Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship for this Christ the King Sunday, landing on November 26, 2023! We are at the end of the church calendar year and finish off Matthew’s gospel and look forward to starting a new year with Mark’s gospel next week. Time sure flies!
The bulletin for this service can be found here. You can download it and use it to follow the service and read along with the sermon, or you can just follow with the words that appear on your screen. The sermon is also on this page below the video.
If you’d like to enhance your online worship experience, you can have a candle in your space, lit at the beginning of the service and extinguished near the end after the sending hymn, when the altar candles are extinguished. You are also welcome to participate in communion by having something small to eat and drink nearby, ready to consume at the appropriate time. Further instruction will be given during the service.
May God’s ever-present love be apparent to you, this day and always!
Lord, may the eyes of our hearts be opened by the power of your Spirit, that we may see the hope to which we have been called in Jesus Christ. Amen.
So usually I’m pretty good with faces. Not so much with names, but if I’ve met you before, even if just in passing, I will likely remember you if we meet again… even if I pretend that I don’t. But even with this elephant-like memory around faces, I still can get it wrong from time to time. This was apparent the other day, when my oldest sister and her partner were at the hockey game and they send in our family group chat this picture:
with the caption: who are these people?
Well, being one of the clowns in the group, I jokingly said “from left to right, that’s Shannon Doherty, Kevin Kline, Gilbert Gottfried, Meghan Markle, Jim’s dad, Meghan Markle’s husband, Aziz Ansari, Elon Musk, Carol from the Walking Dead, and Captain Marvel.” I thought that I knocked that one out of the park as it was a pretty funny joke. Well, it was funny until I saw on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called now that it actually was Meghan Markle and her husband, whose name I honestly forget what it is. Harry or William or Charming or whatever. From the picture, I actually thought it was one of the Sedin twins. Now I’m thinking that’s actually Elon Musk too.
Anyway, my comments didn’t get the reaction that I thought they would. No one really said anything and just ignored it, but I could tell, they were rolling their eyes behind their screens. Not sure why though, the joke got even more hilarious with this new revelation. But I guess it was just expected that I would recognise Meghan Markle and her spouse. I mean, they are (or were at least) connected in some way to the royal family, arguably the most famous family in our modern history. So I do mess up on recognizing faces from time to time. In my defence, that was a horrible picture. I bet a lot of people would have thought that was a Sedin twin.
But what’s the big deal? This formerly royal couple just want to enjoy a hockey game. So they’re famous. So they’re really rich. So they’re adored by millions. That doesn’t change the fact that I honestly didn’t recognise them. It doesn’t change the fact that I really forgot his name. And it doesn’t change the fact that I never really cared about the royal family or ever wanted to keep up with their news.
Still, the folks at Rogers Arena made this royal attendance at the game a big deal. I think they had them say a few words before the puck dropped, they gave them some priority seating, and I think Meghan Markle even has a thing of champagne there. Not sure if that’s normal at a hockey game. So I’m glad the people at Rogers Arena recognised them at least, or they might have been treated like the rest of us common folk who have to pay for our seats and drink regular beer.
That’s the thing about being a celebrity though, isn’t it? You get special treatment when you’re recognised, in the public eye, and a person of influence. You’re regarded different when you’re well known, respected, and looked up to. You’re more easily celebrated when you’re a big deal, when you’re on the covers of multiple magazines and newspapers, or when you’re just so greatly loved as these two apparently are. By people who would recognise them or remember their name, at least.
And so this second-degree-encounter with this royal couple made me think of today, Christ the King Sunday. It’s the day that marks the end of the church calendar year, that is supposed to act as the culmination of all that we’ve learned over the past 12 months, that helps us recognise the kingship of Jesus and the role that plays in our lives.
This time around, we get the parable of the sheep and goats, which is the last of a pretty good run of difficult parables, and it seems like it comes with more judgement, more stark legalism, and more weeping and gnashing of teeth. Another parable that is unliked by at least me because of all that, and another one that probably has more meaning than we are giving it credit for.
It seems straight forward though, help people like Jesus and be welcomed in the sheepfold. Don’t do that and have fun being a goat, and not the good kind of goat either, but the bad animal kind. The thing about this parable though, is that we probably off the bat can more easily identify as the sheep, the ones who did good, the ones who are kind, the ones who are welcomed into God’s kingdom. At the same time, we sure as heck can point out the goats in our lives, still not the good kind. We can recognise those who aren’t so good or kind and have, by their own fault, excluded themselves from the kingdom. We know those people. Sometimes it might be us, sometimes. But mostly we know exactly who they are outside of us.
I mean, there’s a reason we don’t like them, right?
And maybe that is why we don’t like this parable all that much. It’s just too easy to slip up, to be out of line, to be regarded as a not good kind of goat. It’s too easy to act poorly, to have a slight oversight, to not recognise Jesus, the King of kings, the divine royalty, in our midst. I mean, even the good sheep didn’t recognise him, how is anyone else supposed to?
I know, we might just say that we should just treat everyone good and we’d be covered. Make sure we’re always merciful and we’ll be safely in the ranks of sheep. Be absolutely intentional to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and tend to the sick, and Jesus will be in there to honour us somewhere.
But that still isn’t that easy. I mean, we just talked about those that we don’t like. Sure, we can be kind to the kind, we can show mercy to the merciful, we can love those that are already loveable. But to be kind, merciful, and loving to those that we aren’t big fans of? That’s a totally different story.
But maybe that is what Jesus is talking about. Maybe this is the point that Jesus is trying to make. Maybe Jesus saying that he is there among the weak, the lowly, and the downcast isn’t to get us to change how we act but to change how we see.
Change how we see those who aren’t us. Change how we see those that we don’t like. Change to see how all people are actually God’s beloved, with Christ in their midst, and welcomed parts of this body and kingdom and community.
So just as I didn’t recognise that royal couple right away because I just don’t really care about or follow that part of human history as influential and positive as it may have been, so do we all sometimes not recognise Christ in our midst and in the midst of those that we just might not want to see Christ in. But the thing is, Jesus promises to be among those who are outcasted, the marginalized, those that don’t fit in with society. Jesus shows up in the pain, the hurt, and the brokenness that we all experience. Jesus can be seen and recognised among all those that we might not like so much, changing our perspective as to where God really is in the world.
And so we are invited into this as well, to see the world as Jesus sees it, to be in community as Jesus is in community, to love people as Jesus loves people. And through it all, we can see the kingship of Jesus, not in militaristic might and power, but through grace, mercy, and peace, joining us all together to live as a body and family, full of forgiveness, redemption, and joy.
You see, we can recognise the whole width and breadth of God’s love and welcome, when we are better able to recognise Christ among us, when we remember the person of Jesus and how compassionate, inclusive, and gracious he is toward all people, when we know that mercy flows in and through us all, allowing us to see the world differently. See the world with humble, faithful, and loving eyes.
So as we close up this church calendar year and move into a new year with new themes and lessons, may we remember the person of Jesus in our midst, submit to his reign of grace and mercy, and together serve and pray for this world that is dearly loved by its Creator and God, that we might recognise the value and worth in all people as our siblings and partners in the gospel and good news of love and redemption. Thanks be to God. Amen.