Christ the King Sunday
Psalm 95: 1-7
Matthew 25:31-46
Sermon
The King of Kings
Psalm 95
95:1 ¶ O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 ¶ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice!
Matthew 25:31-46
31 ¶ "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.
34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ’Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?
39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’
40 And the King will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ’Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
44 Then they also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’
45 Then he will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’
46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Grace and Peace to you from Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
The king is here, hallelujah. The king is here. This is Christ the King Sunday, a minor festival in the church year. The festival where we celebrate the kingship of Jesus as he sits on his heavenly throne. As we celebrate his kingship, we see in the Psalm for today what kind of king we have, and we see in Matt. gospel how that king rules his subjects. ~
Psalm 95 speaks about the Lord as the king of all creation, as the ruler of all that is. (read psalm)
I would like to tell you about the king of kings, the king that reigns in our lives. Listen closely as he is described in all of his majesty.
"He appeared in one of the dead spots of human history, when a vast world empire--Rome-- was midway to self-destruction. He was born in, Bethlehem, the most bigoted backwards of the most rigidly ethnic culture of all time. He grew up in Galilee, the hotbed of short tempers, revolutionary zealots of the most fierce and narrow nationalism. He lived his life in a nation long past its prime, ruled by rigid religions, divided by racial ghettos segregated into perfect apartheid and bled by foreign exploitation.
Occupation? Crossroads carpenter. Offices? None. Real estate or property holdings? None. Family? none. Education? Average village routines. Travel? Never more than 200 miles from his birthplace. Writings? none known.
While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against him. His enemies had him arrested. His friends deserted him. He was tried in a kangaroo court. Condemned on the testimony of paid witnesses. Executed with two felons. Died by crucifixion on the town garbage dump. Buried by charity. The most unlikely setting for the king of kings. But he is the first among us. Christ, the man for all time. Commanding in manner. Compelling in message. Conquering with compassion. Challenging to a mission of ministry."
Isn’t it ironic, that the king we worship meets none of the expectations we have set in our minds of what, a king would be like. Jesus is an unlikely king. He is a king who has none of the trappings of kingship, but he rules a kingdom more vast than any king on the earth would ever hope to rule.
As we look at this psalm, we can find some qualities about this king who rules, this king who is unlike any king we would ever dream of.
The psalmist says, "O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! This king according to the psalmist is the rock, the foundation of salvation. It is Christ who has achieved salvation for you through his death and his resurrection. It is through this King of Kings and only through him that salvation comes into our lives. It is because of Christ and his rule, his authority in our lives that changes us from people, who dwell on self to people who look to others so that we can obtain access to the heavenly throne. This king will sit on the throne of judgment and he will separate the sheep from the goats as our gospel lesson tells us.
Dr. Richard Hoefler says in his book, The Divine Trap, "In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Christ issues a warning in love. It is not a prescription but a description. A prescription is something that we must do if we are to achieve a desired end. A description is a picture of the ways things are, or will be. Sheep and goats are not made sheep and goats by the judgment; they are only identified for what they are. Therefore, judgment reveals what has long been true. The deeds of mercy which the sheep performed were not works of merit, but examples and evidences of the fact they were sheep and not goats. Therefore, judgment is not a threat of something to be feared in the future, but a warning that one day all people will be revealed for what they are now.
The last day is not so much judgment day as it is VERDICT DAY. This is the surprising truth about judgment: it depends ultimately not on what we do, or fail to do, but on what we are -- sheep or goats."
The psalmist goes on to tell us that those who praise the king, the rock of salvation do so with shouts of thanksgiving.
The psalmist says Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
This king, according to the psalmist should be honored in our lives with songs of thanksgiving. The way we honor this king with shouts of thanksgiving, is the gifts of praise we give as we look around us to the needs of those who are feeling the brokenness of this world.
For Jesus says in the gospel lesson; "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." As we reach out to the hungry, the poor,the thirsty, as we welcome a stranger in our midst, as we clothes the naked, as we visit the sick, as we care for the widows, we are doing it to Christ, we are serving this King of Kings.
Notice the sheep’s response to Jesus by asking Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?
39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’
40 And the King will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
They don’t remember doing good, because being a sheep for them, being one who lives in service to others becomes a way of life, a holy habit so they don’t realize they are serving Jesus.
Dr. Hoefler says again: "So Jesus is pointing out in this parable of judgment that the final test is not doing good deeds, but being a good person --- being a sheep and not a goat. That is, being the type of person for whom service to those in need is the natural expression of his/her life style. Spontaneous service becomes a holy habit."
The key phrase for me is the last one, Spontaneous service becomes a holy habit. Spontaneous means acting by internal impulse, unpremeditated, unguarded. We are to act without fore thought, without conniving, manipulating, calculating, thinking about our gain, or control. This spontaneous action will then become a holy habit, or a way of life. This action of love will become a way of life for us. Jesus is saying it is not enough to love him, but our love for Him is to be reflected in love for our neighbor.
We are to give of ourselves spontaneously. Not thinking, not planning, just giving.
The following is a good example of that spontaneous giving.
"A poor man who had a broken leg because of an accident was unable to work on his farm for a long time, and having a large family to care for, he was in a despair situation. Someone decided it would be great to have a prayer meeting to pray for the family. A large number of people turned out to pray. They asked God to help the family by feeding them and providing other necessities.
Suddenly a knock was heard at the church door. Opening it, they found a young farm boy who said, " My pa couldn’t attend this meeting tonight, so he just sent his prayers in a wagon."
They looked outside and saw the boy’s wagon loaded with potatoes, meat, apples, pumpkins and many other produce from his farms."
That boy’s father knew what Jesus was talking about giving spontaneously without counting the cost. Pure compassion, pure love.
’Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."
Spontaneous service is our response to the love of Christ. Spontaneous service is the lifestyle of one who is in Christ and in whom Christ’s love dwells. Being declared a sheep on judgment day confirms a lifestyle one has been living.
In his book The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen says, "A legend in Talmud "Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi came upon Elijah the prophet while he was standing at the entrance of Rabbi Simeron ben Yohai’s cave....he asked Elijah, "When will the Messiah come?" Elijah replied, "Go ask him yourself"..."Where is he?" "Sitting at the gates of the city"..."How shall I know him?"...."He is sitting among the poor covered with sores. The others unbind all their wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds one at a time and binds it up again, saying to himself, "Perhaps I shall be needed; if so I must always be ready so as not to delay for a moment."
A wounded healer is one who has experienced the brokenness of life, but as he/she is healing their own wounds, are reaching out to others and helping them heal their wounds. Healing comes from one broken person to another broken person. As people who are sheep we are being healed by Christ and as He heals our wounds, we reach out and heal the wounds of others.
This King of Kings wants us to not only give spontaneously to others, he wants us to worship him.
The Psalmist says: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
The psalmist is asking us to worship, to respect this King of Kings in our lives.
In our worship of this King, we pray to him, we ask, we thank, we honor him with our prayers, our songs, our very lives. And each time we come to worship, to praise, to communicate with him, He reminds us over and over again that He cares and loves each of us. He wants what is good for us, he knows our needs and he fills them. This King has a great knowledge of the needs of his subjects.
This good shepherd has great knowledge of the needs of this sheep. Because he knows, because he cares, we can and should put our lives into the care of this King of Kings.
"An aged monk said, ’I need oil’, so he planted an olive tree. then he said, ’Lord, my tree needs rain that it may drink and grow, so send gentle rain that it may grow.’
And the rain came. then he prayed,’My tree needs sun.’ And the sun shone upon it.
Later the monk prayed, ’Now send frost, Lord, to strengthen and brace the fibers of my tree.’ So the tree sparkled with frost. But it died.
The monk told another of his experience with the tree and the other monk said, ’I too, have planted an olive tree and it thrives well. I never asked for rain, or sunshine, or frost. I just prayed, ’Lord send with it needs.’"
The King of Kings will take care of us. he know our need and in his majesty, in his mysterious ways he will fill our needs. He fills our needs because he know his subjects very well.
He knows each of us by name as the following story tells us:
There was an ignorant shepherd boy in a village in India who daily drove his sheep to pasture. Once he was asked how many sheep did he have. The lad said he didn’t know, for he was unable to count.
How, then, he was asked, would he know at the end of the day if all the sheep were accounted for,
’I know each sheep by name’, he replied, ’and if any are missing I know which one it is and call for it as I search.’
On this Christ the King Sunday we worship the King of Kings with song and praise. We allow him to care for us and as He does that we reach out to those around us with His loving touch.
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice!
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale November 14, 2005
