Sermon for January 1, 2017, New Year’s Day. Today’s text is Matthew 25:31-46, the story of the King separating the sheep and the goats.
Do you ever think about why we celebrate New Year’s Day? It’s really just another day, so why is it so important for people to mark a date change on a calendar?
I suspect it’s because a new year offers a new beginning, the chance to start fresh. There’s a reason January is the most important month of the year for gyms and diet programs, because it seems like a fresh chance to start again, to improve yourself. Lots of people, probably some of you, make New Year’s Resolutions. They never seem to work out for me, but I’m trying again this year.
We like new beginnings.
I appreciate that those of us gathered here today are beginning the new year in church, starting with worship and communion. This is a great way to center ourselves for the new year, to start it off right. I think that’s why we begin every week with worship.
We gather together and confess our sins, admit what we’ve done wrong, hear the good news of God’s forgiveness, the good news that because of God’s love for us, we all get a fresh start. Then we sing songs of worship and praise to God, all to show our gratitude for what God has done.
Every week, we get a fresh start, and I don’t know about you, but many weeks, I need that. We need to be sent out from worship, told yet again to go love and serve the Lord.
In this reading from Matthew, Jesus tells a story about the king separating the sheep from the goats, dividing people up for heaven and hell based on how they’ve treated others.
As Lutheran Christians who emphasize the reality that our salvation is based on God’s grace and not on our works, this is a tough story, but it’s important to hear. There are instructions here on how we are supposed to live our lives, what we’re supposed to do during the week after we’re sent out from the worship service.
In addition to being New Year’s Day, today is also still part of the Christmas season (did you know that? The twelve days of Christmas aren’t just a song – we’re still in the season of Christmas!).
So in this Christmas season, as you hear this story about judgment, remember why Jesus was born. Remember the promise that Jesus came because God loved the world. He came not to condemn the world, but to save it.
Remember that the one who on the last day will judge the world is the same one who came to die for it. The one who judges us has already more than proved he’s on our side. Our judge has already forgiven us. We’ve already been given an infinite number of fresh starts and new chances.
That’s good, because when you look at this parable, you should see yourself in both groups, in the sheep the king praises and the goats he condemns.
One of the major Lutheran contributions to the Christian faith is this recognition each of us is both saint and sinner. That’s not going to change in this life.
One day we see the hungry and give them food, the next day we ignore their needs and pass by on the other side of the road. One day we work to give water to the thirsty, the next day—or even the same day!—we change the channel when we see suffering. Sometimes we help, sometimes we don’t.
You can hear this story today and decide your New Year’s Resolution might be to do a better job of feeding the hungry, or visiting the sick, or helping refugees, or donating clothing to people in need, and those wouldn’t be bad things. I have no doubt all of us could do better at helping others. But I have another suggestion today for your New Year’s Resolution.
Make an effort this year to see Jesus in other people.
The king says to both the sheep and the goats, that when we serve or ignore others, we’re really serving or ignoring Jesus. When we recognize Jesus in everyone we meet, it changes how we live. And it’s not just seeing Jesus in the people you’d expect, in upstanding citizens and leaders; it’s seeing Jesus in the people we don’t usually like to notice, in the poor, the starving, the least of these, and even in our enemies, in freeloaders, in refugees and politicians, even in criminals.
What we do to children dying of starvation each day in our world, we do to Jesus. What we do to criminals locked in jail—justly or unjustly—we do to Jesus. What we do to our neighbors and to our enemies, we do to Jesus.
When the king talks to those on his left hand and tells them they didn’t give food or water or clothing or visit, notice they don’t say, “Well, that was intentional because we’re evil people.” They’re not especially evil people. They weren’t trying to do anything wrong.
They simply didn’t pay attention. They focused on themselves, ignoring the needs of their neighbors. They didn’t notice others around them in need. We do that too. We change the channel, we walk on the other side of the street, we simply stay home.
We have all kinds of excuses, and you can imagine what they might be. If we knew it was important, we would have acted. If we knew we could get a thank you letter, or a tax write off, or a plaque on the wall, we would have acted. If we knew it was for Jesus, we would have acted.
The message of this story is that Jesus comes to us in the lowest of the low, in the strangest ways, and we don’t even realize he’s there. Sometimes it’s in a manger as a little baby. Sometimes it’s as someone begging on the street. Sometimes it’s in the person sitting next to you.
This year, look for Jesus in others. Seeing Jesus in others gives meaning to what we do. Everything you do can be for Jesus.
There’s a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that maybe some of you know. Life 101.9 plays it sometimes. It’s called “Do Everything” and it describes a bunch of different, sometimes mundane parts of life.
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Things like picking up toys, hooking up mergers or cooking up burgers, sitting in math class, or going on a mission to the Congo. The chorus says whatever you do, it all matters, because everything you do is done for the glory of the one who made you. Every little thing you do reflects Jesus Christ. Everything you do tells the story of God’s grace.
Whatever you do to even the least of this world, you do to Jesus.
And of course, you won’t do it perfectly. Most of us will walk out of church this morning and completely miss chances even yet today to treat others like Jesus. But don’t give up, because God doesn’t give up on you. Each day is a fresh start. After all, New Years is a time for hope and new chances.
As we continue to celebrate Christmas, remember that Jesus has come for each of you, to love you, and to forgive you, even when you don’t deserve it. Even when we fail to respond as we wish we would, Jesus still calls us beloved children of God.
Merry Christmas!