November 22, 2020: Livin' The Dream
Livin’ the Dream
Matthew 25:31-46
“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, 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. Then 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; 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.’ Then 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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And 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.’ Then 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; for 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.’ Then 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?’ Then 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.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
______
In 2015 country music singer Drake White released a song entitled, “Livin’ the Dream.” Here are some of the lyrics:
Everybody say we wouldn't make it baby
Love don't live around here much lately
Times are hard and hearts break like the bank,
Ah yes they do
Lots of reasons just to give it on up
Leave your soul on the shelf, collectin' dust
Livin' a world of broken promises and empty tanks
Oh but look at us
Look at us with a picket fence
Don't got a lot of money but we're making a dent
Old Ford truck with a dog in the back
Now ain't we livin' the dream
Big blue sky, green, green grass
Ain't doin' half bad for a half full glass
Kiss me baby yeah just like that now
Ain't we livin' a dream
You’ve probably heard this phrase from which the song gets its name, “livin’ the dream.” Best I can tell, the phrase is a play on the concept of the “American Dream,” you know, the ideal of a white picket fence with two cars and 2.5 kids. The “American Dream” is an ethos, a set of ideals, a de facto religion passed on to us from our forebears—prosperity and success are its sacraments.
As a Christian, a person of faith, I sometimes wonder how closely the “American Dream” aligns with God’s dream for the world. How well do our values line up with God’s values? How can we know what God values are, what God’s dream for the world is?
That’s where Matthew 25 comes in. In this chapter and the chapter before it, Jesus focuses his teaching on the end times and the coming of the “Son of Man”:
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, 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.
This is powerful imagery: “all the nations” gathered before the Son of Man in the eschaton. Can you form a mental picture of that? My mental image is the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, with the processional of flags from every nation flying high with that nation’s representatives trailing along behind. In my mind, this “gathering of the nations” around the Son of Man is that opening celebration on steroids. And in this parable that Jesus tells, the Son of Man separates the people that have assembled into sheep on the right and goats on the left. The sheep will be blessed; the goats, not so much. To be clear, you don’t want to be a goat.
Commentators suggest you can read this two ways: 1) individual people are separated out into sheep and goats, or 2) nations are separated into sheep and goats.
Now, let me pause here and talk about apocalyptic language in the Bible. Some people try to read apocalyptic language way too literally. But know that apocalyptic passages are metaphor, not meant to be understood literally, rather they point to deeper truths and often a hopeful future in which wrongs will be righted. Apocalyptic literature rises up out of communities that feel oppressed. And when Matthew’s gospel was written in the first century A.D., Christians were routinely, systemically oppressed, not only by the Roman Empire but by their fellow Jews. So when we read this type of literature, it helps us to understand it if we try to imagine ourselves as a part of the first century community of powerless, oppressed individuals with little hope in this world, so we dream of some kind of justice in the age to come.
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus offers a hopeful view to his community, a community of “the least of these”: that those who oppress them will be judged one day. Maybe not in this age but the next, the perpetrators of their oppression would meet justice. And what’s the criteria by which they will be judged? The nations will be judged—sheep or goats, blessed or cursed—based on their treatment of those listening to Jesus, ie, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed. You can envision Jesus’ listeners cheering when they hear this.
There’s a Christian doctrine that originated from the Catholic tradition, it’s also a part of the Methodist tradition. (I know we have quite a few Catholics and Methodists in our church.) The doctrine is called the “preferential option for the poor.” The doctrine was born from a recognition that throughout scripture, God seems to favor the poor and powerless and expects those who aren’t poor and powerless to speak, pray and act in a way that shows solidarity with and compassion for the poor. The passage that I read from today’s lectionary is one of the key passages cited in defense of this doctrine as we hear Jesus teaching throughout the ages:
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.’ Then 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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And 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.’
This “preferential option for the poor,” as a part of the Methodist tradition, led to Methodists participating in the underground railroad system, as well as abolishing the pew rental system. Perhaps you’ve been to an old church with “box pews” in which the pews have doors and sections—the wealthy would purchase a box, leaving the poor to compete for the open seating in the back or balcony.
The doctrine of the “preferential option for the poor” is alive and well in the Catholic tradition as well. Not too long ago Pope Francis reminded listeners that the preferential option for the poor is non-negotiable.[1] Catholic social teaching says this:
The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor. The “option for the poor,” is not an adversarial slogan that pits one group or class against another. Rather it states that the deprivation and powerlessness of the poor wounds the whole community. The option for the poor is an essential part of society’s effort to achieve the common good. A healthy community can be achieved only if its members give special attention to those with special needs, to those who are poor and on the margins of society.[2]
So back to our scripture text . . . we’re imagining the nations of the world gathered around the throne where the Son of Man sits judging the nations of the world . . . how would we fare as a nation? As a state? As a county? As a church? As individuals? We always like to imagine ourselves as the sheep, as the ones blessed and favored by God. But I believe this scripture is meant to simultaneously comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Most of us are pretty comfortable. Will we allow the text to “afflict” us, to challenge what we think or how we live?
And as we consider the Son of Man sitting on a throne judging the nations, let us remember that today is Christ the King Sunday . . . the culmination of the Christian liturgical year. Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, begins the new church year. Today is the day when we consider the kingship of Christ and the nature of that kingdom. But I wonder if this “king” language is lost on us. As Americans, we don’t live in a monarchy. We don’t have a king or a royal family. In fact, we fought an entire bloody war to remove ourselves from monarchical rule. So a lot of Americans don’t love this “kingdom” language for this reason. Others don’t love the patriarchal language it portrays.
In light of this, I’ve been a part of a couple of discussions with other clergy, trying to find a fitting replacement for this “kingdom” language. “What might we substitute for ‘kingdom of God?’” I remember one pastor friend asking. One response was “reign of God.” Another said, “realm of God.” But my favorite suggestion, by far, was “dream of God.” To think about the kingdom of God as God’s dream for the world, enacted, at least in part, through those who follow God, namely, you and me.
And our charge, as citizens of God’s kingdom—as participants in the dream of God—is to live in such a way that we will be named among the sheep through our preferential option for the poor, both as individuals and through our participation in civic life. The way that we do that in the year 2020 is not too different than it was in the first century A.D.: feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, tend the sick, visit the prisoner. When we do that, we’re “Livin’ the Dream,” God’s dream, to be exact.
How exciting to be invited as active participants in the manifesting God’s dream! Let us get busy “Livin’ the Dream” in every area of our lives, standing each and every day in solidarity with marginalized people, that when it comes to judgment day, whatever that looks like, we can hear the Son of Man say, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
I close with lyrics from a hymn entitled, “O Christ, What Can It Mean For Us”:
O Christ, what can it mean for us to claim you as our king?
What royal face have you revealed whose praise the Church would sing?
Aspiring not to glory’s height, to power, wealth, and fame,
You walked a diff’rent, lowly way, another’s will your aim.
Though some would make their greatness felt and lord it over all,
You said the first must be the last and service be our call.
O Christ, in workplace, church, and home let none to power cling;
For still, through us, you come to serve, a diff’rent kind of king.
[1] https://www.ncronline.org/news/spirituality/francis-chronicles/pope-churchs-preferential-option-poor-nonnegotiable
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20060216183419/http://www.osjspm.org/cst/themes.htm