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The Sheep and the Goats sans Guilt
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| 11/23/2008 |
In 1930, Sigmund Freud worte, “The price we pay for the advance of civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.”
Little did I know how much I have contributed to society’s progress!
Generally, I rampage against guilt. For too many, their relationship with religion is about guilt. “If I don’t go to church, I feel guilty,” is a common sentiment I hear.
Still, we might see the church’s various doctrines about sin in harmony with Freud’s theory about feeling guilty. As we are prone to sin because of our fallen human nature, knowing what the sin is will keep us from committing it, because committing the sin will displease God, and God will judge us harshly on the last day. Our loss of happiness in not enjoying the sin is compensated by the grace of knowing God’s pleasure in our controlled action.
Solemnly, I resist this theology. God, I often say in prayer, you must be more interested in what I do with my life, what my body does, and not what it doesn’t do. Measure my life by its content, not its absences. Tarry not, O God, on that which I want, or crave; concern not with whom for I lust and the other scattered thoughts of my mind. Take my life and let it be consecrated unto thee--but my actual life, not the thoughts in my head.
It is easy to use passages such as these today to fuel a sense of religious guilt. Jesus tells the of the last judgment, when the sheep are separated from the goats because they have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick and visited the prisoner throughout their lives. Because of their deeds, they are welcomed into Kingdom, for they served Christ himself.
When seeing a homeless hungry in near naked person on the street, and then remembering how well fed, clothed and house I am, a feeling of guilt might soon follow. Why do I have so much and he has so little? He asks me for spare change so he can buy a bit of food. I know he probably won’t use the money to buy food, but drugs. But I feel guilty, so I reach into my pocket, and give him some change. After all, I’m thinking of Jesus’ words, when he says “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you close me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” If I don’t do those things, I’m risking being the goat who did not care fro the one in need. I don’t want to risk it. So my guilt causes me to do what my common sense tells me not to.
When we use scripture to harangue us, we use Scripture incorrectly. If the words of Jesus feel like scolding, our relationship with the risen Christ is based on anxiety and not hope. When our relationship with God is based on fear and guilt that is an unhealthy relationship. It smells of individualism and self-centeredness. As I’m a wont to say, if we have an individual relationship with God, then that relationship is only as healthy as our relationship with our own self. If our relationship with God is in the context of community with others who seek and strive to know God, and our relationship is shared, healthy, and more satisfying.
The passages before us today are not about our feeling guilty, but about seeing economic injustice. “When did we see you hungry, and thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or in prison?” the righteous sheep ask. Because they saw the person in need, and did not ignore, or shun away, they were seeing Christ. And the unrighteous goats, because they never saw the hungry and thirsty, they never saw Christ.
If seen, Christ can be served. To see Christ, we must see each person’s human dignity, no matter how hidden.
Our own feelings of guilt rob our vision. We focus on ourselves. We are motivated by personal gain, not Christly service.
I am really liking Thomas Friedman’s book, Hot, Flat and Crowded. Our planet earth, our fragile island home, is becoming hot through global warming, flat through globalization and economic interdependence, and crowded through the sheer growth of global population.
In the book he is arguing that our nation needs to regain a sense of national focus, such as we saw positively during World War II and focus on engaging the challenge of the hot, flat and crowded world. In the book he calls American innovation, ingenuity, and perseverance into being the lead of the green revolution of creative alternative energy and environmental protection.
“What kind of America would you like to see?” he asks, “An America where there is no big national goal or a green America, where inventing a source of abundant, clean, reliable, cheap electrons which could enable the whole planet to grow in a way that doesn’t destroy its remaining natural habitats, becomes the goal of this generation?”
Friedman’s point is that we should be motivated by this singular vision because it is in our economic self-interest.
In telling of the Great Judgement, Jesus is giving us a moral vision, a singular focus. We are to seek and serve all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and respecting the dignity of every human being (to paraphrase our baptismal covenant. Our vision must be singular, and our focus prolonged. Like Friedman’s secular, environmental vision, the Christian vision is in our moral self-interest.
To be authentically religious is to be focused on the vision of the kingdom of God. To be toxically religious is to be driven by guilt, fearing judgement.
Can we hold a singular vision where hunger is vanquished and the immigrant—legal or not—is not harangued and persecuted. Can’t we see more schools being built than prisons, and can’t we work as hard keeping the libraries of Philadelphia open as the powerful are trying to open the casinos?
I am not sanguine that in my lifetime the hungry, thirsty, sick and desperate will no longer be in our midst. But, if I see them as a neighbor, and find the right way to serve them rather than acting out of self centered feelings of guilt, I will live up to my call. I pray you join me.
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