Sheep and goats. The sheep on one side. The goats on the other. Sheep on the right hand. Goats on the left hand. Sheep and goats. Goats and sheep. The goats hear of judgment, curse, and the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. They hear "You did not do it to me" (with emphasis placed on the "not"). The sheep hear of invitation, inheritance, the kingdom, and eternal life. "You did it to me". Sheep and goats. Here and there.

      But both the sheep and the goats are there in that nation gathering before the Son of Man. Both found themselves there before the Son of Man who came in his glory, complete with his entourage of angels. The Son of Man was there before the nations on the throne of his glory. This Son of Man who, according to the teaching of Jesus, had no where to lay his head, who had the authority on earth to forgive sins, who came eating and drinking with sinners, who is the Lord of the sabbath, who was betrayed into human hands–handed over and condemned to death. This Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve. This Son of Man who is seated at the right hand of power and is coming on the clouds of heaven. The sheep and the goats were gathered before him and before his glory.

      Son of Man. Surrounded by glory. Sitting on glory. All the nations. Sheep and goats together. There would be no whispering as to one there on the throne. No introductions were required. As in "sheep, have you met the Son of Man?" or "Goat, allow me to introduce you to the Son of Man." In the word picture painted by Jesus here at the end of the 25^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, there would seem to be no need of a name tag, at least for key noter. The Son of Man comes dripping in glory and both sheep and goats find themselves around his throne.

      Sheep and goats. They’re sort of created to be separated one from another, I guess. And this teaching of Jesus, this recounting of the Great Judgment scene doesn’t do much to change that. The Son of Man reprises his role as a shepherd and I imagine the first thing a shepherd would do would be to separate sheep and goats. So the reader, the listener, the theologian, the interpreter, you can’t help but ponder the difference. Sheep and goat difference. Look one way and then the other. Right and left. Judgment and grace. Sheep and goats. But before they were separated there, they were together. And even in all their "sheep and goatness" what they have in common ought not to be missed.

 "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison?" Both sheep and goats had to ask. Both had missed when he was hungry or thirsty. Both missed that he was a stranger, that he was naked. Both sheep and goats didn’t know that he was sick or in prison. Sheep and goats. Oh, they both knew right then, as he stood there upon the throne, wearing nothing but glory. They knew there. But looking back, looking back not just at an instance here or an opportunity there, looking back over the stretch of time, looking back at all of life here on earth. Standing there in the kingdom of God with the canvas of history stretched all around you, well, they had no idea. Both the sheep and the goats, they didn’t know.

      When it came to the least of these, when it came to the Son of Man present in the lives of the least of these, when it came to seeing the Lord’s face in the hungry and the thirsty, when it came to recognizing him in the stranger, in the one with no clothes, when it came to looking into the eyes of Jesus in the one who was sick, the one in prison, when it came to the least of these who are members of my family? They missed it. Both the sheep and the goats. The sheep and the goats were united, they were one when it came to their inability to see Jesus in the face, in the life, in the person of the other.

      Sheep and goats. And generation after generation after generation finds itself drawn to, even fascinated with the separation. Right and left. Doing and not doing. Judgment and grace. But what about what they had in common? What about that shared part of the human condition? In both those who did, those who fed and those who nourished and those who welcomed and those who clothed and those who took care and those who visited, in both those who did and those who did not, their blindness was the same. They didn’t see Jesus in the least of these.

      The least of these who are members of my family, was what the Son of Man/shepherd/king said there from the throne. Students of the Gospel of Matthew have forever noodled about that phrase, "the least of these my brethren." On the one hand, it can be argued that Jesus was really referring here to those who would follow him, first to the twelve, and then to those who would take his name. Apostles. Disciples. Preachers. Prophets. Missionaries. Martyrs. Saints. Those who, in the name of Christ, and for his sake, find themselves hungry, or thirsty, strangers, with no provisions, or sick, in prison. As you took care of one of those send out in my name, you took care of me. The least of these defined by some kind of apostolic succession.

