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Sermon November 26, 2023
The Rev. John Sivley
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Last Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Track 1, Proper 29
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp29_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__November_26__2023-
Video: https://youtu.be/f0HCt4u2S6E
Most of the yearly celebrations in churches have centuries, even millennia, of tradition and history behind them. Many mark events in the life of Christ himself— his birthday, the day of his death, and the glorious day of his resurrection. We look back on these events, we tell the stories over and over again, and we think of the meaning they carry for us. We shape our own stories, calling us back to the life, death and Resurrection of our Lord. And we look forward to a future that promises a life to be lived with the assurance of the love and peace of God.
Today is the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King, dating all the way back to 1925. The Feast followed WWI, in the wake of false gods of absolute totalitarianism in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. It also followed the gods of absolute collectivism in the Soviet Union, and skepticism and consumerism in this country. This feast day was instituted by Pope Pius XI. It came into being to remind the church that we belong to a kingdom above earthly ones, and an authority sovereign over all who would claim to be in charge false values.
The feast day was originally set on the last Sunday in October- coincidently to counterbalance the Lutherans" Reformation Sunday on the same date. In effect, Roman Catholics had said to Lutherans, "Go ahead and honor Luther on this day; we'll honor Christ, who is our King".
During Vatican Il, the Roman Catholic Church moved Christ the King Sunday to the last Sunday before Advent, which is where we Episcopalians have picked up the theme for our Lectionary. Even tho gh the Book of Common Prayer does not specifically refer to November 26 Christ the King Sunday, we treat it as such.
Our Christ the King gospel lesson is taken from Matthew's account of Judgment Day.
We've been looking at this chapter in Matthew for a few weeks. And now we get to this section the separation of the sheep and goats. And it's a difficult text. Not difficult to understand, mind you. We get it loud and clear. We understand the imagery and the whole concept. Love your neighbor love your King.
This is perhaps one of the easiest of Jesus parables to grasp. But it:s precisely because we understand it so clearly that makes it difficult. What makes it difficult is our interpretation of it. What makes it difficult is what you might call a sort of separation anxiety, because Jesus is talking about Judgment Day and eternity is on the line. "Where are you going"? seems to be the question. What makes it difficult is we're Episcopalians and this doesn't' sound very Episcopal. So we stand there like the young man asking Jesus What must I do to get saved.
This simple parable becomes all to difficult for us because our human minds frame it in terms of cause and effect. If you do this then that happens. We just want to know What must I do to be saved. But Jesus isn't speaking that way in Matthew 25. He is not really answering the question. Jesus is not so much giving us a prescription for how to be saved, but a description of what it looks to be one who is saved.
As one writer stated, "A prescription is something we must do if we are to achieve a desired end. A description is a picture of the ways things are or will be". Therefore, judgement is not a threat of something to be feared in the future, but a warning that one day all people will be revealed for what they are now. This is the surprising thing about judgment. It depends ultimately not on what we do or fail to do, but on what we are sheep or goats. It's not a prescription but a description.
So what does Jesus describe? He described the Son of Man, the Messiah himself, coming like a king comes in all glory. Angels surround him All the angels it says. And all the people are brought before him and the separating begins. How does the separating happen? Do legions of angels swoop down and grasp us putting us in place in an instant?
Does the King divide us with his royal scepter like Moses parting waters with his staff ? Maybe through simply hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd the sheep are led away from the goats. Jesus doesn't say how it happens; it just happens. Sheep are at his right at the hand of mercy. Goats are at his left the hand of judgment.
Notice, though when we look at the Son of Man separating the sheep and goats, they don't really become sheep or goats by his judgement. He's simply identifying them for what they really are. It's really all about their identity. And we see this play out as the King speaks to these two groups.
