Proper 29A ~ The Reign of Christ
Listen to the Sermon for November 20, 2011
Read the Sermon for November 20, 2011
Category: Religion
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Christ’s Reign in Our Lives – Now and Then
We are coming to the Last Sunday After Pentecost. Many liturgical churches also celebrate this as The Feast of Christ the King. In our continuing efforts to make our language more gender inclusive, the term Reign of Christ is gaining acceptance as the designtion for this Sunday. I really prefer Reign of Christ because the emphasis is on what Christ is doing throughout the cosmos and throughout eternity – reigning!
Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 25:31-46, is often referred to as The Parable of the Last Judgment. It speaks of the accountability of all people when the reigning Christ sits upon his throne.
I recall an encounter I had with a radically evangelical fundamentalist during my college years. He and I were about the same age. He was a member of Campus Crusade for Christ and had chosen me as the target of his mission. We talked about our differing theological views and never found much common ground. It turned out to be a debate, not a conversation. At the end of our debate, he referred to this passage of scripture and said as he parted, “I hope you’ll see the light and end up in heaven with me after the great judgment.”
He wanted the Reign of Christ to be all about the Last Judgment. Ever since then, I've been very curious about how and when we are accountable to Christ. So, naturally, when this text pops us, that's where my thoughts go.
If you’ll read the passage carefully, you’ll see that the basis of our accountability is not on having the right doctrine. When we stand before Christ it is always about how we express the faith we profess – how we are ministering to Christ through our service to the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, the prisoners, the marginalized and vulnerable people we encounter in our journey of faith. Faith in Christ is a challenge to expand our comfort zones and reach out beyond them to such as these in ways that our faith and our good works are in alignment.
A hungry man was walking down the street in a village of medieval Turkey. He had only a piece of bread in his hand. He came to a restaurant where some meatballs were being grilled. The cooking meat was so near and the smell so delicious the man held his piece of bread over the meat to capture some of the smell. As he started to eat the bread, the angry restaurant owner seized him and took him away to see a judge.
The owner protested, “This man was stealing the smell of my meat without asking permission. I want you to make him pay me for it.” The judge thought for a moment, then held up his purse in front of the owner and shook it. “What are you doing that for?” asked the restaurant owner? The judge replied, “I am paying you. The sound of money is fair payment for the smell of food.”
The challenge when we dealing with the kind of people described by Jesus in this passage is to make sure that what we are sharing with them is real. We must make sure that our care is expressed in ways that are tangible and life changing.
Each Sunday, we say we believe “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” One might say that Matthew 25:31-46 is a scriptural basis for that belief. It seems clear to me that the Judgment is not about arguing our case or preparing to be judged. Neither the sheep nor the goats had much of an argument or seemed prepared. It is about how we live day by day and it is about being accountable for our discipleship all along the way and not just at the end. The reigning Christ is already on the throne. We are judged not by the precision of our dogma or our membership in a particular church but by what we do for others. We are judged not by what we know but what we have shared.
What I wish I’d had the experience and presence of mind to say to my fundamentalist friend at the end of our conversation long ago is this: Both the sheep and goats will be judged not by their creeds but by their deeds.
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The Christian Lifestyle
Jesus summed up the lifestyle God wants us to live a few words; "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).
The call to be faithful stewards of God’s bounty is the call to a lifestyle – a way of life – that acknowledges that everything we have belongs to God and that we are managers of a sacred trust. We fulfill that vocation through the spiritual disciplines of worship, proclamation, teaching, presence, fellowship, service, and offerings.* We commit ourselves to offer God the very best we have in the confidence that when God receives our offering, joined with the offering of Christ, it will be pleasing to God and accomplish the things God’s heart desires to accomplish through us. There may be no vocation in the universe that is greater or more of a wonder than the vocation of stewardship. It makes us unique among creatures. It makes us human. It is an expression of our creation in the image of God.
To avoid faithful participation in the life of the Church because we are too busy should be evidence to us that we are simply too busy. To avoid tithing because we think we don’t have enough is to insult God who has so bountifully blessed us and is evidence that we are living both materially and spiritually beyond our means.
