Christ Reigns

Today is the last day of the liturgical year, so next Sunday is the beginning of the New Year for the Church; Advent begins.  The last day of our liturgical year ends where we will begin again next week, with Christ.  Our scriptures today are difficult, so we will approach these passages with the love and grace of the ever-living God.  Will you pray with me?

“God of love and unity, help us perceive the Gospel of Love in these passages that judge and divide.  Help us to acknowledge the Reign of Love, the Reign of your Kingdom, and the Reign of Christ in our lives.  Amen.”

Today is Reign of Christ Sunday.  We declare, Christ Reigns!  The Christ-spirit has always reigned.  The Gospel of John says that the Word, or Christ-presence, was with God from the very beginning.  The Christ-presence was here before us, is here now, and will be here after us.  Our Gospel passage today says that our judgment will not come from our morality or keeping the law, but rather, from whether we feed those who are hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit those in prison.   This passage says what we think or believe has no bearing on our Final Judgment, but rather our final judgment is based only on our actions. 

So where is Christ, that is, where is the King, in our passage?  Up in the high places, in the palaces looking down?  No, the King is with the poor, the hungry, the naked, the sick, the incarcerated.  Christ is in the midst of US—Christ is US.   But it is not like Christ is hiding among the poor—but rather, Christ is the poor, Christ is the homeless, Christ is the hungry, Christ is the sick.  Listen again; Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not help the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

The test of righteousness in this passage is simple, just as simple as separating sheep on the right from goats on the left.  And Jesus leans over to the right and says to the sheep, “You fed the hungry, you watered the thirsty, you welcomed the stranger, and by doing that, you welcomed me and are righteous.”  And he leans over to the goats, and reminds them that by neglecting the poor, they neglected Christ, and He says, Depart from me.

Now I have two other questions that come up for me about this passage.  The first question is: Who are the sheep and who are the goats?  It is so easy to label the goats as them and smugly settle into our sheep’s-clothing.  But I wonder if this brings this mini-parable close enough to home.  What would happen if we looked around this room and discerned that on any given day we are all both sheep and goats?  Christ’s reign is not just on Tuesday afternoon between 2 and 3 when we do a good deed.  Christ’s reign, and our response, are life-long passions, life-long habits, actions and practices.  Be careful of declaring yourself to be a sheep and ‘them’ to be the goats, that is not for you to decide.  Your challenge is to feed, clothe, heal, and visit as a disciple of Christ.  That is why we always have ongoing ways of helping the least among us here at Spring Glen Church.  The work of the Reign of Christ on this earth is never done as long as we are breathing.

My second question is deeper and far more troubling to me.  Why does God even allow this suffering that we must then tend to?  Why doesn’t God feed the hungry and heal the sick?  Why does God allow Holocausts and tsunamis and 9/11 attacks?  Why do we get sick and need healing?  Where is God in all this?  What is God waiting for?  Or maybe, that is the wrong question.

Humanity has argued about why God allows suffering and pain for as long as humanity has talked about God.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Well, let’s go back to basics here; see if we can sort this out.

Let’s start with God.  Our tradition views God as all-powerful.  But our passages today make me ask, if God is all powerful, then why are so many humans hungry, naked, sick and in prison?  Wouldn’t an all-powerful good and loving God mercifully alleviate all suffering?  What is keeping God from always being loving and merciful?  The question of how and why evil exists alongside a loving and merciful God is the question called theodicy, from the Latin words for “God’s Judgment.”  Why doesn’t God judge evil and remove  it?  How do you explain God’s goodness existing simultaneously with evil in the world?  Not only do bad things happen to good people, but, more troubling, good things happen to bad people all the time.  Where is the all-powerful God in this messed-up world when evil gets rewarded?

