THIS IS IT !

November 20, 2011
Pentecost Last – Reign of Christ; Children's Sunday
Ezekiel 34:11-24
Matthew 25:31-46

(prayer)

Welcome to the end of the year. Yup, this is it!

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After today, there are only four more Sundays before Christmas. So, next Sunday is the first Sunday in the season of Advent and Advent is the beginning of the church year.

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This last Sunday of the church year is the final Sunday in the season after Pentecost. Pentecost Sunday was 23 weeks ago, on June 12th. The last Sunday in the Pentecost season is traditionally a time when we explore the leadership and authority of Jesus for Christians and for the church. Sometimes, we use the metaphor of Jesus as king to begin this exploration – after all the New Testament books of 1st Timothy and Revelation call Jesus ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’.

Remember that Jesus’ first sermon point when he began his ministry was to tell people that ‘the Kingdom of God has come near’. Jesus also did a lot of teaching on this Kingdom of God, which he said was like ‘a tiny seed that grew into a huge bush’ (Mark 4) and like ‘a found sheep or coin or son’ (Luke 15) but also like ‘a leaky jar that loses all its contents if you’re not paying attention’ (Gospel of Thomas 97).

This final Sunday of the church year can be called “Christ the King” Sunday or the “Reign of Christ” Sunday.

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Like any metaphor, kingship imagery has its limits. In our day and age, when most of us have never lived under the power and leadership of an earthly king, we do well to try and understand the context that gave us this imagery, so that we can appreciate its impact and meaning on those first readers of the books of our New Testament.

For me, and suspect for others, the idea of a monarch with power seems to be an old notion (although it still exists in many parts of the modern world). I’m guess that many of us that have grown up in democratic systems believe that our leaders are chosen for their abilities, not their family linage – they rise to power from among the populous to serve the common good (okay that’s still the theory and hope). And we enjoy systems and structures that allow us to change leadership on a fairly regular basis – usually without the need for a revolution or coup (although those methods are practiced still in our modern world).

As well, kingship language has the baggage of patriarchy. The very word is ‘male’ and comes from an era where women were not granted anything close to equal status with men in society and certainly not within the hallways and battlefield of power. For goodness sakes, it was just this year that within the figurehead monarchy of Great Britain, [that] women were granted equal status within the lines of ascension.

So, to appreciate the impact of the word, king, in a first century context, we have to park our modern feelings about king-type language and leaders.

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It’s not as easy as saying this is “the Presidency (or Prime Minister-ship) of Jesus Sunday”. Political leadership of the first century was generally autocratic: one person held supreme power – that person’s rise to power was not a movement of popular ascension. There was no election – no grassroots political movement. Changes often happened through the murder of the king. For the people of the first century, this is what they assumed was how things simply were.

Practically for Jesus and his followers, there were regional kings or rulers. Herod was a Jewish king of the area that included Galilee, but real power was centred elsewhere. In New Testament times the ‘king’ was the Roman Caesar. When Jesus was born Augustus was Caesar; when Jesus was about 20, a general under Augustus, Tiberius, became Caesar after Augustus’ death. Tiberius was likely the Caesar when Jesus was killed (although Tiberius was exiled for a few years in the mid 30s so it may have been Sejanus who was really running the show). By the end of the first century, the Roman Empire would see ten other Caesars besides the two of Jesus’ lifetime.

Plain and simple: the people (who wrote and first read various parts of the New Testament) knew no other kind of political authority than that of imperial autocracy.

So, when Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, when his followers in the decades to come called him King of kings – we can understand how some people heard this as the “treasonous imagining” of Jesus as Caesar in Rome?

That’s actually the claim that got Jesus executed: treason – making claims to kingship. The crime was displayed above his cross for all passers-by to see: “Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews”.

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And yet, by the time that the gospels were written a few decades later, we can see that the church was beginning to see quite a difference between the kingship of Tiberius and the kingship of Jesus. In gospel of John, we can read that Jesus’ kingdom is “not from this world” (John 18:36). In other words, it’s not like the kingdoms of this world. Jesus’ leadership and authority was not like the autocracy of Rome. And these different kinds of authorities required different levels of allegiance: “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God” Jesus once said. (Mark 12:17)

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So what kind of ‘king’ is Jesus? What is the Kingdom of God all about?

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First of all, when Jesus spoke about God having a Kingdom – it was a political statement as well as a spiritual one. Jesus was declaring that when it comes to real allegiance – God is the true sovereign and not any governor in a palace in Jerusalem or even the Caesar in Rome. As I said, there was such a political dimension to Jesus’ message that it got him arrested and sentenced to capital punishment.

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What was really radical was the nature of this power that Jesus spoke about as the Kingdom of God or that his followers would ascribe to Jesus, by calling him king.

Last week (if you were in church) you may recall that we read [what is called] the Parable of the Talents – where three servant-slaves were judged by how great a return of investment they earned for their master. I mentioned last week, that we have to be careful to not assume that the meaning behind that parable has anything to do with money (just because that is the metaphor which the parable uses).

I suggested that it was really about the investing of our hearts and faith. In the very next passage (which was our reading from Matthew today), we get a more direct picture of what that expected ‘return on investment’ might be.

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Today we heard: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

A bit of background on these introductory verses to today’s New Testament reading (from Seasons of the Spirit Fusions):

Jesus’ teaching tells how “all the nations” will be gathered before the throne when “the Son of Man” comes in glory. In Matthew “Son of Man” is a term Jesus uses to speak of himself. In Ezekiel, this term refers to a human being; in Daniel 7:13, it refers to God’s chosen saviour. “All the nations” is a reference to the entire world and seems to echo Isaiah’s prophecy of all the nations coming to God’s holy mountain (Isaiah 2:1–4).