Loving God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves involves giving the best we have, devotion to this shared way of life, and an understanding that the life God wants us to live demands faithful participation. A parable that has been told from thousands of pulpits for who knows how many generations gets to the heart of the matter:
A small village was excited to discover that it would soon receive a visit from their beloved King. Community leaders immediately began planning for the great event. Everyone agreed that they wanted to present a gift to the King that would represent their appreciation for his benevolent supervision and management of the realm. But the village was poor and couldn’t afford a gift worthy of a King as great as theirs.
Someone suggested, “We have wonderful vineyards and produce the best wine in the land. Let each of us bring the best wine from our cellars and create a great vat of wine to present to our beloved King!” The people embraced the idea with enthusiasm. Over the next several days, they brought bottles of their best wine and poured it into a large vat that would be presented to the King upon his arrival.
It occurred to some of the townspeople, however, that with so many people contributing wine to the large vat, their own contribution would not make much difference. “With so much wine,” they reasoned, “my failure to contribute will neither be noticed nor missed.” So people brought bottles filled with water instead of wine.
The day of celebration arrived. The village leaders proudly made their presentation of the town’s best wine to the King. They raised their glasses in honor of His Majesty and tasted the best wine their village had to offer. To the abject horror and humiliation of the entire village, the “town’s best wine” was nothing more than water. Everyone had thought the same thing; their personal contribution would not be needed nor missed. Although they all wanted to honor the King, they had failed to understand the necessity of their own personal participation.
Loving God and our neighbor is the essence of how God created life to be lived. It is not meant to be simply an abstract theological concept to which we give intellectual assent. It is meant to be carried out in tangible ways. It is meant to be the driving force in the life of the community of God’s people. It is meant to be central to our witness to others that God will always give us enough to be generous.
So don’t hold back! Give God the opportunity to use your life and all the blessings that have been entrusted to you in ways that become evidence of your love for God and for your neighbor. And, through the miracles that God will perform in your life, you will see that it is also the best way of loving yourself.
The night before one of his musicals was to open, Oscar Hammerstein pushed past Mary Martin, his singing star, in the soft red glow of the semi-darkness of the curtained stage and pressed into her hand a slip of paper. On it were these words, which later were to become the basis of one of the hit numbers in the uncut version of “The Sound of Music.”
A bell is not a bell until you ring it.
A song is not a song until you sing it.
Love was not put in your heart to stay.
Love is not love until you give it away.* Gk. – Leitourgia, Kerygma, Didicae, Proseuche, Koinonia, Diakonia, Laetrea
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What belongs to God?
The Pharisees and the Herodians sent their followers to Jesus with a question that was intended to entrap him. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” He asked them to show him the coin used for the tax. Of course, it bore the image of the Emperor, revered by many of his subjects as a deity. Jesus asked them, “Whose image is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:15-22)
They couldn’t fault Jesus for his assertion that the Roman money belonged to the emperor. And as faithful Jews, they couldn’t fault him for reminding them that the whole earth and everything in it belong to God.
Whatever we have is a sacred trust from God and whatever we do with it matters in terms of our spiritual existence. I am not where I live, how much I possess, where I work, what I wear, which clubs I belong to, which soccer team my child or I am on. Those things are transitory. The only thing that can never be taken away from me is who I am in the eyes of my Creator as declared to me in my Baptism: “Ron, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.” Throughout life, whether I live in the lap of luxury or in a tent, it is my purpose in life and my joy to give myself to God.
I can face the future because the Creator of the Universe is already out there in the future, calling me to life. Give to mortals what belongs to them. But give to God what belongs to God. And what belongs to God? Everything.
Daniel B. Clendenin, has written, "As a friend of mine once observed, civilization is expensive, and taxes pay the tab. But absolute allegiance to an ultimate God, rendering our entire selves to Him without preconditions or limits, without hedging our bets, demands a higher order of magnitude. That takes a lifetime" (Show Me The Money: Unconditional Allegiance to the Unconditioned God, The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation).
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Stewardship is in our DNA.
Like many other congregations in America, ours is emphasizing stewardship of financial resources at this time of year. Next Sunday, we’ll invite worshipers to fill out new commitment cards and bring them to the Altar. Then, over the next couple of months, we’ll do everything possible to persuade everyone in the congregation to make a new, and hopefully increased, pledge of financial support of God’s work for the coming year.
