A Little Bit Sheepish

Have you gotten your flu shot yet? Seen your doctor for your annual checkup? Sometimes we can get a little nervous going to the doctor, wondering what they might find, or hearing again that we need to lose weight or eat less sugar. Sometimes we get hard news from the doctor, but it’s only because the doctor cares about us and wants us to have the best health possible.

Read Psalm 100 and Matthew 25:31-46.

Rev. Lindsey Armstrong compares this Gospel passage to a doctor check up, saying that this passage is less designed to condemn people than it is to inspire us to check up on how we are living out our salvation. 

How did you feel reading this Matthew passage? Did you identify with the goats, or did you feel a little sheepish?

Either way, it’s important to remember that as Jesus tells this story, both the sheep AND the goats are surprised by what he tells them. The sheep did not care for the least of these because they knew it would earn Jesus’ favor. The sheep served their brothers and sisters because they were living out the salvation they had freely received.

Jesus once again points out that how we live today really matters – that how we treat each other matters to God. Mission Sunday is about having a check up on our faithful lives – are we living out our salvation? Are we actively caring for the least of these? Are we being faithful to our commitments to Let’s Help, Doorstep, Topeka Rescue Mission, and VIDA? Psalm 100 calls us God’s people, God’s sheep in the pasture – are we living up to that identity?

Lest we think we are too good to associate with the hungry and the thirsty, Matthew makes it clear: the powerful One on the throne is also the hungry, the thirsty, the poor. Our shepherd king who knows His flock is also the vulnerable, weak, and dependent. As we serve those in need, our hearts and our lives are transformed by the power of the Spirit, and we see in the least of these not just the face of Jesus but our own image as well. Praise be to the God of the least of these. May we all be a little more sheepish.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

Mission Possible: On a Mission From God

Last week in worship we saw through a clever video that Trinity has a mission…if we choose to accept it. But what is that mission? Who gives us the mission – and are we part of the Impossible Missions Force like in the TV series and movies Mission: Impossible? They are constantly given impossible missions, but they always find a way to make them possible. If we at Trinity accept our mission, will it actually be possible?

Read Mark 10:17-31 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-2.

Much like in the classic Blues Brothers movie, we at Trinity are on a mission from God.  

Just like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, God has given us as Christ-followers a special mission. As we look at the Gospel message today, we might get the feeling that the mission is impossible.

A rich and faithful man approaches Jesus in a respectful way with a question that is on his heart. Because Jesus loves him, Jesus gives him a mission, a way that this rich man can be a participant in the kingdom of God. Jesus knows his obedient and faithful heart to the Jewish laws – so he asks the man to sell everything he has and give it to the poor.

While Christian tradition has always assumed that the man rejected the mission from Jesus, there is nothing in any of the Gospels to suggest that. We don't really know what his future looked like. All we know is the man went away sorrowful, grieving because he loved his possessions. Maybe he was sorrowful because he loved his possessions more than he loved God. Or maybe he was sorrowful because he knew that this was going to be a big change in the way he lived – no more nice dinners at the Rowhouse, no more KU basketball season tickets, no more shopping sprees in Kansas City. Maybe he was grieving his own self-centered way of living as he was taking the first step toward the kingdom of God.

We don’t know the end to the rich man’s story. But we hear in this Gospel a call to follow Jesus, a call to remove whatever blocks us from loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength – possessions, addictions, pop culture, our busy calendar. The Good News is that Jesus loves us enough to give us a mission. The Good News is that we can choose to accept that, and will be surrounded by sisters, brothers, and Jesus along that Way. How will you respond to God’s call to mission? What will the end of your story be? The Good News is that by the grace of God, we can take baby steps in the right direction, that we can trust in a God who makes the impossible possible, who turns little into much, who restores the sick to health, and who wants us to be partners in that mission. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

Come and See. Go and Tell.

Jonah is the perfect poster boy for trying to flee God and God's call.  Read Jonah 3: 1-10 to see just how persistent God can be.  After Jonah is dumped overboard from a ship and swallowed by a big fish and then vomited out of the fish through God's creative and saving grace, God comes to Jonah a second time:  "Get up and go to Ninevah to proclaim my message of repentance."  Finally convinced that he can't escape God's call, Jonah does the minimum preaching possible - only to attain maximum results!  Jonah is outraged.

How do we all try to dodge God's call sending us out into the world by diving into our busy calendars, locking ourselves into the demands of work and family, insisting that we have minimum time for service to others?  How do we rationalize that our meager efforts won't make much of a difference in bringing in the kingdom of God anyway?  How do we minimize God with such rationalizations?

In contrast Jesus shows up in Galilee proclaiming the good news (Mark 1: 14-20):  "the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news."  In contrast to Jonah's flight in the opposite direction, Simon, his brother Andrew, James, and his brother John, drop their nets - drop everything - to follow Jesus out into the world.  We might ask, "Did it really happen immediately?"  (Mark writes a fast paced gospel with his favorite being "immediately.")  "Or were they discouraged with their fishing careers and were ready for a new direction?"  "What happened to their families as they left town?"

Perhaps Jesus' presence was compelling enough that they not only followed, but they were changed in the course of following.  Being called to come and see - and then commissioned to go and tell - meant that the 4 new disciples were irrevocably changed forever.  Bowing down before Jesus in worship and then proclaiming by word or action what we believe about the presence of the kingdom in Jesus gives us a new identity.

Going and telling is an act of faithful followership.  It's scary and exciting and compelling and a game changer.  It's how we carry our worship out into the world.