Where Do We See Christ The King? Christ The King November 23, 2008

(First, read the text for this sermon: Matthew 25:31-46)

Did you see the PBS TV show two weeks ago, on the British monarchy? I turned it on because of the local angle. The documentary included the Queen’s visit to Virginia, and so it was fun to see familiar sights – in Richmond, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, at the College of William and Mary.

What opulence surrounds the Queen! What ceremony! There are attendants everywhere. Host sites spend gobs of money in preparation for the Queen’s arrival. The Williamsburg Inn, for instance, installed new draperies in her room, and spread new bed sheets, and even put on a new a toilet seat. All the rooms to be visited by the Queen were covered by fresh coats of paint, in the Virginia State Capitol building, the Inn, and the White House. (One wag said that the Queen must think America smells like paint!)

But is any of this surprising? The preparations, the luxury, the servants waiting upon the monarch hand and foot, the regal separation from you and me in the unwashed minions – all of this is what we expect of a Queen or a King, right?

Today is Christ the King Sunday. And there are traditions within the Christian Tradition that would assign the same sort of regal trappings as I’ve been describing to Jesus the Christ, now that he is risen. Indeed, those traditions within the Christian Tradition produced language such as this, that we will say in the Apostles’ Creed in a few minutes:

On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

It’s easy to read and speak words like those and envision that heavenly throne room, and to picture the royal retainers who will accompany Jesus on that return for judgment. The book of Revelation also amplifies such a picture, contributing to this tradition within the Christian Tradition.

But is that an accurate picture of Christ the King? Has Christ the King literally ascended to a physical place called heaven, somewhere up in the clouds; and is he now physically sitting in a throne room, “at the right hand of the Father,” who is sitting on his own throne? Many have problems with that! Indeed, many feel drawn towards the faith community, but the creeds are the deal breaker. These folks assume they have to believe the creeds literally, word-for-word, and since they can’t, they simply stay away from worship.

It is helpful to hear some words Marcus Borg has written about the creeds, in his brilliant book, The Heart of Christianity. Borg writes that the word, “creed” comes form the Latin word, credo; and he continues:

We commonly translate credo as “I believe.” And because most modern people understand “I believe” as “I give my assent to,” many Christians have difficulty with the creeds. Indeed, if I were to make a list of the ten questions I am most frequently asked when I talk to Christian groups, on that list would be, “What are we going to do with the creeds?” The reason: they think saying “I believe” means giving one’s mental assent to the literal truth of each statement in the creed. Assensus and literalism are often combined in the modern world, by believers and unbelievers alike.

But credo does not mean “I hereby agree to the literal-factual truth of the following statements.” Rather, its Latin roots combine to mean “I give my heart to.” The heart is the self at its deepest level, a level below the intellect. As the giving of one’s heart, credo means “I commit my loyalty to,” “I commit my allegiance to.”

Thus, when we say credo at the beginning of the creed, we are saying, “I give my heart to God.” And who is that? Who is the God to whom we commit our loyalty and allegiance? The rest of the creed tells the story of the one to whom we give our hearts: God as the maker of heaven and earth, God as known in Jesus, God as present in the Spirit.

“God as known in Jesus.” We Christians declare that God is known in Jesus.

With that in mind, let’s look at this morning’s portrayal in Matthew, of Christ the King.

It’s an apocalyptic drama! Listen to how it begins, with all the trappings of the regal, royal Christ the King who is separated from the unwashed minions: "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, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.”

Last week I talked about the crisis among first and second-generation Jesus people who could not understand why the promised end had not come – even though Jesus had been crucified and raised. Out of that crisis, doctrine evolved. For centuries before the birth of Jesus, there had been expectation among some Jews of the “Son of Man,” an apocalyptic figure who would descend from the clouds in sudden judgment on the day of the Lord. Why hadn’t the day of the Lord happened? Some of the Jesus people of the first couple of centuries came to understand that Jesus himself would return, as the Son of Man! This morning’s story in the gospel of Matthew reflects that doctrine that came to be formulated long after the life of Jesus.

For one more verse, the story in Matthew continues in that regal way: “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;’” Christ the King has come in royal judgment.

But then what does the story reveal? We read on. Those who inherit the kingdom are praised for this: 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.' (This is not like anything we would expect of a king!) Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, '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.' “

One thing that is striking is that the “righteous” didn’t even know they were doing these things! There was no calculation! It just the way they lived.

And think about what’s even more striking. Where do we see Christ the King? It is in the faces of those who are hungry. It is in the faces of those who do not have clean water to drink. We see Christ the King among those who are strangers – which means those who are outcasts in society, those considered unclean, those who are worthless.

So – we see Christ the King when we see those lining up for food and clothing at FISH. We see Christ the King in those who have no health insurance, and who are forced to use hospital emergency rooms as their primary care clinics, long past the point of preventative care. We see Christ the King in the faces of those who are in prison. We see Christ the King in the faces of those who are gay and lesbian.

This is stunning stuff!

And it is frightening stuff – as we read on. Christ the King tells those who “are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'”

Whoo, boy. What do we say to this? Does the story mean that we are accursed if we miss a single hungry person, or if we to not provide for even one person who is thirsty, or who is a stranger, or who is ill clothed or in prison?

Well, yes. That’s what the story means.

And so, it is impossible. You and I cannot save ourselves. We are dead in our sin.

And God’s law, impossible to fulfill, once again drives us back to the grace that comes to us through the waters of baptism.

Over and over again, we return to the waters when we assemble for worship. We practice the faith. Again and again we give our hearts to the God who we know in Christ Jesus! You heard me say it a few minutes ago, while I was standing right next to that baptismal font:

God, who is rich in mercy, loved us
even when we were dead in sin,
and made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
your sins are forgiven.
Almighty God
strengthen you with power
through the Holy Spirit,
that Christ may live in your hearts
through faith.
(Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 96)

Where do we see Christ the King? It is in the faces of those who are hungry and thirsty, those who are strangers, those who are naked and sick and in prison.

How are we empowered to serve Christ the King? It is through the power that is a gift from God – “Power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in [our] hearts through faith.”

It is all grace, so that we may do the work God gives us to do, in servanthood to the God we know in the faces of the poor.

In the name of that God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia