Opening Thought
How are you coming with your Christmas preparations. Everything on track and on schedule?
Preparation for Christmas seems as much a part of the meaning of Christmas as the day itself. Perhaps the preparations we make for it, and the way we change our homes and our lives towards the day’s coming, actually are the meaning of it.
And might it also be the same with
what we call the Second Coming of the Christ – the day still to come of the
return of Christ and the appearing of the kingdom of heaven on Earth? Some focus a lot of attention on that day –
on what it will be like, how it will come, and even when it will come. Might it be that the preparation we make
towards it even now – the ways we change our homes and our world and our lives
in it towards the day’s coming, are part of the meaning of it? Perhaps even the greater part.
As Jesus nears the end of his time, and prepares his disciples for his death, they want to know when and how the kingdom of God will finally come in all its glory, and how to prepare to be part of its coming. Jesus offers no timeline and no details. He does tell a story, though, that we read in Matthew 25:31-46, where he says:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
"They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see youhungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Last Sunday I was at a Christmas concert, and at the start of the concert we were told the magic number was 36. Why? That was the number of days until Christmas.
We like to know when it’s coming, because we want to be able to prepare our homes, our church, our world, ourselves to welcome Jesus into the world as God’s Word incarnate in human life on Earth – and in turn be welcomed and received by him into his presence.
People in Jesus’ time were not ready for him. They thought they were. At least, those who listened to the prophets, who read and interpreted the promises in their Scriptures of the coming of a messiah for their salvation, who studied the signs of the times to be alert to the stirrings of God in the land.
The problem was, they were looking in the wrong places, for the wrong kind of person. They didn’t know in advance what we know in hindsight from reading the story we have of the coming – that the Word of God becomes flesh not in great Jerusalem, but in lowly Bethlehem; that the cradle of the Saviour of all is not in a palace or temple, but a stable; that the Light of God in the world is born not to a royal family, but to an unmarried couple who are a bit of a scandal to those who know them.
It's good we have the Christmas story to keep us from making the same mistakes as the people who were there the first time.
And it’s good we have stories to guide us in looking and living towards his coming-again. Like what we’ve read today – the story Jesus spins for his disciples about the coming of the Son of Man in all his glory to judge the nations of the world.
The Son of Man is a figure named in the Hebrew Scriptures as a kind of True Human – a figure raised up by God as the standard of what all humanity is to be like. A figure who when he appears at the end will be the one by whom all nations and all people are judged. Son of Man is also one of the variety of titles attached to Jesus in the Gospels.
So, when Jesus starts spinning this story of the Son of Man coming in all his glory, with all his angels, to judge the nations of the world, the disciples knew he was telling them about what was to come, and what for the rest of their lives they were to live for.
Imagine, then, the impact when he says that at the final judgment, those counted as sheep and welcomed into the life and joy of the kingdom of God are those who in their lives have reached out to others in need – feeding the hungry, satisfying those who are thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, helping those who are ill, and visiting those who are imprisoned, lonely and without support. And those have not, are counted and treated as goats – rebellious and unruly, not measuring up to what true humanity is about, not ready for life in the kingdom of God.
And why is this? Why is this more than anything else the standard of judgment?
It’s because, Jesus says, when we reach out in love to help and care for any one of the least of these, we have done it unto him. And he means really unto him. Not just unto those he especially loves and makes his special friends, so that he is rewarding us for treating his friends well. But unto him, because somehow it is the poor and the weak who carry within themselves the identity and the fullness of him, and it is in them that he is most clearly brought to life.
It’s not as if Jesus is like Waldo standing among, but still separate from the broken and needy, secretly waiting hidden in their midst to see if we find him by paying close attention to them. It’s that there actually is a deep identity and connectedness of meaning between the broken and lonely ones of the world, and him.
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Friday I was at a Momentum Choir concert in St. Catharines. Momentum is a choir of around 80 persons from the Niagara/Hamilton/Waterloo area who live with a range of mental and physical disabilities. The choir means a lot to them. It’s a community – a big family where all kinds of people of all ages with all kinds of challenges and disabilities are accepted as they are, are invited to belong, and are encouraged to grow in the knowledge that they are good, beloved and gifted persons. One of our church members belongs to the choir, and that’s why I’ve been to their last two concerts.
