Pastor Marni Nancekivell led us in worship. In her sermon, which you can read below, she said:
Then, at the end of the whole Gospel he says: “Lo, I am with you to the end of the age”.
The problem, as far as I can tell, is that we act as if he is not here. And the way we live seems to say that he doesn’t care about what we are doing. But Christ says he is with us always, to the end of the age. If we believe that, we know that he already sees us. He knows who we are with and whom we are serving. So we cannot expect to wait until the last minute before his coming, and then scramble to do the work that he has sent us out to do.
The Reign of Christ – Grace Lutheran –
November 21, 2021
Well, it is New Year’s Eve! That statement might startle those of you who, like me haven’t even finished your Christmas shopping yet, but the words are true. It is the end of the church year, so we teeter on the end of Year B. In spite of the pandemic that has seen churches not meeting in person every Sunday for the last year, this past year, in the Christian lectionary, we have traveled the course of the Gospel. We have stood at the stable, at the cross, in the garden of resurrection, and in the Upper Room as the Holy Spirit swept over those who had gathered there. So, this is the last Sunday of the Church year, and next week, we begin the cycle again with the season of Advent. We will begin a new year, Year C in the three year cycle to be exact.
This day is the Sunday of the Reign of Christ – sometimes called the Feast of Christ the King.
Christ the King doesn’t look like any King I’ve ever seen on the cover of People magazine…and his kind of kingship isn’t written about in the royalty family books you can buy at Indigo. He wears no purple robes. No crown. There is no legions of soldiers. No great parades. No castle. No place to live. Period.
Rather, he claims to be at one with the poor and hungry, and with those who are strangers, in prison, sick, and thirsty. He says he has nowhere to lay his head. He says to us, his disciples, “See all these sisters and brothers of mine who are homeless like me? They are me, and I am them. To serve me, you must serve them. When I come back, I will see what you are doing, and whom you truly serve.”
Then, at the end of the whole Gospel he says: “Lo, I am with you to the end of the age”.
The problem, as far as I can tell, is that we act as if he is not here. And the way we live seems to say that he doesn’t care aboutwhat we are doing. But Christ says he is with us always, to the end of the age. If we believe that, we know that he already sees us. He knows who we are with and whom we are serving. So we cannot expect to wait until the last minute before his coming, and then scramble to do the work that he has sent us out to do.
We cannot deceive Christ into thinking we have been doing it all along.
Because, Jesus, the Christ never left. He has been with us all along.
“I am these people.
The poor you will always have with you.
I am with you always, to the end of the age.
I am the poor.
They are always with you.
I am always with you.
I am they and they are me.
Serve me through them.
We can scramble and rearrange the words any way we wish, but it always comes out the same. It is a description of what life is like in the kingdom. And you and I? We are the people of his kingdom. We are to live as servants of Christ the King. We are called to live as people who see opportunity in the “community of others”. That includes embracing the stranger, the refugee and the homeless, those who have no helper. Just singling out one person in need and finding ways to help them is a way to honor Christ the King,
As the worker bees of God’s realm, we are promised elsewhere in scripture that God equips us to do the work that God calls us to do.
The good news is that we are not expected to do any more than God has equipped us to do.
And of course, we are not expected to anything less than those gifts allow.
The life of faith is about discerning and using these gifts to carry on Christ’s work in the world.
Jesus’ hope, his expectation, is that we will live carrying on his work. Living in the wisdom he taught us. Reconciling the world. Choosing the way of life instead of the way of death.
It is a big task, this carrying out the work of the Reign of Christ. Yes there may be moments, when it all seems to be just too much. We may think that the need is just too great. That there are too many hungry and poor and lonely people for us to make any difference.
Well, this week, I came upon a story about the anthropologist and science writer, Loren Eisely.
Eisely was in the south of France, on the coast, attending a scientific symposium. He awoke early one morning and went for a walk on the beach before sunrise. As he moved thorough the misty dawn, he focused on a faint, far away figure. It was a young man, bending and reaching and flinging his arms, seemingly dancing on the beach. Eisely thought to himself: “ No doubt, he is dancing in celebration of the new day about to begin”.
As he came nearer, he realized that the youth was not dancing at all, but rather was bending to sift through the debris left by the night tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then, standing, heaving it back into the sea. He asked the youth the purpose of the effort. “The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach, and they cannot return to the sea by themselves”, the young man replied. “Soon, when the sun rises, they will die and the people will come from town to pick them and sell them in the market place. I throw them back to the sea so they may live another day”.
As the youth explained all of this, Eisely surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond his sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The youth’s plan seemed hopeless. “But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference?
The youth paused to consider the words, then bent to pick up a starfish, whirled around and threw it as far as possible back into the ocean.
Turning to the scientist, he said simply, “I made a difference to that one”, and he kept on, dancing down the beach.
Eisely went back to his room, and to the conference. All his life he had understood the coming and going of life to be part of the way of the universe. Natural selection. Until seeing the young man on the beach, it had never occurred to him how important it is for one creature to help another, and how the seemingly natural order of things might be dramatically altered by the simple actions of one person.
So, the next morning, when Eisely awoke, he went back to the sea before dawn. There he joined the youth in the dance of life, one starfish at a time! Never before had he felt so alive and connected to our Creator God.
Whatever talents we have each been given, they are more than sufficient for us to do our part in the dance of life. Each simple action of our lives can make a difference as we carrying on Jesus’ work of reconciliation in the world.
We each have gifts and talents… perhaps it is the gift of administration, or we may be technically gifted. Perhaps we are gifted to bake pies and bake bread. Can we make soup and to do crafts? All of that may be what we are called to do as servants in the Reign of Christ. We too are gifted to do our part in the dance of life. Each simple action of our lives can make a difference in carrying out Jesus’ work of reconciliation in the world.
You and I are the people who carry out the mission of the church, which is the mission of Jesus, our unique king, who reigns like no other. This is called life in his kingdom; life in the Reign of God.
Bending, reaching, flinging our arms, one starfish, one person at a time, we bring ourselves closer to others, closer to God and closer to the call we have heard.
AMEN
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