A Nation of Sheep?

To be sheep, in common parlance, means to follow blindly and ignorantly and spinelessly.  But Jesus has a different idea about sheep.  He tells a story about what it will be like when the Son of Man (King) comes into his “glory” and sits on his throne with the angels and all that.  He says all the nations will be there and he will separate the people like a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats.  He says to the sheep

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the “righteous” on the left (goats) start whining

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

They are freaking out!  They’ve been looking for the Son of Man all over the place so they can serve him, but apparently they never found him.  So the king says,

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Then he goes on to put them in their place pretty hard,

‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

He condemns the goats to eternal punishment and the sheep, whom he now calls “the righteous” get to hang around and be rewarded.

I gotta say, I’m having a hard time reconciling some of the behavior and beliefs of people identifying as Christian and Republican with this scripture. I’ve never seen more uncharitable sentiment and behavior from Christians in my life over the last year.  This turns people away from Christianity! We’re supposed to be making disciples not alienating them!  Many liberals call conservatives hypocrites for preaching their anti-gay gospel at the government level but not supporting a governmental approach to the prime principles of Christianity.  The conservatives say that those principles are  supposed to be personal and not national.  I almost buy this.  I might buy it if they hadn’t been fighting so hard to legislate how we should live our lives according to their religion, particularly with gay folks.  It is incongruous to me that the ‘no no no it’s not the government’s job to feed the poor’ say that it is the government’s job to enforce their personal religious views on everybody.  I don’t buy it.  Nope.  You canNOT have it both ways.  It is categorically indefensible.

But this leaves liberals in a weird place.  We’re making a fuss about this, but many liberals are not even Christian and certainly believe in a firm separation of church and state.  So it’s like, what are you going to do if you finally win this argument that the government should legislate the Christian principles of the goats and the sheep?  It’s a trap!

So where do I stand?  I am a Christian.  I’m a music minister, in fact.  I was brought up in a Christian home with a father who was a minister.  I read the Bible.  I pray. And I’m a left leaning moderate.  Many conservatives do not believe that I exist.  There is no such thing as a liberal Christian!  I could easily say the same thing about conservatives, if you take Jesus’ radical Gospel for ordering the Kingdom of God seriously, where the last shall be first and the first shall be last.  But I won’t say that.  That’s not fair at all.  No one has a perfect faith.  In fact, no one gets to be right about EVERYTHING, including me.  The Democrats don’t get to be right about everything.  The Republicans don’t either.  Libertarians, and such.  What I believe is that the government is the people and is for the people.  It is to serve and protect the people.  From my view, it’s to help make this a great country to live in without the partiality of greed and power and prejudice.  The rich and powerful have a role to play, but someone has to look out for injustice, it certainly won’t be the rich and the powerful who often benefit from it. You don’t become rich and powerful by being a good Christian.

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!” ²⁴ This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear children, it is very hard^[b] to enter the Kingdom of God.²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Hey, we all want to be rich.  That’s fine.  But Jesus is warning us that money complicates righteousness.  The Republican party wants the government to help the rich get richer, but doesn’t want to help the poor pay some bills once and awhile.  So yeah, I believe in public assistance, affordable healthcare, easily available mental healthcare, public education, civil rights, refuge for the refugee, work permits for the immigrant worker, and anything that makes this country a great place to live in for those who are struggling.  It’s already a great place to be for people like me; white, well-to-do, straight, Christian, male.   We pay a lot of taxes so I expect people to get a little back when they need it.

In Jesus’ story, the goats are the people who are doing all of the right things by the law.  They are righteous in that sense.  They go to church.  They pray. They don’t hang out with the sinners.  They follow all of those rules that make the pure stay pure, the holy stay holy.  I see this in my religion. The Baptist General Convention recently passed motions aimed at the removal of churches accepting LGBT people as members.  But what does Jesus say?  He says that what’s really important is taking care of the least of these.  And believe me, I’ve been cared for by gay folks when I was in need.  And as far as I’m concerned if the government can help out with caring for the needy, then please tax me for it.  IF, and I mean IF, we were to be a Christian nation, I believe we would look a lot more like the sheep than the goats. May I we become woolier  and woolier.  May we become a nation of sheep.