Surprise Judge

Sunday

Nov262023

Christy Ramsey

Surprise Judge

Surprise Judge
a sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey

Text from 8 AM service Worship Service Novmeber 26, 2023

at St Peter’s Episcopal Church

edited from a flawless transcription made by edigitaltranscriptions all errors are mine.

Surprise. This scripture’s about surprise. And you may think, which one? Because there’s many. Some of you, and I’m trying not to look at you again, some of you are shocked, dismayed, perhaps threatened that he said to those on the left are cursed and go to hell. The left go to hell? What? What? That doesn’t sound like us. But calm down because remember he was facing them. So the left was on the right, and the right was on the left.

That’s not the surprise. Well, what’s the surprise? Well, there’s a big surprise there, two surprises, in both groups of people that come up to the judgment. One, they were surprised; and they said, what, us? When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or in prison or thirsty, and we did not care for you? When did that happen? It’s so surprising that that happened. And the other group said, when did we do that? And we did take care of you. Even the ones who took care and did the work are surprised. Why are they surprised?

Whenever Jesus tells a story – and this is more of a story than a prediction or a prophecy, it’s more of a story – you always look for the weird part, the surprising part, the part that doesn’t make any sense. Because that’s the part that’s God, when it doesn’t make any sense. How in the world do people not know how they live their life? I mean, America is all about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You know, I have a personal relationship with my savior, Jesus Christ, and he is my personal king. You know, the whole king thing. You know, I have a king, and that’s a surprise, as well, the king stuff. What? King? Wait a minute, Christy. That sounds political. Can’t have any of that. Can’t have any of the nations and all that. That’d be political.

Well, yeah. It is political if and only if your politics are that the sick should suffer, be in prison, should languish. The hungry should starve. And the thirsty shall go without water. If that’s your politics, if that’s your platform, if that’s what you run your candidates on, well, then, yes, taking care of those in need is political. But if it is, we’ve got a long way to go. Because taking care of those that need care shouldn’t be a political debate. But that’s not the surprise. None of that’s the surprise.

The surprise is that this scripture isn’t talking to me and thee. It’s talking to we and us. What? It’s not about a personal king and salvation that is my personal lord and savior? And we can’t just say to Jesus when we go up to heaven, and say, hey, Jesus, I did a good life, I didn’t oppress anybody, I didn’t do any racial profiling, I didn’t hold down anybody, I didn’t throw anybody out on the street. I didn’t make anybody – I am going to heaven then. No, the surprise is it’s everyone who’s gathered, the nations of the world and the peoples are judged, and everything in here is plural.

That’s a surprise. What? We’re not going to be judged on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our lord and savior? Apparently not. How did y’all, be nice if we had that plural, how do you y’all treat the ones that need the most care? That’s how you get judged. Wow. That’s a surprise. I thought I just had to keep myself, you know, reasonably a good person, and I have a reasonable chance of going to heaven, with everybody else on the left who are on Jesus’s right. But it turns out not. The whole Christ the King Sunday is not about a personal relationship between me and a sovereign.

And if you think about it, a king thing, everybody doesn’t get their own personal king. That’s really not how the king thing works, royalty works. The king, the royalty, the sovereign is for the whole nation. It’s for all the people. It’s not just for, well, I have a king, and then that person over there has another king, and that person has another king. We all have our own kings. We would like it to be that way, individualistic and just dependent upon ourselves.

But oh, my gosh, that whole love one another as I have loved you, do unto others as I would do unto you is actually something he expects us to do. That’s the surprise. That’s a surprise. We can’t get away from it. We live and participate in a society that doesn’t help the imprisoned. You know in prisons they can’t make phone calls? They have to stand in line, do the old collect call and pay hundreds, pay bunches of dollars and fistfights and all that, when they all have tablets, and they could just call on their tablet and actually see their loved ones. But that’s not allowed. That’s us. That’s not the prisons. That’s not the politicians. It’s us, according to the scripture. Us.

When were you in prison, didn’t let people visit you? Oh. Every time it happens within the group we’re in? That’s a surprise. When are there times when people can’t get the care they need when they’re sick because of politics of sickness? Why is it okay for the government to do healthcare for those over 65, that’s okey-dokeys, but those under 65 it’s terrible, awful communism, I don’t know what political thing. What is it?

What if we had Medicare for all? What if all the insurance companies who I have a hard time finding anybody that says, you know, I love my medical insurance company. They are a source of joy and comfort in my life. No. And you say, well, that’s not my worry. That’s not my concern. I help out. There’s a guy with a cardboard sign, I give him five bucks. You know, I helped someone to the hospital the other day. I looked out on my neighbor. Nope. Nope. I’ve got a surprise for you. It’s how the whole group talks.

Gee, Christy, I just talked to you about – you were talking about kings today, about maybe flags in the sanctuary, maybe about who gives our – we give our allegiance to. Unh-unh. Not that easy. It’s not individualistic. It’s communal. This scripture is surprising. And I urge you to be surprised by it and go out and work for peoples and nations and lands where those that need care are taken care of. And it’s not political. It’s religious. Amen.

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