May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Some of you know that it’s a bit of an unwritten rule in the church that we (whispering) don’t sing Christmas songs during Advent. I get that. Advent is not Christmas and there are great Advent hymns, so stick to those. I’m not legalistic about it, but…ok. Well, guess what? It’s not Advent yet! Not until NEXT Sunday! So help me out here…this is a sort of Christ the King Sunday meets Christmas songs meets name that tune. The idea is that I begin a Christmas song and you finish the phrase. Are you ready?
Hark the Herald , angels sing….(glory to the newborn king)
Angels we have heard on high….(sweetly singing o’er the plain)
Ok, we’re going to have a little change of pace now….
You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, I’m telling you why….(Santa Claus is coming to town)
Keep going! He’s making a list…(checking it twice)
Going to find out… (who’s naughty or nice).
Wait just a minute! Do you mean to tell me that it’s Santa’s job to figure out who’s naught and who’s nice? Can’t you just picture Santa with a big scroll for his list, all of the naughty kids on one side and all of the nice ones on the other? How does Santa figure this out, exactly? I mean, to be honest with you, there were days as a child when I wasn’t very nice. Ok, there are still days that I can be a little challenging. But overall, I’d put myself on the nice list. I mean, how does Santa make these decisions? And if Santa is Lutheran, which I’m sure he is because he certainly likes to eat, then doesn’t he know what Luther said, that all people are at the same time both saint and sinner? C’mon Santa…how do you know who’s naughty and nice?
In the reading from Matthew’s Gospel today, we are told that it is up to the Son of Man to gather the people together and examine their lives. Jesus, we are told will separate the sheep from the goats. Judgment about good and bad, sheep and goat, are not ours to make, they are not even Santa’s to make. That belongs to Jesus, thanks be to God.
But here’s the thing. We seem to be wired to make these kinds of judgments. We almost always categorize people….they are difficult or easy to get along with. They are honest or dishonest. They are friendly or cold. They are generous or stingy. And in that act, we are judging.
I have to tell you that even your pastor is not immune to this. Some of you have heard me speak of a man who has come to our window for lunch on a consistent basis ever since we started giving out lunches. I can hear his beater of a van pull up out front on Greenwood Ave. as he arrives up to get his lunch. He usually has at least one woman, often more, with him. The women work for him along Aurora Ave. in the world’s oldest profession. He is, to put it bluntly, a pimp.
Now, I do not want to give him a lunch. I really want to give him a lecture or a piece of my mind. I always ask the women if they are ok and I always tell them that we can help them get away if they need to. He’s heard me say it often enough that he just waits me out. The women seem maddeningly satisfied with their jobs. I have to hope that if they ever needed help, they would think to come here. What I do is judge him. GOAT! My spirit cries. GOAT! Move over to the left, make room for the sheep, and give me back my sack lunch.
Oh, it is good that it is not up to me, or up to any of us, to be in charge of final judgments. Truly, I know nothing of this man, save for his choice of profession. Is that the criteria upon which judgment will be passed?
Jesus is clear about that criteria. Feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty something to drink. Welcoming the stranger, giving clothing to the naked, caring for the sick and visiting the prisoner. It’s as straightforward as that. Not feed- the- hungry- as- long- as- you’ve- deemed- them- worthy- of- being- fed. Not- welcome- the- stranger- as- long- as- they- look- like- you- and- seem- pretty- clean- cut. Not- care- for- the- sick- unless- they- have- AIDS. No, Jesus is very clear, that when all people of all nations stand before Christ the King, this will be how he knows one from another. This will be how we will be identified.
In the Gospel reading today, the people at Christ’s right hand and the people at his left hand both have a common response to Jesus. Lord, when did we see you? When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, sick, or in prison. When was that again? It seems that both groups were responding or not responding out of clear motivation. They were not trying to earn points to get some sort of eternal reward. They were going about their day, and caring or not caring for these hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned strangers in their midst. They didn’t think “Oh, this homeless man approaching my car might be Jesus…I’ll give him a dollar.” They simply responded, without judgment, to their need.
The need is great, perhaps greater than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. Demand at local food pantries is significantly up. The homeless count is on the rise. The middle class is struggling to get by. For the first time we see them at the food banks. Senior citizens make choices between food and medication. College graduates cannot find good jobs and are facing crushing student loan debt. And the rich seem to get richer. And the rest ring the buzzer and ask for a lunch.
This inequity has led to the recent formation of the Occupy movement. Seattle was front and center this week with video of an 84 year old woman, a local pastor, and a pregnant woman, among others, being pepper sprayed in a confrontation with police. I am not well versed in the language or action of uprising, of political revolt. But I follow a Savior who is the most radical of radicals, who declares that the poor are blessed and who calls on his followers to care for the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, imprisoned stranger.
“Jesus committed his entire life, and death, to the love of all humanity, including the 1 percent, but most especially he identified with the poor and powerless. He showed his particular love, time and again, by sleeping alongside them, eating with them and living as one of them. It is with the neediest, Jesus told his disciples, that God is alive and on the move.”[1]
This day when we observe and celebrate Christ as King, we are reminded that, unlike Kings of our day, or Kings of the prophet Ezekiel’s day, the reign of Christ is one of justice. It is one that places value on peace, not violence. And in the reign of Christ we are called to be active participants, serving Christ by serving those whom he loves. Oh, to be sure, it will be hard sometimes. It will go against every human inclination we have toward judgment, toward figuring out who is a sheep and who is a goat. But that’s not our job. Oh, thanks be to God, it is not our job! Our job is to say to the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked stranger who comes to the window, Jesus loves you. So do I. Here, have some lunch.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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