Sermon - 2014-11-23

Today, as we gather together, we celebrate Christ the King Sunday.  We are reminded of that time that will come.  The day that we long for and hope for, the arrival of Jesus Christ standing right before us.  It’s that day that we talk about in the Apostle’s Creed of “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”  This day is something that we are reminded of even within the construction of our very own churches.  Look at the way in which we have you seated in the pews.  We have this long aisle and one group sitting over here and another group sitting over there.  We are reminded that there will come a day in which we shall be divided into these groups.  It will be our Savior and Lord that declares a righteous judgment, and not the judgment of humankind.  Yet this day of Judgment gets so confused within the Scripture.  It is a day that some people fear.  So today, we hear from Jesus Christ, what it will be like.

Jesus explains that it will be on that day that he will be able to divide the righteous from the unrighteous as easy as it is to separate sheep from goats.  A person should truly understand some historical insight here.  It was within the land of Israel that sheep were bred so that their fleece, their coats, were as white as fresh snow.  Goats were bred so that their hair was pure black.  There may be some spots on a few animals, but the majority of the animal would be covered with that color.  It will be as easy to separate as black and white.

That is, it will be that easy for Jesus, our Savior and King.  

When you hear the response of the sheep and the goats who were brought to their respective sides.  They were completely unaware that their actions were actually towards God.  They were unaware that they were helping bring forth the kingdom of God, and they were unaware that they were keeping the Kingdom of God from this world.

This unknown factor can so easily creep into our minds.  We begin to wonder, because of the world’s judgement of our status or even the Devil whispering into our ears, “Are you saved? Will you be worthy to enter into the Kingdom of God?”  A person can spend their whole life justifying and wondering if they have done enough to make up for all their mistakes that they have done within their lifetime.

This fear can overwhelm us.  So how do we know that we shall be saved? We know because it is not up to us.  We hear within our own Baptism, God calling us by name and declaring that we are loved.  We bear witness to the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross.  For nothing that we do could ever make up for the wrong that we have done.  Out of love, Jesus Christ does the work for us.  So we can not screw it up.  In those moments of doubt, we are reminded of all that God has done for us.

We are led and guided by the Holy Spirit to live out our days worthy of that gift, and sharing that love with those whom we encounter.  We are free from fear and doubt because of the love and grace that comes to us from God through his own son.  Even when the son faces a terrible death on the cross, and we face our own death. We know that God loves us so much that God will give us that same gift of his own Son.