Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out.  Judge not.  No gays allowed.  Everyone welcome.  Separate but equal.  Love your neighbor.  And on and on and on….

Do y’all get as tired as I do of the back and forth between conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican, this religious denomination vs. that religious denomination back and forth, my way or the highway babble that goes on and on and on and on, ad infinitum? 

Sometimes I just wanna scream STOP It!  Other times it’s a quiet “Why can’t we all just get along?”  More recently, my thoughts have been, “What the hell is wrong with you?”  I find it exhausting, this push and pull and continuous descension, and I find myself wondering, “What if?  Why?   How can we stop this madness?”

The answer, really, is kinda simple:  There’s an app for that!  And before you stop reading this and hasten to the App Store to look for this miracle thing that will guarantee you peace of mind forever more, lemme finish.  In the Gospel appointed for today, Matthew 13: 47-50, Jesus tells a parable or two, as was his custom, to make a few points.  Here: 

 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.  When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.  This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous  and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

See?  This is the “Kill ‘em all and let God sort’ em out” thing, only without the “killing” part.  What remains to be asked though,  much like Glenda asking Dorothy “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” is, are you a good fish or a bad fish?

We, all of us, need to continually examine ourselves to make sure that we are, indeed, in the ‘good fish’ pile.  And how do we know what kinda fish we are?  Are you ready?  Remember that App I was talking about?  Here it is:  Love God.  Love People.  Really, it’s pretty simple and straightforward.  We are to love folks in the way that God loves us.  We are to treat others the way we want to be treated.  Jesus says, again in Matthew 25:

  When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Notice there is no mention of race, gender identity, sexuality, religious preference or lack thereof, gender expression, or anything else that we today us to separate us into an “us versus them” mentality.  Nothing except acting in love.   There it is.  Love God.  Love people.  Act accordingly.  Amen.