We are nearing the end of our church year – next Sunday is celebrated as “Christ the King” Sunday in many churches. This is not an actual feast day, but it focuses our whole year of Jesus-stories to their ultimate end: that this strangely born infant who was honored as king, and this crucified teacher who was lauded and then mocked as king, truly was, is, and is to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
We also come to the end of three weeks in Matthew 25 – a chapter chock-full of rich parables and images. Once again, Jesus has a story to tell – but this one is not a parable. Those are stories, set in past or present tense, he told to describe the Kingdom of God. This one is a vision of the future. Jesus explicitly images himself as a king, seated on a throne, overseeing a gathering of all nations and peoples. He is not telling a story in symbols – he is predicting his future, a future when he is no longer cloaked in human flesh with all its limitations, but radiantly triumphant, fully revealed.
This is what he says will happen,
“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. All the nations will be gathered before him.”
At the very beginning of our salvation story, God makes Abraham a series of promises, and each time there is this: that through Abraham all nations will be blessed. Later, the psalmists and prophets pick up the theme of all nations; Isaiah foretells the day when all nations will stream to the light of the one true God (Isaiah 60:3). And later still, St. Paul echoes Jesus’ vision in his letter to the church at Ephesus (also a reading appointed for Sunday):
“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, 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.”
The promised, in-breaking reign of God is not only for those who follow Jesus in this life. It is a promise of peace for the whole world, a vision of nations coming together. In our ever more fractured world, it can be hard to believe in such a vision – but our believing is partly how God is bringing it into being. When we believe in that vision of unity, it is harder to give energy and resources to perpetuating enmity and violence. When we put our faith in that vision, we start to desire it, and work toward it. We become the peacemakers and justice-seekers Jesus wants his followers to be.
Here’s a prayer exercise for us to try today:
Pick any two bitter world enemies. Imagine people from those two nations streaming toward a light-filled mountain, merging as they come together to climb toward the light. That’s a way of praying. Take another two nations, do it again. Think of an enemy of your own country. Imagine being part of a stream of your fellow citizens moving together toward the Light of the World, the King to whom all earthly powers will yield authority. That’s the future we proclaim. THAT’s the Gospel, the Good News we have to share.
I know a woman who prays daily for peace in the most unlikely places, for the conversion to love of the most hate-filled souls. She is actively exercising faith, speaking God’s future into being now. I suggest we join her. Perhaps all nations will be blessed through us.
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