      On the other hand, the history of interpretation points to a broader understanding, a wider read, a more universal affirmation of the least of these. The least of these would, of course, be all the hungry and all the thirsty and all the strangers, the naked, the sick, the prisoners. In his own ministry Jesus certainly wasn’t so parochial. There was a boundlessness to his servanthood. And when those words of judgement came to the "not-doers", when the king answered the goats on his left, he dropped the family reference. He simply said, "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."

      The least of these. An infant child held in our arms as we once again splash in the river of God’s love or a twelve year old girl in Guatemala who sells handiwork to tourists, lives in a one room cinder block house and has no idea of the dreams in her life that she could be missing? The least of these. A couple here in the church who find themselves sandwiched between aging and very ill parents and all of the busyness, challenge, and anxiety that raising teenagers can be or a couple just beyond these walls who find themselves now six months into a lost job and healthcare crisis with not enough groceries to last the month? The least of these. A college student now in the fold who finds himself alone for the first time and far from home, more than a bit overwhelmed, having to work harder both in the classroom and in fighting off complete despair and loneliness or a teenage girl in D’Iberville, MS whose family is now spread all over, whose home will never be rebuilt and who will never see the inside of a classroom again.

      The least of these. A widowed spouse seeking support and community among Easter people or a prisoner in Trenton State learning to read for the very first time. A young mother battling breast cancer and yearning to stay strong and leaning on our prayers or a young man in the Trenton Children’s Chorus trying to sing his way into a future with hope. An overworked commuter trying to cling to some sense of purpose in life that is gospel centered, a dying man wrapped in a blanket crafted by the hands of a saint, a fourth grader in a church school class yearning for some assurance that grandpa is in heaven or a man wrongly imprisoned for 26 years for something he didn’t do, a family waiting to move into a Habitat House in East Trenton, a mother and daughter long since abandoned by a breadwinner hoping for an apartment to hold them for just a few months, a hungry child feasting on a breakfast offered at the Uniting Reformed Church in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

      The least of these. That small band of followers of Jesus entrusted to our care or the vast sea of faces that cry out to us in need? The least of these who are members of my family or the least of these? And the answer is yes. The very face of Jesus, the presence of the Son of Man, the Savior of the world revealed to us.....in the least of these.

      In the congregation I served before coming to Nassau Church, the pledge card was divided into two parts. People were asked to make one pledge to the operating budget of the church and another pledge to benevolence, one pledge to expenses at home and another pledge to expenses outside the church walls. The Session would make a recommendation of percentage split based on the coming year’s budget. I think 80/20 was the most common over the years. There were a few members who told me they didn’t pledge to benevolence, charity after all begins at home they would say. And I remember one member who would only pledge to "the outside the walls budget." I never had the courage to mention that she wasn’t supporting my salary or the heat in the manse where I lived. I guess it would be easier if we could divide up expenses into nifty, neat categories of spending that would encourage folks to give only to what was meaningful to them in the spread of our existence as a church. It might be easier, but when it comes to serving the least of these, Jesus doesn’t give us the luxury. Jesus doesn’t allow you the choice. Because the answer is "yes".

      And when it comes to responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ, when it comes to living out the teaching of the Son of Man, when it comes to the privilege and the joy we share in living out the fullness of our lives in the piercing light of his glory, when it comes to the faithful response of those of us who would call him Lord, when it comes to our Savior’s expectation that we would see him in the face of the other, the least of these.....when it comes to a tangible _expression of our life in Christ, there can’t be much that is more important than your support of the ministry within the body of Christ to which you have been called. There can’t be much that is more important than your pledge to the life and witness of Nassau Presbyterian Church.

      Sheep and Goats. Here’s what we don’t have in common when it comes to the sheep and the goats and the least of these.

      He’s already told us where to look.  

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