fill out Botany Flora. foundedd I remember university the road. Barclay pointed

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1 M Telling Darkness From Light Dr. D. Jay Losher 26 November Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church Matthew 25:31-46 = the last judgment y senior year in college when I had completed my major I looked for something interesting to fill out the curriculum. I chose a popular professor ss Botany class, Harriet Barclay s course entitled Local Flora. She was a distinguished and beloved professor; Harriet and her late husband had foundedd the Biology department decades before. I remember very welll the first thing she taught us. She stressed the importance of distinguish hing by sight a short list off toxic and dangerous plants so as to avoid them. Typical students,, many of us promptly forgot it. The class was a real adventure. Field trips took us out into the fabled Green Country of Eastern Oklahomaa as yett another spectacular Spring emerged. It was wonderfull way to culminate my university years. Field trips were quite a sight: a caravan of cars trailing her, she was a regular speed demon and hard to keep up with. Then unexpectedly, she would brake hard, making us all swerve dangerously off the road. One such maneuver near Honey Grove, she abruptly pulled off the road. We stopped, parking wherever we could and all piled out. Professor Barclay pointed to a plant growing along the fencerow and asked us to identify it. Many of us, myself included, jumped to as we had been taught, grabbing the leaves, inspecting for any flowers. Those of us who acted impulsively, we all flunked the lab practical ~ it was poison ivy!! The need to distinguish healthy from unhealthy, safe from dangerous, good from bad, 1

2 right from wrong are all important survival skills for humans. T his need to distinguish comes earlyy in a child s development. My first father-in-law began to walk Bill would take each child when they and train them to avoid the oven, knives and scissors. Walking home from kindergarten one day, Scott the oldest was heard shouting at the top of his lungs: Hot. Sharp. Dangerous. Greasy. Safe and dangerous are lessons we need to learn young. Later comes the need to distinguish between more complex phenomena. Without these advanced skills it is impossible to live a safe and sane life. Making these critical distinctions is incredibly important: healthy from unhealthy, good from bad, right from wrong. J esus helps us yet again with another goods news/bad news parable. This portrayal of the heavenly court at the last judgment in Matthew 25 tells us of one of the most important developmental tasks, if not the most important life lesson we need to learn in order to have a safe and sane life ~the good life now and into eternity. Matthew 25 gives the specific criteria with which the Son of Man distinguishes the saints from the sinners: those who feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, caree for the sick, visit the prisoners, who serve the weakest members of Jesus family. S ocial scientists distinguish between two kinds of status. There is achieved status and ascribed status. Jesus uses exactly the same distinction in Matthew 25. Achieved status is that whichh is earned by achievements. Ascribed status is unearned, that is assigned to an individual by virtue of an office held. Jesus makes a similar distinction between those who have actually done good from those who merely consider themselves good. In our parable of the last judgement, Jesus separatess the sheep who have actually done good 2

3 from the goats who are smug and self-satisfi ied but not actually having done anything worthwhile. We have already seen this in the Sermon on the Mount: Thus there will be distinction s made at the last judgment and some followers of Jesus will not make the cut. Thee surprise is precisely that those of have done real good in the world are totally unaware of the goodness they have accomplish hed, and conversely the goats are unaware of the goodness that they have neglected. W e might be faulted for not recognizing Jesus when he comes to us in disguise. And the portrait we see of Jesus in the heavenly court is not one we have ever seen before either. Surprise is part of the experience. Jesus, the Messiah, a child born in a manger, vulnerable, human. Then as adult we knew him as a teacher, a rabbi, a servant and shepherd. Finally as the lamb thatt was slain. But when we see Jesus the next time as the Risen Christ he will be judge ~ separate[ing] the sheep from the goats.. He will distinguish the saints from the sinners, the good from the bad, as fulfills the 3

4 Prophet Ezekiel who had foreseen this long before Jesus. As for you, my flock I shall judgee between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David And I, the LORD, will be their God. [Ezekiel 34:17, 23-24] The judge at the last day separating the good from the bad is a surprise, but it is one we have indeed seen before, reminiscent of God at creation separating light from dark, separated day from night, separated land from ocean. Now at the last judgment the Son of Man distinguishes those who have learned the moral survival skills from those who have not. To stand on that day we must be able to distinguish clearly light from dark, day from night, good from evil. udaism from days of old has many rules to tell Jnight from day. A rabbi speaking to his students about these rules asks: How can you tell day has come and night has ended? The studentss knew well the rules for distinguishing when night comes, but to know when day arrives ~ it was too obvious. No one answered. After a long pause, the rabbi answered: It is not when you can tell a sheep from a goat. It is not when you can tell a pear tree from a fig tree. It is when you can look a man and woman in the face and distinguish a brotherr or sister. If you cannot perceive your sister or your brother in another, then it is night whatever the time. his is wholly Jesus message in the text today T~ and it is a Thanksgiving message. On a Thanksgiving many years ago, Wanda Sevey, then a pastor in New Jersey, writes: Last Thanksgivingg a boy who attends our Sunday School showed up at my front door. I invited him inside We were all a bit uncomfortable in the presence of his torn sneakers and jacket too thin for the weather. He was uncomfortable, too. 4

5 He told me that his mother was homee cooking his Thanksgiving feast. She hadn t yet decided between preparing a turkey or a ham. I knew that the Deacons had delivered a Thanksgiving food basket to his home. I didn t know if there would be much more than the contents of that basket on the table for dinner. He and I sat down at my dining room table and shared some chips and toasted each other with our glasses of soda. Then, I looked across the table and recognized him. Rabboni. My LORD, it s you! [And Jesus said:] just as you did it to one of the least of thesee who aree members of my family, you did it to me. When we look across the table and see the Christ in each of our brothers and sisters, we have done good, we have accomplished the ultimate Jesus requires of us, we have achieved goodness ~ the goodness which will allow us to stand on the last day. 5