Category: Matthew 25:31 46

The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year 2023

11/22/2023

The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26) 2019

11/17/2019

Today’s Gospel is one that makes Lutherans nervous. It sure sounds a lot like your works get you into heaven. The sheep are sheep because they did enough good stuff. They visited prisoners, fed widows and orphans, clothed the naked, and the like. They were out doing deeds of charity, and for that they are given eternal life. The goats, the cursed, didn’t do good works, or at least didn’t do enough of them, and so they go to hell. This seems to create an impasse. Which is it—faith or works? Do I earn it or not? And with the judgment motif running through these last three weeks of the Church Year I’d really like to know which so I’m on the right side when the Last Day comes. I just want to be a sheep!

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Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26) 2018

11/18/2018

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It’s not good to be a goat. The goats are condemned because, as Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” These Words of Jesus seem to confirm what our minds have come to believe about heaven: you get in by being good. Or, how we have come to define goodness.

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The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year 2023

The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26) 2019

Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26) 2018

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