First NT Sermon prepared as an assignment for P501, Dr. Teresa Frye Brown, Candler School of Theology, November 26, 2019
Brother
Goat’s Ghost Needs More Time or God’s Grace is Time
In our text we find
ourselves at the end of time. Maybe some of these folks thought they had more
time, when in fact they were out of time. How many times have you looked at
your watch or your phone and thought you had more time only to find out you
were already late? Did you pray, “Oh God, I need more time”?
Two Sunday’s ago, I met a
man lying on the curb, half on and half off the ingress ramp on I85 turning
onto North Druid Hills. He was mumbling to himself seemingly drunk. I shook him
gently and tried to talk to him. Finally, grasping my hands he struggled to his
feet and limped off to sit on a stump. He apologized for his condition and told
me his story. He had knee replacement surgery the prior week and left Grady on
his own. He had taken a Percocet for pain. Then one of his colleagues on the
street had offered him a drink to celebrate his birthday. “Usually, I don’t
drink. But it’s my birthday. I’m 72 today.” He had fallen, tripping on the
curb.
He begs for money from
the passers by so that he can buy food and those little green Bibles. He gives
them to the homeless that live under the bridges down by the Salvation Army
building. When the first responders arrived, he refused to leave where he was
because he had a mission to raise more money. “I can get a place at the VA, but
I don’t want to leave these kids. They don’t have hope.” He needed more
time.
Mr. Baily, blind in one
eye, limping from his recent surgery, recovering from a stroke and a heart
attack, scrawny and dirty from living outdoors, regarded these people without
hope as so much more important than his own life. Mr. Baily a Marine, a Vietnam
Vet, a brother, and a sheep needs more time.1
How
you value Jesus is measured in how you value his brothers and sisters.
In Matthew 23, Jesus leaves
Jerusalem in preparation for the Passover and in anticipation of his
crucifixion. He gives yet more parables to his disciples. They want to know
when will the end times be? and what will it be like? The end times …What role
does the end of time play in our lives today? They are concerned with time.
Are you concerned with time?
In Jerusalem he condemned
the Pharisees - the priests, the preachers, and the theologians of the day - for
their lack of mercy, their arrogance in thinking so highly of themselves that
they have not given attention to the things that are important to God.
This scripture is written
to us, the keepers of the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are
admonished as disciples to know what is important in life for the salvation of
our souls and the souls of the flock of Jesus. Do you need time to absorb
this?
Earlier in this chapter
in the parable of the wise virgins he admonished his disciples to ALWAYS be
ready for his coming. Five of those virgins were out of time. In Matthew
25, the great Shepherd separates His flock. His sheep. His goats. Our
ghosts. Our Souls, our spirits, at the end of the age. At the end of time.
The gospel has been preached to all peoples, all nations, all tribes. By
this time, all nations belong to Christ. Nevertheless, he separates them
from each other, sheep to the right, goats to his left. They were out of
time.
In a culture that
understands flocks and herds, the people would understand the difference in
these animals. Sheep are congregational. Sheep can recognize the photo of a
face of a familiar family member or member of the flock for up to 2-3 years
after having not seen them. Sheep will defend each other.2
Goats are loners. They
are intelligent yet mischievous. They eat anything and everything not
discriminating. They are less concerned with the herd and are more independent
and concerned for themselves.3
We see a different
character presented between sheep and goats. We see two animals not genetically
compatible. We see two animals with very different natures.4
The Old Testament
prescribes using primarily sheep for trespass offerings and goats for sin
offerings. Trespass and sin are often exchanged as equivalents, but the roots
of the original words have different meanings.5
A trespass is that thing you do by accident,
by mistake, by forgetfulness. A sin can be characterized as that thing you do
deliberately to hurt another human being, or the thing that you do not do that
hurts another human being – withholding purposefully that which you ought to
not withhold. Sin is habitual. Sin is a character flaw. The difference between
the sheep and the goats is like comparing a trespass to a sin. Sin will
consume your time. It will leave you without time to attend to those things
that require your most important time.6
Withholding food to the
hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, hospitality to the
stranger, visitation to the imprisoned, care for the sick …
Withholding justice in
the legal system to the oppressed, withholding fair wages to the hard working
destitute, withholding jobs based on gender identity or race or age or
ethnicity or who a person loves, increasing housing costs for profit, outpricing medical care and prescriptions for
greed … habitually, when you know you are called to care for the poor, or
because you despise these people … according to our scripture, this is a sin,
and those that do this … they are the goats. God’s grace is time.
How much time? How much
time do we have? God’s grace is time …
God’s grace is that our
Lord gives us time to change.
Lenny was a bad dude. He
was a serial rapist and killer in the 60’s that never got caught. Ironically,
he died after being stabbed in the back in a bar fight. He was a braggart about
what he did, until his last victim. Something in her changed him. She was
buried in the Decatur cemetery not far from here. Lenny spent many years losing
track of time hoping to encounter her again. Lenny is a ghost.7
In the same cemetery were
buried a group of orphans. At the turn of the 19th century over 25
orphans died within a few years of each other. The orphanage was a dark,
desolate place of despair. In Lenny’s case, he created a horrible end for his
victims. These ghosts were out of time.8
Decatur cemetery is known
for its ghosts. To the untrained eye, all you will perceive are cold drafts and
maybe the occasional orb caught on camera. For my friend Boo Newell, who sees
into the ghost realm, the world is very different. She sees the lost souls who
wander the earth trapped between life in the flesh and life in the hereafter.
She met Lenny who shared his story. She met the children who died sick and unloved
in the orphanage and didn’t know where to go after they died. She also met Miss
Katherine, who had worked in the orphanage and loved the children. One year she
caught the flu and also died. She was out of time.9
Miss Katherine had the
opportunity to cross over. She saw heaven open up before her. Yet, she lived
the life of a sheep in the flesh and in the spirit. She saw the children in the
cemetery lost and alone and decided to stay to watch over them rather than
cross over to what she knew was heaven. She gave up her time.
Boo, a minister to lost ghostly
souls, worked with Miss Katherine to gather all the children in the cemetery on
a specific day. As anticipated, the angels came, opened the portal to heaven
and reunited the children with their parents. Miss Katherine crossed over last.
No longer would they wander lost and alone in the cemetery. God’s Grace is
time! They finally had their time. Their time to be received and loved and
cared for by their families. God came at just the right time.10
Lenny
watched from a distance as the children crossed over. He motioned to Boo to
come closer. “What’s up, Lenny?” she asked. “Do you think what happened to the
children could happen to me?”
“Absolutely,”
she stated. “No one, no matter what they’ve done with their earthly life, is
denied entrance to Heaven, the Other Side. All you have to do is ask in all
sincerity and then decide to accept the Divine’s grace. It’s your choice and
just that simple.”
“Will
you help me?” he asked. “Of course, I’ll help you, Lenny. It’s not up to me to
judge you. But first, please tell me why you have been looking for the spirit
of your last victim who’s buried in this cemetery.”
“I
now know that I want to find her so that I can ask her forgiveness for the
terrible things I did to her.”11
God’s grace is time.
Earthly time, eternal time, timeless time, right up to the end of time … God
does not desire that one of his sheep will be lost. Jesus gave us the
guidelines by which to live. Lenny had his time extended by which to ask
forgiveness.
Boo
writes, “Just then, the Light appeared to our right. I could see the spirit of
a young woman with long, brunette hair standing in it, beckoning to him. ‘Look,
Lenny, look over there! Who’s that standing in the Light calling to you?”
“Oh
my God!” he gasped. “It’s her!” Tears started streaming down Lenny’s hard face.
“What does she want with me, someone who hurt her so badly?”
“She
wants you to accept her forgiveness,” Boo explained.
The
young woman called to Lenny. Boo had convinced him that everything would be all
right. She held out her hand, he took it and stepped through the portal into
the Light. He was gone.12
God’s Grace is time…God’s
grace is that we are not yet at the end of time. We have time to do that which
we are called to do, to minister to the lost sheep and goats in God’s kingdom
and give them God’s grace of time, and love and care and hospitality. How much
time do you have left to do that which you are called to do? God’s grace is
time.
Notes
1.
Mr. Baily, interview by author, Atlanta, November 17, 2019.
2.
Anna O’Brien, “Goats are from Mars, Sheep are from Venus,” The Daily Vet
Blog, Petmd.com, September 13, 2013, https://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/
aobrien/2013/sept/goats-are-from-mars-sheep-are-from-venus-30886
3.
Ibid.
4.
Ibid.
5.
W.E. Vine, Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New
Testament, ed. Merrill F. Unger, and William White, Jr. (Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1996), 230-4, 267-8.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Boo Newell, Between the Realms: What Ghosts Teach Us about Life and Death (Alpharetta,
GA: Mountain Arbor Press, 2017), 6-12.
8.
Ibid., 6-27.
9.
Boo Newell, interview by author, Decatur, GA, October 28, 2019.
10.
Boo Newell, Between the Realms: What Ghosts Teach Us about Life and Death (Alpharetta,
GA: Mountain Arbor Press, 2017), 21-4.
11.
Ibid., 25.
12.
Ibid., 25-7.
Bibliography
Newell,
Boo. Between the Realms: What Ghosts Teach Us about Life and Death. Alpharetta,
GA: Mountain Arbor Press, 2017.
O’Brien,
Anna. “Goats are from Mars, Sheep are from Venus,” The Daily Vet Blog, Petmd.com,
September 13, 2013, https://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/
aobrien/2013/sept/goats-are-from-mars-sheep-are-from-venus-30886
Vine,
W.E., Vine’s Complete Expository
Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Edited by Merrill Unger and
William White. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1996.
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