We are at the end of the Liturgical year in the Christian Church. Next Sunday is Advent 1, which is the beginning of the Church Year, aka New Year’s Day. The church calendar offers many new beginnings throughout the year with the start of each new church season, just as the secular calendar offers new starts with the seasons. In the secular calendar we also have starting points with birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and the remembrance of special occasions or even memorials of historical facts (Pearl Harbor Day or Veteran’s Day, for instance).
This Sunday is called Christ the King Sunday and the
readings tell of God coming to seek the sheep and judge the world. God says, 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. (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24) The
Gospel talks of justice as well. In Matthew 25:31-46 we hear Jesus say, All
the nations will be gathered before [the Son of Man], and he will separate
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and
he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Jesus adds,
just as you did [or did not] do it to one of the least of these, you did [or
did not] do it to me.
The Epistle (Ephesians 1:15-23) notes, [God] has put all
things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Christ is King
and we are the sheep for whom God provides justice and we are also those who
must work for that justice on behalf of the Kingdom. An awe-some and fear-full
responsibility, for sure.
Last weekend I was at a retreat focusing on Dame Julian of
Norwich, a 14th century saint who is most famous for her visions of Christ
who promised “all will be well and all manner of things shall be well.” The
truth is she had many other insights into our Lord. She talks, in her Revelations
of Divine Love, of a God who “ever was and is and shall be all mighty, all
wisdom, and all Love.”
One of Julian’s most powerful revelations was the idea that “our
savior is our very mother, in who we are endlessly born…and we be all in him [en]closed.”
The Motherhood of Christ is not a metaphor but rather the idea that by being Incarnate,
Christ was in fact, motherhood in action. Christ is the self-giving love of a mother
who is willing to say, “I suffered my passion for thee. And if I might suffer
more, I would suffer more.” Just as a mother will fill her plate last so that
her child has the best food, so Christ provides the best for us.
Truly, as Julian says, “Know it well, Love was his meaning.
Who showed it to thee? Love. What showed he to thee? Love. Wherefore showed it
to thee? For love…Love is our Lord’s meaning.” Julian’s revelations give us
insight into the God who though King and Lord, is all LOVE and we are held in
that Love even (especially) in trials and uncertainties as well as in our
joys and celebrations. (Read more about the retreat here.)
Psalm 100 for this Sunday calls us to be joyful in the
Lord…serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song.
We are reminded the Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are
his. Therefore, we can Enter his gates with thanksgiving…give thanks to
him and call upon his Name. With Julian, the Psalmist points out the
Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age
to age.
As I noted at the beginning, this church year is coming to
an end. Our journey through the Psalms of the lectionary this year is also coming
to an end. Where will we go in the new year? I’m not sure what I will talk
about in Advent. Perhaps explorations of the Love of God as made visible in the
Incarnation….
