This is an adapted form of the sermon I preached on Christ the King, Sunday, November 26, 2023. The gospel text was Matthew 25:31-46. To see a video of the sermon, click here.

Jodie was upset. “Why did I come here today?” she wondered. “I thought this would help. Now I feel worse than when I started.” Jodie was sitting in church, and the service was just ending. The people around her started to put their hymnals back in the pew racks, and began to chat with one another. Jodie didn’t know any of them. She shook her head sadly, preparing to go home.

From behind her, Jodie felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned, and a woman with a broad smile stood there. “Good morning,” she said. “My name’s Carla. Would you like to join me for coffee in the Social Hall today?”

Jodie thought for a second. I suppose I might as well, she thought. She smiled and nodded. Carla said, “Great! Follow me.” Carla led her down the steps into the social hall. Jodie poured herself a cup of coffee, and picked up a small piece of cake. She sat down at a table with Carla, who was dipping a tea bag in a cup of hot water.

“I’m so glad you joined us for worship today,” Carla said. “And I’m glad you stayed afterward to chat. I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

“I’ve haven’t been here before,” Jodie said. “It’s probably been fifteen years since I was at any church, in fact. But since my – well, in the past few months, I just thought maybe I should come back.”

Carla nodded. “How was it? Did you find what you were looking for?”

Jodie laughed a little. “Well, I don’t know. I think I’m looking for forgiveness or something.”

“Did you find it?” asked Carla.

Jodie paused, and said, “No. If anything I feel worse.”

“Oh no!” Carla said. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Tell me more.”

Jodie said, “It was the gospel reading today, that story about the sheep and the goats. I’m definitely not one of the sheep. I’ve done – well, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of. I’m definitely a goat. And I don’t want to end up –” she paused. There was a tear welling up in her left eye. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” She looked down and held her coffee cup with both hands.

 “Of course,” Carla said kindly. “I can understand how you heard the gospel reading that way. May I tell you how I heard it?” Jodie nodded as she sipped her coffee. Carla continued, “When I was younger, I was convinced that I wasn’t good enough. I was always so worried about messing up. I came to church every week, still do, but readings like this always upset me. That’s it – I’m going to hell! Pardon my language. I was convinced that God was angry with me. That God just wanted to punish me. So I kept coming, kept coming, hoping to find out how to be better. And then I finally heard it. I finally heard the whole story. And I noticed that even though there were individual stories like this that were scary, the bigger story of the Bible is a story of love and hope. And forgiveness. Have you ever heard of God’s grace, Jodie?”

“I think so,” Jodie said quietly.

“Grace means that God’s love is freely given to us, no matter what we do, no matter what we’ve done, no matter who we are. We don’t have to do anything to earn it. In fact, we can’t. Jesus has already done it!”

“I’m confused. That doesn’t sound at all like that reading today.” Jodie said.

“I know!” Carla was smiling. “I know! It’s so weird! Some parts of the Bible just don’t seem like they belong in the Bible! But I think of it like baking soda in chocolate chip cookies. Would you eat baking soda by itself?”

Jodie laughed. “Eww! I tried that once when I was eight. It was nasty!”

“Right! But you need to mix it in the dough to make the cookies good. It’s important, it’s necessary, but it’s not what the flavor of the whole cookie is.” She took a sip of her tea. Carla continued, “That’s what stories like this are like. They don’t tell us the overall picture of God’s grace. But they tell us some really important things that are mixed in. Whenever I hear a story like this, that sounds like God condemning us, I remind myself – ooh, this must be the baking soda.”

Jodie nodded. “Okay. I think I follow you. So what does this one mean?”

Carla said, “Well, I might be wrong, but here’s how I hear it. I think the key is in how surprised everybody was. Did you notice that both the sheep and the goats were surprised that they were there? Neither of them had any idea that the way they treated people was connected to Jesus at all. They just did it. The sheep just treated people well because…well, I guess because they thought it was the right thing to do! And the goats, well, they treated people poorly, I guess because they were selfish and self-centered, and couldn’t see beyond themselves.”

Jodie tilted her head. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Carla continued: “And I think the message Jesus wanted to give us in this story is that other people are important. The way we treat them is important. And it’s important that we treat everyone this way. That’s why he said, ‘the least of these.’ I think of the least of these as people who are beaten up and underprivileged.”

Jodie said, “I heard someone say once that your character is how you act when you think nobody is watching.”

Carla laughed. “Yes! That’s a good way to put it! The point here is that the way we treat others, whoever they are, matters to God. The way we treat others is the way we treat God. We have to treat everybody right. Care for everybody. No matter who they are.”

Jodie paused, to let this sink in. “But what if we don’t? What if we’re sometimes cruel and thoughtless?”

Carla looked closely at Jodie, and said, “I have been very cruel and thoughtless sometimes. And I have gotten so stuck in spirals of guilt when that happens. But I’m learning instead to ask God for forgiveness, and he forgives me. Every single time. And this story helps remind me that being a disciple of Jesus isn’t just about me. In fact, Jesus forgiving me is just the beginning. This story reminds me that once I’ve received that forgiveness, it frees me up from worrying about myself so I can help others. And that’s the whole point. A wise woman once told me, ‘What are we here for if not to make life easier for one another?’ I think she was right.”

Jodie said, “I feel like you know me, that you know what it’s like to feel this guilt. Do you really think I can be forgiven? Do you really think I can do good things?”

Carla took both of her hands. “Yes. No question. No question at all. I bet you’re already doing a lot of good things, and not noticing it because you’re so worried about it! I think you can learn to let go of worrying about that and live now. I know you can. Because I did it.”

Jodie pulled one of her hands back to wipe the tears from her eye. “Sounds hard. Do you – do you think I could talk to you again next week?”

Carla smiled and said, “Of course. I’ll be here. Can I give you a hug?”

Jodie nodded. The two women hugged, and Jodie waved goodbye and left.

***

So, I wanted to do two things in this story today. First, I wanted to share with you a way of looking at this gospel reading that is filled with hope and encouragement.

And second, I also wanted to give you a glimpse of the kind of conversations that can happen through the Sharing Our Hope booklet that I told you about last week. This booklet I’m making right now will be a list of difficult things that we sometimes deal with, along with the names of people whom we can talk to about them, like, “If you are struggling with such-and-such, you can talk to so-and-so.” And those people will be some of you.

For instance, Carla in the story might appear in the Sharing Our Hope booklet, like this: “If you are struggling with guilt, you can talk to Carla.” Not because Carla was a trained expert, but because she had struggled with guilt so much in her past, and was now comfortable talking about it. And because of that, she was able to help Jodie. And I think both of them found their conversation to be meaningful and healing.

The Sharing Our Hope booklet can help these conversations to happen. And today, I invite you to be part of it. In your pews are some slips you can fill out. I invite you today to fill out one of these slips, and get it to me. If you choose to fill one out, you can hand it to me on your way out today, or just leave it in your pew and I’ll pick it up this afternoon. I will also be emailing a link for another way to sign up. If you’re on my email list, you’ll get that link in the next day or two.

Two things to remember: first, these are not confidential. If you choose to share this, you’re choosing to make it public. Secondly, I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to sign up. Please only sign up if you’re comfortable doing so. 

My hope is to print this booklet in a few weeks, and have it available for members and visitors to read, and maybe even have a conversation like the one Carla and Jodie had. As Carla said, “What are we here for if not to make life easier for one another?”

Image by 🌸♡💙♡🌸 Julita 🌸♡💙♡🌸 from Pixabay