure, Ezekiel then turns his attention to the Israelite people in general. They too have taken on goat-like characteristics. They have stopped caring for one another as members of the same flock and have taken to looking out only for themselves. They are exploiting the situation for their own gain with the strong oppressing the weak, and the rich exploiting the poor. They are relying on their own intelligence to get ahead instead of relying on God and following God's commandments to love God and to love their neighbors. By acting in this way, the people have also failed God and have rightly brought God's judgment upon themselves.
In both cases, God's words to those being addressed show that God is saddened by the necessity to step in and do what God had asked the people to do on their own. God had chosen leaders and expected them to guide and watch out for the best interests of the people as a whole. But this did not happen and now the people were scattered - in their land, in Babylon, and beyond - and hurting. So God, through Ezekiel, tells the people that God will step in to make things right. God will gather the scattered people back together. God will heal the wounds that have been inflicted on them. And God will judge those who let this happen.
But God will not just judge those charged with leading the nation, God will also judge all those who acted in selfish ways - exploiting their weak and poor neighbors. This is not how God had commanded the people to act towards one another. In fact, it is the complete opposite. So God is being forced to come in and rectify the situation personally.
Some five hundred years later, Jesus finds himself in a very similar situation to that of Ezekiel. In Jesus' understanding of the situation in which he lives, the religious leaders - those God chose to lead the people - are taking God's people down the path of legalism and hyper-focus on following the rules. In this way of living, there is no room for allowances made on the basis of acting out of love for God or love for one's neighbor. The people have devolved into watching out for their own concerns and their own purity. And in so doing they have lost sight of what really matters to the God that they are so diligently trying to serve - that is, wholeness and healing for all of God's creation.
Jesus' description of the Son of Man coming in his glory to judge all people is the final piece of a long discourse on the end times. Through this series of stories, Jesus wants to wake people up and shake them out of their self-imposed stupor. He wants them to understand that the way they act in this life will affect their life throughout eternity. How they act now has long-lasting consequences.
To make his point, Jesus draws on a well-worn image: sheep and goats. Those hearing this story would have echoes of the passage about sheep that we just looked at from the prophet Ezekiel, as well as many others from the Scriptures, ringing in their ears as they listened. They probably were identifying themselves with the sheep and feeling pretty secure in that feeling. They were, after all, keeping God's commandments and then some! Not keeping commandments is what had gotten their ancestors into trouble in the past.
But Jesus calls them up quick. "Not so fast," he seems to be saying. Just because they have been following the law, doesn't mean that they are in the sheep category. It take more than following the letter of the law to make it into heaven. It takes feeding the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, inviting a stranger into one's home, giving clothes to those who need them, caring for the sick and visiting those in prison.
These are actions that many of the people are not in the habit of doing because by doing such acts, they would be interacting with people often deemed to be unclean. And bpy interacting with such people, they themselves would then be considered unclean until they performed the ritual to become clean again. That is what following the letter of the law had brought them to. It got in the way of them being able to see people as children of God and being able to step in and help when needed.
But some of the people are doing these acts even without realizing it. These people are the sheep that Jesus says will inherit the kingdom God created at the beginning of the world. For these people, feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, caring for the sick and imprisoned are actions that come naturally to them. These actions are like second nature to these "righteous" people. And this is how Jesus wishes it would be for all of the people listening to him.
Now, I won't ask you to answer this question out loud, but I want us to take a minute to think about ways in which we all have acted like goats. How have we turned from loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And how have we not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Where in our daily lives have we been more concerned for our own well-being than for that of our neighbor? How have our actions diminished the strength of the communities in which we live? [brief pause]
These are not things that we, meaning all humans, like to think about. And these are things that especially we West Coast Americans don't like to think about. That whole idea of sin and being sinful people is a hard one for us. We like to dwell more on the positive - on the ways that God has created us good and enables us to do good in this world.
But I would argue that we can't really be good conduits of God's love in and to this world until we stop to acknowledge that we often act in very goat-like ways - ways that actually get in the way of being who God calls us to be. It's not that those goat qualities are bad in and of themselves. It's just that when we start acting like goats, it's oh-too-easy to bump God right out the picture and put ourselves at the center. When we let our goat qualities take over, we end up feeling like we are able or have to do everything for ourselves and we forget that we need to rely on God.
So how can we be more sheep-like? What are things that we can do to help us remember to focus on God and see God in those around us? Any suggestions or ideas?
[get responses from congregation]
I think the first step to being more sheep-like is learning to see the holy in the ordinary. And we have to begin with seeing it in ourselves. One of my favorite poems is by the poet Ann Weems ( a Presbyterian Christian writer). The poem is called "God's Holy People" and it comes from the collection Searching for Shalom. I've placed copies of it around the sanctuary for you to take with you if you would like. Here's what the poem says:
Here we are, you and I,
called to be God's Holy People.
You say you're not the holy type,
but I'm not talking about holier-than-thou.
I'm not talking about religious ritual,
and the last thing I mean is self-righteousness!
Jesus chastised the self-righteous,
the ones who spent their days doing religious things,
the ones who spent so much time in religious ritual
that they didn't have time for tenderheartedness.
I'm not talking about them;
I'm talking about us.
I'm talking about paying attention
to the things Jesus taught people,
ordinary people, people like you, people like me.
Look at the disciples: ordinary people
called to follow,
called to be God's Holy People,
called to live in this world with tender hearts.
Live holy lives... impossible?
Is anything impossible to God?
That old woman Sarah thought it impossible
to have a child...
The lepers thought it impossible
to be healed...
The disciples thought it impossible
to feed five thousand with two loaves and
five fishes...
Mary and Martha thought it impossible
that their brother Lazarus was alive...
The lame thought it impossible to walk...
The blind thought it impossible to see...
Here we are, ordinary people,
called to be the Holy People of God.
If you have eyes to see and ears to hear,
see and hear God's holiness in your life.
We have to begin with ourselves. Not in a selfish way. Not in an egocentric way. But unless and until we truly see ourselves as God's chosen people, the blessed children of God, there is no way to see others as holy, chosen, and blessed children of God either. The Great Commandment says love God and love your neighbor as yourself. The catch is, we have to love ourselves first in order to follow that commandment. Looking out for #1 is not loving oneself. Hoarding stuff and making sure that we are covered is not loving oneself either. Understanding that we are beloved children of God for whom God wants to provide is.
Once we have truly grasped and understood this about ourselves, then we will be freed to turn our gaze outward to see others around us who are in need. When we understand that God loves us and wants to care for us, then it frees us from having to worry about that. It allows us to stop putting all of our effort into making sure that we have enough for ourselves. And it enables us to turn those efforts outward to the hungry, thirsty, and hurting all around us.
So stop being such a goat! Stop thinking that you and you alone are looking out for your best interests. Stop thinking that you have to provide everything that you need. Learn to trust that God will provide - through family, or friends, or maybe even complete strangers. And then, relying on that trust, do the same for others.
