Sermon Nov. 20th - What's the Question? Matthew 25:31-46

 This is the sermon preached the day of the Congregation Conversation on Nov. 20th. This is the meeting that was intended to get us to a recommendation to give to council to write a motion for the Special Congregational Meeting on Dec. 4th. I am finding it hard to write sermons in this time of limbo - especially this day where I did not want to have the focus of close, but I also did not want to give any false hope.  I borrowed heavily from this sermon: If Christ is King, What does that Mean?
 by Rev. Greg Garrett.

Text:
Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon:

I am about to ahre a little bit of my inner geek with you all. My husband and I are fans of the late Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, a comic science fiction novel about the end of the world, other intelligent life in the universe, and ultimate answers. We just love this kind of humor – the kind that takes completely absurd or unrealistic situations that somehow point a little too close to home to the point where it makes you feel uncomfortable. The climax of the book is where (thanks to the universe's most powerful computer, Deep Thought) the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is provided. The answer was suppose to explain things like, “Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Does it really matter, cosmically speaking, if I get up and go to work in the morning?”
After seven and a half million years of calculation, Deep Thought reveals that the answer that scientist in this book pursued with all their hearts and minds is... 42. And then, to those baffled folks wondering what they can possibly do with that answer, Deep Thought suggests that maybe the problem is that they've never really thought through what the ultimate question is. The computer explains that once they figure out the question then the answer will make sense.
When we come to this climactic passage from the latter part of the Gospel of Matthew, a lesson that actually seems to be an Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, I fear it is too easy to accept that this is the answer we want-and to not really have thought through what the question is. Is the question how do we gain everlasting life or go to Heaven when we die? Is it what are we supposed to be doing right now? When we're seeking Ultimate Answers, how we understand the question matters.
Our gospel lesson for today comes late in Matthew's gospel-just before the Passion of Christ. In our reading, Jesus is seen separating sheep and goats, described as a king on his throne, rewarding his subjects according to their adherence to his great ethical commandment of compassion. The passage comes in the last great teaching discourse in Matthew, a long section about the end of the world and the time of completion, it follows numerous parables about being ready for whatever is coming, whenever it gets here. A thief in the night. A slave and a master. Foolish bridesmaids who are unprepared. Slaves given trust over small things while the master is away. Apocalyptic stories about judgment and being prepared.
I must confess that I am always personally uncomfortable with biblical passages that seem to be about judgment. I would love to be able to pretend that this gospel reading is not in some way about judgment, but that would be neither true to the text, nor true to our need to wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestled with that angel, hoping for a blessing. If we're given an answer here, it is this: Jesus singles out those who treated others with compassion, who served those who were in need, alone, despised.
So what is the question? Other church folk say, “Jesus is the answer”. You see it on bumper stickers. There is a popular Christian Rock song with this title. We say to each other during hard times, “I don’t know much, but I do know that Jesus is the answer.” Yet, we never stop to think what the question is.
We have lots of answers. We know in our gut the right answer – even before we really know the question. Today we go down for a congregational conversation and we are talking about the future of the congregation. We have gut answers in our head for the question, what is the future of the congregation. Some of us say the answer is close. Some of us say the answer is to sell the building and remain together as a congregation no matter what that looks like. Some of us say the answer is to change the leadership of the congregation. We are so sure in our answers. Much like the computer knew that the ultimate answer is 42. When we say, 42 is the answer – that doesn’t make much sense. We say Jesus is the answer. We say close is the answer. We say change in leadership is the answer. We say staying together as a congregation is the answer. We are so stuck on our answers we forget to focus on the question, or even ask what the question is.
In our case right here, today, right after the service, on Christ the King Sunday, is the question really, what is the future of Our Congregation? Isn’t that kind of in line with the question that was posed to the computer in the book? The question of what is the ultimate answer to the life, universe and everything? Let’s take this huge question and boil it down to a simple answer. The absurd answer in the book of 42 can mean just as much to us as stating blindly that Jesus is the answer if we don’t even know how we got to that answer.
After Deep Thought, the computer, gave the answer of 42, the people were flabbergasted. It took the computer 7 million years to get the answer and it wasn’t a usable answer. They asked what the answer means. The computer told them that they needed to know the question in order to understand the answer. We are asking the question, what is the future of Our Congregation. The people of Jesus time were asking, how do I know this is really the messiah. Christians today are asking, how do I get into heaven. Others ask, what is the meaning of life? But, deep down we know that these are not the real ultimate questions. It goes much deeper than that. What is the future of Our Congregation? Is this the question we are really asking, is this the only ultimate question for the afternoon? I don’t know the ultimate question just as much as I don’t know the ultimate answer. But, if I had to hazard a guess I would look at the passage today to see maybe a glimpse of what that ultimate question might be. Jesus tells us that how we treat each other and how we treat our ministry is in turn how we treat Jesus himself. The question raised, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ and the reply is ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ We are called by today’s gospel to understand ourselves as those who are called to embody the kingdom in the here and now, so that it can come in its fullness, and Christ will be king – because we choose to dwell in that kingdom.
So, maybe the ultimate answer isn’t so much that Jesus is the answer just as much as the ultimate question is, how do I get into heaven. The ultimate answer isn’t close the congregation, or stay together as a congregation, or find new leadership just as the ultimate question isn’t simply, what is the future of Our Congregation? In fact, in Matthew, belief in and of itself is not sufficient for disciples. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus laments that many people will call him Lord, but only those who act upon his ethical teachings can be his true followers. And in the Great Commission, coming at the end of this gospel, Jesus doesn't say to form disciples who believe that he is the Messiah; he says, teach them to observe every ethical teaching I have commanded of you.
If you think the question is Am I going to Heaven? Will I be saved? What is the future for Our Congregation? Matthew suggests that you have missed the point. So maybe the question rightly asked is not what happens at the end of things, but more like what am I supposed to be doing right now? What does Jesus want me to do? To be? How will my life be different if Christ is King? How will the future of Our Congregation be different if we focus everything on Jesus teaching and his commands? Life in God's Kingdom is not about what you have or who you are, it's about what you do. It's not about what the world values, but what God values. The exact wording of the ultimate questions or the ultimate answers don’t matter much when you get right down to it. What matters is: if you love God, if your values are God-values instead of the world's values, if Christ actually is King, then you will love as God loves, give as God gives, forgive as God forgives. If your values are God-values, you can't help but live as Christ taught.
What is the future of Our Congregation? What happens after we die? I don't know, and neither do you. But we do know the shape of the story a loving God is writing: If Christ is King, we know Jesus waits at the end of that story, that he will see us, and know us, and that if we have done what he taught us, he will claim us as his own.
And, I have to say, that is question and answer enough for me.