SERMON:
This is the last Sunday of the 2023 Church year – next Sunday we will begin a new church year with 1. Sunday in Advent. And what better way to conclude a year and wrap it up, than to listen to the poignant words of Matthew 25.
It is about Judgement Day.
It is about separating the sheep from the goats.
It is about judgment of the times that has been and how that affected the lives of others.
It is about Judgement Day.
On this last Sunday of the Liturgical year of seasons and Sundays, celebrations and ceremonies, we celebrate the solemnity and reign of Christ the King.
In a world and a time filled with various forms and types of leadership and authority, - Putin, Zelensky, Netanyahu, Hamas, Presidency and cabinets, - we look to Jesus. We look to Jesus as our true king, the one who truly reigns with love, compassion and humility. So vastly different from the rulers of this time – and through human history.
The Gospel passage from Matthew 25 is poignant, powerful and precise – and it truly demonstrates the radical different way of authority, of leadership, of ruling that Jesus presents.
Jesus separates the sheep from the goats. Not based on their wealth, the health, their status, their age or even their color. Here there is no black or white sheep, just sheep. And they are separate on how a sheep shows compassion, mercy and love.
Jesus as the King is one who identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. He calls us to recognize his presence in the least of our brothers and sisters.
You saw me. Fed me. And cared for me.
If there was one trait that truly marked the ministry of Jesus it was that he stopped. He cared. He saw. He fed. He stopped.
How can you truly be compassionate and kind if you do not see, touch and stop your busy tracks?
As we close yet another church year – and look ahead with hope and excitement to Advent, we stop for a while today to be challenged by the gospel and to be challenged to examine our own lives in the light of the gospel.
Do we recognize Christ as our king and do we truly allow him to reign in our hearts and over our actions? Do we follow his example of being a humble servant – and serve with humility and compassionate in our families, in our communities, in our congregation, in our work places and in our country?
In a world that often values power, wealth and success as means to judge about the importance of a life lived, - Christ Kingdom stands in stark contrast He reigns not by force but by love. He leads not with arrogance but with humility. He serves not for personal gain but for the well-being of others. This is the kind of leadership that the world so desperately needs, isn’t it?
YOU SAW ME, FED ME, AND CARED FOR ME. You touched me. You stopped for a while. Do we always understand how our actions may shape the fate of our neighbor? Do we always understand how our actions, that we might deem small and insignificant, might change the life of others?
‘My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.’ – Dalai Lama. “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”
Because Matthew Chapter 25 is an eye-opening chapter that hopefully here on the last Sunday of the Church year on the brink of the Season of Advent, we may “with the eyes of our heart enlightened, know what is the hope to which we were called….” As Paul wrote.
This is a spiritual note to all of us as we conclude the church year of 2023 and look ahead to next Sunday and the Season of Advent.
This is a spiritual note to all of us as we end Church year 2023, who has been marked by a world at war again, in Ukraine, in Israel and Palestine, with political division, with uncertainty and distrust.
This is a grand call to all of us to remember to be kind: to show humanity, dignity, compassion, care through these 6 acts of kindness and compassion that is listed in Matthew 25.
For I was hungry and you gave me food
For 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 visited me
I was in prison and you visited me.
Sometimes we think that our small acts of kindness are … small and insignificant, but today’s Gospel reminds us of the simplicity and the significance of our small acts of kindness that turns out to be great acts of faith.
When we give our old clothes to Thrift Stores.
When we donate to Food Banks.
We may donate blood.
When we make quilts for the Shelter.
When we visit the sick and lonely.
When we call the sick, the lonely, the old and the depressed.
When we remember the imprisoned, who might be physically in jail, but also may be imprisoned by mental illness, abuse, addictions or loneliness.
When we welcome a stranger in our neighborhood or country.
When you give a homeless man on the street a couple of cookies from your abundant table at the restaurant where he sits outside day after day.
When you help assemble care packages for the Homeless Shelter, as we will start doing in January 2024.
When you stop. In your busy tracks. In your routines. In your ways. And try to walk in somebody else shoes….
As we close the church year 2023 and look ahead to the season of Advent, these words truly speak volumes to us. When we look back at our actions and deeds, but even more when we look forward with hope and faith.
Matthew 25 is a monumental fundamental call to all of us, all the people of the nations.
It calls humanity to an ethic with focus on “the other” in these 6 significant and yet unspectacular acts of kindness. It calls us to decenter ourselves in the interest of meeting those in need with relief, compassion, comfort, and dignity.
When we center on Christianity, we have to decenter ourselves and focus on the others: the one who is hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick or in prison. When we try to center our Christianity decentering in an important discipline. It is not about me. It is all about them.
It is all about putting Christ back in Christianity.
And when we do, we have to remember the call of Christ to :
· Love God
· Love your neighbor as yourself
· Forgive 70 X 7 times
· Remember that whoever is without a sin may cast the first stone
· Treat others the way you want to be treated
· Feed the hungry
· Don’t return evil for evil
· Visit those in prison and those alone
· Clothe the naked
· House the homeless
· Welcome the stranger
· Don’t judge
· Care for the sick
· Love one another as Christ loves us
Bringing Christ back in Christianity, means bringing human kindness back at the center. Jesus instructed us to change to world in his name by embracing 2 essential commandments: to love God and love our neighbor as yourself and we are to go and make displaces of others. The great commandment and the great commission.
To love God and love our neighbor. To be kind in an unkind world.
Of all the times Jesus spoke of it, none is more compelling than exactly this passage in Matthew 25 when Jesus describes the actions of those welcomed into his Father’s kingdom: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40).
Because when you love you neighbor, you love God. When you care for you neighbor, you care for Jesus.
Matthew 25 illustrates the shocking depth of Jesus’ love for humanity. His identification with “the least of these” is so profound that when we reach out to them with love and enter their pain, it is Jesus himself we are loving and embracing.
Matthew 25 becomes our to-do list as we enter to the Season of Advent and Christmas – simple and yet significant acts of kindness.
Caring for people in this way signals whose side we’re on — the side of our God, who desperately loves all people. Listening to the call of the Good Shepherd. Amen