Judgment

Today is the Last Sunday after Pentecost. For those of us who order our lives by the Christian calendar, this is the last Sunday of the year. A new church year begins next Sunday with the first Sunday in Advent. This last Sunday after Pentecost is also know, both formally and informally, as Christ the King Sunday. You heard references to Christ the King and his reign in the collect and readings today. And at the conclusion of the service we will sing the great hymn of the church “Crown him with many crowns.” I love to sing this hymn, not just because it’s a great hymn and I have known it all my life in the church, but also because the words are excellent. We sing the words, but they are also spoken to us. Crown him with many crowns. Crown him the Lord of life. Crown him. We must crown him. If Jesus is to reign in our lives, we must crown him. He is not automatically king over us unless we grant him that position and authority. We must make him our king.

The role of king is not one that is immediately relevant to us today. Traditionally kings had many roles and functions. They had power over their subjects. But they also had the responsibility of protection and care for those over whom they reigned. To crown Jesus as our king is to place ourselves in his protection. Another role is highlighted on this Last Sunday after Pentecost. The role of judge. The theme of judgment, particularly the last judgment, is prominent in today’s readings. Today’s Gospel from Matthew is all about the last judgment. Jesus as king is Jesus as judge. What do you think about God’s judgment, about Jesus as judge? It may not be the most comfortable of topics, but we affirm it every Sunday when we say the creed. That portion of the creed that refers to Jesus concludes “…and he shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” What do you think about judgment day? That day when the faithful and obedient will be rewarded by God and the unrighteous condemned?

Here is a brief piece from the Anchor Bible Commentary on judgment. “Numerous Biblical texts, particularly in the NT, refer to the coming day or time of judgment.” Numerous Biblical texts! Particularly in the NT! Like this morning’s Gospel…. “Nevertheless, little scholarly attention has been devoted to this topic…. One suspects that modern scholars prefer to deal with more congenial subjects…. Scholarly squeamishness is articulated occasionally, e.g., by Dalton: “God is primarily a God who loves, a God who saves. Hence any eschatological statement set in the context of future judgment must take into account the inadequacy of this context and must allow for this inadequacy if conclusions unworthy of God are to be avoided.””

So we have some scholarly company if we want to avoid the topic of judgment. Never mind those numerous Biblical texts, especially in the NT… judgment is a context unworthy of God at least one scholar reassures us.

Alternatively we can give some consideration to this morning’s Gospel and address the issue of judgment. Remembering this morning’s hymn, the question I find myself asking is: “Will I choose to let Jesus be my judge?” Will I give God in Christ the authority to be my judge? I think we must grant that authority. Will I give Jesus the position of judge over my life?

And even if I feel uncomfortable with the idea of judgment, especially the last judgment, if I am honest I have to say that I do want to live in a world with judgment in it, a world where behavior has rewards and consequences, where choices and actions matter, where compassion is valued more highly than cruelty, where good is better than evil.

Also, whether or not we are conscious of it, we have all chosen various judges in our lives. We have chosen the contexts in which our lives are evaluated. We have picked who we would like to do our life’s performance evaluations… which judge offers rewards we value or punishments that we fear.  We have chosen which judge we are trying to please as we live our lives.

In our civic lives, we choose blind justice as our judge. A system in which, at its best, people get exactly what they deserve. We carefully describe and quantify good behavior and bad behavior and hope that blind justice will prevail with absolute fairness, and that everyone will get precisely what he or she deserves. I think we often transfer this sort of judge to our view of God as well, imagining St. Peter at heaven’s gate with a book quantifying and describing our behavior on earth. We assume people will get what they deserve.  Will we deserve heaven or not? But casting St. Peter as blind justice is not the same thing as assigning Jesus to be our judge.

Another context in which we choose to have our lives judged is what we could call competition. Accomplishment, achievement, accumulation of honors or material stuff is the reward of a life lived well, especially if we have accomplished or achieved or earned more than other people. An empty life is a failed life. We often live our lives as though we will be judged by how much we have or how much we have done.

We also grant the judge of popularity great authority in our lives. We let others’ opinions of us be our judge. We let other people decide what we are worth, whether our lives are commendable or useless. The opinion of our peers or others in society is our judge.

Or, finally, we set our own conscience as our judge. Isn’t that why we all fear the last judgment? We think we will be judged by our own conscience, and we all know that our consciences condemn us. None of us has lived up to who we think we should have been. I do think that God can speak through our conscience, but our conscience is not the final judge on judgment day.

Blind justice. Competition. Popularity. Our own conscience. We let these judge us. We choose them as our judges. Or we can put them aside and choose Jesus as our judge. Can we quit trying to please these other judges and place Jesus as the judge of our lives?

I do believe in God’s judgment, in the last judgment. I want to believe that God cares enough about me to judge, to expect something good and holy from me. I want the course of my life to matter to God. I don’t know exactly how God in Christ will judge and it’s hard not knowing exactly what the criteria are. I can only trust. I can only place my trust in God who loves me, who loves me enough to die for me. I can only place my trust in a judge who loves me so deeply he gave his own life for me.

Love is the context for God’s judgment. That scholar had that right. We are God’s beloved. So the question that is really before us right now, in the midst of daily lives is whether or not we accept God’s love. Trusting that God’s future judgment will be rooted in love, can I accept God's love? Now?

You know in our human relationships it is one thing to be loved, another thing to accept that love. God loves us, but we must choose to welcome the love, cherish the gifts God gives in love, honor God as the giver, and take our share in the relationship.

Being in love transforms a person. Knowing yourself to be loved and accepting that love is transforming. Love is buoyant, its spirit is limitless. Love provides access to reservoirs of compassion, peace, generosity, hospitality. Accepting God’s love will transform the actions and course of our lives… not because we fear condemnation at the last judgment… but just as a natural result of knowing we are God’s beloved.

If you want to put all those other judges aside and place the judgment of your life in God’s power, the first thing to do is accept God’s love. Accept the gifts of that love given to us in our daily lives. I’ve talked before about some of those gifts… hearts with the capacity to love… human skill and imagination… minds which comprehend reason and relish ideas… the capacity for joy… the peace which passes human understanding. Accept these gifts, given in love, and give honor and praise to God as the giver.

Accepting God’s love is the most important thing for us to do in this life and in the next.