Gathered among the nations before him

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

Let all the peoples praise you. Psalm 67:3,5

 

Read Matthew 25:37—46

I am used to thinking, at least in my head, that I will stand before the Lord at the end of my life. He is my judge. The judge of the living and the dead. And he is my Saviour. But I cannot quite get how the nations as nations can be at the judgement. It is peoples who will be gathered before the Son of Man, peoples who will be separated, on the basis of their treatment of the suffering brothers and sisters of Jesus. I cannot resolve this, not tonight. It is different from my normal way of thinking about these things. I must, as with so much else, entrust the Lord’s judgement to the Lord himself. I do take this from it, though, and into my prayer: so much of who I am is lived in solidarity with the peoples among whom I live. I am never entirely free from or independent of my culture, nor from my contribution to it, nor from my call to live redemptively within it. I am not free of the call to bear witness in it and to it.

 

Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,[1] move me to the place and the role I am to have as witness to Jesus within my local community. I do not ask for what is beyond me, but for what you have put within me, a heartfelt passion that will make me more true to you where I am. I pray that I and those around me may meet you in your suffering body, your despised brothers and sisters, and that I may be among those who minister to you. May we prepare for your coming by meeting you now. May we attend to you in faith and love, may we minister to you as you meet us in your deliberate disguise.

[1] Ephesians 3:14—15