ONE POINT, NOT MILLIONS...

Sunday before Advent - 20th November 2005

Kingdom Season 4  |  Year A  |  Proper 29 Track 1  |  Ordinary Time Week 34

Ezekiel 34.11-16, 20-24  |  Ephesians 1.15-23  |  Matthew 25.31-46 : To see the current week's readings, click here

Very often when we come to try and grapple with the parables of Jesus we need to bear in mind that rather than every point representing something, often there is one grand theme, or idea or interpretation. So before we read into this story a detailed account of judgement, or exactly what will happen at the Parousia, I want to suggest that this gospel story is about self centredness.

The goats are condemned for not showing loving kindness to other human beings, for being unloving - for being self centred. Indeed they are so self centred, that they are even surprised that God requires them to love their neighbour.

CHOICES AND DECISIONS LEAD TO CONSEQUENCES..

A literal reading of the story suggests that neither the sheep or the goats expected to be judged for what they’d done. You can almost hear them saying “We didn’t know we would be judged for that...” So the question we’re left with is: how did the sheep and the goats fool themselves into thinking that there was no consequences for the way they lived, the decisions and choices they made? And, of course, by implication that applies to you and me - how can we fool ourselves into thinking that there is to be no consequence for the way we live and the decisions and choices we make?

We cannot claim that we don’t know what Christ the King asks of us. The story suggests that Christ can be found in the suffering human beings all around us - those who are poor, naked, in prison, strangers, hungry. Why? Because Human Beings are made in the image of God - we bear the imprint of God - God’s fingerprint is on every soul - including the souls of those of whom we disapprove, or recoil from: asylum seekers, people whose politics we don’t share, scroungers, thieves, murderers...

There is no room for thinking that those in prison referred to in the gospel passage were wrongly convicted, or innocent refugees - we have every reason for thinking they were thieves and murderers!

...CONSEQUENCES NOT JUST IN THIS LIFE

If the parable of the sheep and goats shows us anything about the afterlife it shows us in broad brush strokes, that the choices we make in this life affect what happens to us in the next.

By choosing to love rather than to ignore we are opening ourselves to God, we are espousing the values of the kingdom of God, and of Christ the King. The more often we choose for God, we choose love, we choose for the good, the more our characters and consciences become used to aligning our attitudes, behaviour and expectations with the kingdom of heaven. And vice versa. So the choices we make in this life affect what happens to us when this life is over.

DISCIPLESHIP CHECK LIST

The story sounds as a warning that to live the life of a disciple - to live as though Jesus Christ is the King - will involve us:

• making decisions which resonate with the kingdom of God;

• making choices of which the King would approve;

• being Ambassadors for the King as we go through life;

• loving others simply because they are in the image of the God whom we serve

It means making sure that our church communities, both the people and the gatherings of the Christians, are not self-centred, but Christ-centred - as St Columba used to say of his monasteries - “Colonies of Heaven”.

PINCHED POSTER!

If you look on our website, there is a piece there which was pinched from a notice posted on the notice board outside Saint Cypriac & Saint Julietta’s Church, Luxulyan, Cornwall. It’s particularly apt for this Sunday of Christ the King:

• This Church is dedicated to the Kingship of Jesus Christ .

• He is the head - not the Bishop, not the Vicar, not the PCC or the People ......... but Jesus Christ.

• All are very welcome through the door of this house. When you come, forgive the weakness of the people you will find here. It is Jesus Christ who waits to greet you.

• Especially welcome are the little children, the sick, the lonely, the unloved, the weak, the confused, the over stressed, the hurt, the worried, the anxious, the abandoned; those whose friendships and marriages have broken, those who are searching for some meaning and those who cannot understand these difficult times. ........ this is your home. Christ awaits your homecoming.

• Also welcome are the proud, the arrogant, the cynical, the critical, the eccentric, those who think they are independent, those who are strong and feel they need no help.......... Don't kid yourselves, your home is here also, and Christ awaits your homecoming.

To be committed to living in the kingdom means being committed to following the King, to loving others and in putting our faith into action as we pray daily “Your kingdom come, your will be done - on earth as it is in heaven”

Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea