Who needs a King? Christ the King Sunday November 23-4, 2019 First UMC, Carroll, IA

Who needs a King?

Christ the King Sunday

November 23-4, 2019

First UMC, Carroll, IA

 Americans are not accustomed to the extravagance that accompanies royalty. The closest most of us can come is the wedding of Princess Diana and Charles.

I read descriptions of Queen Elizabeth II coronation this week and it makes that wedding seem like a square-dance in an old barn.

On June 2, 1953, after 16 months of planning the Archbishop of Canterbury, other distinguished clergy, and most of the British nobility gathered at Westminster Abbey. The Royal navy was lined up as if at attention, the guards and other military were dressed in their finest regalia.

 After much elaborate ceremony, the new queen took the vows of office and she was presented with the crown jewels -including the Royal Orb, the Royal scepter, and the St Edwards crown which together contain 23,578 jewels including the largest clear-cut diamond in the world. … get the idea? That is the way the world treats royalty.

 Not unlike the beginning of our Matthew scripture: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him.” Our divine king’s Royal robes and the heavenly crown jewels must be something to behold. Colossians has this same royal view of Christ.

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation;

for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created,

things visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—

all things have been created through him and for him.

 He himself is before all things,

and in him all things hold together.

 He is the head of the body,

the church;

he is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

 That certainly sounds like Christ the King Sunday, doesn’t it? “Thrones or dominions or rulers or powers… He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head… so that he might come to have first place in everything.”

In short, Christ is the source of our being, the sustainer of all that is, the master of all that will be, and he rules over a kingdom that will have no end.

 It doesn’t look that way though does it. Our world is one of monstrous evil, ruthless hate, genocide, ignorant prejudices, sex trafficking, child abuse, greed, murder, and lies. Is that world part of the kingdom of God? Well, yes and no. Yes, because we know that Christ is King over all creation and creatures. But no, because most of creation has not bowed to the power of the divine king.

That is where you come in. You are part of Christ’s Kingdom … and so am I.

Notice in Matthew, “the Son of Man” stands in judgment, not over creation as a whole, but over each and every individual according to the way they lived out the kingdom of God in their life.

If you read this and think it is about getting into heaven or going to hell, you would not be the first to think that. I, however, think that is missing the big point. This parable is not so much about who will get into the kingdom of heaven or who will be left out. It is not about Jesus tallying up all the good marks and all the and all the bad marks.

NO. The real question here is not, “where will I spend eternity.” The real question is, “what am I supposed to do today?”

There is a surprise in store for everyone.

 Let’s reverse the order that Jesus uses in the parable. First, the unrighteous are in for a big surprise. You see they spent their lives judging who is worthy of help. They only helped those whom they determined to be deserving.

•            The mother of 3 whose husband was unemployed came to the unrighteous for some help at the holiday time. They discussed it among themselves and said, “We can’t help her if she didn’t spend so much money on bingo and cigarettes she could take care of her family herself.”

•            The teenager from up the road was facing court proceedings because of drug offenses. The unrighteous said, “We can’t help that family, where do you think he learned to be a druggie. His parents taught him.”

•            A young woman, a single mother who is pregnant again. You know, the one who “got herself into trouble” but insists on hanging out with the same low life’s. The unrighteous said, “She needs to get her act together before we help her.”

•            What about the drunk who lives a few houses up the street? Or the divorced man who has walked out on his wife and family? The unrighteous said, “they made their beds and now should lie in them?”

•            They saw some of the kids at school dressed in old jeans and always untidy, they don’t seem to care about their work. The unrighteous asked, “Where are their parents?”

•            Or what about the elderly woman whose mind is not what it used to be. He has become cranky and hard to get along with? The unrighteous said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to talk to her.”

They asked “Lord, when did we NOT do the right thing? … You can’t judge us!” … They were completely oblivious to the judgments with which they have been burdening others.

 They complained, “But Jesus, if we had only known it was you, we would have helped.” Maybe they would have… but it is too late.

 . The righteous similarly asked, “When was it that we saw you and DID those things” … The Son of man replies, “when you did it unto the least of these, you did it to me.” In other words, YOU are the kingdom of God. In every encounter, every friendship, every person you help, every person you love.… you are the living kingdom of God.

Today’s text makes it clear, to live in the kingdom of Christ the king means…

•            When the woman with three kids who spends her money on bingo and cigarettes comes for help, the kingdom citizens see a hungry child of God and kids who deserve at least a little joy at least at Christmas.

•            When the troubled teen comes, kingdom citizens see a victim of his parent’s addiction and take him under our wing to mentor.

•            When the pregnant (again_ single mother comes, kingdom citizens find a place for her in our fellowship.

•            When the drunk or the divorced man comes, kingdom citizens realize that we can only guess their pain, so we show them compassion

•            When we see the kids at school ill-kept and uninterested, kingdom citizens ask ourselves, “I wonder if they had anything to eat for breakfast this morning or even supper last night.”

•            When the cranky old woman comes to the door, kingdom citizens know that we too might be unpleasant to be around someday. So, we take one on the chin.

Who needs a king? We do. We need our king, so we learn to live in the glorious Kingdom of God, in which people love simply because there are people in need of love.

Who needs a king? We need our king by whose example we learn to live in the eternally present Kingdom of God, in which people share simply because others don’t have enough.

Who needs a king? We need our king who died for the life-giving Kingdom of God, in which death gives way to life we so we can lay ourselves down for others as we work for justice, peace, and hope.

That is why we need king Christ in our lives.

 I remember hearing some great preachers at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, but I wish I had been there for Dr. Martin Luther King’s sermon just two months before his assassination. He shared how he would like to be remembered, and in doing so, he zeroed in on that ultimate question: “If Christ is King, what does that mean for me today? If Christ is ruler over our lives, Dr. King told them, then

•            my Nobel Peace Prize is less important than my trying to feed the hungry.

•            If Christ is King, then my invitations to the White House are less important than that I visited those in prison.

•            If Christ is King, then my being TIME magazine's "Man of the Year" is less important than that I tried to love extravagantly, dangerously, with all my being.” 

That should give us all pause for thought. Let’s look at Matthew’s list again: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. There are probably 100 more groups of people… Can I add one that is on my heart these days? How about those who disagree on issues of gender and sexuality. The attitude in our denomination is that if we disagree, we can’t worship together, serve together, commune together, or get along together. No that is not what the discipline says but it is exactly what folks on BOTH sides of this sexuality argument are saying.

However, Christ is my King. If Christ is your king, we are not only citizens of the same kingdom, we are brothers and sisters and children of the one and only God. That is greater than any opinion either of us will ever hold.

 May we live each day looking for ways to share the love of God with others and guess what. When you least suspect it, there will be a surprise. “Come, you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.”