Jesus

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
November 22, 2020

Christ the King 

One of my favorite family memories is a meal we had with Don’s parents over the Christmas holidays some years ago.  After dinner we sat around the table for a long while during which Don’s father, Fred, regaled us with stories about his adventures hitchhiking around northwest Arkansas and around the country in the 1940’s.  He met some great folks and some very shady characters and rode with people of a great variety of driving skills.  I am truly amazed and grateful that he lived to marry Don’s mom!  While hitch hiking is no longer a primary means of transportation as it might have been in the 1940’s, I do have a friend who picks up hitch hikers.  My friend is about my size, 10 years younger, and obviously way more adventuresome than I.  When she told me about picking up hitchhikers, my pastoral response was to tell her that she is an idiot.  Her honest reply was "What if the person is really Jesus and this is a test?  I don't want to fail."  My concerned response was "What if it's not Jesus?"  This is not the 1940’s after all!

 Of course, theologically, my friend is more correct than I.  In the baptismal covenant we are asked if we will seek and serve Christ in all people.  And we say with conviction "We will, with God's help."  We believe that Christ is in all people.  Period.  Christ may be more obviously present in some people than others, or more obscure in some people than others.  But Christ is there.  Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the church year, and we are Christ Church Episcopal.  So on this day we at Christ Church are especially called to think about our identity as people who seek and serve Christ in all people, no matter how obscure or well-hidden Christ might seem to be.

Our belief that we are called to seek and serve Christ in all people comes straight out of Jesus' words this morning.  This morning, we watch as Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.  The sheep are those who have fed, clothed, visited, and cared for Jesus.  The goats are those who have not.  When the sheep are surprised to find that they have served Jesus, Jesus tells them that whenever they have served the least of these who are members of his family, they have served Jesus.  When the goats are surprised, shocked even, to learn that they have failed to serve Jesus, they are told that when they failed to serve the least of these, they failed to serve Jesus.

At Christ Church, we think about serving Jesus when we serve lunch at Open M, or dinner at Family Promise, or build houses with Habitat for Humanity, or paint houses with First Serve, or knit caps for school children in impoverished areas of Akron, or collect yams, or laundry detergent or gift cards for those in need.  This Christmas, we will serve Jesus by supporting the Peter Maurin Center in Akron which serves those who live under bridges and on the streets in Akron, help that is especially vital this year since overnight shelters for the homeless cannot open because of the pandemic.  We serve Jesus in each other as we make phone calls and send notes to check in with each other, pray together and for each other, and support each other in countless ways during the pandemic and always. We want to serve Jesus well, and remembering that we serve Jesus also reminds us that we are connected to those we serve, no matter how different we might appear to be.

But here's the catch: In our parable this morning, the sheep had fed the hungry and visited the sick without knowing that they were serving Jesus.  They were as surprised as anyone when Jesus said "Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world."  They were not serving the hungry and the sick because they thought they were serving Jesus or in order to earn their way into the Kingdom, or to pass a test for that matter.  They were serving for some other reason.

The idea that people of faith should serve others is hardly something new with Jesus.  Matthew's gospel was written to a largely Jewish audience.  The Hebrew scriptures are full of admonitions to live with mercy and kindness, not just to people of like faith, but to all people.  Over and over again in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we hear the command to show hospitality to foreigners for the Hebrew people were once strangers in the land of Egypt.  The Hebrew people and the stranger were connected by the common experience of being in a foreign land.  The prophet Micah sums up the Hebrew teaching with the words "What does the Lord require? That you do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."  In the reading from Ezekiel, we hear God model the very behavior God expects of God's faithful people.  "I will seek the lost and I will bring back the strayed.  I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak."  Acts of mercy and kindness are part of the identity of the Hebrew people because they are the people of the God of mercy and kindness.

The sheep we hear about this morning are sheep simply because they live as the people of God they were created to be.  Acts of mercy and kindness were part of the identity of the sheep because they belong to the God of mercy and kindness.  The sheep were completely surprised to find that they had served Jesus.   Jesus says in Matthew's gospel "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it" so for Christians, belonging to God through Christ means living out the same acts of mercy and kindness.  Then, to our surprise, we realize that we have served Jesus.

At Christ Church, serving others is what we do simply because we belong to God.  In living out that identity, we do meet Jesus.  In meeting Jesus, we realize that we are connected to the whole human family.  My friend who picks up hitch hikers is correct, even if her judgement might be questionable.  The hitchhiker is Jesus.  But there is no test we are trying to pass to earn our way into the Kingdom.  We are already there.  And God assumes we will live like the Kingdom people we are and find a just and merciful way to help people in need of transportation, or medical care, or education, food, shelter, clothing, or love and acceptance.  The challenge of Christ the King Sunday is to live into our identity as children of God by the way we live our lives and allow ourselves to be surprised by the many ways we encounter Jesus along the way.  By doing so, we will make the Kingdom of God a more present reality in our current time.

Amen.