Year B
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 95:1-7a
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

May the words of my mouth…  O God…  speak your Truth…

It’s Advent 3…  and we wait…  and it’s Christ the King Sunday…  but in its present form…  we haven’t been waiting for too long…  we’ve been celebrating Advent for more than fifteen hundred years…  but we’ve been celebrating Christ the King Sunday for less than one hundred years…  and why is that…

In 1925…  Pope Pius XI instituted this festival in opposition to increasing secularism…  in opposition to class distinctions…  and in opposition to unbridled nationalism…   the words nationalism and patriotism were once used in roughly in the same way…  but over time their meanings have changed significantly…  patriotism is a noun that means…  devoted love…support…  and defense of one’s country…  on the other hand…  and in most contexts…  nationalism is the doctrine of asserting the interests of one’s own nation…  viewed as separate from the common interests of all nations…  in short…  nationalism is a kind of excessive…  corporate…  capitalistic…  patriotism…  for example…  nationalism would hoard a COVID vaccine and try to sell it to the highest foreign bidder…  patriotism would seek to do what’s best for one’s own country…  by doing what’s best for other countries too… and today is a day to affirm God’s reign over empires that do not hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness…

So in the same way that we celebrate a seven-week Advent to avoid the rush towards Christmas morning and the babe in the manger…  and in our western context… all of the music and decorations and gifts piled high underneath a pine tree…  perhaps even before Thanksgiving…  we celebrate Christ the King Sunday to try to redirect our focus to the Christian hope represented by the full manifestation of the Reign of God established in Christ…   it becomes possible then…   to understand that both today’s celebration and Advent itself are both about eschatology…   they are…  a looking to the end…  to the goal…  to the eternal moment that makes sense out of all our moments…

Today’s reading from Ezekiel tells us that God will search for God’s sheep…  will seek them out…  and God speaks directly to those who have…  pushed with flank and shoulder…  and butted at all the weak animals with their horns… until they have scattered the weak far and wide…  and God says that God will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep…   and the Hebrew word that’s translated as fat…  is a word that’s used primarily to convey the idea of prosperity and well-being…  perhaps like the rich man who built bigger barn to contain and guard and secure his wealth…

In Ezekiel then…  we hear pastoral themes about sheep and shepherds…   but in the ancient Near East…  the word for shepherd…  and the word for king…  were the same word…  so when we hear one word used…  we can also hear the other…  and David… who was the Shepherd King…  has already been dead for about 500 years when Ezekiel prophesies…  and so when God says…  I will set one shepherd over them…  my servant David…  God means Jesus… and when Jesus speaks these words in Matthew…  it’s two days before he’s crucified…  for holding Israel’s leadership accountable… for holding up God’s mirror of justice in front of their faces…

When Jesus was alive…  they didn’t elect Presidents…  there were kings and emperors…  but we have to ask whether what’s going on in Washington…  with the denial and lies and law suits…  and more recently the firing of Chris Krebs…  who was the director of the Cybersecurity Agency…  and who said that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes…  changed votes…  or was in any way compromised…” we have to ask whether this is the same kind of attempt that the Roman Empire exerted to squash opposition…  and hold on to power… and why…  

Jesus says that when the Son of Man comes in his glory…  all the nations will be gathered before him…  and it’s kind of shocking that Jesus is talking about all the nations…  because ancient Judaism had a kind of possessive relationship with YHWH…  and this can’t happen when nationalism is promoted…  but Jesus is saying that all the nations…  everyone…  will be accountable for doing God’s will…  as Jesus does…  

In Matthew 11:2…   while John the Baptist was in prison…  he heard stories about what Jesus was doing…  and he sent word by his disciples…  who asked him…  are you the one who is to come…  or are we to wait for another…  and Jesus answered them…  go and tell John what you hear and see…  the blind receive their sight…  the lame walk…  the lepers are cleansed…  the deaf hear…  the dead are raised…  and the poor have good news brought to them…  before he speaks…   Jesus does…  

And if the words shepherd…  and king…  mean the same thing…  one who selflessly watches over and cares for the flock…  for the people…  if the words were synonymous then…  then they’re synonymous now…  and in the Gospel…  Jesus makes clear…  what we’re to do…  what the family of nations is to do…  feed the hungry…  quench the thirsty…  welcome the stranger…  clothe the naked…  heal the sick…  and visit those in prison…  because when we do these things to the least of these…  we do them to Jesus…  to the Shepherd King…  

And we can make the Gospel more relevant for our time… by reframing it…  by clothing it in our current circumstances…  because on Friday…  there were 681 new cases of COVID-19 in Kent Co. alone…  and so we can say…  for example… when I went to work…  I did all I could to keep my family safe but some of my customers attended super-spreader events… I encouraged you to wash your hands… but you said the pandemic was all a hoax…  my grandmother was sick and there was no more PPE to protect those who cared for her…  I was immunocompromised and you would not maintain physical distance… and I got sick…  medical professionals urged everyone to wear a mask…  but you would not… 

and so we can ask…  are we…  at least in this country…  doing all that can be done…  to save life…  

Richard Rohr writes…  The Kingdom of Heaven is about union and communion…  which means that it is also about mercy…  forgiveness…  and service…  and lives of love…  patience…  and simplicity…  who of us can really doubt that this is the sum and substance of Jesus’ teaching… the Kingdom is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness…  a style of functioning…  it is not a place you go to…  but a place you come from…  it’s a whole new way of looking at the world…  and the hallmark of this awareness…  is that it sees no separation…  not between God and humans…  and not between humans and other humans…  and so we’re to love God with all our heart…  mind…  and strength…  and love our neighbor as ourself…  and so what do you think…  if Jesus returned during this pandemic…  would he wear a mask…