I'm not sure why we have to work at this so hard to get Christians to do something so central to the Christian way of life. It came to my attention years ago that a substantial number of Christians consider the topic of stewardship to be less popular than some other ones. In fact, on several occasions, I’ve had church members suggest that I soft-pedal stewardship because some people might get upset. I’ve never taken that advice and here’s why.
Over half of the recorded sayings of Jesus Christ have to do with possessions. Jesus clearly knew how often possessions interfere with our relationship with God, our neighbors, and even our own spiritual identity. Think about it. Don’t most wars, lawsuits, family feuds, and legislative battles finally boil down to who possesses what and how much?
There is an event in the life of Jesus that illustrates this aspect of Jesus message. The story was so important to early Christians that it is recorded almost word for word in all three synoptic gospels. A rich man approached Jesus and asked, “Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responded by telling him the only thing left for him to do was to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus. The man couldn’t do it. Why? He was possessed by his possessions. He relied on his possessions too much. He derived too much of his identity, security, and status from his possessions. Jesus wanted to liberate people from whatever enslaved them and in this instance, the man was a slave to his possessions. Jesus was not condemning wealth. He was trying to help a man find the freedom and joy that comes from living in a right relationship with God, his neighbor, and his stuff!
Following the example of Jesus, I believe one of the most important aspects of my priestly vocation is to help people have a healthy relationship with their possessions so that all the other relationships of their lives will be healthier and they will know the kind of freedom Jesus called “eternal life.”
Another reason I believe it is important to help people be faithful stewards is because the story of stewardship is grounded in the story of creation. In the beginning, when God created human beings, our role as stewards of all that God has made was imbedded into our DNA. As the only creature made in the likeness of God, humans have the distinct privilege and responsibility of managing all the resources God has provided in ways that further God’s creative and redemptive purposes.
When human creatures abdicate their role as stewards, they lower themselves in the pecking order of creation. They view themselves as the subjects of their possessions or the elements. Before long, they make idols and their idols stand between them and God. As Martin Luther once observed, "Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your god." The vocation to be stewards of creation is one of the fundamental things that makes us human! It is in exercising stewardship that we become more fully human and fulfill our God-given destiny in the ongoing progress of creation.
Fianlly, it is important to help the community of Christian people see how necessary the work and witness of the community is to the ongoing redemptive mission of Christ. The first thing Jesus did in his public ministry was to form a community. Throughout his ministry, he worked to strengthen that community and form them into an apostolic, missionary force. The last thing he did before his Ascension was to send that community into the world to bear his message and transform lives. We give a portion of the money and time and other resources that have been entrusted to us for the work Jesus Christ wants to be done through the community he called into being. When the community of Christ's followers is healthy and vibrant, the apostolic witness impacts the mission field at our doorstep in powerful, divine ways. We can't be faithful stewards if we neglect the community into which we are baptized and to which Christ has entrusted so much of his redemptive work.
When our lives are focused on stewardship instead of ownership, we experience greater freedom. When we embrace the pattern of Jesus’ life that is characterized not by having but by giving, our relationships are transformed. When we fulfill our vocation as stewards of creation, we become more fully human and realize more completely what it means to be created in the image of the Creator. When our giving strengthens the Church, the divine mission given uniquely to the Church can be accomplished.
As a priest, why would I want to soft-pedal something like that?
Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor thee with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p.827)
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Faithful Stewards
A little over twenty years ago, a leading authority in the field of church administration advised clergy not to use the word “commitment” around baby boomers. He warned that it would drive them away because commitment in any area of life frightens them. Five years later, the same leading authority reported that baby boomers were attending high expectation, high commitment churches in disproportionately large numbers. Those churches were growing. We discovered that low expectation, low commitment churches like The Episcopal Church were declining. While we were soft-peddling commitment, our members were leaving us for churches where it is required. I resolved at that time that I would never soft peddle commitment again.
When George Rupp was President of Rice University, I heard him say, “There is no life without community and there is no community without commitment.” Think about it. Without commitment, families, organizations, athletic teams, work groups, companies, and nations fall apart.
One task of an interim pastor is to challenge the church community in transition to clarify its present identity in preparation for a new pastor. One way to foster that new sense of identity is to ask the members to measure their level of commitment in light of our Church’s teaching that, The duty of all Christians is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God. (BCP, p.856)
I realize that some people may be as allergic to the word “duty” as they are to the word “commitment.” But most reasonable people will acknowledge that fulfilling our duties is a necessary aspect of keeping our commitments in daily life. In fact, the phrase “relieved of duty” carries negative connotations. And why would anyone think that duty to God is any less important than duty to family, team, country, etc.? Throughout history, many people have expressed the conviction that duty to God made it possible for them to fulfill all the other duties of their lives.
