Ezekiel 34:11-16; Matthew 25:31-46; November 26, 2023; Christ the King Sunday
A reminder from Ezekiel 34:16: “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.”
So… on that note, how was everyone’s Thanksgiving? Good, I hope! Mine was pretty good too. A nice mixture of tradition (stuffing, cornbread, Lions football) with new experiences too (like, going to my father-in-law’s restaurant, where 30 strangers partied at the table next to us, and danced to loud 80’s era pop hits redubbed in the Ukrainian dialect and language) – it was awesome!
The other new experience I had this year was watching Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, which consequently was celebrating its 50-year anniversary. I’ve always been a Charlie Brown’s Christmas adorer, but I never really paid attention to the Turkey Day special. Have you all seen it?
Well, what particularly caught my attention about this episode was a monologue from Linus, our dear animated friend with his thumb in his mouth and blue blankie in hand. He was telling the Peanut-gang about the real meaning of Thanksgiving, and he said, and I quote: “Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: ‘We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.”
I loved that so much I wrote it down. And here it is again. We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land; and we thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.
Freedom and justice. Both of our books today, Ezekiel and Matthew, were big on freedom and justice. Where in the new world to come, those who lived wrongly would be harshly judged; while those who lived innocently and/or correctly, would be blessed to be free. There will be sheep and there will be goats, Matthew tells us (Matthew 25:33). And God will favor those who are sheep, those who live obediently according to the will of God.
And what is the will of God, my friends?
To quote another prophet (Micah): “To walk humbly. To act justly. And to love mercy.”
To walk. To act. To love. All of them, verbs. Actions. Silence then won’t cut it. For it is compliance. Inaction won’t do, for it is complicit. Excess, selfishness, and materialistic fatness, nah…these will only lead to being punished and destroyed, as both of our texts so happily and colorfully tell us (Ezekiel 34:16; Matthew 25:46).
To be in right relationship with God then, my friends, so to be rewarded and not punished in the end, is to live in service to others; identifiable, actionable service, especially for the benefit of those who are lost, those who are strayed, those who are injured, weak, naked, sick, hungry, thirsty, and who are otherwise strangers and who have been wrongly incarcerated by one system or another. Freedom and justice.
But it should be said here at the onset, that the reason why we ought to help others is not just for the reward, but simply because it is the right thing to do. WWJD. It’s what Jesus would do – and not for a reward, but rather, even risking great punishment, like death on a cross.
I read a great quote the other day on the modern information encyclopedia, Facebook, which said “this is how you pray continually – not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer.” The quote was attributed, hopefully correctly, to Saint Basil the Great.
Joining yourself to God so that your whole life, not in words, but in actions, becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer. Imagine that.
On Thanksgiving Day, 2007, a little nine-year-old boy was in a terrible car accident with his mother, on an isolated road in the Arizona desert. Their car had flipped over and had tumbled down into a canyon. The boy’s mother was trapped. Without cell phone service, the boy climbed back up to the road hoping to find help. At one point the little boy was innovative enough to even use one of the broken mirrors as a signal, but no one noticed it or him.
After hours of trying and nearly giving up, a stranger appeared. A man walking alone with nothing on his back. The boy tried to communicate with the man, but the man apparently couldn’t speak English; and so, the two spent several long minutes trying to understand each other through fragmented words and broken sign language. Eventually the man figured out what had happened, and what he was being asked to do. The only problem was that the man was fleeing from Mexico and had illegally crossed the border in hope for a freer and better life in America.
For about a millisecond, this man, Manuel Cordova considered his options. But without hesitation he committed himself to the aid of this young boy and his mother, risking whatever justice and punishment he might incur by helping to free them from their calamity. He spent the night with the boy, starting a fire to keep him warm, and in the morning, he waited by the side of the road until he was able to successfully flag down a passing by vehicle for help.
The vehicle called 911 and when the authorities arrived, they rescued the boy, but his mother had unfortunately died by the time they got to her. A couple of minutes later Manuel was taken away by immigration agents and sent back to Mexico.
When mainstream news outlets caught wind of the story (you can still read about it on CNN), they interviewed Manuel and asked him if he regretted making his decision – when he risked his newly discovered freedom in America by doing the just and right thing in helping the boy? His answer was swift – not for a moment, and I would risk justice again to do it exactly as I did.
Freedom and justice.
We are to walk. We are to act. We are to love.
My friends, it’s no coincidence that the first sermon Jesus ever gives is the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. And that the last sermon he ever gives is here in Matthew 25 on the same theme. Bringing it back full circle:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:3-10.
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 [Christ] 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.”
- Matthew 25:37-40
That’s it, my friends. We so often complicate the message more than it is or has to be, but for Ezekiel and for Matthew, for Manuel and for Christ, and indeed for all of us, all it really boils down to is walking, acting, and living by love in service to others, no matter the risk, no matter the world’s judgement. For when we do that, when we take care of others, we are also taking care of and loving Jesus, and encountering the liberation of his salvation.
“O Master, let me walk with Thee / In lowly paths of service free”
- From our hymn, “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
Amen.
