Christ the King

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
November 23, 2014

Christ the King

My friend Sue picks up hitchikers.  Sue is about my size, 10 years younger, and obviously way more adventuresome than I.  When she told me about picking up hitchhikers, my pastoral response was "Sue, you are an idiot."  Sue's reply was "What if the person is really Jesus and this is a test?  I don't want to fail."  My concerned response was "What if it's not Jesus?"

Of course, theologically, Sue is more correct than I.  Two weeks ago when Bishop Tom was here, in the baptismal covenant he asked us if we will seek and serve Christ in all people.  And we said "We will, with God's help."  We believe that Christ is in all people.  Period.  Christ may be more obviously present in some people than others, or more obscure in some people than others.  But Christ is there.  Today is Christ the King Sunday and we are Christ Episcopal Church.  Today is our feast day and on this day we are especially called to think about our identity as people who seek and serve Christ in all people, no matter how obscure Christ might be.

Our belief that we are called to seek and serve Christ in all people comes straight out of Jesus' words this morning.  This morning, we watch as Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.  The sheep are those who have fed, clothed, visited, and cared for Jesus.  The goats are those who have not.  When the sheep are surprised to find that they have served Jesus, Jesus tells them that whenever they have served the least of these who are members of his family, they have served Jesus.  When the goats are surprised, shocked even, to learn that they have failed to serve Jesus, they are told that when they failed to serve the least of these, they failed to serve Jesus.

Countless times over the years I have thought and preached about the way we serve Jesus at the food pantry, at the door of Hollenbeck House, at the Rainbow Table, or any of the many other places we serve those in some kind of need.  I don't know about you, but I know that I respond differently when I remind myself that when I serve the person standing before me, I serve Jesus.  I want to serve Jesus well, and remembering that I serve Jesus also reminds me that I am connected to the person I am with, no matter how different we might appear to be.

But here's the catch: In our parable this morning, the sheep had fed the hungry and visited the sick without knowing that they were serving Jesus.  They were as surprised as anyone when Jesus said "Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world."  They were not serving the hungry and the sick because they thought they were serving Jesus or in order to earn their way into the Kingdom, or to pass a test for that matter.  They were serving for some other reason.

The idea that people of faith should serve others is hardly something new with Jesus.  Matthew's gospel was written to a largely Jewish audience.  The Hebrew scriptures are full of admonitions to live with mercy and kindness, not just to people of like faith, but to all people.  Over and over again in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we hear the command to show love to foreigners for the Hebrew people were once strangers in the land of Egypt.  The Hebrew people and the stranger were connected by the common experience of being in a foreign land.  The prophet Micah sums up the Hebrew teaching with the words "What does the Lord require? That you do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."  In the reading from Ezekiel, we hear God model the very behavior God expects of God's faithful people.  "I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed.  I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak."  Acts of mercy and kindness are part of the identity of the Hebrew people because they are the people of the God of mercy and kindness.

The sheep we hear about this morning are sheep because they live as the people of God they were created to be.  Acts of mercy and kindness were part of the identity of the sheep because they belong to the God of mercy and kindness.  The sheep were completely surprised to find that they had served Jesus.   Jesus says in Matthew's gospel "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it" so for Christians, belonging to God through Christ means living out the same acts of mercy and kindness.  Matthew is not the least bit interested in a debate over whether we are saved by works or by grace alone. Matthew is interested in faithful living.  Ironically, for Matthew, faithful living is not about serving others lest we neglect to serve Jesus and fail the test.  Faithful living is about living as people of God redeemed in Christ.  Then, to our surprise, we recognize Jesus.

At Christ Church, outreach is what we do simply because we belong to God.  In living out that identity, we do meet Jesus.  In meeting Jesus, we realize that we are connected to the whole human family.  My friend Sue is correct, even if her judgement might be a bit questionable.  The hitchhiker is Jesus.  But there is no test we are trying to pass to earn our way into the Kingdom.  We are already there.  And God assumes we will live like the Kingdom people we are and find a way to respond to the hitchhiker which may or may not involve giving that person a ride.  The challenge of Christ the King Sunday is to live into our identity as children of God by the way we live our lives and allow ourselves to be surprised by the many ways we encounter Jesus along the way.

Amen.