I have meditated for years about this question, and the only way I can make any sense out of theodicy is to examine my ideas about God and power.  If God can do anything and everything, but sometimes chooses not to be merciful, then that God must honor power more than love, mercy and justice.  But the Bible says time and time again that God honors mercy, love justice over everything, including power.  The only power God always honors is the power of love.  Have we placed our distorted concept of human coercive power onto God when God is really, instead, the full power of love universal?  If God is the power of love, and not coercive power, then maybe God cannot do anything and everything.  Maybe instead of holding power over us and the world, God empowers us to love even the least among us.

Our passage here supports this view that God is love-power and not coercive-power.   Those who live the power of love are placed to Christ’s right hand and called righteous.  Worldly coercive power turns away from the hungry, homeless and sick, but love in action is called righteousness when it cares for the least among us.  Christ declares love-power conquers coercive power.  We are challenged to walk with the least among us as if they are Christ, and Jesus teaches us to counter the world’s coercive power with the power of God’s love.  Jesus says, “Truly, I tell you, just as you tended to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  We are the hands and heart of God.  We are the love of God in the world.  We are the presence of Christ.  We are the power of Christ-love.  So the Reign of Christ is the Reign of Love, and the Reign of Christ is present when we love the least of these.

Now, I fully realize that there are those of you who will disagree with this interpretation of God being love-power and not coercive power, and that certainly is all right.  I know that different opinions are OK because of what this passage does not say.  Notice it does not say people who listen to Fox News go the left, and NPR listeners go to the right.  It does not say Open and Affirming Churches go to the right, and others to the left.  It does not say Progressives to the left and conservatives to the right.  It does not even say Christians only to the right, and all other religions to the left.  Christ here says only one question will be asked at the Last Judgment:  Did you help the poor?  So we can walk with Muslims in caring for the least among us.  Jews and Hindus and Baha’i and atheists can all be named righteous because Christ teaches there is only one factor that will be judged:  Did you care for the least of these?  [pause]  And note that it says the same thing in the last verse of Ezekiel today; God said, “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.”  God protects the weak, and destroys the fat and strong.

The fat and the strong will receive the justice of God, just as our Gospel sends the sheep to the right and the goats to the left.  God promises to protect the weak, and destroy the strong in both passages, but when I look at the news, that is not what is happening in this world.  Why the disconnect between our passages and the evening news?  Why is God inactive now?  What is God waiting for? [long pause]

Could it be that God is waiting for us to act in lives of compassion and love, feeding the poor, housing the homeless and healing the sick?  Could it be God waiting for us to bring the Kingdom of God into the world?  Christ-love will separate the sheep from the goats based on whether we act in kindness, justice, mercy and love.  So why wait until Judgment Day?  Why not act now?  If we know what Christ expects of the righteous ones, let us do it, starting now.  There are many ways to live love and compassion and healing into our world-- just open our bulletin and you will find a dozen of them.

So a final question.  What power truly and ultimately rules the world?  [pause]  When tyrants have turned the world upside-down, what finally Prevails?  God’s power of Love.  Every evil empire falls.  Look at South Africa—after generations of hate and apartheid, love has begun to re-conquer that nation.  After Hitler failed, love and compassion rebuilt Europe.  Racism cannot divide us forever; love will prevail.   The Arab Spring is upending régimes of coercive power.  If I am treated horribly, but respond to my enemy in love, then love wins.  When Christ forgave his murderers on the cross, the power of love won.    Anger will come for a day, suffering and evil may overwhelm the world for a millennium, but ultimately hope and loving community will overcome.  And then the sheep will be separated, and they will graze at Christ‘s right hand, and then the fat and strong goats will fade away.  Christ-love is our hope, our salvation, our ever-present rock, because the Christ-power of love reigns, not coercive power.  And we are invited to reign with Christ by lovingly caring for each other; feeding each other, healing each other, & loving one other.  No evil or coercive power can conquer love.  Christ reigns, not evil.  Christ-love is the Alpha, the beginning.  Christ-love is the Omega, the end.  We are saved by imitating Christ’s compassion and love for the least among us.  Christ Reigns, now and forever.  Amen.