The Reign of Christ, Year A

The Reign of Christ A 08
November 23, 2008

Ezek 34:11-16, 20-24 (NRSV)
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22 I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23 I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

Psalms 100:1-5 (NRSV)
1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.


Eph 1:15-23 (NRSV)
15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 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, 18 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 his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Matt 25:31-46 (NRSV)
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' 37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44 Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45 Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Going Overboard

Well, church, you’ve gotten a little carried away.

When I proposed my crazy ideas about God’s kingdom coming to earth in the church, I honestly didn’t think you’d take me seriously. I never imagined that you would put everything else in your lives aside and knock yourselves out carrying out the mission of Christ. You’ve really gotten out of hand.

I kind of thought you might be like lots of Christians that just passively trundle along, calling on God now and then when things got difficult, but otherwise more-or-less ignoring him. I mean, that’s the reasonable kind of religion, after all. But no, you had to get all excited. You had to get all joyful. You had to get all radical on me. I’m having trouble keeping up with you for crying out loud.

If you’re walking into this church this morning for the first time, or for the first few times, I need to warn you. These people are not right. They really think they are the children of God sent to this place to bless it with the love and peace and joy. They really put Christ first in their lives, not just in the way they talk but in the way they behave.

I suppose I have to take the blame. I do get carried away sometimes. They even call me “The Not Quite Right Reverend Mike.” Somebody sent a letter to me addressed to “the Reverend Mike Cook, Somewhere Out in Left Field” and it actually came to me. Even the post office knows I’ve got a screw loose.

I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but the new folks among us really need to know who to look out for.

Take Dennis and Becky Mann, for example. They run our evangelism ministry around here. You’d think they’d just get together a few times a year and talk about being welcoming and leave it at that. Maybe shake a few hands Sunday morning. But no. They actually go to people’s houses and bring them gifts like warm loaves of bread. They spent months organizing this huge Christian Music Festival for Heritage Day and brought hundreds of people to Philippi’s beautiful building.

And speaking of the building, our property people really don’t know when to stop. The ones to watch here are Bob Hatcher and John Schnoering. They lead our property ministry. You’d think they’d just prune a bush now and then and put some duct tape on things that break, but no. No, they have to do everything thoroughly and really well. They put up a new sign this year, they fixed our outdoor lighting so that the nighttime view of Philippi is gorgeous, they kept our flower beds and our trees neat and beautiful, they tirelessly hauled not only our trash but the trash left by other groups that use our building. They shopped around and got us a great van to haul people to church and off to training events. They really think that our building and property is a ministry. Go figure.

Now Becky Ferrell and Fran McLemore lead our fellowship ministry and I have to say they are a little more level-headed. They tell everyone over and over that we don’t have to have sumptuous breakfasts and lunches ever Sunday, but, well, like I said, our people are just not right. They just don’t listen to stuff like that. They really think that God deserves our very best efforts. But Becky and Fran do get carried away whenever someone is grieving. A lot of funeral receptions are not much more than coffee and a few desserts, but not at Philippi. Becky and Fran apparently think it’s God’s will that we provide real comfort to the afflicted, just as Jesus tells us to. And don’t even get me started about the special events they have on weekdays here. I’ve tried to stop them, but I just can’t. They’re always far better than anyone expects.

Most worship ministries are happy putting out some flowers and cleaning up the sanctuary vestments now and again, but Fay Leach, Cheryl Teagle and Mindy Miller just can’t be satisfied. They have to buy beautiful new worship furniture, have special training events for worship leaders, study books on worship and recruit lots of new members to participate in worship. They have to have rehearsals so that our special weekday worship services are amazingly inspirational. They even invited a bunch of people to bring their pets for a blessing service on St. Francis Day. I ask you, when will this lunacy end? We were all fine without a choir, but that wasn’t good enough for our worship team. Not only did they insist on having a choir, they even put Janet “from another planet” Bareford in charge of it. Now we have this fabulous group of people who have become a warm and loving fellowship group in the congregation who are helping us learn (yes, I know it’s hard to believe) new hymns from our hymnal. It seems our worship people really think worship should be a slice of heaven come to earth.

