November 23, 2014 – Matthew 25:31-46
Matthew 25:31-46
Stewards of Love
Christ the King Sunday [Lectionary 34] – November 23, 2014
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Every 3 years the church year ends with this Gospel reading.
Jesus commends his disciples for doing what he has commissioned them to do:
feeding the very least of these members of his family:
the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned.
This is, ultimately, our commission.
This is what Jesus sends us to do.
This is the mission of God into which we are incorporated in our baptisms.
There are a couple of things worth noting, right?
First, the people who are reamed out by Jesus are those who simply do nothing.
None of us are perfect, right?
None of us are yet what God intends us to be.
We all fall short of the glory of God and we are, every single of one of us,
not always the people we should be.
And yet, some the worst in Jesus’ mind are those who simply do nothing.
Doing nothing, Jesus seems to be saying, is not an option.
And then, the second thing to notice, is that the disciples Jesus commends are those who
do not even know what they are doing when they do it!
They do not know they are feeding Jesus when they feed the hungry.
They do not know they are clothing Jesus when they clothe the naked.
They do not know they are tending Jesus when they tend the sick.
They do not know they are visiting Jesus when they visit the imprisoned.
They do these things not to get brownie points in heaven or a good seat at the heavenly banquet.
They do these things simply because they need to be done!
Because someone needs their service.
Someone needs them to steward the gifts they have well.
That is Christian life.
At the end of the church year we look ahead to the end of all things.
And that is not a bad thing to do.
We look ahead and what do we see?
We see the promise of Jesus reigning as King.
But as a king of Love.
As the one who has promised that everything, ultimately, will be bound together in love.
That is the promise of Christ the King Sunday.
In the end, there is not destruction, there is not violence, there is not terror.
Rather, in the end, there is healing, there is mercy, there is grace, there is love.
Even in death, in the end, there is resurrection.
Everything will come to a good end.
As Julian of Norwich wrote 700 years ago in the midst of very turbulent times,
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of all things shall be well –
and we shall see it.
Yes: that is bad news for injustice and that is bad news for apathy.
That is bad news for greed and that is bad news for sickness.
That is bad news even for death,
because these things will not be tolerated in Christ’s reign of grace.
But this is very good news for us.
Yes: Christ stands at the end of history.
Yes: nothing is ultimately greater than the love of God.
But the even better news, the really great news, is that Christ is reigning now.
Jesus invites us to make nothing else in our lives as important as his love right now.
We can be stewards of love right now – we can make a difference right now –
we can serve the reign of Christ right now – we can serve Jesus right now
by serving the least of these in his family.
Because Jesus stands not only at the end of history,
but, on the cross in some mysterious way, has so joined himself with
all the suffering ones of this creation that he is present in them even now.
But to take the miracle of Christ the King Sunday even further,
Jesus not only stands at the end of history as the monarch of Love.
Jesus is not only mysteriously present now in the poor, the sick, the excluded,
the vulnerable, the imprisoned, and the dying.
It’s surprising that that is where God is hidden, I suppose.
But maybe it’s just as surprising that God is hidden just as hiddenly and
just as surprisingly in us. In you!
Probably many of us are surprised to learn that Christ is hidden in the poor.
But maybe we are just as surprised to discover that Christ is hidden in us.
Most of us have been surprised at one time or another to discover that we were helpful to others.
Sometimes it is said, “I’ll never forget what you said to me: it had a huge impact on my life.”
Or, “That thing you did for me sure helped me when I needed it most.”
All the while we struggle to remember what, exactly, it was we said or did!
Doing nothing is not an option; and doing something often has surprising and unforeseen results.
The truth is, we often don’t know the good we are doing.
The truth is, we come here to encounter the God of all creation,
creator and sustainer of all things.
And we most powerfully encounter that God in the very humble elements of
words and water and bread and wine where that mighty God of mercy is hidden.
The truth is, we come here and hear those words and are washed by that water and
eat that bread and drink that wine and somehow that hidden God enters us –
and we become what we receive: the body of the loving Christ.
The truth is, we become Jesus’s physical body on earth: Jesus becomes hidden in us.
And the further truth is that we take the love and mercy and grace and forgiveness that is
now hidden in us and our humble bodies with us out
into the world when we leave this place.
And the final truth is that when we do that, when we do something with those gifts,
when we give them to the hungry, the sick, the naked, the imprisoned,
the vulnerable and the alienated –
the truth is when we do that, we discover that the body of Christ is already present and
waiting for us in those suffering in the world.
We are stewards of Love to those suffering ones whom Jesus has joined himself to
forever on the cross.
As you did it to these of least you did it to me.
Elizabeth Grace has been commissioned by Christ the King this morning.
Commissioned to be a member of the body of Christ whose mission is
to the suffering body of Christ in the world.
She will be nurtured in faith here to trust the one who commissions her.
To trust that ultimately all will be well and all will be well and
all manner of all things will be well . . . and that we shall see it!
She will be encouraged to live out of this trust to do something about the suffering of this world.
She will be encouraged to use her gifts and to steward them well to make a difference.
She will be encouraged to become a Steward of Love.
And this is a good place to do it – because at First Lutheran Church we are doing something.
We are – you are – feeding the hungry. You are Stewards of Love.
By my calculation, at First Lutheran Church at our Wednesday Community Meals you served
over 2.000 hot healthy homemade meals to the hungry of this neighbourhood.
The Christ hidden in you served the Christ hidden in them.
This is a good place – not a perfect place – but a good place for Elizabeth Grace to be nurtured
in the type of life Jesus speaks of this morning on the last day of the church year.
And as we contemplate her baptism this morning, each us recalls our own baptism.
Our own commissioning.
Our own reception into the arms of a gracious God who has promised us that all shall be well,
and so we can risk giving ourselves away as food for the hungry.
This God in Christ has promised that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love.
This God in Christ has promised that God will never let us go.
This God has promised that in the end there is not harm but healing.
And so, in the meantime, with Elizabeth Grace and with all the saints,
we take what we receive, everything we are and everything we have:
our bodies, our time, our gifts, our wealth, our love, our forgiveness,
our mercy our compassion and our love –
We take them and do something with them to make a difference.
We take them, as Stewards of Love – and trust that God will use them in God’s loving mission to
love, bless and heal this world and every person in it.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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