THE PARABLE OF THE GREAT SURPRISE

Sheep and goats usually make up the same flock. Many people cannot tell them apart, especially sheep and goats in Asia and Africa. But shepherds know.

Sunday's lection use sheep and goats to make a similar point about people. One cannot tell the blessed from the cursed. But the Son of Man, like a shepherd, knows.

Of course, there are those who are so sure they are blessed and claim they know how to tell them apart. And they have cherry-picked Bible verses to prove it!

But Sunday's lection reminds us that only one really knows how to separate the blessed and the cursed. And it is not me. Nor you.

The blessed were surprised. So were the cursed. Every. One. Was. Surprised!

Don't forget this, ever: God is a God of surprises!

*photo by Aaron Cederberg from the Library of Congress, "Sheep and Goats being taken to Market" (Jerusalem, Palestine).