Sheep and Goats

In The Social Justice Bible Challenge (A 40 Day Bible Challenge) edited by Marek P. Zabriskie the scripture for day 22 is Matthew 25:31-46, the parable about the sheep and the goats. In the parable Jesus likens the people who help those in need to sheep and those who do not help the less fortunate to goats. In the  parable Jesus describes those who are needy as hungry, or thirsty, or in need of clothing, or sick, or in prison. But he also discribes them as strangers.  The people that the Son of Man is addressing in the parablle ask, "And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you..." (v. 38a) or did not welcome you?

A stranger can be someone newly arrived where we live or the stranger can be someone who lives among us who we have never attempted to know. Those living among us can be "strangers" because they practice another religion, speak a different language, or have different customs. We welcome them when we accept and attempt to know about those differences. This is a way of welcoming the stranger; a direction that Jesus gives us in this parable.

Yet as a nation, self described as a Christian nation, we often reject the stranger thereby abandoning the name Christian and adopting the name USA,USA! and becoming goats herded along by the shepherds Hate, Fear, Distrust, and Insularity.

Leaving the context of the parable and reentering the context of the present day, if our eyes are wide open, we can see that there are forces in our government and our society who would have us behave as goats, not as the sheep who cared for and welcomed the stranger. These forces continually propose laws or Executive Orders that slams the door of welcome. Additionally, they propose budgets that favor the wealthy, curtail or eliminate health care for those in need and lead us toward a domination society where there is a wealthy class and an under class with a wide chasm between.

Are we as a nation to be sheep or goats? We make the decision to be goats whenever we support the forces of Hate, Fear, Distrust, and Insularity.  Or we can decide to be sheep reaching out to the stranger in our day-to-day lives or when by voting or  taking other actions we support those who would have us act like the Christian sheep we need to be.

God, help us to be sheep.