November 20, 2005

Thankful for Judgment?

by Julianne Stokstad

Do you know how to tell a sheep from a goat? Why, sure, you say.... they look and sound different. A sheep goes baaaaaaa and a goat goes ehhh, ehhh. A sheep is bigger than a goat. Goats have kids and sheep have lambs. If you are really an expert you know sheep have curved horns and goats have straight horns. Further, only goats have goatees. Clear. Well, not so fast, biologically they are closely related, in the same family. There are small sheep, big long haired goats and some are surprisingly similar.

Our scripture, so well interpreted by our youth today, speaks of God separating people at the final judgment as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. It has come to mean the separation of good people from bad people----for eternity! I find it one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament because of its perfect clarity about judgment. For years I've had difficulty with judgment. We live in a culture uneasy with judgment. Coming out of fear, not love, our judgment separates us from each other and from God. Judgment so often comes with threats, it can be quite scary. The threat of eternal punishment ought to be enough to keep us all on the straight and narrow path, but it hasn't been ever since the Eve was tempted in the Garden.

There is someone in my extended family. Someone we see at traditional gatherings, like Thanksgiving once a year or so. This person is a good person, a kind person, and a model citizen and parent and a shirt-tail relative. One day I got a call, she'd been arrested and was in jail. There must have been a mistake, I said. How can this be, no one in our family has ever been arrested? What happened? And so the story came out. She had a secret life none of us even suspected. It was a secret addiction that was against the law and she got caught. His secret was exposed and the press picked it up, distorting the facts along the way, making it worse than it even was. You have surely read of such stories: a soccer mom arrested for trying to buy illegal prescription drugs; priest arrested for sexual abuse of the altar boys; accountant arrested for embezzling funds. We have a big appetite for scandal in this country, but this time it hit close to home.

We were shocked, devastated. At first we thought it was a lie, he'd been framed, but slowly we began to absorb the reality of her secret. We cried. We were numb and didn't know how to react. Should we be mad or sad? His friends and relatives reacted each in their own way: some shunning him, others standing by her. How could our relative have been such a goat and we had no idea?

How did he respond? She began intensively therapy and began a recovery program. He prayed a lot, finally I suspect being truly honest with God perhaps for the first time in a long time. Slowly he began to ask for forgiveness and reconnect with us. And thank goodness she didn't have to go to jail.

Most of us have not been to jail and probably haven't broken the law. At least most of us have not been caught if we did. I'd say most of us have a secret or two--things we have done we'd just as soon people not know about us. (long pause)

Surprisingly in this parable from Matthew commonly known as "The Judgment of the Nations" the word "judgment" never appears. The words "good or bad" and "right and wrong" commonly used in our judgments aren't found either. God's interests are tied up with our neighbors: visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, visiting prisoners. These simple, seemingly small acts of kindness to those in need are what separate us for eternity. There is no mention of moral virtues or of abiding by the laws societies' make to facilitate order and fairness. It is so important is because it is a reversal of our human tendency for self-focus and selfishness, reaching out to notice and help other people. Our inner judgment of ourselves so often keeps us from reaching out to others. How often will we accept kindness from a "bad" person?

So I ask you, who do you think experiences God's grace and judgment more fully? Those of us who follow rules to the letter, thinking we are good while having secrets, being selfish? Or the one caught and exposed and humbled-the one we call bad. Is it our job to even try to tell a sheep from a goat?

Truth is we've all acted like sheep and we've all acted like goats, but the good news is that for all of us, there is still time. We're all still works in progress. God's judgment is always there but it is not on whether we have become famous or rich or even solved all of societies problems. It's not based on whether we have been popular or unpopular or even "good" or "bad" people. This parable tells us in the end, God's judgment is based on kindness, whether we have treated each other, especially those who are less fortunate kindly

God wants our salvation more than we do. God didn't cause my relative to be arrested, out of God's vengeful judgment, but I know that God used this situation to offer and bring healing. For God's loving judgment, we can all be truly thankful because God wants our wholeness and for each of us to be healed. Each of us has a choice that is particularly important now, when we get together with our friends and families. Out of our gratitude can arise truly beautiful actions, the question is are we going to choose what God call us to or not ?