Their concerts are amazing. Like the best church you could imagine ever going to. They sing popular songs that put into words the acceptance, self-respect, and belonging they find in the choir, that for most of their lives they never knew. Between the songs, by pre-recorded message projected onto a giant screen at the back of the stage, some of the choir members also tell the audience very honestly and in their own words their stories of what their journey has been like, and how different the choir has been from what they have known in the rest of the world they grew up in.
Each time I have attended, the music, the stories, and the full presence of the choir have affected me deeply. They have put me in touch with my own need for the same things that they need – acceptance, love, understanding, self-respect, community and belonging. It’s so clear that I am no different from them, and need the same things they do.
And they have raised in my heart the question of how well and how often I open up and offer these things to others – to them and in others in need of what we all need. Have I in my way of living been willing and able to open up who I am and what I have to be human together with others who need the same things as I do. It really is like suddenly being seen and spoken to by the Son of Man – the Truly Human Being, the standard and measure of us all.
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It's an experience we’re drawn into as well by Christmas and the memory it stirs of the birth of the Christ among us. With the way the story reminds us of the poverty and powerlessness of Jesus, there’s a strong connection between Christmas and charity. Christmas is a time to remember the poor, to open up to others, to put aside weapons and self-defence for the sake of peace, and to look beyond just our own self-interest. The story invites nothing less of us.
Last Tuesday, for instance, there was an article in The Spectator titled “Give, help and be merry: Ways to lend a hand during the holidays.” It was there because people are open to things like this at Christmas. They know it’s really what it’s all about. The sub-head reads, “Sort and distribute gifts, knit, serve food or sponsor a Hamilton-area family this season.” Then there’s a half-page listing and description of different agencies and programs through which anyone can reach out with a helping hand this year to others who could use a touch and taste of human kindness and divine love. Not a bad way to nurture the sheep side of our character in the Christmas season, and maybe find ourselves at the manger, caring for Jesus as he comes into the world.
And it needn’t just be Christmas. It also needn’t be a challenge or a chore. There are as many ways of living into the kingdom of God as there are people and things we do in the world, and they can be as light and lively as anything we do on the best day of our lives.
In Friday’s Spec, for instance, there was a story about a Hamilton couple who had their wedding a week ago Saturday on board a Toronto streetcar. A few weeks ago, they decided they wanted a simple wedding with a small reception at a favourite restaurant on King Street in downtown Toronto. The price of renting the venue for the ceremony would have been thousands of dollars, so out of the blue they came up with a plan to get married on a streetcar on their way to the restaurant.
They planned it all out, and were happily surprised when it worked. (And stay with me here; you’ll see why I’m telling you this.) A few friends and the minister got on the streetcar on of the 504 King route at one stop, explained to riders at the back of the car what they were doing and cleared a space for the ceremony. The groom got on a few stops later, and texted the bride – a few stops farther along, that he was on. When the car reached the bride’s stop, she got on and the ceremony began – timed to end just as the car reached the stop near the restaurant, and the newly married couple and their friends got off to the applause and cheers of the other riders, to go into restaurant and the tables reserved for them for their wedding meal.
And how is this serving Jesus among the poor and the hungry? The story says, “with the ceremony costing less than $30, the couple donated the funds they would have spent on a more expensive celebration to local organizations such as the United Way of Greater Toronto, Covenant House, and the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.”
Do you think that as they got off the streetcar, it was maybe the Son of Man from the end of time who opened the door of the restaurant for them, saying, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”?
If so, what a blessed wedding feast of God’s kingdom they became part of last Saturday night.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer for lighting a candle towards Advent
One: In a world where we all hungry and thirsty,
All: We thank you, God, for light in our darkness.
One: In a world where we all are alone and at risk,
All: We thank you, God, for light in our darkness.
One: In a world where we all are ill and imprisoned,
All: We thank you, God, for light in our darkness.
One: We thank you for all who shine your light into our darkness.
All: Pray, help us to join in the shining of this same light for others. Amen.
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