In his book titled “Man’s Search For Meaning” Viktor Frankl gives the reader a first person look at surviving the Nazi Concentration Camps.  He writes at length about the first few days when he and 1500 others were herded into a crowded train car and being forced to stand for days or lie on top of their luggage until they arrived at the camp. Once there, they were huddled into a shed, all 1500 of them that was built to accommodate 200.    One five-ounce piece of bread was all they had to eat in four days. Having been told to leave their luggage on the train (they would never see it again) eventually they were ordered to fall into two lines – women on one side and men on the other. Then they were filed past a senior SS officer. This officer would indiscriminately raise his right hand, and with the forefinger of that hand he pointed either to the right or to the left. This division of the people, as he would come to learn later was very specific, and ominous.  If you were directed to the right, you went to a work camp. If you were directed to the left, you were sent to a special camp. The sick and those incapable of doing work were sent to the left. This finger game was the first selection, the first verdict made on their existence or non-existence. Those who were pointed to the left were marched from the station to the crematorium – a building that had the word “bath” written over the doors. His description of this division of the people was horrifying because of the cold and indiscriminate selection for who was to live and who was to die. If you were elderly or infirmed or too young to work, you were sent to your immediate death. The others were sent to be worked to death, or at least near death.

We all have been part of a division of some kind – whether it was picking kickball teams in elementary school or picking partners in high school lab class. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus also directs people into two lines, but his determination has nothing to do with how they look or how they appear to him. Two lines are formed, and the people are looking at one another trying to determine what is going on. We are told that the people are separated like a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep, but there is no reasoning to why one is put into a particular group. Jesus our King has come, is sitting on his throne, and now no one knows what is coming next, and no one knows why Jesus has separated the people into two groups.

No one likes being in the dark — not knowing what comes next, do we?   We like to know because we like to be in charge – to have some sense that we are in control. So, those in Group 1 are staring at those in Group 2 – and they are doing the stare down – what is going to happen? Finally Jesus speaks:  “Come, you in Group 1, for you have inherited (not earned) the Kingdom prepared for you.”  They all look at each other – “What could he mean?”  Jesus continues, “Well you have inherited the kingdom because You fed me, and You gave me a drink, and You clothed me, welcomed me, cared for me, and You visited me.”  And they all look at each other with the same question on their minds: “When?”  “When did we do that?” 

And that is the point. They have no idea that when they were helping someone in need, visiting, caring, feeding, clothing, etc. – when they did that for people in need, they were doing it TO Christ. They have no idea because they don’t do it for show – they don’t do it for merit – they just do it.  Just Do It – that’s a good slogan – Just Do It (I don’t think Nike will mind if I steal their slogan).  If you have ever been poor, sick, hungry, marginalized, or in some other way you consider yourself an outcast or in need, you already know what it is like to feel as if you have been separated from the herd.  You don’t need someone to tell you that you are OUT, you already feel as if life has told you that you are not in – that you are a goat, not a sheep – a sinner, not a saint.  It is because there are so many people who feel left out that we have so many opportunities to let people know that they are loved, that God loves them, and the church loves them, and we welcome them here.  There should be no thought to it – Just Do It.   If we are looking for a personal mission statement, there it is. If you are wondering if you should get more involved with the church – Just Do It.  Do not wait to be asked.  Do not wait until you think someone will see you so they can thank you – just do it.  Just let the Holy Spirit guide you and move you and let the eyes of your heart be enlightened to make random and indiscriminate decisions to love others – and serve others. 

We like to think that we are always sheep, but often we are goats.  We are simultaneously both – sheep and goat – saint and sinner – guilty and redeemed. But Jesus Christ and the cross destroys the goat in all of us – and not only destroys the goat but changes us – transforms us. Today salvation has come to us through the cross and faith in Jesus our King.  We can’t live indiscriminately ignoring that reality or those around us in need.  We should not live our lives offering thanks to Jesus our King by doing NOTHING.  My friends, do not wait to give thanks, and to love others – just do it.

Pasto Dave

“The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus…said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” …they went away, one by one…and Jesus was left alone with the woman…” John 8:3ff

“The first step toward love is a common sharing of a sense of mutual worth and value. This cannot be discovered in a vacuum or in a series of artificial or hypothetical relationships. It has to be in a real situation, natural, free.” (Howard Thurman. Jesus and the Disinherited (p. 98). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.)

We like to notice the sins of the other person – we do not like to see the sins that exist within ourselves. Our view is clearer and often much sharper when assessing the weaknesses, the failures, and the foibles of others. What I like about the story of the woman caught in adultery is the ability of Jesus to remind us that we all carry some secrets or hidden sins that none of us would care to have aired in public.

Thurman writes: “To them the woman was not a woman, or even a person, but an adulteress, stripped of her essential dignity and worth. Jesus said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” After that, he implied, any person may throw. The quiet words exploded the situation, and in the piercing glare each man saw himself…In that moment each was not a judge of another’s deeds, but of his own.” Jesus met the woman where she was, saw her as the person she hoped she might be – and gave her value.

Jesus’ refusal to condemn the woman, well, that is what gives us all hope. Jesus says in John 3:17 “The Son did not come into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him.”

Why do we spend so much time condemning and judging others? It is because we all have insecurities — and so one of the ways we try to feel better about ourselves is to put others down.

Jesus is the one to give us all value – for he sees us as children of the Heavenly Father — and as beloved children, loved because G-d created us. To live as if G-d is always judging us then we live life in fear — critical of all we encounter. But, if we live in faith, a gift to us through the Holy Spirit, then we can live into Christ’s love for us, dropping the need to judge others, and living into the crown Christ has set above each one of us.

Pastor Dave