NOV 26, 2017 SERMONPR LABC
Today is Christ the King Sunday,
the last Sunday in our church year before Advent begins.
It is the Sunday when we celebrate the reign of God,and remember that Christ Jesus is our King, both in heaven and on earth.
Today, we remember that we are experiencing Christ’s reign,
in the here and now, and not only in its fullness after we die.
But the reign of Christ our King is unlike any other kingdom we know.
It is not a reign of pomp and showy material wealth.
It is not a reign where Jesus makes all of the tabloids or magazine covers and makes a lot of money from doing so.
And it is not a reign of having a domineering power over others.
Instead, the reign of Christ our King is about humility and mercy.
It is about a shepherding love that looks after us and cares for us.
It is about a reign where Jesus walks with those who are considered
the least of these, and asks his followers to do the same.
It is reign where God’s power is seen in what is considered weak.
Our scriptures this morning reveal to us
what the heart of Christ’s reign is all about.
Whenever I hear this Sunday’s gospel, I am always brought back
to the year that I spent at the former LUMS ministry,
Lutheran Urban Mission Society,in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside when I served as an intern pastor in 2010-2011.
That year was one of the most formative years of my life.
A year that I learned how to see the reign of God with new eyes.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me…
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family you did it to me.”
These verses in Matthew’s gospel were the heart of inspiration
for the LUMS ministry, this quote visible everywhere in the mission
on banners, posters, newsletters, and on the website.
The heart of the mission was to treat every person encountered as Jesus,
and to not be blind to real tangible needs in the proclamation of grace.
It is great to tell someone that Jesus loves them; but it is even better
to show someone that Jesus loves them through real ways.
Especially through physical ways, such as a meal, warm clothes,
and through the touch of a hand or with a listening ear.
The LUMS ministry in Vancouver was a bit different than the SUMS ministry here in Surrey in that the primary focus was not on providing for physical needs, but was to offer pastoral counseling,to be a presence of compassion, and to provide a space for people of all walks
of life to be in relationship with one another.
In that year, I saw a lot.
I saw what life was like for those who were suffering from injustice, whose life paths led them to seek solace in addictions,
whose life circumstances were often so unfortunate
that there was no safety net to carry them when hard times came.
In my listening to people’s stories,
I learned that what separates those from life on the streets
and living life in security, from living on the edge and living in safety,
is often the luck of life circumstances,
and the connection with family and friends.
Interestingly, the majority of people that came into the LUMS mission were people that lived through the foster care system, and came from abusive homes and often did not receive loving care in their childhood.
Some people just had such a run of bad luck, lost a job and didn’t have enough money in the bank to make a month without pay while looking for work, and found themselves unable to bounce back without a family or support system to lean on.
Andwithout a home, clean clothes, or a phone,
and became discouraged after trying unsuccessfully to find another job.
Others had good paying jobs, but had experimented with drugs at one point in their times of stress, and spiraled downwards to losing their jobs, and also broken relationships with their loved ones.
There were also people that I had encountered who came from
really loving homes, who had caring parents and families,
buthad struggled with mental illness, either diagnosed or undiagnosed, before they found themselves living on the streets.
They had slipped through the cracks of a broken medical system,
and were not receiving the care that they really needed.
Or they were just in a place that they were not wanting or able
to receive the help that was there for them. Not yet anyway.
I heard a social worker once say that if someone doesn’t have a mental illness before they become homeless, that living without a home
and in and out of shelters often drives people to become mentally ill.
When people are feeling that unstable and broken, they break inside,
and the courage to climb back up is often difficult to grasp.
As I also volunteered at WISH, a safe haven for street workers,
for women who were involved in the sex-trade,
I was quite struck to learn that the majority of women working
on the streets came from homes where they were sexually abused
as children by someone in their family, and left as teens
without an education or the means to support themselves
because the freedom to not be abused was a greater promise
than what was there for them at home.
Other women would find themselves somehow tricked into the sex-trade, and would be threatened with violence when they tried to leave.
They felt trapped or too hooked in to those relationships to find their freedom, or were at a loss about how to find a different way to live.
None of the women that I encountered looked like this was something they really wanted to do. It was a matter of survival.
In fact, it seemed that most had to keep drugged up
just to be able to do this work day in and day out.
That year was so formative for me, because I came face to face
with the least of these in our society. And my eyes were opened to see.