To the sheep he says, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You who are blessed, He says. And this is important to note, because it is vastly different from what he says to the goats. To the goat he says, "Depart from me you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels". The sheep are blessed, the goats are cursed. And I think to understand why the sheep are blessed, we first need to look at why the goats are cursed. To understand that, look at the nature of their punishment. "Depart from me" says the King. It's separation from God. Eternal separation. And what is it that separates us from a right relationship with God? Sin. Where did sin come from? It has been passed down to us through generations since the fall of Adam and Eve. When they refused the Kingdom of the Triune God, seeking to become like God. They fall into sin, when they were so easily tempted by the devil, that ancient serpent. So, it is not just eternal separation from God, but a separation into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Sin-- that's the dreadful curse of the goats. Unrepentant, self- centered unrighteous sin and that's their curse
But the sheep are blessed by God. And who does Jesus say are the blessed ones? We heard it at the beginning of the month. In Matthew 5, Jesus says," Blessed are the poor in spirit", those who realize that they are spiritually bankrupt. "Blessed are those who mourn", who weep at the frailty of human life, weeping at broken relationship with our Lord. "Blessed are the meek", who do not boast before God, but bow in fear before their King. He says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness", knowing that they cannot stand before the Almighty God on their own merits. "Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers", those who don't confuse party affiliation with their Christian faith. He says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake" fighting the good fight of faith no matter what the cost. And he says," Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you" and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
You see, the sheep, the blessed ones, are the Church. It is the baptized people of God. You and I. We have been blessed thought the waters of Baptism into a new life in Christ. We are blessed by the hearing and receiving the Word contained in Scripture, receiving the sacrament of Holy Eucharist in which we are made one with Christ, through the Spirit's continual movement in our journeys of faith. We are blessed because we have been claimed by God as God's own. We have been bought by the blood of Christ who gave himself for us that we may come within reach of his saving embrace and brought into God's family. We who have been and struggle not to be, goats, are by grace with faith are made sheep in God's sheepfold. For if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. We are a sheep, because in Christ our sin no longer separates us from the Father. We are sheep because Christ's righteousness has become our own. So come, you who are blessed by the Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, because we are sheep thanks be to God.
It's not a prescription, but a description. It's all about identity. Our identity in Christ. We can't do anything to make ourselves sheep, yet we give evidence to the fact that we are sheep. We are blessed. And now Jesus calls us to serve the least of these. For as Jesus said as you do it to one of the least of my brothers you do it to me.
There is a story from the late 19th century about a couple of young men who found themselves going door to door for help. A few hours earlier, they had disembarked from their boat somewhere along the coast of Scotland and decided to give themselves a walking tour. And then while deep in the woods, night came. And they were lost. No map. No lanterns. As they continued wandering they came across a farmer's cottage. At last, they thought to themselves, "This farmer will help us and feed us and send us in the right direction. But although they pleaded with the farmer through his shut door telling him how hungry and cold they were, he kept the door closed . He would not budge for them.
So the two men continued walking another mile or so until they found another cottage. It was well past midnight, but this farmer gladly woke up and helped the two strangers in the night. He fed them and gave them a place to sleep. And the next
morning he accompanied them back to their boat. And it was only then that this second farmer was made aware of the fact that one of the two lost cold and hungry men was none other than the prince who would later become King George V of England. Two commoners presented with the same opportunity to unwittingly serve their King. If only the first farmer had known and that's the point.
The point that Jesus makes is that sheep serve regardless of who it,is. In fact, precisely because they serve without expecting a reward, without realizing who it is prove they are sheep. We don't love our neighbor in order to love our King or to be loved by our King. Because that's ultimately reducing our neighbor to a stepping stone — a means to an end. We don't love our neighbor in order to love our King. We love our neighbor because we love our King.
We aren't called to serve others because we think they are worthy. We're called to serve others because Christ thought they were worthy of dying for. We are called to serve others because Christ thought you and I are worth dying for. And this has real life ramifications for our lives. You may not have the next King of England knocking on your door. But the King of Kings is everywhere knocking. The least of these are everywhere knocking. Who are the least of these?
I'm not sure who the least of these is for you that Jesus calls you to serve.
Frederick Buechner says that there are all kinds of voices calling you to all kinds of different work. The problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than society or the super ego or self-interest.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of the work, you have presumably met requirement (a) but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you have missed requirement (b) On the other hand if your work is that of a physician in a leper colony you have met requirement (b) but if most of the time your are bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have bypassed (a) but probably aren't helping your patients much either.
Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calks you to is the place where you deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. As I said, "I'm not sure where the places of the least of your brothers and sisters are for you, but I'm sure we could come up with quite a list. For we are sheep, yes. But we are time goats, the least these too. Because let's face it some days we don't feel like we're blessed. Some days it's all we can do to place one foot in front of the of the other. Some days we don't' feel like a part of the flock.
But is at these moments that I want you and me to remember that we can't make ourselves a sheep. But God in Christ has. Remember your identity is not in what you do, but in what Christ has done and who he has made you to be. Our king has died for us He rose for us and for the least of these and he knows us by name.
There was an ignorant shepherd boy in a village in India, who daily drove his sheep to pasture. Once he was asked how many sheep he had. The lad said he didn't know, for he was unable to count. How then he was asked would he know at the end of the day if all the sheep were accounted for. I know each sheep by name he replied and if any are missing. I know which one it is and call for it as I search. On this Christ the King Sunday we worship the King of Kings with song and praise. We allow.hffn to care for us and we respond with our care for others. We pray that others will see the light of Christ in our faces and be the people God calls us to be in God's world.
For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
O, that today you would harken to his voice.
Amen
