Sermon Notes – Sunday 26th November
Today is Stir Up Sunday.
It’s ‘Making the Christmas Pudding’ day.
Full disclosure here – I may be an avid watcher of The Great British Bake Off, but I have absolutely no idea how to make a Christmas Pudding. I don’t really understand why you would bother when you can just buy one from M&S (other suppliers are available). But I do have access to Google so I can tell you…
“Traditionally, each year on the last Sunday before advent the cooks of each home would put aside their usual tasks for the day to whip up a pudding for Christmas Day. By making Christmas puddings well in advance of the big day, you give them enough time to mature, a bit like a good cheese or fine wine. All the alcohol can spend the next few weeks really getting to know the fruit well, which results in a beautiful friendship”, and a rather nice Xmas pudding.
“Traditionally Stir Up Sunday is a family event, with everyone gathering in the kitchen to make the most of the little ceremony. In times gone by, children would be taught the ingredients as they went, and everyone would be given a turn to stir the Christmas pudding for good luck.” (Source:Squaremeal.co.uk)
They paint such a lovely picture of family life don’t they? But for those of you who don’t want to immediately rush off and bake a pudding, never fear, Stir Up Sunday is actually called that for another reason.
It’s named after the words in today’s Collect. “Stir up Lord, the wills of thy faithful people”.
And if today’s gospel reading about the sheep and the goats and the threat of eternal damnation doesn’t stir up something in you, then I’m not sure what will!!
We hear that when Jesus returns he will separate the sheep and goats, sheep on his right and goats on his left. The sheep will inherit the kingdom – as had been promised for centuries as we heard in the reading from Ezekiel – and the goats don’t have such a cheery end, they’re off to eternal fire with the devil and his angels.
So…are you a sheep or are you a goat? As animals go, I don’t really want to be likened to either as they both smell. But this is our choice, sheep or goat?
They look surprisingly similar. They don’t in children’s story books but, out on the hillside, sheep with horns and small mountain goats do look surprisingly similar. However, they act differently, they have different natures and temperaments.
Sheep, as we know them, are followers. We think of them as docile but they’re not really, they are calm but quite stubborn. Their main characteristic though, is that they follow. They follow the shepherd’s voice and they follow each other, they are herd animals, they move as one…usually.
Goats, on the other hand, can be excitable and mischievous. They like company but need to be watched as they get into everything. They are easily distracted and known to be troublesome.
Shepherds would be able to spot which was sheep and which was goat most easily by their behaviour.
As in the parable: The sheep had given the hungry some food, the thirsty a drink, they had welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoners. The goats hadn’t done any of those things.
Again, are you a sheep or are you a goat?
Faith without action is empty.
There was some graffiti found on a wall in New York, it did the rounds on social media, it said:
“I was hungry and you formed a debating society to discuss poverty,
I was imprisoned and you complained about the crime rate.
I was naked and you prayed for the morality of my appearance.
I was sick and you thanked God for your health.
I was homeless and you preached to me about the shelter of God’s love.
You seem so holy and close to God, but I am still hungry, lonely, cold and in pain.
Does it matter?”
Faith without action is empty.
BUT! We can’t work our way into heaven. Action without faith is not the objective here.
These verses from the Gospel of Matthew is not stand-alone teaching, they are just part of a much bigger lesson. They come near the end of the Gospel. We’ve heard the sermon on the mount with the Beatitudes, we’ve heard parables teaching about the Kingdom of God, parables teaching us about living with each other in community, parables teaching us about God’s love for his creation.
This parable is not a checklist of things we need to do to get into heaven, to ensure our eternal life in a good place.
It is part of bigger teaching that we get when we look at the gospel as a whole. That our relationship with Christ, our Christian faith, should shape how we think and how we act. Remember, the sheep did not know they had acted well, they were not purposely striving for eternal life, they had just done it.
The reality is we are all both, sheep and goats. Sometimes we act like sheep and sometimes we act like goats. I can see it in my life as I’m sure you can see it in yours. Sometimes you’re moved to help, sometimes you just want to get on with your own life. Sometimes you buy a Big Issue, sometimes you buy yourself a coffee. Sometimes you will give generously to charity, sometimes you place the leaflet straight in the bin.
None of us are completely sheep or completely goat, not yet anyway, that day is coming, but for now we need to aware that we are a combination of these things. We ask God to mould us, shape us and stir us up to act kindly.
So this Stir Up Sunday we pray…
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
