"Judged"

Matthew 25:13-46 and Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Reign of Christ Sunday

First United Church – Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

If you do a Google search for “tiny baby Jesus” most of the results that pop up are not about the gospel of Matthew, or the Christmas story, or written by some fancy theologian. Instead, what you find are videos and links about The 2006 movie Talladega Nights, starring Will Farrell and John C. Reilly.

Any time I need a good laugh, I just look up the “tiny baby Jesus” scene on YouTube and allow the sweet stress-relieving properties of good comedy wash over me. In this scene, NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby is gathered for a meal with his family. Ricky’s favorite way to pray is to the “tiny baby Jesus” and, at one point in the prayer, his wife interrupts him to say, “You know, sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call him baby. It’s a bit odd and off-puttin’ to pray to a baby.”

Ricky responds, “Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I’m sayin’ grace. When you say grace, you can say it to Grownup Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or whoever you want.”

Cal Noughten, Jr., Ricky’s best friend, chimes in to say, “I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin’ lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I’m in the front row and I’m hammered drunk!”

Now, I don’t pretend to know if the author of Matthew’s gospel liked to get hammered drunk, but I can imagine that Matthew would probably love Cal’s version of Jesus.

Matthew’s Jesus is strong, enthroned in glory, a ruler above all other rulers. I like to imagine Matthew is up by the pearly gates somewhere belting out Handel’s Messiah with an enormous angel choir for all eternity, “King of Kings! And Lord of Lords! And He shall reign for ever and ever!”

Matthew’s Jesus is larger than life.

And so we come to the final Sunday of the church year – Reign of Christ Sunday. The last Sunday before Advent. The last Sunday before we take a turn into a new church year.

On this Sunday, we focus with other Christians around the world on that being we call Christ. Not necessarily just the human, Jesus, who walked the earth, mind you. But that eternal spirit, Christ, who is with us for all eternity.

We’ve been following Matthew’s gospel in the lectionary this year and, for the past several weeks, the teachings of Jesus have gotten more and more challenging. Dark visions of the end times, parables that are increasingly difficult to decipher, and images of failed humans being cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew’s Jesus doesn’t fool around.

And now, as we finish up the 25^th chapter, we have a vision of Jesus Christ, enthroned in glory, surrounded by angels, and gathering all the nations of the world around him. Go ahead and imagine some Lynyrd Skynyrd in the background if you want.

When I imagine Christ in this text, he’s all gold and shiny. I imagine him as a living, breathing version of all those great icons from the Eastern Orthodox traditions. Can you see those gold foiled Christs? Like the one on the ceiling of Haggia Sophia in Turkey? That style of icon is called a Pantokrator – Greek for The Almighty One. Christ the Ruler. Christ the All-Mighty. The one who comes to judge the quick and the dead.

Now, if I had to guess, I’d say most of us don’t pray to this version of Christ very often. Maybe there are a few of us who get really excited about the idea of Christ being lifted up high, judging all the nations of the world, ruling over the entire universe. But I hear people around here talk more about Jesus as a guide, a friend, a role-model, a companion on our walk with God. It seems like a lot of us prefer to think of Jesus as a peer or, at the very highest, a gifted teacher.

But just as Ricky Bobby and his family like to pray to different versions of Jesus, there is no one version of Christ presented in the scriptures or in the Christian tradition. The image of Christ Pantokrator, Christ Almighty, is certainly one who has existed since the beginning of our religion and continues to resonate with many Christians today.

I know that, for me, one of the things that makes me uncomfortable about Christ as a monarch is this whole idea of judgment. Who wants to think about judgment? I don’t like to be judged. You probably don’t either.

And judgment is, of course, just what we have happening in Matthew’s final parable.

For those raised on a good Protestant line of “grace, not works” this is not an easy story to read. I was always taught, as a child, that as long as I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I had nothing to worry about. Even though I might mess up, God would still love me and I’d still get to go to heaven.

It’s a nice idea, but there’s no denying that those who wrote the Bible also valued our actions. The way we operate in the world. The things we do to each other. The way we choose to live our lives.

According to Matthew, when Christ comes in all his glory to judge us, he’s not going to ask if we’ve prayed the prayer of salvation. He’s going to separate us based on whether or not we cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned.

Now, I want to pause for a second to say a couple of words about this idea of salvation.

I still have a hard time with this, but when I hear people say “salvation” I tend to think of what will happen to me when I die. Will I meet St. Peter at the door to heaven? What will he say about my life? Will I go to heaven or hell?

Salvation might mean that. I don’t know for sure. But what I do know is that salvation means a whole lot more than just that.

Salvation is eternal. It happens in the past, present, and future. Salvation is communal. It happens not only to individuals but also to communities. Salvation is about all of the ways we are all being saved on a daily basis. It is not just something that will happen in the “by and by” after we die. It is here and now.