The nations will be separated in the same way a shepherd separates sheep and goats. In Jesus’ day, flocks of sheep and goats together were common. Shepherds would count their animals at the end of the day, separating the sheep – which needed more attentive care – from the goats. In the Hebrew Scriptures, sheep sometimes are an image of God’s people (for example, Psalm 100:3 and Isaiah 53:6). In the New Testament, the image of sheep often refers to those who follow Christ, the good shepherd (for example, John 10:1–11 and Hebrews 13:20).

All of that complex imagery would be mixed together from the crowds listening to Jesus speak these words and to the first generations of believers who read the book of Matthew.

The presumption is that a faithful follower of Jesus will have lived their life in service of Kingdom of God – putting their allegiance to their spiritual king of kings. The focus of the faithful was to have been in the service of Christ.

But in a surprising twist (to everyone in this parable – both the so-called sheep and goats) they are to be governed and judged by an obvious criterion: to what degree have they responded to the call to serve the ‘overlooked’ and ‘ignored’ among them? Were they able to see the holy in everyone – especially in those who are often not seen at all?

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THIS IS IT ! I believe that this is the centre of what it means to be a follower of Jesus! Jesus hinted at it before when he said that the greatest commandments were ‘to love God and love neighbours as yourself’. There are those among us (and sometimes it is us) who are in real need of compassion and care – people who (for reasons of circumstance or choice) are separated from others.

A lack of food and/or clothing [shelter]

Loneliness (the stranger)

Illness

Imprisonment

Ignoring how we can be Christ-like for such as these is a-kin to ignoring Jesus himself.

And on the other side (which was also a surprise to those in the parable) – even not being aware that such compassion was a ‘Christ-like act’ did not stop it from being a direct service of Christ!

Q: What is it that separates people?

A: How well they care for others.

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Now I can’t ignore the pronounced judgment that is also part of the parable: you, come enjoy the riches of my kingdom – and you, let’s just say it’s not going to be so easy for you; you will be as far away from the comforts of my kingdom as you can imagine!

At the Words of Faith study session this past Wednesday evening, we looked at a United Church Statement of Faith from 1940. People commented on how the language of salvation and judgement (clear lines between right and wrong – good and evil), does not seem to be as useful today (as people try to engage their faith) as it might have been in the context of the start of World War 2 – the notion of a God who throws people in fire for disobedience is hard to mesh with a God who is purported to be Love. So, passages like the end of Matthew 25 raise similar challenges for people of today, as the goats are left to slaughter at the end of the parable.

If we focus our attention on the fate of the parable’s goats, we might miss the wider point.

I do not feel I have to believe in a fiery divine punishment to understand what I see as the key message of this teaching of Jesus – which must never be lost when we read Matthew 25:

How we care for others matters!

The motivation is to act justly and with compassion for Christ’s sake – not simply as a insurance plan against judgement.

If there is anything, I have come to firmly believe about the modern church is that we will NOT help enable spiritual nurture by trying to scare or guilt people into being part of a faith movement.

Compassion must come from within. It must be genuine and heartfelt. That’s one of the most wonderful things about this passage – compassion was so ingrained into the psyche of the first group that they didn’t even realize the deeply spiritual aspect of what they were doing.

As our church year ends, we have come to a time and a place where we can sum it all up in a few words.

To really serve Jesus, we will serve each other – being especially mindful of those who really could use that connection in their lives right now!

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I am so grateful to be part of a church community here in Leduc that not only sees it mission to welcome in, but also to reach out. As a community of faith together, you all serve your Christ in the ways you carry the light of Christ into the lives of others.

I must say that the support this church has shown to its children’s programming this fall has been nothing short of inspiring. A new curriculum for the Sunday School – the re-designation of part of our multi-purpose space to allow for a more accessible children’s sanctuary in room three is visionary and wonderful. I wonder how welcoming it must feel to the young people among us to know that they are not being ignored – that they have been made a practical priority in the life of this church.

Coincidentally, another theme for this final Sunday of the church year is to call it ‘Children’s Sunday’. You can see a special Call to Worship on the back of today’s printed bulletin. This is all because November 20th has been declared Universal Children’s Day by the United Nations and Reign of Christ Sunday is usually pretty close to that day (of course today is November 20th), but most years the Sunday after Nov 20th is Reign of Christ, so the two dates usually coincide.

The Reign of Christ and Children’s Day are a great pairing – after all Jesus was the one who stunned even his friends by inviting the children to come and sit with him while he was teaching (what people assumed should be an adults-only time).

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When we make the time and space in our lives for compassion to be lived out, we are showing ourselves and the world a different kind of authority. The Kingdom of God is not an autocracy where the influence is at the top – the Realm of God is only real as long as the people of God live and move and have their being in God – that is:

 they are seeking justice, loving with kindness and walking humbly;

 they are living out a love of God and neighbour at a level we hope and dream for ourselves;

 they are naturally showing compassion for:

 those trying to survive with the basic necessities of life;

 those who feel alone;

 those who are gripped by illness;

 and even those who are in need of society’s forgiveness and rehabilitation.

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This is what it’s all about. This…is…it!

{prayer – Reign in our hearts, O God, so that we can shine your light into the world. Amen.}

#600VU “When I Needed a Neighbour”