Sermon: Christ the King Sunday

The Very Rev. William Thomas Deneke, rector
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Today we come to the end of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we will enter the season of Advent and a new church year.

The celebration of Christ the King is a fitting finale to the gospel readings, the feast days, the fasts and the promises of this past year. The readings for today describe the kind of reign associated with the kingdom of Christ.

Remember the Beatitudes: God’s blessings upon the poor, the reviled, the peacemakers, the humble. These are of great value in Christ’s kingdom. Those on the margin often take center stage in God’s realm. Jesus identifies with those left behind.

In the Mediterranean basin of the First Century, the social norms honored those at the top of the pyramid. There was no significant social mobility. If you were born into the lower layers of society, there you remained. The masses flocked to Jesus because he had a message of hope for those neglected by social norms and institutions.

The message Jesus shared – good news for the oppressed – had deep roots in Judaism. Today we also hear the words of the prophet Ezekiel. He spoke words of hope to a broken people. He, too, said that God would seek the lost, those left behind.

Both the gospel and the words of the prophet not only reveal that God’s mercy is weighted on the side of those left behind but that in dismissing the ways of God’s Kingdom, a choice is being made not to be a part of it. According to Ezekiel, the Lord says,

“I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the
strayed, and I will bind up the injured,
and I will strengthen the weak,
but the fat and the strong I will destroy.
I will feed them with justice.”

The gospel today, with its grand portrayal of Christ on a throne, makes it clear that when we decide to dishonor the values proclaimed in the beatitudes, Jesus’ blueprint for the kingdom of God, we choose not to live in God’s kingdom.

Perhaps this is all pretty obvious. But in the Bible nations and people often make unfaithful decisions and fail to see how this could have an impact on their faith. They seem genuinely surprised when confronted about their behavior.

Maybe the prophet and the gospel overly simplify this matter of separating sheep from goats. The truth is most of us move in with the goats at times and with the sheep at other times. The scriptures no doubt already know this; they are focused, instead, on our need to incarnate the word of God. Our religion is pretty worthless if it cannot lead us to feed the hungry or clothe the naked.

The gospel is all about incarnation. The beatitudes and the Kingdom of Christ are to be lived out in our decision- making.

Left to our own devises, most of us find that hard, very hard, to do. We are equipped for living into the kingdom through the mercy of God. We celebrate that in Holy Baptism.

So here we are, empowered by the Spirit, ready to pray boldly but perhaps still a little unsure of living out the beatitudes.

The gospel story today makes it pretty easy. A cup of water, a hospital visit, an article of clothing. But don’t be fooled. These are teasers, gentle ways to point us in the right direction. The Spirit may call us not only to give a cup of water but also to help build a well in Haiti.

What is so meaningful about the examples that Jesus gives is that they are relationship oriented. They are about building community.

For three years Holy Trinity was in a partnership with the village of Los Hornos, Honduras. Then Honduras Outreach, our sponsoring program, decided to stop all partnerships and send missions groups to whatever village was in need at the time. No more partnerships, no more long-term relationships. After a year Honduras Outreach realized this was a mistake. Churches wanted to be in partnerships. Relationships mattered. Now the partnership program has been revived. And that’s good.

The Kingdom of Christ is built upon relationships, built around community. Sometimes that means a one on one relationship, but it can also mean reaching out to people we will never meet. It means seeing Christ in our next-door neighbor and also in our neighbor on the other side of town or on the other side of the world. Wherever there are people who hunger, wherever people are imprisoned, wherever people suffer, Christ is there. To reach out to anyone in need, anyone left behind is to reach out to Christ.

It is all about incarnating the Kingdom of Christ within us. Jesus in the account today makes it clear that he wants to include us in his kingdom. It could not be any easier. But we have to decide to meet him, to encounter him not only in the abundance of others but also in the needs of others. To see Christ in this way is a gift not only to those in need but to the needful parts of ourselves.

This day we celebrate Christ the King. King of the realm where relationships matter and people are family. The realm where what we do to one of the least of the family members we do to the King. Amen.