The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist Service on 11/26/23.

Jesus said to his disciples:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

This week’s reading was really hard for me. The topic closely related to today’s gospel reading has been on my mind for about the last month. Camellia’s homily last week about addressing fear was really good, and it addressed one of the things that has honestly been torturing my mind: a fear that at some point, I’m going to find out that I, on a fundamental level, have been messing up somewhere, that all the work I’ve done on myself and in service to Christ has been flawed, and I have inadvertently been a fraud.

As we see in this reading, at the time of judgment God will separate people into lots of sheep and goats. God tells the sheep that they have cared for and served Christ because they have served his people. The goats, having been selfish and choosing not to serve others, have not served and cared for Christ. During this last month, I have felt myself being spread too thin because of the holiday season and commitments my wife Chlese and I have made. With this, I have really struggled with the scenario I continually find myself in. When approached with two opportunities, do I choose to be faithful and serve or do I choose to rest? As I reflected on this reading, this fear of making a wrong choice and ending in the lot with the goats ate at me, and I convinced myself that I had to make sure my household was resting while also taking every opportunity to serve, even though it was nigh impossible for me to do both. But if I can’t do both, then that means there is something that I’m not doing for Christ. How can I still be with the sheep?!

This continual attempt to try and do everything results in us running ourselves ragged. While running myself ragged, I’ve learned that my attempts of these Herculean feats of non-stop work and action are often just that, attempts. This is worrying to me, not because when hit with a full schedule I immediately fold and am unable to get stuff done, rather the opposite. It worries me that I can do this for a while and do it well, until time starts to take its toll on me and I get myself stretched so thin that I feel like my chest is gonna burst when I think about my calendar. It worries me that I can do it well enough that I start to think that I can do it all myself. Back to my question, though: how do I remain with the sheep? I always want to help serve my community, be there for anyone who needs it, spend time with friends and family, but how can you keep all these plates spinning without feeling you’re either failing someone or yourself if you miss a single event or just admit that you need some rest?

I wish I had this beautiful and deep answer for you, but it ultimately comes down to trusting that not only has God gotten you this far, but he will get you the rest of the way. It’s trusting that you aren’t expected to always be able to solve every problem or to do all the work. It’s trusting that God is a loving Father that won’t throw you in with the goats for needing rest or being unable to do it all. It’s believing that in a world that chooses to be cruel, God does not. Amen.

In a World That Chooses to Be Cruel, God Does Not: Jonathan Henderson

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