“Create in us clean hearts, O God. And renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and uphold us with your free Spirit. AMEN.”
Matthew’s gospel is all about clean hearts. Good hearts. A couple of weeks ago I said, “It’s about meaning well.” Are your thoughts, is your heart, in the right place? Then your actions will follow suit. This is at the center of so many of Jesus’ lessons and parables, and today we have the final judgement in the the final days before Jesus goes to the cross:
Lord when was it that we saw you? When we visited the homeless, the sick, the lonely, the imprisoned. It was in the eyes, the faces, the bodies of the “least of these” that Jesus has made himself known to us. And when we reach out to help them, we are reaching out to Christ himself.
This is the last and final section of what’s been called the Final Discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s also known as the Olivette Discourse, because it takes place on the Mount of Olives...
And did you know -- there is a Lutheran hospital on the Mount of Olives today? Quite amazing, really: the Lutheran World Federation owns property on the Mount of Olives, possibly right where Jesus stood/sat and spoke this final discourse! The ELCA is present there today, with this hospital and also involved in some significant housing projects, for homeless Palestinian Christians who have had there East Jerusalem neighborhoods demolished, and had no where to go. And there’s this hospital there, which treats everyone, serves all in need, regardless of race, religion, nationality or ability to pay.
It’s called the Augusta Victoria Hospital. Specialize in Pediatric Nephrology, Ear-Nose-Throat, first-rate cancer center. This is a radical thing in the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They treat everyone.
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| The olive branch is a symbol of peace. |
There’s been tremendous pressure from the Israeli government, who’s tried to charge back taxes and hike up rates. But the hospital continues to serve. (There are also 800 olive trees on Lutheran World Federation property on the Mount of Olives, and ELCA congregations, around the country have planted trees there. We could plant one too.)
I’ve never been there, but I’d love to go see it, I’ve heard lots of stories and seen pictures online: the work of LWF in the exact place possibly that Jesus gave this Olivette discourse.
And what occurs to me is that the people who are working so hard on that site are probably not thinking about this passage on a daily basis. They’re not serving in order to be God’s sheep vs. the goats -- they’re not obsessed with getting a righteous seat on Jesus’ right side. They’re just busy trying to figure out how to treat Yosef’s lymphoma, or Gabriela’s diabetes.
Just like so many all over the world and in our own cities and neighborhoods, they are people who wake up in the morning and go to work, and take care of others all day -- just because it’s the right thing to do.
Just like you, sisters and brothers in Christ, wake up in the morning, put on your shoes, brush your teeth, have your cup of coffee, and get to work doing what God has given you the skills to do.
I imagine you don’t do what you do with your mind and heart obsessed about “getting onto Jesus‘ good side”. No, the righteous live by faith...which means the righteous live by participation. We are participants in God’s mercy and love, not just recipients. It’s a way of everyday life.
We do what we do, because it’s the right thing to do.
And yet, Jesus tells us today that when we care for the least of these, we care for him. When we meet the least of these -- the types of people being treated at Augusta Victoria, the types of people being loved by you in your everyday life -- we are meeting Jesus!
I love that in this passage the righteous did’t even know they were seeing Jesus. “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
The righteous -- the ones with their hearts in the right place, the ones who are meaning well -- didn’t do it to secure their spot in heaven, like that extra fee you pay online to have your seat at the ballgame secured way before you get there. The medics, and teachers, and carpenters, and public defenders, and students, and volunteers at Common Ground, and caretakers of aging parents, and nurses of newborns didn’t do what they do -- we don’t do what we do -- to earn our seat next to Jesus. We do it because it’s simply the right thing to do.
This is what Jesus is looking for -- and this is how he separates the sheep from the goats. “Is their heart in the right place?”
We pray to God to create in us clean hearts -- to help us mean well -- and then we trust that God takes care of the rest.
And God does.
God gathers us in, and gives us a place at the banquet table. “Come, inherit the bounty, the joy, the eternal peace, the party that has been prepared for you.”
“For me?” we ask, incredulously.
“Yes, for you,” Jesus answers. “You’ve been serving me all your days. You’ve been caring for me as you care for the poor, as you care for the needy, as you care for one another, as you care for the immigrant and the stranger, as you care for the earth and all its creatures, as you care for yourself (with good exercise and diet), as you care for the abused, the neglected, the homeless and working poor of San Diego, as you care for children and their teachers -- you’ve been serving me all along.
“Come in here, you Sheep, and enjoy the banquet!”
Christ calls us sheep, because we have and continue to participate with God in the loving of the enemy, in the caring for the poor, in the welcoming of the immigrant, and the planting of the olive trees. Jesus gathers us in, at the last, restoring us with that “free Spirit”! (Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and uphold us with your free Spirit.)
And in the meantime, we continue to go about our good business, meaning well -- going in peace and remembering the poor. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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