A sermon preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, Florida
Last Sunday after Pentecost – Christ the King – Proper 29
- November 19/20,
Ephesians 1:15 – 23; Psalm 100; Matthew 25:31 – 46
Preacher: The Rev.
Canon William H. Stokes, Rector
Occupy Thanksgiving!
Come, you that are blessed by my Father;
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…Matthew 25:34
Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s Sears, Toys –
R – Us, Best Buy, Old Navy and a host of other retailers are now opening their
doors on Thanksgiving Day to get an early start on “Black Friday.” Some are
opening as early as 9 P.M. Sears and Old
Navy are open all Thanksgiving Day. Personally,
I think it’s shameful. I’m not alone. I’m not against retail, but come on! Enough’s
enough!
In a couple of video reports
on-line, Wall Street Journal reporter Gwendolyn Bounds, host of the Journal’s
podcast, Lunch Break, stated her
opinion that “panic” is the primary reason for this as big “brick and mortar” retailers,
who find themselves losing out more and more to on-line shopping, try to gain
an advantage by creating frenzy around Thanksgiving.[1]
In an interview with retail analyst
and Journal reporter Ann Zimmerman, Bounds said, “I’m upset about this; I always
thought Thanksgiving was sort of sacrosanct….We at least had that night before
the Black Friday rush…”[2]
Speaking about his dilemma in a
different article in The Journal, Best
Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn, said he felt forced to "make a very
difficult decision" and open at midnight because rival retailers were
doing so, though the decision was controversial inside the company "I feel terrible," said Mr. Dunn,
who was once a store manager, speaking during a conference in San Francisco.
"It will change some Thanksgiving plans for our employees. It certainly
changes mine."[3]
Lunch Break’s Bounds, describing the
whole phenomenon of retailers opening on Thanksgiving Day as “a travesty,”
closed one of her reports saying, “I wish them the best of luck, but I myself
am going to start my own Occupy Thanksgiving Movement and stay home.”[4]
Good for her!
The undermining of the sabbath
quality of Thanksgiving Day, which truly is a day to stop and pause and reflect
on the things for which we are thankful, is most disturbing. Across
the nation, retail employees will have no choice in the matter, but will be
forced to go into work; for what? So
others can get an early jump on purchasing an item that could just was easily
be purchased the following day? It’s
insanity. Is nothing sacred any more?
Today, the feast of Christ the King
is a good day to reflect on our priorities.
Who or what holds ultimate sway in our lives? Is it Christ and the values of his kingdom –
values made clear in today’s Gospel reading? Or do other claims make their
assertions and take hold of our hearts? Do
these latter values ennoble, or degrade us?
In case you can’t tell, I think they degrade us.
In 1922, the Fascist Black Shirts
of Benito Mussolini marched on Rome. Italy’s economy had been
suffering...The government had been a mess.
Mussolini, it was said, “made the trains run on time.” Just a year earlier, Adolph Hitler’s famous
Beer House Putsch had failed.
After serving time in prison and taking time to write Mein Kamph, he would return to the political
scene and, with his Nazi party, rise to power.
Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin quickly began
to consolidate his power and would soon control Russia.
It was within this historical
context, a context that was witnessing the rise of Fascism, Nazism and Marxism,
with the concurrent rise of brutal ideological dictators - all anti-religious,
all anti-clerical - that Pope Pius XI established the feast of Christ the
King...It was established with the publication of his encyclical Quas Primas, signed December 11,
1925.[5]
The
Encyclical was intended to help the Church refocus itself on what ought to be
primary: Christ and his kingdom. It is, perhaps, difficult for us as
Americans to grasp this feast of Christ the King; after all, we have little
experience with kings and kingship and I suspect little desire to find out what
they are about.
We are a
nation forged on democratic values and the freedom of the individual and this
is a vitally important contribution we have made to the world. Still,
even our commitment to democratic life is being compromised. Freedom is being
sold out. Forces, market forces, not
only vie for our allegiance; they insinuate themselves into our lives and
politics, becoming increasingly more daring, corrupting, until they accomplish
their ends.
There is
not a single holiday in this country that has not been co-opted by the marketplace – Labor Day; Presidents’
Day; Independence Day; Memorial Day; Veterans' Day, Christmas and Easter. In
each and every instance, the core meanings of these days have been lost;
offered on the sacrificial altar of the marketplace. What effect does this have on us? What impact does it have on our narrative and
our values as Americans? I can tell you; it corrodes and erodes them;
and it corrodes and erodes us.
When Pius
XI issued Quas Primas he was greatly
concerned about anti-clericalism and the declining prestige of the church and
its ministers in the face of the rise of secular totalitarian rulers. The document establishing the feast is not,
for me, a compelling read. I have little
concern about these things. Nonetheless,
I appreciate the feast and the need for it, even in our pluralistic society,
where it would seem politically incorrect, on many levels, to assert the
kingship of Christ. After all, doesn’t
this seem like religious triumphalism?
Well it
could, indeed, be misunderstood in this way and this is always a danger. The key question to ask is: What is the nature of the Christ we proclaim
as king? The nature of Christ and his
kingship for me is Love…And I am willing to proclaim that Christ anytime,
anywhere!