And I would argue that judgment is the same way. Judgment is not just something that will happen someday in the future – either at the end of our individual lives or in some great cosmic world judgment at the end times. Heck, I don’t even know if there will be an end to the world!

What I do know is that judgment, like salvation, is eternal. It happens in the past, present, and future. If we allow ourselves to be conscious of it, we will recognize that we are all being judged each and every day. That little voice in your head that tells you it would be a good idea to buy an extra turkey for the Thanksgiving meal at Community Kitchen? Judgment. That warm glow of satisfaction you feel after you’ve successfully navigated a trip to a mall crowded with Christmas shoppers and your toddler and preschooler didn’t kill each other, didn’t melt down, and are still whole people? Judgment.

Judgment happens each and every day. Judgment is a gift from God. Judgment is necessary for salvation. Judgment is good news.

I don’t know about you, but when I read this parable, I start to get nervous. I find myself, in my self-centered way, immediately wondering, “Wait, am I a sheep or a goat?”

I’m sure none of the rest of you do that, right? No, of course not.

Part of the uniqueness of this story, part of what it makes it compelling is that these tasks are both easy and hard at the same time. These are certainly not Herculean tasks. Giving food and drink to someone who needs it – check, I do that every day when my child wakes up and needs breakfast. Welcoming the stranger – no problem, I introduce myself to a new person at coffee hour every week. Clothing the naked – yup, I take my old clothes to Opp House or My Sister’s Closet. Taking care of the sick and imprisoned – well, I do visit people when they’re feeling ill, maybe take them a casserole. I admit, I’m not perfect at visiting people when they’re in prison, but if I knew them personally, I’d probably do it.

These are acts of basic human kindness and compassion. No one is asking me to rebuild the Temple with my two bare hands or preach the gospel on every continent before my 40^th birthday.

And yet – if these tasks are so simple, why do I so often fail to do them?

Just last week, I drove past a young woman on the corner of Pete Ellis who had a sign and was looking for donations. I didn’t have any food or cash to give her, but maybe I could have given her a kind word. And there are times where I am just too worn down by the day to properly greet a stranger when I encounter them at Target. Sometimes I buy myself new clothes that are too expensive when I know I could be using that money to help those less fortunate than myself. And there have been numerous times when I knew I should take a casserole to a friend’s house, but made excuses to myself about my busy schedule until the illness had passed and the opportunity was missed.

If we are honest with ourselves, we are all – all of us – both sheep and goats. No one is perfect. No one scores 100% and manages to see Christ in the stranger every single time. And no one is perfectly evil. Even those who consistently make bad choices about how they treat others – even those who fail to remember Christ is within their neighbor – even those folks often do basic acts of human decency.

And therein lies the beauty and complexity of this story. We are all sheep and goats. We are all being judged, each and every day. When we allow ourselves to be judged, we allow ourselves to be formed, transformed, and saved.

Judgment isn’t some nasty four-letter word – judgment is salvation.

Christ followed in a long line of judges in the Jewish tradition. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of stories of God’s judgment – both in supernatural ways and through human actors. Today’s passage from Ezekiel is a classic text of God’s judgment and salvation for the sheep of Israel. God will rescue the lost sheep by seeking them out. God will punish the fat sheep because they have taken advantage of the smaller sheep. Judgment in the Hebrew Bible is almost always good news. It is, at times, quite painful for those being judged, but it always leads to salvation in the end.

Judgment may not feel good while it’s happening – at least when we’re living in the goat side of ourselves. But it results in salvation. Judgment is what encourages us to do better. Judgment is a whisper of a new possibility – a possibility to see Christ in our sisters and brothers – an opportunity to live out God’s call for freedom and justice for everyone on earth.

Sometimes judgment feels awesome. Imagine how those sheep must have felt when Christ rewarded them with the recognition of a job well-done. I think we often don’t take the time to listen to God’s positive judgment in our lives. If any of us were to take the time to go back through our day before going to sleep each night, I’d be willing to bet that every single person in this room could find at least one instance where they did something worthwhile. A place where we offered kindness to someone or glimpsed the Divine peering out at us from another person’s soul. But we often forget to notice when we’re doing well. We often forget to wear our button that says, “have fun doing good” with pride. And, in doing so, we miss an opportunity for salvation. We miss an opportunity to be judged and to strengthen ourselves for the work of the next day.

As we move into this period of Advent waiting, the voice of Christ quiets. We go now from an image of Christ the Great Ruler to an image of Christ as a tiny, helpless infant. And before we welcome Christ into the world on Christmas Day, we find ourselves in a period of watching and waiting for the dawn of Christ as the new year begins.

In this time of waiting and watching, it is my hope that we can – all of us – embrace God’s judgment and salvation during this Advent season. We are all sheep and goats. Thanks be to God for opportunities for growth and new birth.