Motivations for good works:
...a sermon on the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
Motivations for good works: a sermon on the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
©Lola J. McCrary, 2008
Delivered at Grace North Church, Berkeley, CA, 23 November 2008, the last Sunday of Pentecost.
Please note: the custom at Grace North Church is for one reading to be from a non-Christian source.
First reading:
A reading from the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo:
All action must be done in a more and more God-possessed consciousness; in the end a surrender of all our being, mind, will, heart, sense, life and body to the One must make God-love and God-service our only motive. This transformation of the very character of works is indeed its master idea; it is the foundation of a unique synthesis of works, life and knowledge. Equality, renunciation of all desire for the fruit of our works, and action done as a sacrifice to the supreme Lord of our nature and of all nature-these are the three first Godward approaches.
Second reading, done with congregational participation:
A reading from the gospel of Matthew:
NARRATOR: Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, all nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. To those on his right hand he will say, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
SHEEP: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"
NARRATOR: "When you did this to one of the least of my children, you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."
GOATS: "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and not come to your help?"
NARRATOR: "When you neglected to do this to the least of these, you neglected to do it to me." And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'
Sermon:
Good morning.
When I was preparing for this sermon, I discovered that this passage about the last judgment and the sheep and the goats is only present in Matthew. It is an addition to an interesting section in the narrative of the synoptic gospels, referred to in the commentaries as the last public discourse of Jesus. During it, Jesus foretells his arrest and death, is publicly challenged by the Jewish leaders, tells his disciples about his second coming, and how to watch for and prepare for it. Shortly after this last discourse, Jesus celebrates Passover in Jerusalem, is arrested and crucified, then rises from the dead. That’s the synoptic Cliff Notes version. Each of the three gospels relays this last discourse of Jesus in slightly different ways.
In the canonical gospels, only Matthew’s community feels the need to include this story about service and good works being the criteria used for judgment. Over the history of Christianity, there has been much discussion about what is more important: faith or good works, with various denominations practically coming to blows over it at times. The Roman Catholic commentary I looked at said that in Matthew’s community faith in Jesus and in the Father who sent him was taken for granted, and so there was no need to mention it in connection with the judgment by Jesus-faith was just as important as good works according to that commentator.
But here’s an interesting point: the translations of this passage I looked at say that after the return of Jesus, ALL nations of the world will be assembled for judgment. Now, the Christian communities that inspired the three synoptic gospels all believed that Jesus was going to return really, really soon-like any day now. So it seems to me likely that Matthew’s community knew that not everyone in the world would be exposed to the teachings of Jesus before his return. There wasn’t time for that, if it was imminent. So let’s take what the text says seriously for a moment.
Matthew’s community believed that Jesus would judge ALL people based on what they did for others, and--this is important--why they did it. The sheep in this story are surprised when they are told that they are being rewarded for providing service to Jesus, and more surprised when they are told that anytime they helped anyone, they helped Jesus. Because, that wasn’t why they were doing it: they were of service because people needed help. The goats tried to-pardon this-get Jesus’ goat by implying that they would have helped had they known it was him. Another commentator I looked at had this response to the goats: they were helping only to pander to their self-esteem. And Jesus condemns their lack of selflessness to eternal punishment. So
I thought it noteworthy that in this unique story in Matthew, faith in Jesus doesn’t seem to be part of the equation in being a sheep or being a goat.
But there’s a bit of a problem here: those of us who have heard this story--many times during the course of our exposure to Christianity-now know that being of service to anyone is being of service to God. So, it becomes much more difficult to keep a right motivation in doing good works. It’s sort of like the saying that humility is the only virtue that when you know you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
What also seems to me to be important is this: whatever our motivation, there is LOTS of suffering out there, and we each need to consider what we can do to make it better. I’m excited-and challenged-by President-elect Obama saying he will encourage all Americans to be of more service to those in need. If we wait for our motivations to become pure, it’s likely not much will be done, and many people will continue to suffer.
