2020.11.22 | Be the Sheep
“Be the Sheep”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
On the face of it, “The Great Judgment” in Matthew 25 suggests that there are two kinds of people in the world: sheep and goats. The sheep take care of the vulnerable and are going to heaven, and the goats don’t so they are going to hell.
I confess, on my less charitable days, I feel drawn to this literal interpretation of Matthew 25 even though I don’t think it’s correct. I’m drawn to it because--maybe like you--I’m sick and tired of watching vulnerable people suffer.
While I do think that God sides with the vulnerable, I think that taking a literal interpretation of The Great Judgment is wrong. And, it’s wrong because the larger heuristic of the New Testament teaches that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our works.
New Testament scholar Douglas R. A. Hare, who is an expert on Matthew, has helped me understand that The Great Judgment is an apocalyptic vision in which the visionary imagines “all nations” gathered together on the last day, and that “all means all”--not just people who were affiliated with Israel.
If all means all, and Matthew says it does, then the “sheep” include Roman pagans who care for the most vulnerable, and the “goats” includes anyone who doesn’t care for the vulnerable--including so-called followers of Christ.
So The Great Judgment story prompts hearers to a life of self-assessment, and it encourages us to look for “sheep” and join their herd.
II
It doesn’t take us a lot of imagination to figure out who the vulnerable are in Matthew 25. gives us a list: the hungry, the thirsty, foreigners, the naked, the sick, and those who are in prison. But who are the sheep? Who, exactly, are the sheep? Have you seen any sheep lately?
I have. This past year, I became friends with a school psychologist in our district. Her name is Hiat Saleh. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and is the daughter of Yemen immigrants. She and her family are Muslim.
When Hiat found out that we hosted a food pantry and computer cafe at Eden Church, she started volunteering to help us on Wednesdays by tutoring students in the Cafe whose mothers were helping at the food bank.
When Hiat learned that we also ran the Cherryland Computer Cafe on Thursday evenings during Spanish Bible study, she rearranged her schedule to tutor on those evenings as well, so that our parents could attend Bible study and our children could become more successful in school.
In mid March when the pandemic unfurled on the Left Coast, Hiat called me and said that she was on her way over to the church with face masks, because she knew that people in our neighborhood would need N-95 face masks, that those who needed them most should be leaving their homes, and that some wouldn’t have money to buy them or be able to find them on the shelves of local stores. So Hiat kept one mask for herself and entrusted me with all of the rest. I thought, wow, I want to be like Hiat. I want to put on my face mask and help others.
I have encountered, not only individual sheep, like Hiat. I’ve met whole herds of sheep in our community. Both examples that I will share today have a connection with Fairview Elementary School. This past summer, Josefina Garcia, the Attendance Clerk, reached out to me and asked for help obtaining diapers and school supplies for families that were especially affected by COVID-19.
I was honest with her and said that I wasn’t sure that we could meet all the needs in her school on top of Cherryland and the surge that we were experiencing at the food pantry. I offered to help some, but said that I thought they needed to find another organization to help them, and I offered to help with an introduction to another faith community.
True confessions, I made that offer to Josefina without having any idea of who to call. As a first step I pulled up Google Maps on my Internet browser and reminded myself of where Fairview School is and what faith communities might be located in their immediate neighborhood. Through that search, I noticed that Gurdwara Sahib of Hayward was closeby. That’s our local Shik temple that’s located near San Felipe Park on D Street, just above All Saints Church.
I knew some of the Shik leaders from their participation in the Eden Area Interfaith Council, and decided to reach out to the person in the group who I knew best, Gurmeet Beasley. He responded immediately to my inquiry for help with Fairview School. He and I provided introductions for Josefian and other leaders at the Gurdwara. The Sikhs of Hayward didn’t hesitate when asked to help. They not only met the needs of the families in crisis, they provided backpacks and school supplies for the entire elementary school.
In hindsight, I thought, “Wow, impressive. I wish there were more Gurdwaras in Hayward--more sheep herds like that--because I couldn’t think of any churches that would for sure help out.”
A couple of weeks ago, a woman called the church office and spoke with our office manager, Mark, and later with me. The caller identified herself as Mrs. Shah, the recently retired office manager at Fairview Elementary School. Mrs. Shah explained further that was a member of the Jain Society of Northern California.
The Jains are a religion that grew out of the Buhdist tradition in the Punjab region of India in the 15th Century AD. The Jain Temple where her community worships is located in San Jose.
Mrs. Shah said that her people had learned of the high incidence of COVID-19 in our area, and wanted to help us out. So she called to find out what we needed. We agreed that food probably wasn’t the best project to collaborate on, because her community’s diet is very different from the diet of most residents here in Cherryland. She suggested that they provide personal hygiene products for us to share with all 300 families who are served by our food pantry. I said that would be perfect. We’ll be sharing the Jains’ contribution with Cherryland this coming Wednesday.
III
I confess, I have much to learn about Islam, Sikhism, and the Jain Community. My World Religions class in college was very broad, not very deep, and a long time ago, and even then, I didn’t learn much about the Sikhs or the Jains and I recall far less, but this much I know and will not forget.
I know that a Muslim woman of Yemenis decent gave an average of two once or twice a week for several months--after she’d already put in a full day of work for the school district--to tutor children in our Spanish-speaking immigrant community so that they could experience more success in school and in life. I know that the Sikhs of Hayward funded school supplies, not just for a few families, but for all the children at Fairview Elementary School last fall. And, I know that a Jain Community in San Jose cared enough about our unincorporated community to notice that we have been hit hard by COVID-19. So rather than look away, they took up an offering, called to find out what would be helpful, and drove a van full of personal hygiene products up from San Jose for 300 families who they will never meet.
Think about that for a moment: a Muslim, a Gurdwara, and a Jain Community. Think about how different these three faith traditions are from each other, and how different they are from us. Think, too, about the fact that they all have one thing in common. They fit Matthew’s description of “sheep.” Let’s go join their herd! Amen.