SUNDAY OF CHRIST THE KING
Prayer of the Day: O God of power and might, your Son shows us the way of service, and in him we inherit the riches of your grace. Give us the wisdom to know what is right and the strength to serve the world you have made, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
No, it doesn’t matter that the least happen to be “collateral damage” incurred while taking out a legitimate military target. It doesn’t matter that the least happen to be on death row for horrendous crimes committed against innocent people. It doesn’t matter that the least were sent to die for high sounding principles like “democracy,” “freedom,” or “national security.” It won’t do to protest that the poor are poor by reason of their own laziness, bad decisions and lack of initiative. There can be no distinction between the least on our side of the border and the least on the other. No one will be heard to argue that there was no room in the budget to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick or assist the prisoner and that, of course, the deficit had to be reduced somehow. The nations, all the nations, will be judged under just one standard: how well or poorly they treated the least among us.
This parable of Jesus is just that, namely, a parable. Like all parables, its focus is not on some event in the the distant future. Instead, it directs the disciples to the way Jesus would have them live in the moment. It is, first and foremost, a reflection of the life Jesus lived in the shadow of political violence, imperial oppression and ruthless economic exploitation. It is a life that honors God’s priorities and takes the shape of the cross in a world whose priorities are entirely different. It is life grounded in God’s eternal priorities and in which Jesus invites his disciples to share.
That brings me to a further point. The parable is directed to the disciples, those who have been called by grace, redeemed by grace and set apart by grace as witnesses to Jesus and the kingdom he proclaims. Theirs is the privilege of testifying, in deed as much as in word, to God’s priorities in the world. As it happens, God’s priorities are those persons deemed the lowest priority among us. Note well that in this parable of the final judgment nothing is said about how many times a person has been married or to whom, what their sexual orientation is or is not, whether any of them has ever had an abortion, what their race or nationality might be, whether they have the proper documentation to live where they are living, what their religious commitments are, whether they have a criminal record, how they voted in the last election or any of those other “culture war” obsessions that posses so much of the deviant, sick and sadly dominant strains of America Christianity. One can only conclude from Jesus’ parable that God does not give a flying fruitcake about any of that crap-and neither should his disciples.
What disciples do care about are the least among us. That includes the millions in this richest of nations living in poverty, food insecurity and without adequate medical care because that clown[1] show known as the U.S. Congress must balance the budget on their backs. It includes the children dying violent deaths daily in Gaza, South Sudan and Ukraine at the expense of nationalism at home and the national interests of superpowers abroad pouring money and weapons into these conflicts. It includes millions of kids in our broken foster care system. It includes millions of incarcerated persons who, if they ever gain release, will enter into a society that stigmatizes them in ways that practically ensures their failure to rebuild their lives. It includes millions living in refugee camps all over the world who are hated, feared and unwanted everywhere. Jesus assures us that these are God’s priorities. They should be the priorities of his disciples, his church.
The Sunday of Christ the King brings the liturgical year to a fitting close. At the end of the day, we are reminded that we have one Sovereign to whom we pledge allegiance. Jesus stands with those deemed “least.” As he taught us, where he is, there should his servants be. John 12:26. During a senatorial debate in 2021, Senator Raphael Warnock proclaimed that he was a “Matthew 25 Christian.” I have heard others use that term also. Frankly, I was not aware that there was any other kind. Jesus was always crystal clear that the commandment to love God and neighbor was “the first and greatest.” Mark 12:29-31. He was clear in his teaching that treatment of all people in the way we would be treated constitutes the heart and soul of the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12. Thus, the parable of the judgment simply reinforces what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount and lived throughout his ministry. Loyalty to Jesus and submission to God’s gentle reign as it is revealed in his obedient life, faithful death and glorious resurrection trumps all other commitments.
In our American context, we are confronted with numerous ideologies cloaked under the sheep’s clothing of patriotism, morality and religion. Some of them come from the radical fringe, making their way into the mainstream of our politics and culture. Others are already deeply imbedded in American orthodoxy. They reflect priorities entirely different from those of God’s reign revealed in Jesus Christ. We live under a government promoting, implementing and enabling unjust, inhumane and cruel policies that have devastating impacts on the poorest, sickest, hungriest and most vulnerable among us and around the world. Faithfulness to Jesus is faithfulness to these victims of “our way of life.” If we are not Matthew 25 Christians, then we are simply not Christians.
Here is a poem by Gilbert K. Chesterton. It was set to music and included in the Lutheran Book of Worship published in 1978. For reasons I cannot fathom, it failed to make the cut for our subsequent hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. That is unfortunate because I can hardly imagine a more appropriate hymn for the Sunday of Christ the King in this day and age.
O God of Earth and Altar
O God of Earth and Altar
Bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly rulers falter
Our people drift and die
The walls of gold entomb us
The swords of scorn divide
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride
From all that terror teaches
From lies of tongue and pen
From all the easy speeches
That comfort cruel men
From sale and profanation
Of honour and the sword
From sleep and from damnation
Deliver us, good lord
Tie in a living tether
The prince and priest and thrall
Bind all our lives together
Smite us and save us all
In ire and exultation
Aflame with faith and free
Lift up a living nation
A single sword to thee
Source: Gilbert Kieth Chesterton (c. 1906), printed in the Lutheran Book of Worship (c. 1978 by Lutheran Church in America; The American Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada; the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) Hymn No. 428. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist and literary/art critic. He was born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London. He is perhaps best known popularly for his creation of the character Father Brown, the priest-detective who appears in several of his short stores. The character has given rise to several adaptations for television in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an orthodox Christian. Baptized and raised Anglican, Chesterton ultimately came to identify more with Catholicism, to which he finally converted. His literary works are laced with interchanges reflecting moral and religious themes. Perhaps his best known work of fiction is the clever and fast moving novel, The Man who was Thursday. Chesterton loved to debate and often engaged in friendly public disputes with such personages as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and Clarence Darrow. Chesterton delivered a series of radio talks over the BBC, about forty per year, from 1932 until his death four years later. Near the end of Chesterton’s life, Pope Pius XI invested him as Knight Commander with Star of the Papal Order of St Gregory the Great. The poem recited above was written by Chesterton in 1906. If you would like to take a listen to the hymn version, click on this link.
[1] When I say clown, I am thinking Pennywise rather than Bozo.
Peter's Outer Cape Portico 