Nonetheless, our first reading today gives one possible way to purify our motivations. We don’t. Instead of us doing something to change our own attitude towards service, Sri Aurobindo says that we allow God to expand our consciousness more and more until our only motivation is the same as that of the Divine: love for all that is because we are one with all that is. However, it is implicit in his words today, as well as in his other writings, that we don’t stop good works while this is happening. We keep open to God’s transformation while we continue to be of service.
If we increasingly make ourselves available to the Divine, then that God-possessed consciousness will increase in us. For Sri Aurobindo there is no other result: God reaches for us, offering knowledge of divine unity, over and over and over again, until we surrender to that consciousness. It might take ten years, or ten lifetimes. But it will happen. And the more it happens, the more our motivation for service shifts.
As a matter of fact, in another passage near the one we read today, Sri Aurobindo warns that those trying to be available to transformation from the Divine through the inner path of prayer can become so absorbed in it, that when their unity with God increases to the point where they are ready to go back into the world, their abilities to interact well with others, and to be of service, haven’t kept up with their interior work. They then have to play catch up there. So he advises seeking growth in both our interior and exterior lives at the same time.
This community already has several forms of service we practice, and I know that most, if not all of its members have ministries, volunteer time, or donate money in other areas, as well. When I read this gospel, I wondered how I was going to say anything about it today that didn’t make everyone feel guilty-which is my usual reaction to this passage. I like to believe I’m doing all I can. Then I remember the DVDs I’ve brought recently, and the time I spend playing computer games, and a voice inside me says, “Yeah. Right.” Each of us has to decide if we are doing enough. Many of us are stretched very thin right now. But, mostly as a reminder to myself, I want to end with a saying by Teresa of Avila: Yours are the only hands with which God can do his work.
Let us pray:
Jesus, in your public ministry you helped everyone you could, and encouraged your followers to do the same. Grant us rigorous self-honesty so that we may evaluate our lives, abilities and resources accurately in relationship to the poverty, illness, and despair that is all around us. As lover to the world, help us to allow that love to transform us and our attitude towards service. And finally, in our community of Grace grant that we may support each other, and those around us. in times of plenty and times of need. Amen.
Motivations for good works: a sermon on the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
©Lola J. McCrary, 2008
Delivered at Grace North Church, Berkeley, CA, 23 November 2008, the last Sunday of Pentecost.
Please note: the custom at Grace North Church is for one reading to be from a non-Christian source.
First reading:
A reading from the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo:
All action must be done in a more and more God-possessed consciousness; in the end a surrender of all our being, mind, will, heart, sense, life and body to the One must make God-love and God-service our only motive. This transformation of the very character of works is indeed its master idea; it is the foundation of a unique synthesis of works, life and knowledge. Equality, renunciation of all desire for the fruit of our works, and action done as a sacrifice to the supreme Lord of our nature and of all nature-these are the three first Godward approaches.
Second reading, done with congregational participation:
A reading from the gospel of Matthew:
NARRATOR: Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, all nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. To those on his right hand he will say, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
SHEEP: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"
NARRATOR: "When you did this to one of the least of my children, you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."
GOATS: "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and not come to your help?"
NARRATOR: "When you neglected to do this to the least of these, you neglected to do it to me." And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'
Sermon:
Good morning.
When I was preparing for this sermon, I discovered that this passage about the last judgment and the sheep and the goats is only present in Matthew. It is an addition to an interesting section in the narrative of the synoptic gospels, referred to in the commentaries as the last public discourse of Jesus. During it, Jesus foretells his arrest and death, is publicly challenged by the Jewish leaders, tells his disciples about his second coming, and how to watch for and prepare for it. Shortly after this last discourse, Jesus celebrates Passover in Jerusalem, is arrested and crucified, then rises from the dead. That’s the synoptic Cliff Notes version. Each of the three gospels relays this last discourse of Jesus in slightly different ways.
In the canonical gospels, only Matthew’s community feels the need to include this story about service and good works being the criteria used for judgment. Over the history of Christianity, there has been much discussion about what is more important: faith or good works, with various denominations practically coming to blows over it at times. The Roman Catholic commentary I looked at said that in Matthew’s community faith in Jesus and in the Father who sent him was taken for granted, and so there was no need to mention it in connection with the judgment by Jesus-faith was just as important as good works according to that commentator.
But here’s an interesting point: the translations of this passage I looked at say that after the return of Jesus, ALL nations of the world will be assembled for judgment. Now, the Christian communities that inspired the three synoptic gospels all believed that Jesus was going to return really, really soon-like any day now. So it seems to me likely that Matthew’s community knew that not everyone in the world would be exposed to the teachings of Jesus before his return. There wasn’t time for that, if it was imminent. So let’s take what the text says seriously for a moment.
Matthew’s community believed that Jesus would judge ALL people based on what they did for others, and--this is important--why they did it. The sheep in this story are surprised when they are told that they are being rewarded for providing service to Jesus, and more surprised when they are told that anytime they helped anyone, they helped Jesus. Because, that wasn’t why they were doing it: they were of service because people needed help. The goats tried to-pardon this-get Jesus’ goat by implying that they would have helped had they known it was him. Another commentator I looked at had this response to the goats: they were helping only to pander to their self-esteem. And Jesus condemns their lack of selflessness to eternal punishment. So
I thought it noteworthy that in this unique story in Matthew, faith in Jesus doesn’t seem to be part of the equation in being a sheep or being a goat.
But there’s a bit of a problem here: those of us who have heard this story--many times during the course of our exposure to Christianity-now know that being of service to anyone is being of service to God. So, it becomes much more difficult to keep a right motivation in doing good works. It’s sort of like the saying that humility is the only virtue that when you know you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
What also seems to me to be important is this: whatever our motivation, there is LOTS of suffering out there, and we each need to consider what we can do to make it better. I’m excited-and challenged-by President-elect Obama saying he will encourage all Americans to be of more service to those in need. If we wait for our motivations to become pure, it’s likely not much will be done, and many people will continue to suffer.
Nonetheless, our first reading today gives one possible way to purify our motivations. We don’t. Instead of us doing something to change our own attitude towards service, Sri Aurobindo says that we allow God to expand our consciousness more and more until our only motivation is the same as that of the Divine: love for all that is because we are one with all that is. However, it is implicit in his words today, as well as in his other writings, that we don’t stop good works while this is happening. We keep open to God’s transformation while we continue to be of service.
If we increasingly make ourselves available to the Divine, then that God-possessed consciousness will increase in us. For Sri Aurobindo there is no other result: God reaches for us, offering knowledge of divine unity, over and over and over again, until we surrender to that consciousness. It might take ten years, or ten lifetimes. But it will happen. And the more it happens, the more our motivation for service shifts.
As a matter of fact, in another passage near the one we read today, Sri Aurobindo warns that those trying to be available to transformation from the Divine through the inner path of prayer can become so absorbed in it, that when their unity with God increases to the point where they are ready to go back into the world, their abilities to interact well with others, and to be of service, haven’t kept up with their interior work. They then have to play catch up there. So he advises seeking growth in both our interior and exterior lives at the same time.
This community already has several forms of service we practice, and I know that most, if not all of its members have ministries, volunteer time, or donate money in other areas, as well. When I read this gospel, I wondered how I was going to say anything about it today that didn’t make everyone feel guilty-which is my usual reaction to this passage. I like to believe I’m doing all I can. Then I remember the DVDs I’ve brought recently, and the time I spend playing computer games, and a voice inside me says, “Yeah. Right.” Each of us has to decide if we are doing enough. Many of us are stretched very thin right now. But, mostly as a reminder to myself, I want to end with a saying by Teresa of Avila: Yours are the only hands with which God can do his work.
Let us pray:
Jesus, in your public ministry you helped everyone you could, and encouraged your followers to do the same. Grant us rigorous self-honesty so that we may evaluate our lives, abilities and resources accurately in relationship to the poverty, illness, and despair that is all around us. As lover to the world, help us to allow that love to transform us and our attitude towards service. And finally, in our community of Grace grant that we may support each other, and those around us. in times of plenty and times of need. Amen.