Christ My King

Ephesians 1:15-23 Matthew 25:31-46 Christ the King Sunday November 20, 2011 Year A “Christ My King” An important invitation Imagine for a moment that tomorrow you go to your mailbox and find nice looking envelope. It looks like an invitation or something. It’s from the white house. You open that envelope before you even start to think about all of the bills, advertisements, and other things we get in the mail. I don’t really get letters anymore from people. Sure enough, it is an invitation. The Obama’s are having a state dinner for the president of Nigeria, and they want you to be a special guest. Now of course you know that in order to get to the dinner, it is going to take some money – a lot of money. You got to pay for airfare to get there, hotel, meals while you are gone., cab fare, then you will have to bring back souvenirs for the family. And this is a formal dinner, which means that you have to have formal attire. All of that is a lot of money. And money is one thing that you don’t have right now. But on the other hand it is not every day that you get an invitation from the president to go to the white house. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And you are going to do whatever you need to do, and find whatever money you need to find in order to make it happen. Or suppose a close friend calls you and tells you that she has won backstage passes to see Bill Cosby. He will be in Atlanta next weekend. The tickets are for a concert with him, a chance to go backstage and talk with him, and then have dinner with him afterwards. You and your friend will be his personal guest for the night. The evening is all expense paid. But once again, you have to get to Atlanta. You don’t want to disappoint you friend. And once again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So you do what you have to do to make it happen. A more important invitation Now suppose you get another invitation. Not from the White house, and not from some famous star. But from someone much more important. You don’t have to travel anywhere, you don’t have to spend no money, and all you have to do is show up. Every day we get an invitation from Jesus Christ – to be in his presence, to be led by his wisdom, to be a part of his inner circle, to follow him. How do we respond? How excited are we about the invitation? How much do we invest to be present? We don’t just get this invitation for Sunday to be here for church – we get the invitation every day. Jesus says that if you want to see me, all you have to do is feed the hungry, take care of the sick, visit the prisoner, and take care of the least of these. Whenever you take care of the least of these, you have taken care of me, you are with me, you have received your invitation – how do you respond? Jesus should be a much bigger celebrity in our lives then the Obama’s or Bill Cosby. An invitation from Jesus is a once in a lifetime event. We say that Jesus is #1 in our lives, and yet we take that invitation for granted. Jesus is the king of kings Jesus has all power and authority on earth. Jesus has greater influence in not just our lives, but the lives of all persons. Jesus has the power to cure all ills, to heal all pain, to provide all resources, to give all hope. Jesus is truly the king of kings and lord of lords. How do we give honor to Jesus in our lives? Who are we? And if Christ is king, then what does that make us? We are not princes and princesses. Because if we are followers of Christ, then he is the first among equals. If Christ is the king of kings, we are his brothers and sisters. We are kings and queens too. We are so important that we are the body of Christ. We are the church. We are the community of hope. Epistle of the Ephesians The epistles are letters that were distributed to the early church to help them understand what it meant to be the body of Christ. Most of the epistles were written to a specific community in order to address a specific situation. I tell you that – because even though our epistle lesson is entitled Ephesians – it was written for everyone. And in it Paul is not talking about a certain situation – he is talking to all who profess to follow Christ – wherever they may be. Paul’s prayer of hop This is a prayer of hope – given to a community of hope. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of your inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness among the saints. Paul’s prayer is for you to have hope, wisdom, riches and power. If we are able to inherit the rich hope that Christ gives us – then we are able to believe in God, believe in ourselves, and to believe in others. Matthew 25 is final teaching Matthew 25 is the final teaching of Jesus. Chapters 26-28 are about the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus. This teaching of the last judgment is the last time that Jesus is able to talk to the disciples and us and give us instruction. This is the last Sunday of the Christian year. Next week is the first Sunday of advent. We have spent all year reading Matthew. Next week we start on Mark. Christ the King Sunday On Christ the king Sunday – we are asked to look at the totality of who Christ is for us. What has Christ done for us this year? What has he taught us? How has he proven that he is indeed king of kings? And lord and savior of our lives? Anna’s hope in the lottery At first I was not going to tell this story – but I think it is fitting. Anna is like a lot of my friends and family. Every Monday she would go the convenience store and buy a lottery ticket. She might spend five dollars, ten dollars, whatever extra money she had – she spent it on lottery tickets. That was her hope for getting out of her situation. One of the legislators said that the lottery bought hope to poor people. My family has calmed down a lot – but there was a time, when every extra dime they had was spent on the lottery. The lottery was a plan. Anna would tell her neighbor that she had it down to a system. She played her birthday plus her address. Every week she would tell her neighbor how she had a feeling that it was going to work this week. She had a winning combination of numbers, and she just knew that she was going to win. She would even start planning what to do with the money. Her friend would just shake her head and say that she needed to have hope in something more powerful than the right numbers. She said - maybe I am being old fashioned, but there is only person strong enough for me to put my hope in. One person who has the power to do all things, to give me all things, and to help me in all things. Can you guess who that person is?.......... Jesus Christ.. The king of kings. Jesus Christ is the only power to give us hope out of our Situation. Where can we find Jesus? And where can we find Jesus? If we know what we are looking for you can find Jesus everywhere, in everybody. The face of Jesus is imprinted on all of us. That invitation to interact with Jesus can come at anytime. The invitation of Jesus One man was walking into one of the finest restaurants in Chicago. And at the entrance was a homeless man, who asked for some money to get some food. As most of us do – he said no and went in. As he was ordering his food it occurred to him – that was Jesus – that was his invitation to interact with Jesus, and he had turned it down. He went back out to give the man money – and he was gone. After he and his friends were done eating, he looked for the man hoping to find him and help – and he was gone. You never know when Jesus is going to extend an invitation to you – but it is not always an open invitation. It won’t wait for you – if you miss it – it’s gone. The final judgment That is the hard lesson in Matthew 25. Jesus draws the line in the sand. He is a king, but he has also been given the power to be a judge. Some of his followers are sheep, and some are goats. Some are deemed worthy and some are deemed worthless. Some inherit eternal life. Some damnation. Those who helped the least of these go to the right side. And those who did not – go to the left. When was the last time you received in invitation to interact with Christ? Did you help or walk on by? Not about being good or bad The thing that separates us according to Jesus is not whether we are good or bad. But whether we are willing to help others. There are lots of good people – who do feel the need to help the least of these. And there are some bad people who will give all that they have. If Christ is king of your life, which are you? Are you a sheep or a goat? The good news is that Christ extends that invitation to us each and every day, with each and every person. We just have to be willing to love others, just as Christ has loved us. Let us pray…..Amen.