Amazing Tuesday

Tuesday Retreat.....

Pray: “All we like sheep have gone astray, and each one of us has followed after our own way!” Lord we know this in our hearts and we seek for the ways in which we can follow You each and every day. Amen.

Read St. Matthew 23: 31 – 46

Good Goats and Bad Sheep.  Matthew and Dennis Linn lead workshops on Being a Christian.  At one of their workshops,  they were  trying to explain about this very parable of the Sheep and the Goats.  It was not going well.   The participants were taking the images of Sheep and Goats literally.    In order to explain this parable,  the Linn brothers said to the participants,  if you have ever been able to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, visit the sick or imprisioned,  then you would qualify as a good sheep.

BUT,  if you have ever even once failed to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, and visit the sick or imprisioned…. then you are a goat.       After a pause of silence in the room,  one of the participants said, “I get it!  We are all good goats!”  

Yet Jesus is telling the Disciples (and us)  that we must not be content being “good goats”  we must strive to be good sheep and help those in the world that can not help themselves.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth,  whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”.

Today,  what will you be?  A good goat or a good sheep?

Pray: We know too often the moments when we have been good goats, when try as hard as we can we know that we have failed to live up to all we know we should be. Help us to be Your followers to know that You are still calling us in all of our moments to reach for the best that we can be as the followers of Christ our Shepherd. Amen.