Now, I’ve been talking about some really crazy people, but I want you to especially be on the lookout for Jerry Dant. I’ll point her out to you. She’s right over there. She and Signe Langschultz have just gone way beyond the pale with our education ministry. Jerry read somewhere that you should teach children in the way that they should go, or something like that, and she started a children’s church that has brought all these kids into our congregation. She and Sig have started this Thoughtful Christian program and involved three times the adult students we had the previous year, even recruiting new teachers from among our visitors and new members. Jerry’s presided over the ecumenical youth group we started with Clarksbury and Zoar and even named it after Deltaville’s historic Christian Youth Unlimited. Four people went to the Children’s Worship and Wonder training. Imagine, training! And we sent two kids to Chi Rho Camp this year. I guess Jerry and Sig think Jesus was serious when he told us to teach everything he commanded. You really need to watch them every minute.

Let me see. Who else is trouble around here? Oh yes. You want to be on the lookout for Harry Leach and Marietta McLawhorn who lead our stewardship ministries. Most churches attend to their finances only begrudgingly. It’s really thankless, hard work, and well, it’s supposed to be, don’t you think? But not for our stewardship team. They get together every week, every week mind you! And they’re careful! They’re efficient! They really think that giving and managing resources in our congregation is a ministry of the gospel. They’re out of control.

And just as an aside, it seems that it’s not just our congregation that has peculiar ideas. The whole denomination is a little whacky if you ask me. This is America, you know. We don’t put much stock in book learning. But the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has committed themselves to founding and sustaining universities, colleges and seminaries. They actually think education is good thing for its own sake, and not just for making a living! They even believe that ministers should be well-prepared to lead congregations with extensive training. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: a lot of the members here are going to give big gifts today to our church’s education ministries. I just don’t know.

I’m sorry to say that even my own wife seems to have caught this fever, along with her vice-chair Macey White. They lead our Outreach ministry here and they both seem to take seriously Christ’s commands to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty. Through their constant badgering our congregation has significantly increased its offerings to our larger church’s efforts in helping people rendered homeless by natural disasters, sustaining missionaries helping to develop poverty-stricken third world communities and ministering to societies plagued with disease. Macey has neglected important activities like hunting and bowling to give leadership to at least three major organizations in our own community. Maybe medication would help them.

And Gladys Prince, wow, I almost forgot her. You really need to look out here. She and Fred Dant have led our membership ministry and couldn’t be satisfied doing the usual moping about inactive members. No, they had to make name tags for everybody so we could actually get to know each other. They had to organize our attendance records so we could keep track of folks who were wandering off. They had to go visit people who were sick or homebound, just like Jesus commanded. Try to stop them. Go ahead and try.

Susan Neal, who’s been leading our Disciple Women, stood up a year or two ago and said “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” And she’s been encouraging that sort of thinking ever since. I can’t believe how many women in our congregation have been sucked into that craziness. They actually get together and read the bible and talk about it! Imagine. They routinely do caring ministries for the poor and the homeless and the sick, both in our local community and around the world. She and Sig, another big trouble-maker around here, went running off to one of the women’s assemblies to learn and grow in the Christian life and to bring back new ideas for our women’s ministries. Seriously dangerous.

I’m saving the worst for last. Bob Mannell is someone you really want to avoid, particularly if you don’t like to grow or think or move in new directions. He’s been leading our Disciple Men for three years and the group has steadily grown under his direction. A lot of Men’s groups just get together and pig out, but Bob seemed to have the idea that the group should actually serve the church, raising money to buy hymnals and things like that. For some strange reason, this congregation has nominated him for elder next year. Oh boy.

Meghan George has led our Disciple Youth this year, which has now been absorbed into the new Christian Youth Unlimited program. Meghan just won’t take no for an answer. She’s going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ no matter how many times you tell her she can’t. The word “can’t” isn’t in her vocabulary.

Finally, perhaps the weirdest person we have is Elder Emeritus Elaine Miller. She refuses to do anything but love, forgive, bless and care for everyone she comes into contact with. She is way out there ahead of everybody in taking this Jesus thing seriously.

It seems to me, church, that you have simply jumped right off the cliff. You have taken to heart the reign of Christ not only in each and every one of your own lives but also in your ministry in our church. You have rejected common sense and forgiven your enemies, loved your neighbor, given generously to the mission of the church, visited the sick, fed the hungry, clothed the naked and witnessed to the lordship of Christ with a faithfulness that just defies reason. I don’t know what to do with you.
And what I said about our denomination is true. They have actually given us not one, but two awards, for being in the top ten percent of growing Disciples congregations in the United States and Canada. Imagine that.

All of you who are considering joining today, consider yourself warned. Christ reigns at Philippi.

And with St. Paul, I give thanks every day, for every one of you.

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Amen.