I grew up in a distinctly protestant religious tradition—Mennonite, to be exact. And in that tradition, all things liturgical, especially things like crucifixes bearing the tortured body of Christ, were anathema. They emphasized Christ’s death over his resurrection at the least, and were akin to idols at worst.
I have long since laid aside many of those teachings and find great joy in our Episcopal liturgy and its adornments. Yet, I have a special fondness for Christ the King Sunday and its representation of Jesus as king, in kingly robes and crown, superimposed on the cross but clearly alive and triumphant over it.
Today we are combining celebrations of Christ the King and Thanksgiving, which turns out to be quite doable from a preaching standpoint. What better way to celebrate Christ the King than to give thanks!
The lessons we read this morning are for Christ the King Sunday. And reading them afresh with Thanksgiving in mind, I was totally struck by the relationship between the Ezekiel (34:11-16, NRSV) reading and the Matthew (25:31-46, NRSV) reading.
Look again at Ezekiel. What does God promise God’s people in this passage?
I myself will search for my sheep… I will rescue them… I will gather them and will feed them with good pasture, rich pasture! I myself will be the shepherd, I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Wow! What more could a sheep of God ask for?! Of course, Ezekiel does put some judgment in the mouth of God, but I will take my chances with the loving and merciful God portrayed throughout Scripture… over the casual cruelty we humans are so capable of in judging each other.
Fast forward to the Gospel lesson. Here Jesus is speaking, and this is more explicitly a judgment scene. Christ the King is on his throne of glory, separating sheep from goats.
Again, to me, that’s good news. I’ll take Jesus, with his impeccable track record of justice, mercy and love, over human meanness, which is often, sadly, carried out in the name of Jesus.
A saying I’ve seen circulate on the Internet goes like this: “Most humans are capable of being mean from time to time under some conditions, but nobody is meaner than the ones being mean for Jesus!” I couldn’t agree more.
But today, in the context of Ezekiel, and glorious thanks giving by Paul for the faith and love of the Ephesians (1:15-23), I see the main point of this passage as Jesus teaching us how to give thanks.
Come you that are blessed, Jesus says, and inherit the kingdom.., for I was hungry and you gave me food, 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 a prisoner and you visited me.
As the passage continues, it becomes clear that the righteous who had done these things did not even realize what they had done. Clearly, they had not done them to earn or merit inheriting the kingdom.
People who do things for a reward would never be surprised to hear that they had earned the reward! Indeed, when we are working for pay, we are likely to keep very close track of what we have done and what we expect to receive in exchange for what we have done.
But the sheep Jesus invites into the kingdom must ask, When did we do these things? And Jesus explains, When you shared the love you have received from me with all of my people. You might not have recognized me, but I was there. That homeless person, that immigrant, that prisoner, that sick person…, that was me you loved, as I have loved you.
You see, the only possible response to accepting God’s loving care of us is to give it away. The only way to be a sheep of God’s rich pasture is to share it with the entire flock! The only way to be part of God’s family is to, well… be part of God’s… entire family…
And in both Ezekiel and Matthew it is eminently clear that we don’t define the boundaries of God’s family! That job belongs to Jesus, thanks be to God.
As a user of social media, I sometimes get roped into various fads that sweep the Internet. A few months ago, one such fad that made the rounds on Facebook was a call to post for seven days straight a list of what you were thankful for each day.
A well-intended exercise, and, indeed, I took my turn when I was tagged by a friend to do so. And doing it did make me think about—and sometimes really have to reflect on—what had happened that day that I could be thankful for.
But listing the things you are thankful for is not exactly what Jesus had in mind! I would even say, spoken prayers of thanksgiving—albeit lovely things and in themselves harmless—are not what Jesus had in mind.
What Jesus had in mind was action. No empty piety here! “Get to work,” is the message.
Notice the verbs Jesus uses throughout: you gave, you welcomed, you took care, you visited, you gave, you gave, you gave.
Not once does he mention what anyone believed! Not once does he mention whom anyone worshiped! Not once does he mention what anyone prayed!
The righteous are those who DO, without realizing what they are doing and without expecting a reward for it. To do anything else is unthinkable to those who understand themselves as God’s beloved and heir’s of God’s kingdom.
Friday afternoon I answered the doorbell to find two young women from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints standing in the carport. They introduced themselves as missionaries; I introduced myself as a deacon in the Episcopal Church.
My job as deacon, I hastened to explain, was to help people in the church find ministries and to aid and support them in being ministers in the world. Their faces brightened. Oh, the confident one said, you mean to be missionaries!
Sort of, I replied. It depends on how you define missionary. I mean to feed the hungry, care for the sick, welcome the immigrant.
Whether they understood the distinction or not, I can’t be certain. But you do. Of that I am certain. How will you do thanks, not just today but every day, for God’s love bestowed on you? AMEN
Good sermon, the Rev. Dr. K.
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