I could see that one person can never be blamed for such circumstances, because what brings someone to this position
of powerlessness and pain and difficulty is so complex.
It is injustice on so many different levels.
But what we learn about the reign of God, about Christ our King today,
is that he sees all of this, he understands all of this,
and calls us to walk in justice by loving one person at a time.
God calls us to seek the kingdom of God with everyone, especially
the least of these, the least powerful and most vulnerable amongst us.
Being able to provide clothes and food and a safe place for shelter are important aspects in loving our neighbors who don’t have
any of these items.Just as important is a willingness to offer
two ears that can listen, two eyes that are willing to witness and not look away, two arms that are willing to embrace and be embraced,
and a heart that seeks to offer and receive love and acceptance.
Real human connections are what we need most
when we are in are rough spots in life.
Not the relationships that are full of labels.
Not the relationships that seem to be working out
a never ending chain of power struggles.
Not the relationships where we are using people
to feel better about ourselves,
or offering ourselves to be used
in our attempts to borrow a sense of self.
But the relationships that are characterized by seeing Jesus, face to face, in each person whom we encounter.The relationships that remind us
that we are all part of the family of God, of God’s kingdom.
This is what the reign of Christ our King is all about. This is God’s justice.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me…
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family you did it to me.”
In hearing this gospel this morning, especially after spending time training as a Family Therapist for over the past year, there is one word that sticks out to me more than any other: family.
I am struck that Jesus’ words today remind us
that everyone who is considered the least of these,
everyone who is on the receiving end of injustice,
everyone who is suffering, exploited, forgotten,
everyone who are the edge-dwellers in our society,
are part of Jesus’ family.
As children of God, we come from our own families,
but we also make up the family of God. We make up a new family.
A family that seeks justice for all in the here and now.
A family that seeks to love one another.
But this family does not comprise of just those who proclaim
that they are part of God’s family.
Not just those who have said the right prayers,
who have believed the right things.
Not just those who have made the right decisions.
Not just those who were born in the right place at the right time,
and had all of the success that life could bring them.
From this scripture, it would appear that every person in this world
is part of God’s family, especially those who are suffering.
Because God does not ever forget us when we are suffering.
God does not ever forget us when we are hungry or thirsty,
when we are an unwelcomed stranger,
when we are vulnerable or sick,
when we are imprisoned in some way.
God always remembers us, because, by the grace of Christ Jesus,
we are God’s sheep.
And God doesn’t blame us when we are suffering,
when we are the least of these.
God does not blame the sufferers for suffering.
Instead, God cares for us as a shepherd king.
In our Ezekiel reading, we hear about what kind of shepherd God is.
God is the kind of shepherd king
that searches for the strayed sheep and seeks the lost sheep,
that rescues his sheep from darkness and brings them out to safety.
God is the kind of shepherd king that heals the injured,
that strengthens the weak, and brings rest for the weary.
God is the kind of shepherd king that feeds his sheep with all they need,
and especially with justice.
God is the kind of shepherd king that acts and cares for the weak.
Because, in one way or another, that is who we are.
Sure, we have times in our lives when we are on the stronger
or more powerful side of life.
But who hasn’t, at one point in their lives, in some way or another,
been the least of these, been at the mercy of God’s help?
It is only by God’s grace that we can be saved and live our lives as sheep.
Our church is called Christ the King Lutheran Church.
Our call as church is to proclaim this humble and merciful reign of God,
where we welcome and reach out to the least of these.
I know that the needs out around are great, and as one church,
we cannot fix all of the injustices around us.
So what does this really mean for us?
How are we called to live out the reign of Christ our King,
live in the family of God, in the here and now,
with each other and in our community?
I think that Jesus calls us to see what is really before us,
to see the complexity of the big picture, to not get lost in blame,
but to understand that those who are the least of these
are close to his heart.
I think that Jesus calls us to see that his reign is about justice.
God’s justice is really about the fact that we are all sheep, by the grace of God, and we all belong to the family of God. God cares about everyone.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to put that justice into action,
one heart at a time.
I think that Jesus calls us to see that his reign
is about the merciful power of God,
which inspires us to see each other, face to face.
It is about the power of love, we walk beside one another, step by step.
It is about the power of God’s grace at work in us
to welcome one another as belonging to the family of God.
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