Between Sundays for Week of November 27, 2023
If the Gospel of Matthew were a mystery, the telling clue that solves the mystery is given in the opening chapter, when God’s messenger names the child Jesus Emmanuel – the God who saves is with us.
When the story of the Son of Man enthroned in heaven reveals that the Christ has been invisibly among us the whole time, both the sheep and the goats are surprised! Jesus Emmanuel upends our visions of power and might to reveal how skewed and broken they are. Christ is not our King in any earthly sense of that term. He will not be found on a gilded throne or discovered walking the halls of power. He will not be met in places where privilege and power buys access.
Instead Jesus Emmanuel invites us to look at the world around us. To notice our neighbors in the background of the evening news. To see the neighbors who are seeking to build a new life, the ones whose names we forget when we meet them, the neighbors needing help around us. In these neighbors, he promises, we will encounter him!
In our world that is groaning in pain, today’s gospel promises us “that Jesus is really and truly available to us in the real and concrete needs of those around us . . .” (David Lose in Christ the King A: The Third Sacrament).
Think of that! The Messiah who promises his presence in the waters of baptism and the bread and wine of communion, also promises to meet us when we care for the neighbors who surround us. Whether we are drawn to practice outreach or advocacy, whether we reach out with acts of mercy, or listening ears, whether sharing food, or offering clothing, or extending welcome – in all of these actions for which there is no shortage of need around us – Jesus Emmanuel will be with us! The good news that Matthew offers is not that by loving our neighbors we’ll become sheep. It’s that whether we are sheep OR goats, we’ll be certain to encounter Jesus Emmanuel, who comes to us in the lives of every vulnerable person around us.
P.S. Want to listen to the readings and hear the full sermon from Sunday on this text? Click here to view the third Sunday of Extended Advent.
P.P.S. Last week, National Public Radio aired a story about churches, like Bethlehem who are practicing an Extended Advent. Listen to the story, which includes our local colleague, the Rev. Dr. Bill Petersen, retired dean of the Episcopal seminary, Bexley Hall. He’s been at the forefront of expanding Advent beyond anticipation of Jesus in the manger to the hope for a just and peaceful world described by the Hebrew prophets. Learn more about Extended Advent at Bethlehem, including this year’s theme Beyond Human Time.
Abby and Amy talk gratitude and grace on this special Thanksgiving episode!
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Ponderings
“Lord, when was it that we saw you?…” Matthew 25.37
Until we see the throne of the Holy One rightly we see nothing.
It’s an upturned five-gallon bucket on a street corner,
a bed in the locked ward, a cot in a refugee camp.
A cell. A wheelchair. This is where the Mystery abides.
The burning Sun of Life, the hand that spins the universe,
the uncontainable Heart of Grace, will not be confined
to the familiar, the comfortable, the esteemed.
A pretty face, elegant mastery, even wisdom, these are distractions, little baubles outside the temple. The Ferocious Glory will not be packaged. Look in the yellowed eyes, the matted hair.
Listen to the strange accent, the halting speech,
or mangled speech, or none. The Infinite One is there.
Maybe hardest of all, look at that annoying co-worker,
the boss from hell. No one, no one, is exempt. No matter whose presence you are in, you are always as close to the throne of heaven as you think you are.
Steve Garnaas-Holmes writes at Unfolding Light.net
Sunday Worship 12-03-2023