Scripture passages:
Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
1 Cor 15: 20-26, 28
Mt 25: 31-46
Christ the King. This is the feast which we celebrate today. Now, perhaps you like me don’t often use this title for talking about Jesus. We as a church like to pride ourselves on not being hierarchical, and a title like King seems to support this hierarchical sense of power. We like to use brother, or friend, but not often King. However tonight I would like us to consider how this title of Christ as King might actually be Good News that we can claim and celebrate, by exploring who is Christ the King and where he is.
I invite us to first reflect on our Gospel passage. This is the last teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew before the passion, so that shows us the importance. This is Jesus's parting reminder and advice, and it sums up one of the central themes of Matthew’s Gospel: we are to love God and love neighbor which go hand in hand. Typically the focus of the passage is on the sheep and goats, but tonight I want to focus on the King.
First imagine you are a first century follower of Jesus. You are currently living under occupation by the Roman Empire. You are subject to the whims and greed of the local King/Lord. Only about 3% of people have any real power and wealth, and so you most likely either live in poverty or have a small trade that allows you to get by with the basics day to day. You are heavily taxed, you have no voice or vote in governance, and little power to defend yourself against any verbal or physical abuses by the ruling elite and its army.
What could possibly give you hope in such a desperate situation? You have this story in your tradition, that you hear when you gather with friends to break bread and remember the promise of the one who was crucified, died, and rose again. There is another Kingdom and another King, one who is mightier than all the powers of this Earth. This King rules with justice and righteousness. Not only that, but with all his power he chooses not to reside in a palace but on the streets, with the poor, hungry, and homeless.
Christ the King is not only present with the poor and marginalized, but has declared there will be consequences for those who fail to care for him in these spaces. New Testament scholar Warren Carter says that “the judgment reverses the imperial privileging of elite interests by [prioritizing] the needs of the poor and powerless. The vision reveals the imperial structures are not divinely sanctioned or “natural” but rather creations of and for the imperial elite - and under God’s judgment.” This is incredible news for those living under these imperial structures. None of this is God’s will, God is on our side, suffering with us under these current systems of oppression, and those responsible for my suffering will be judged accordingly.
Now perhaps your mind already jumped ahead, but given this ancient context and understanding for the early Jesus movement, it isn’t too hard to look at our world today and find some similar parallels. We are living under a type of exploitative empire which keeps a very small percentage of people with exorbitant wealth and a great majority of people either in poverty or making just enough to get by each day. This – let’s call them the 1% - in turn use their great wealth to influence power and control over the governance and laws of this country, which they use to maintain and expand their own power and wealth at the expense of the greater majority.
Meanwhile we see more families and young adults amassing overwhelming debt,
we see a growing despair that leads to drug overdoses or violence in our communities,
we experience increasing natural disasters and climate change fueled by extractive fuel and mining industries and increasing pollution and waste,
we hear stories about women being sexually harassed and assaulted on a daily basis,
families continue to be torn apart through deportation and unjust immigration policies,
and our Muslim and Jewish neighbors are the victims of hate crimes.
Where is Christ the King in the midst of all this? The Gospel tells us that the King is present in the very people who are suffering under these unjust and exploitative economic, political, and legal systems.
A modern day telling of our Gospel might sound like this:
For I was undocumented and you offered me sanctuary.
I was targeted by systemic racism and police brutality and you joined me to advocate for accountability and protest in the streets.
I was a refugee fleeing violence, drought, or flooding and you welcomed me.
I was poisoned by living near a toxic waste site and you fought to protect funding for clean-up and ensured I had access to affordable health care.
I was a victim of sexual assault and you believed me and supported me.
Christ the King, our loving and powerful God, could choose to be anywhere, and they choose over and over again to show up in the people and places that the empires of this world de-value and cast aside.
When the messages of earthly empires are telling you that you are nothing, you are worthless, you are not fully human, you don’t deserve the same rights and opportunities as others, to be able to know in your heart and say with confidence that they do not have any claim to your life, there is one mightier than them who not only knows you by name and calls you beloved, but is actually present with you in all you are experiencing and struggling with - that is good news!
So where does this leave us? Maybe you fall into one of these categories of the marginalized or suffering, and can take comfort and hope in knowing that God is with you. The powers of this world are nothing compared to the power of the Spirit that accompanies you and actually is present in you as you are going through your current struggles.
If not, I would hope that as Christians you have a desire at least to know Christ and be in relationship with him. In order to build a relationship and grow in love and understanding, you have to spend time with the other person. And our Gospel tonight tells us where we can find Christ the King, to engage in this relationship building.
It is in our encounter with the poor, the homeless, the oppressed fighting for their liberation that we encounter Christ in a way that we cannot encounter him anywhere else. We can’t fully know and love Christ, without knowing and loving the poor and the oppressed. And when we know and love them, we make their struggles our struggles. Of course we will share our food, our drink, our clothing, our comfort and presence, our resources and privilege, because that’s what you do for those you love.
Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement has said that "it is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor."
Karen House, the Catholic Worker house here in St. Louis, continues the mission Dorothy Day started to foster loving encounter and transformation. And we as a community have an opportunity to participate in this transformative encounter of love by preparing, serving, and sharing meals with the women and children who are currently housed at Karen House. I have personally lived in the Karen House community and can testify to the power of getting to know Christ our King, present in those the world is quick to overlook or cast away, through something as simple as sharing food and conversation.
I want to close with some words of Pope Francis, from his address for the World Day of the Poor last weekend. He made a beautiful connection between what we do in this space as we gather each week to remember and celebrate the Eucharist and what we are called to do outside this gathering within the larger community. “If we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor, as a response to the sacramental communion bestowed in the Eucharist. The Body of Christ, broken in the sacred liturgy, can be seen in the faces and persons of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.”
May we, through a love and vision that is born in the celebration of Christ broken and blessed in the Eucharist, go out into the world to encounter Christ the King present in the broken and blessed spaces, and through this encounter grow deeper in love and actively participate in God’s kingdom breaking forth in the world. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment