"Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

We are family. God made us that way. God meant and intends for us to live that way. And Jesus came to show us the way. We are family.

I'm a follower of Jesus Christ in part, and greatly, because I believe that Jesus really was right. Jesus came to show us the way to be right and reconciled with the God who created us all. He came to show us the way to be right with each other as the children of God, and therefore as brothers, as sisters, as siblings of each other. He came to show us how to live as God originally dreamed and intended, and came to show us how to live with each other as the children of God, as the family of God. And in that is our hope and our salvation.

Matthew's gospel, where the text Matthew 25 comes from, begins and ends almost with parentheses, if you will, parentheses at the beginning and at the end. Or better yet, as a frame. A frame in which the entire gospel is set.

It begins, if you will, on the one hand, in the first chapter and first verse, that reads, "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, son of Abraham." And then it goes into a genealogy. It's a theological genealogy, not a biological one. It's a genealogy that says who and what this Jesus is about. It begins with a genealogy, which is a family tree.

And then the gospel concludes in Matthew 28 with Jesus sending his followers out into the world with these words: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Jesus sends his followers out now to create a community born of baptism. Born of people who will follow the teachings of Jesus, his way of life, the teachings of Jesus, like the ones we find in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Blessed are the poor, in the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the compassionate. Blessed are those who hunger that justice might prevail. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Teachings like that create a family, by baptism and those kinds of teachings, who live that kind of life.

It's not an accident that Matthew begins with a family tree and concludes with the invitation to his followers to help the world to become a family that reflects the love and the way of God. We are family. God made us that way. God intends for us to live that way. And Jesus came to show us the way. We're family.

Now go back to the text from Matthew 25, in the 25th chapter of Matthew. Jesus tells a parable, and it's the parable of the Last Judgment, or the parable of the sheep and the goats. Michelangelo depicted it in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And you probably know how it goes. Jesus creates the story. It's a made-up story. It's a parable. He creates this story of what Judgment Day looks like, deep in the heart and soul of it.

It's Judgment Day. All the nations of the earth, all the peoples of the earth, if you will, are arrayed before the throne of the King on the Day of Judgment. Or better yet, for the day of justice, when the world... He's trying to right the world as God intends for it to be. And to the righteous ones he says, "Come, you that are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom that is prepared for you from the foundations of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me."

And I have an image, if you will, in my mind, of people going off on their way to heaven, maybe even singing that song my grandma used to love to sing in church: "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory." I can see folk almost galloping on their way to heaven. And who could blame them?

But then at one point, I can imagine somebody stopping along the way and saying, "Lord, don't misunderstand me. I want to go to heaven, I really do, but I don't remember seeing you hungry and feeding you. I don't remember you in prison or sick or lonely, and I visited you, or that you were thirsty and I gave you something to drink. I want to go to heaven, don't misunderstand me, but I don't remember doing that for you."

And that's when Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

Professor Deirdre Good wrote a book called Jesus' Family Values, and this text is one of the texts in that book that... This is Jesus' family values, where we care for each other, where we take care of each other, where we create a society in which everybody is taken care of and everybody is God's somebody. Everybody is a child of God. We are family. That is the vision of Jesus and the gospel. That's why Jesus came: to show us the way to become the human family of God, and in that, to find our hope for life and ultimately eternal salvation.

We're family, and there's power in that. Part of the reason I'm a follower of Jesus is I really do believe Jesus was right. He is right.

Some years ago, I was actually listening to public radio. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I didn't have any church service that afternoon. And so I went to a Starbucks, and I was sitting there and had my earphones in and was listening to public radio. And there came an interview with a publisher, or, excuse me, an author who was a photographer, named Norman Gershman, who had recently both published a book, a photographic essay, if you will, and a documentary film had been made, called God's House.

It was the story of a little-known, particular sect of the Islamic tradition, of Muslims in Albania. And during the Second World War, as darkness was falling over the land, if you will, by armies of the Third Reich, Jews were being rounded up throughout Europe for imprisonment. As the Nazis approached Albania, the Albanian foreign minister, who was a Muslim, received word that it was his responsibility to turn over the names and addresses of all Jews living in Albania.

He was a member of a small, particular sect of Islam, one that believed at its heart that God is the Father and Creator of us all, and we are therefore all children of God, and therefore all brothers, sisters, siblings, if you will, of each other. And so the foreign minister of Albania created almost a Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. He gathered the leadership of that Muslim community, and he sent them these instructions: "All Jewish children will sleep with your children. All will eat the same food. All will live in your homes as your family. They are to be to you your brothers and sisters." And as a result, the Muslim community of Albania saved 2,000 Jews from the death camps.

We are family. God made us that way. God intends and dreams for us to live that way. And Jesus came to show us the way.

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa says it this way: "I have a dream," God says. "Please help me realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that my children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God's family, my family."

Jesus was right. We are family. God made us that way. God dreams and intends for us to live that way. We are family. Amen.