Absolutely Right
Pentecost 26, Proper 29
November 26, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You’ve probably never heard of St. Bernard’s Mission in Greutli-Laager Tennessee. You’ve probably never heard of Greutli-Laager, which is actually including two separate cities, Greutli and Laager, much as we might refer to Minneapolis-St. Paul, except as far as I know Minneapolis-St. Paul doesn’t share just one convenience store between them, which I believe is in Greutli so you can’t actually buy a laager in Laager.
But that’s not the point of the story.
St. Bernard’s had a very unique pattern of worship. Their congregation of about 20 was famous in the region because everyone sat on the right-hand side of the church. Only visitors sat on the left. No one really knew why or when it happened, it just did - a quirky little tradition. Everybody was on the right. We tend to sit where we sit, don’t we. I know I do.
Now that’s on the right walking in facing the altar, so they were on their right, but on the preacher’s left. I wonder how they understood this morning’s Gospel!
This whole right-left thing runs pretty deeply. It’s not a coincidence that our word for right directionally is also a synonym with being good, correct or even legal rights. You’re in the right. You’re absolutely right! That ain’t even right. You have the right to remain silent.
Don’t worry, left-handed friends, Jesus is making a point which has nothing to do with being right or left-handed.
We want to be on Jesus’ right side – if not directionally then certainly as it applies to his favor. Looking at this parable, we certainly want to be sheep and not goats. We want to be in the right, not in the wrong; if we are to be sorted then sort us into the group that hears and follows God.
And let me acknowledge that this is uncomfortable territory. If you’re worried about the goats, that tug in your heart for the goat is a good thing. God has commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
On the surface of it we could very easily draw from Christ’s words that “the least of these” refers to everyone in every kind of need. That ties in nicely with the “love of neighbor” commandment. Jesus went to the outsiders, the prostitutes and tax collectors, the lepers. He spoke about the sick needing a hospital, not the well.
As long as we remember our good works are a consequence of our faith in him, not an effort to earn our salvation, then clearly as Christians we are called to feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and visit the sick and imprisoned.
There’s another layer to this. Jesus is talking with his disciples at the Temple in Jerusalem. He’s approaching his crucifixion. He knows that in the wake of his death and Resurrection his disciples will be marginalized, hunted and scorned. They will be beaten, imprisoned and killed just like him. The communities that form around their preaching, the first churches, will be poor, persecuted and struggling to survive.
They saw him raised from the dead and they must tell the world! So Jesus tells them, whoever takes care of these disciples, the people sharing this Good News, the ones bearing Christ himself into the world generation after generation, they will receive the ultimate reward. Friends telling friends. Parents teaching their children. Grandparents teaching grandchildren. Teachers, missionaries and preachers of all types.
Because of who he is, Son of God, fully divine, the Word made flesh and Son of Man, fully human, Jesus himself is the standard by which everyone and everything is judged. He is the point of division between good and evil, between right and wrong, between life and death and between heaven and hell. This isn’t just about avoiding doing the wrong things, it is about actively pursuing the right. Remember, that judgment is at heart about reconciling broken humanity, enslaved by sin, and this whole creation with the Father.
Consider the outrageous irony of the moment. Jesus was born in a stable, raised in Nazareth, a town of about 500 or 1/3rd the size of Gruetli-Laager. He has no home, no place to lay his head, no money – nothing but the clothes on his back. Even those are about to be stripped away from him along with every scrap of modesty as he will be beaten, mocked, teased and hung on a cross naked to die in a garbage dump.
That guy is proclaiming himself as the judge of everything. That’s outrageous, isn’t it? Except when we look at who he is, all that he said, all that he did, we know he’s right. And we realize our whole notion of right and wrong has been and continues to be defined by him, whether we realize it or not.
Am I sheep or am I a goat? I know what I want and hope to be. If I’m going to get there, if we are going to get there, then we need to be continually looking to him to divide the evil from the good, to guide us through the complexities of our circumstances. Life is messy, and he is our standard by which all else must be judged.
Christ himself is salvation. Receive his Word and you receive him. Receive each other and you receive him. Follow him and you’re on the road to the right. Share him in the world around you and you share salvation.
AMEN