“SECOND LAST SUNDAY 2024”
Saint Matthew 25: 31-46
2nd Last Sunday: November 17 Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Some may be seated in our churches every Sunday for any number of spurious reasons, or, practical and selfish ‘kingdom of the left’ reasons. But you, Christians gather weekly at The Mass of Word and Sacrament because they actually believe The Word of God: “…The Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the Holy Angels with Him…”
You do truly “believe, teach, and confess” that Christ is returning—and soon. You trust His promise to divide the sheep from the goats as The Good Shepherd must do. This is both terrifying and exciting. Frightening to contemplate everlasting fire for enemies of God; those who were a lying and murdering brood, like their father, the devil. But eager anticipation for the Saints of The Lord who yearn to be ushered into Christ’s, and The Father’s Kingdom “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
And yes, those words of Jesus: “prepared for you from the foundation of the world” indicate His “predestination” and “election” of all His sheep/lambs which St. Paul also explains in Romans 8.
A loyal, faithful, and genuine sheep dog, loves and serves its master in the daily routine of sheep-dogging. It shows joy and eagerness to its master (herding and guarding with indefatigable persistence, wagging its tail, licking the hand of the shepherd, resting at his feet) and simply does, without thinking, all the things that a sheep-dog: does (it is its nature). So, what does it matter that the dog does not remember what it did on the day before or the week before. It is a true pointy-nosed, four footed, hairy ‘apple tree’ producing apples. The orchard does not remember the bountiful crop of last season. But that canine companion is just that: a companion. It is found at its Master’s feet—paying attention to His will.
That is, you!
Now the Law. The Lord made you, redeemed you, and sanctifies you to Love God perfectly and to love your neighbor as yourself. You do not do that. You do not perfectly feed meat (food) the hungry; you do not give cool water to the thirsty; you do not visit the sick and imprisoned; not as God demands. But Jesus did, and does. Read The Bible—The Word informs you of His goodness by way of its Good News. That proverbial sheep-dog belongs to The Shepherd because he chose it, He selected it, He made it his by His doing. When it is with him, it does remember him and focuses on Him, even as Saint Mary of Bethany hung on every word of Christ! One might say that the dog is “in” the Shepherd in a mysterious way—their two minds are one.
Are you in Church right now? Did you confess your sins and receive absolution? Did you hear The Scriptures read? Did you confess The Creed? Do you believe? The answers are yes. Thus, you remember Jesus—His Person and Work—for you!
Since you are “in Him” His works of love, that you may not remember doing yourself, are all yours by Grace through Faith.
God remembers. Always. God remembers you when you forget, ignore, and even disobey and disappoint. His rainbow arc in the sky is to remember His love to Noah and Noah’s Church—which is also all of you and The Church. He remembered His promise of sending His Son—made to Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of Israel—YOU!
The Lord remembered you when He was stripped of His cloak and shirt on Calvary; when He clothed you with the seamless Garment of Grace in your + Baptism. He gave you the water of life even as He did to the Samaritan woman at the well. Christ remembered each and every one of you during His 40-day painful fast in the desert; when He feeds you His inscripturated Word and His Blessed Sacramental Word at the rail. Jesus remembers you when He visits you when you and your loved ones are sick and also dying; He remembered you when He suffered and died on the cross.
It is not about your remembering or your works. Though to be sure, you should, and sometimes (many times) do remember and do perform good works. It is what a Christian naturally does—my fellow sheep-dogs. No one, not one of you, is ever forgotten.
So, even through your struggles, setbacks, pains, and tears, believe in His remembrance: Esaias gives you Jesus: “sing, o heavens; and be joyful, o earth; for The Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hand” [Is. 49. 13-16].
The Faith, Christ for you, your faith—given as a free gift, even as the shepherd feeds his loyal canine, constrains you now this morning, by The Holy Spirit, to actually do some good, meet, right, and salutary remembering. Look to the Crucifix and receive. And “take, eat, this is My Body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me…drink ye all of it; this cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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