November 24, 2006
King
The Sunday of Christ the King
And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me” (Mt 25.40).
It was a radical idea then. It remains a radical idea through the centuries. Over and over again, Jesus likens the kingdom of God, indeed, the kingliness of God never to the royal purple puffery of pomp and circumstance, but always to the simple cloth and chores of the commonplace. It is a message whose profound clarity obviously deafened the ears of church and state then and continues to deafen those who not only cannot hear, but do not listen. It remains the message of the Old Testament prophets that is of the essence of biblical morality and a message against which the gates of hell will not prevail.
Maybe it is of a truth that the perils of any given era seem to those whose times they are as the greatest perils of all time. Perhaps this is especially true for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their God, a children whose prophetic sensitivity to justice may have never been matched. And perhaps it is especially tragic that we, those continuing children and heirs, stand now our followings so sorely divided as even to be killing one another. And perhaps it is especially tragic that our united purpose and will may never have been needed more than it is now.
Who are “the least” in our time who are so intimately identified with our Lord in his? To whom do we minister that turn out again and again to be our Lord, himself?
If we believe that poverty in the world and poverty in America, the richest nation in the world, is morally unacceptable, then there is our Lord. If we believe that further tax cuts for the wealthy in exchange for budget cuts for social services for the poor and the working poor is simply wrong, then there is our Lord. If we believe that the “swords-into-plowshares” vision of the prophet Micah for national security is better than that of the president’s Department of Defense, then there is our Lord (Micah 4.3-4). And if we believe that social movements with spiritual foundations can truly change history, then there, as well, is our Lord. Then will we know where are “the least” and in whose midst stands our Lord. Then will we know.
One of the reasons for this nation’s founding was to rid ourselves from the secretive cabals of a lord-it-over empire and king. And one of the ways we have done that is through a system of balanced powers created for and given to those who would lead us by serving us. It was perhaps the best secular route we could ever take to provide such an authority.
It was not easy then. It has never been all that easy, though it may have worked better in certain times past. It is our calling as servant leaders to make it work better than ever before. Jesus beckons to us through the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the political refugee, the naked, the sick, those in prison, and indeed, those who are being tortured. However and whatever we do unto these least, we do unto our servant king.