The EFM (Education
for Ministry) classes this past week at St.
Paul’s had to wrestle with some of the questions of
the early Christological debates of the Church, that is, questions concerning the
nature of Jesus as the Christ? Is he
fully human? Is he fully divine? How do these natures interact?
As the
earliest church engaged in these debates it became increasingly complex. Understanding the discussion depended upon
understanding the intricacies and nuances of Greek philosophical terms which
can be enormously frustrating, perhaps even irritating and also somewhat boring. If you want to flavor the outcome of some of
this debate you can take a look on page 864 of the Book of Common Prayer, in
the section titled “Historical Documents of the Church.” There you will find something titled “Definition of the Union
of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ,” also known as the “Chalcedonian
Definition” because it was
formulated at the historic Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.
For my
part, I find it much easier and more compelling to derive my understanding of
the nature of Christ and his kingship from reading the New Testament; reading
it, marking it, inwardly digesting it, as the collect from last week said so
well.[6] There is great reward in discovering Christ in
this way.
In today’s
reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul, or a close associate of his,
writes, “I pray that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and
revelation as you come to know him, so
that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to
which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among
the saints, and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his
great power” (Ephesians 1:15 – 19)
For the
writer of this Epistle, the Gospel News is not only about Christ, it’s about
all who follow him; who are his disciples….It’s about the early church in
Ephesus…It’s about St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach today.
“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. And he 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” (Ephesians 1:20 – 23).
We, the
people of St. Paul’s
Church are his body, called to be filled with him and in him; called to be his eyes his ears his hands and feet, called
to be Christ’s presence and Christ’s love in the world…What are the
implications of this?
We are
called to spread Christ’s love; the message of his kingdom; we are called to serve
as his subjects and his subjects alone….Today’s Gospel about the separation of
the sheep and the goats offers a clear picture of Christ’s reign, as Christ
sits on his throne of judgment having gathered the peoples of the nations
before him.
“Come, you
that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you form the foundation
of the world; for 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, I was naked and
you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and
you visited me” (Matthew 25:34 – 36).
It fills me
with great joy to observe that in and through the ministries of St. Paul’s we
do these things; each and everyone of them, all the time…These acts of love and
service are characteristic marks of Christ and his kingship; they are
characteristic of those who would have Christ as their king and sovereign.
Contrast
this with those whose sovereign and highest values are not Christ and his love,
the accursed – cast off to whom Christ says, “I was hungry and you gave me no
food; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I 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….” (Matthew 25:41 – 43).
Two ways of
being; two sets of values: those who
have hearts and minds ruled by a Spirit of generosity; ruled by Christ and his
love; and those who are ruled by other
values: the values of selfishness and
greed, for example, who are callous about the needs and wants of others.
We see
these conflicting worlds portrayed on the news and lived out in our lives every
day….Citizens of both worlds occupy our nation. And the forces competing for
our allegiance are relentless. Each and
every day we must ask our selves: to
whom do we belong? Who is
our sovereign? Who is our true
king? What do we hold most sacred and
most dear? These are the questions of
this day, this feast of Christ the King.
They are
questions that come into sharp relief at this time of year as we prepare for
what? Thanksgiving Day with family and
friends a time of genuine thanksgiving to God for all the blessings we enjoy; a
time of celebrating this with a feast of food and conversation? Or will that elude us as yet another holiday,
holy day, breaks down and concedes it’s identity and our values to the forces of
the market?
As for me,
I intend to join Wendy Bounds and to Occupy Thanksgiving; to do so with a glad
and grateful heart knowing to whom I am faithful, placing my faith in Christ
Jesus and his love, who I pray will always be sovereign in my life. I hope and pray you’ll join me.
[1] See “Shoppers Forced to Rethink Black Friday
Strategies” The Wall Street Journal On-Line – Lunch Break – November 15, 2011 at http://online.wsj.com/video/shoppers-forced-to-rethink-black-friday-strategies/ACE3C509-BD28-4AB2-968F-4F2E351F7E96.html?KEYWORDS=Retailers+open+Thanksgiving+Day
[2] “More Retailers Attack ‘Black Midnight’” The
Wall Street Journal On-Line – November 7, 2011at http://online.wsj.com/video/more-retailers-attack-at-black-midnight/A44E3D4D-C0E1-4BFF-BAD9-814C1F4B6F55.html?KEYWORDS=Lunch+Break+Thanksgiving
[3]
Bustillo, Miguel and Zimmerman, Ann “More Retailers Attack at ‘Black Midnight’”
– The Wall Street Journal On-Line –
November 7, 2011 at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577022102816859764.html?KEYWORDS=Retailers+open+Thanksgiving+Day
[4] See “Shoppers Forced to Rethink Black Friday
Strategies” The Wall Street Journal On-Line – Lunch Break – November 15, 2011 at http://online.wsj.com/video/shoppers-forced-to-rethink-black-friday-strategies/ACE3C509-BD28-4AB2-968F-4F2E351F7E96.html?KEYWORDS=Retailers+open+Thanksgiving+Day
[5] For the English Translation of Quas Primas go to http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_11121925_quas-primas_en.html
[6] See The Book of Common Prayer (1979) Collect
for Proper 28, page 236.
