Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 | For Sunday, November 26, AD 2024 | North American Lutheran Church | Antioch Lutheran Church, Dallas, NC, USA | From: The Rev. Andrew F. Weisner |

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
¹¹For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. ¹²As 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. ¹³I 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. ¹⁴I 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. ¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. ¹⁶I 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. ²⁰Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, ²²I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. ²³I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. ²⁴And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.
Psalm 95:1-7a

1 Corinthians 15:20-28
²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. ²¹For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; ²²for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. ²⁸When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

Matthew 25:31-46
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. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then 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; ³⁵for 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, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then 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? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And 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.’ ⁴¹Then 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; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I 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.’ ⁴⁴Then 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?’ ⁴⁵Then 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.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Homily

       Recently I was blessed by a conversation with a gentleman who is a financial manager. Most of you know what that kind of job is: he manages stocks and bonds and investment portfolios for people, working on their behalf – and, by commission, for himself – to make money. Ten years ago he was living in a big city and working for a big company, managing portfolios not for individuals, but for big businesses and corporations; he dealt with sums of money in the millions of dollars. He personally knew and socialized with „big-name“ financial managers on Wall Street, and a few times considered – and was considered for – jobs among them.

       And then his mother died. And while that was a personal, emotional blow, what became more of an issue for him was caring for his surviving dad, living in a small town in North Carolina. More and more he was traveling from his big-city home to visit and check on his dad, whose health condition was declining. So, he made the difficult and big decision to move away from his big-city job, back to small-town North Carolina, to be more involved in taking care of his dad. He started working, not for a big company, but just for himself, managing not big-time, big-money portfolios, but, in comparison to what he had been doing, small potatoes. And along with that, he was not making the big-money he once did; and he lost some of the prestige of working with people, and companies, that were big names, with lots of prestige and power of their own.

       But he was also taking care of his dad. He was doing small things, that to his dad, and to him, on a day-to-day basis, really mattered. He says he learned a lot of life lessons in those few years from his dad, about his dad, and about himself. He also began to volunteer in local schools. He came to know young students, and their families. He learned of, and became friends with, young people who needed guidance, young people from troubled homes, or poverty, who needed an advocate, and someone to share with them a bigger vision of the world, and of themselves; and he tried to – and did – help. Now, years later, looking back on it all, he says, he traded the better – for the best. He traded glitz and glamour and big-money and flying to New York, for helping children and their families. And he says: he wouldn’t now have it any other way. He is making a difference – has made a difference – in people’s lives in ways he couldn’t imagine himself doing before.

       “Soon and very soon, we are goin’ to see the King” is a popular jazz-type hymn. And indeed, we will! We’re going to see him – Jesus enthroned in glory – with a gold crown on his head, sitting regally upon a throne. We’re going to see him with angels and throngs of saints around him bowing in humble adoration, and we will join the throng. And there’ll be crystal palaces and golden domes and gates of pearl all around.

       But we’re also going to see the king various and several times before that. We will see him hungry. We will see him wandering on the street, a veteran, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, mentally ill. We’re going to see him on television, a victim of bullying, or a victim of violence. We’re going to see him as a poor industrial worker from „second-shift“ at the mill, but now unemployed trying to keep up with the costs and needs of raising his family.  Or we’re going to see him as a poor grandma, on a fixed, limited income, trying to raise three little grandchildren.

       Recently the Church calendar remembered St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. Thuringia is a territory in central Germany, and she lived there in the 1200s. She was nobility, and she married nobility, actually, a king. Yet, Elizabeth was known then, as she is remembered now, for caring for the sick and the poor. There is a story about her that says that, once, she brought a little boy who had leprosy home with her, and put him into her own bed, right there beside her and the king. Her husband knew that his wife was extravagant in her care for the sick and the poor, but this bringing a sick little waif home and putting him in their bed was a bit much. So her husband threw the bed-covers back to look at the boy and to say, “Betsy, you’ve gone too far; what is this you’ve done?!?” And what he beheld upon the bed was the Lord Himself, with the marks of crucifixion, lying in pain.

       “When you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to me.”

       The values of this world say go for the money; go for the power; go for the glitz and glamour; go for the prestige. But many of you, and the values of the Church, know differently: School teachers, with relatively small salaries; mental health workers, with monthly unstable jobs; families in economically depressed communities; all trying to help and look after each other. And every time you help or give encouragement to these or others in need, that is the goodness of the kingdom of God breaking in, and you have helped, and beheld, the King.

       Until we see him with the golden crown – and surely, one day, we will; but until then – we will see him otherwise appearing. Sometimes, it takes practice to “focus our eyes” just right, in order to recognize him, so well is he disguised. And we have a chance to practice now, to try to see him another place where he promises he will be: in the breaking and the sharing of the bread.

       Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.