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Sheep and Goats

February 19, 2024

Leviticus 19:1-2, 2:1-18  Matt 25:31-46 Psalm 19:7-14

The parable of the sheep and the goats… This one intrigues me—especially upon learning our beloved Fr. Tim and his dear wife Diane will soon be not leading but leaving our St. Luke’s community.

Frankly, that parable’s superficial Last Judgment story annoys me. Love, at least in my experience at St. Luke’s—i.e., feeding, clothing, visiting. i.e., acknowledging the humanity of the ‘least’ of Christ’s family– does NOT make me a sheep, i.e., a parishioner beloved of the shepherd largely because I’m acceptable, placid, easily led. After all, we goats are… goats: rambunctiously quick to exercise or own talents and thereby both fulfill and share our needs for food or fun. God made goats too! And there’s a little bit of goat in all of us. We just need to fit in comfortably where and how we’ll do both the least corporate damage and the most good. I, for example, love being a lively lector and discussion participant, but I’d make a miserable lay leader.

So ‘You’d better behave yourself’—that parable’s apparent point—contradicts the spirit of sheer love and acceptance that I’ve experienced—ever since I realized eight years ago (at the age of 75) that I need to be an Episcopalian and not a Roman Catholic—by being part of St. Luke’s (in my experience, uniquely) non-judgmental community.

But read that parable more closely: ‘All the nations will be gathered before him.’ On second thought, that makes sense. It’s communities of people, given our individual near-universal need to belong, that decide whether those fiscally or mentally ‘poor’ or of another so-called ‘race’ or country of origin or sexual orientation or style of clothing or tradition of child rearing or hair color or food preferences or – well, you name it, are those, i.e., not ‘us’ but ‘others’—i.e., people to be paid attention to or to be, at best, ignored.

Nations (i.e., big communities) thus need leaders who embody what most of their individuals (or the most influential of their individuals) value. Strong nations gladly follow such aspiring and inspiring leaders in directions some find ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Nazi Germany had its Hitler; the 13 colonies, their Washington. Since 2012 St. Luke’s has been nourished, consoled, encouraged—indeed, led—by the wise and non-judgmental words and deeds of Fr. Tim Rich. (All are indeed welcome at God’s table.)

Now that we need another really good leader, ought we to seek—or seek only—another Fr. Tim? 

Coming from a tradition wherein largely the-Bishop-appoints-parish-priests-and-parishioners-can-largely-like-it-or-leave-it, I find wisdom in what one of St. Luke’s far more experienced parishioners said to me last Sunday (and I paraphrase): ‘Each of our pastors has given our community a unique gift, one that we needed then and there.’  

No matter who the Holy Spirit and our Vestry members lead our St. Luke’s community to choose as the man or woman who embodies best the values we cherish and need most now, I sincerely hope it’s someone who sees, loves, and wisely guides all of us: each, in our own way, both sheep and goats.

Marie Hennedy