I invite you to examine your commitment to your Christian duty. Make this an opportunity to take the next step in your faith journey. Is there a way to follow Christ more closely? Can you join your fellow Christians in worship more often? Is there a place of service to which you are being called? Is there room for improvement in your prayer life? How about your giving? Is it time to move up another step toward the spiritual discipline of tithing?
Do yourself and your church community a favor and reflect on those questions as you prepare for Commitment Sunday. At The Church of the Good Shepherd, commitment cards will be distributed during the services. We’ll complete them together and bring them to the Altar as an act of worship. Make this time of transition a time of renewed and increased commitment. Ask God to use you in new ways to help the Church be all God wants it to be.
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Promises are not enough.
Autumn is the time of year during which the theme of the gospel readings is that of the inbreaking Reign of God. In these passages, Jesus provides us with insights into the nature of that state of being he called “eternal life” or “abundant life” or “the Kingdom of God.” Through metaphor and parable, we are able to catch a glimpse of what life in that state of being is, to gain a perspective on what kinds of people are there, and to examine our own hearts and minds with regard to our own citizenship in that realm.
The Parable of the Two Sons (Mt. 21:28-32) appears in Matthew in the context of a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem. It concerns the Kingdom of God and the makeup of the Kingdom’s population.
Why was the Kingdom so important? To get at this question, it helps to have an overview of sacred history. As the Bible tells the story, in the act of creation, God made our first ancestor in God’s own image. And, like God and the angels, the human creature was androgynous. We call the creature “Adam,” which really isn’t a name but a description of a unique kind of being – one that is capable of having complete communion with God and one that has resources beyond what any other creature possesses.
Then, as the Bible tells it, God divided the creature into two, male and female. While they were separate, they still lived in communion, in harmony with one another. There was a spiritual union. But then, the desire to become gods overcame our first parents. Ever since, we have felt disconnected, dysfunctional, diseased, dissatisfied, and disempowered. We struggle to fill the hole at the core of our being with something that will make us feel whole. We try all kinds of things but all fall short of our unconscious goal of unity within and reconciliation with our human brothers and sisters.
Finally, one like us was sent to become the New Adam. He was the first person since the beginning of time to get it all back together. And, the way the Bible tells the story; we know that it was painful for him, just as separation was painful for our first ancestors. Yet there is salvation and a sublime joy in the case of Jesus. He called that experience of having it back together “Eternal Life”, “Abundant Life”, “Kingdom of God.”
What was Jesus saying to those religious leaders? They, of all people, should be sensitive and receptive to the signs of God’s activity, but they were not. So, he told them a story about two sons. One son refused to do what he was asked to do, but ended up doing it anyway. The other son said he would do what he was asked to do, but didn’t follow through. Jesus wanted the religious leaders to know that, in his opinion, they were the ones who were not following through and that the people they most despised were going to catch on and get it together before they did.
God keeps coming to the aid of the broken, unscrubbed, ritually unclean, outcast, and marginalized. Really, that is the only kind of people there are. Jesus wanted the washed and scrubbed to know and acknowledge that fact. Such self-awareness and humility are the prelude to big changes in the heart and the mind that are the very gateway to the experience of back-togetherness. So, what he was saying to those leaders was, “You are bringing up the rear! Promises are not enough."
What does this have to do with us? We resemble the people in this parable. The self-emptying of Christ for us in the Incarnation was not his victory of the human temptation to be like God – the sin of our first parents. Rather, his victory was the free renunciation of divine prerogatives in order to fully share the human condition, which of its very nature is a service to God. By his humiliation and exaltation, Jesus has conquered, as a human, all the cosmic powers that are hostile to God and humanity. Adam and the offspring of Adam were disobedient and fragmented the human family. Jesus and the followers of Jesus restore the human family to koinonia – to fellowship, communion, spiritual union – with God and one another. All creation is watching just to see the sons and daughters of God come into their full inheritance. And, to bring it home right where we live today, everybody is waiting to see what God can do with us. What an opportunity!