A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to his disciples, when the son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, he will sit upon his royal throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. Then he will separate them into two groups as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. It's not a pleasant sight, not a pleasant prospect. The sheep he will place on his right hand, the goats on his left.
The king will then say to those on his right, come. You have my father's blessing. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the very creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. Naked, and you gave me clothes. I was ill, and you comforted me. In prison, and you came to visit me. Then the just will ask him, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink?
When did we welcome you away from home or clothe you in your nakedness? When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison? And then the king will answer, I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me. Then he will say to those on his left, out of my sight, condemned you into that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I was hungry, and you gave me no food.
I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was away from home, and you gave me no welcome, naked, and you did not give me any clothes. I was ill and in prison, but you didn't come to comfort me. Then they will turn and ask, lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or away from home or naked or ill or in prison and not try to satisfy your needs? And he will answer them, I assure you, often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me.
These will go off to eternal punishment and the just to eternal life. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. Pretty solemn. This is the feast of Christ the king.
It's also within a shadow of the great feast of thanksgiving. Of course, that's far outranked as we all know. And I have two texts to keynote my well chosen remarks. The first is from Saint Paul, his letter to the Colossians. All things were created through the lord and for the lord.
Now there, all things means all things. No exceptions. He is before all else. That is. Notice is there is existential.
He is before all else that is, so that primacy may be his in everything. He is truly lord of lord and king of kings. At least Saint Paul thought so. Now I wanna quote president Bush. And not exactly president Bush, but George Washington, you know, had something to do with the beginning of our democracy, I'm told.
That's being denigrated too, you know. Anyway, when president Bush in his promulgation for thanksgiving published last before thanksgiving of the past week, Bush, the president, quoted George Washington's from George Washington's first proclamation for thanksgiving day. And here's what George said, it is our duty or he said rather, let me correct that. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor. Of course, that's George Washington.
It wasn't said in 1990. But the president, president Bush, quoted that in the beginning of his proclamation. I'm sure some of you read of his proclamation for the for thanksgiving day of last week. Now I wanted to before coming to the thing I most want to say, I wanna touch on two points. That is god's and god's sovereignty, and then this idea of the providence of God, which under the present terms and circumstances of the Persian Gulf is a doctrine very difficult, but extremely consoling to anyone who accepts it.
George Washington accepted it. Bush accepted it. A lot of people accepted it, that god is running the show. They didn't say it that way, but that's what it means, that in every single tiniest aspect of life, even including your acts of free will. God is boss.
God is omniscient omniscient. God is all powerful. God is all loving, and he knows what he's about. And he doesn't tell us often enough. Very seldom does he tell us what he's about.
We'll only find out that at the end of the road. He knows it from the very beginning. He's all mission. He's all powerful. He is all loving, and he knows what he is about.
Now, see, the worst thing now, you know, we all saw a great deal of attention given in the past week to our men and women in the Persian Gulf. A lot was said in the in all the media. And this is a fact. What is the worst thing that that I gathered from the from these interviews that they had? And what I wanna stress is this.
When we talk about the Persian Gulf, when we talk about the problem, which war and all the consequences of war present to a believing Christian who says, at least he says it, that God's running the show, the greatest thing they have to face is its senselessness. It doesn't make sense. We are confused. You heard this. And it's not only the men who are over in the sands of the Sahara.
It's the the mothers, and especially mothers with their children sitting around their dining room table on Thursday and wondering in some instances where their next meal was coming from, how they're going to meet their mortgage payments. They are suffering too, and they are confused. Why us, Lord? The a little boy was interviewed, and all he could say, I want my daddy back. What's he doing over there in that way far off land?
He was about nine years maybe you saw it. Saw it was there's no wasn't anything secret about this. It's the confusion, the lack of understanding, the senselessness of And let me tell you something else. It's an echo of the pacifists, which try and they're within the church as well as without, and in high places as well as in low, who try to tell us that war is a model and say that it's an evil in itself. That the the worst thing can happen to you is is war, death, and dying.
Maybe I should have reversed that. Whereas, remember, there is no immorality about dying. The immorality of murder is not the corpse. It's the it's the injustice of the murderer. Keep that in mind.
There's oh no immorality about dying. The immorality is the injustice of a person who might inflict the death, and we call that a a murderer. Now let's when I started out to think of what I was going to say this Sunday, it was a problem, believe me, Because this this subject is vast. It's way beyond my competence. It's beyond anybody's confidence.
And I wanna tell you something. When I started out, I did not know where I was going to go and I wound up very clearly where I was going to go. And en route, out of eight volumes of Newman's plain and parochial sermons, I came up with two absolutely perfect quotations for this for what I wanna put across this morning. And I know that good peep people tell you talk to you about how you should address your public and how you win your congregation, you know, and all that stuff. They'll tell you, don't quote.
I see no objection to quoting if I'm talking to reasonable people who who say something, what I want to say, but in a way that's completely beyond my abilities to say it. Why shouldn't I quote them even if they're dead? Their words live on. Bush quoted George Washington in the past week, Wednesday morning. I think it was, Washington Post.
Now the first thing is we have to get home to ourselves that Christ the lord is king. Christ the lord is king, not a democracy. He is king. Sovereignty is his completely. Now these are words we but they we don't think about this.
God's sovereignty and his providence. Keep these two words. Providence and his sovereignty. They go together. That the lord god in the garden of even e e e Eden proves himself, claimed to be.
Adam and Eve said, no. We have Christ redemption, the annunciation, John the Baptist, and we have those darling disciples who thought, ye gods, we are with it. We are going to be all vice presidents in in in Christ's kingdom. He's he's gonna throw out those dumb Romans. We're gonna get back our country.
Doesn't this sound contemporary? And we'll we'll have the city of David, and we will all hold big jobs. In other words, the disciples, the message they got of Christ's kingdom was, it's of this world, and we wanna be a top top dog. Even their mothers ask them to ask Christ, take care of my boys. I think that's one of the nicest, most human things in the New Testament.
The mother coming in and say, once once your boy's taken care of, all vice presidents in the kingdom of God, yet they didn't get the message. Even after the resurrection, they didn't get it. No. They think of them going down to m house. Even after the ascension, they didn't get it.
They only got it after the holy spirit came down upon them. Then they got it. Then they had the council of Jerusalem. Then they went forth to teach the to preach and proclaim the kingdom of god. And then they knew that my kingdom is not of this world, but I am truly a king.
Now so much for Christ's sovereignty. A huge amount. I read an article in one of the encyclopedias on the bible. There are four pages which traces this down to the old testament to the new it's absolutely impressive. That is the sovereignty, uniqueness, the all powerfulness of God almighty running the world, running the show that that there is meaning to everything, and I mean everything.
Notice I'm saying thing which means res, which means reality. Everything which is is a is dangling. Everything which is is dangling from god almighty's hand by a very thin thread. God almighty's calling to shots even what I think and and I don't mean to downgrade this. Even acts of my free will.
This is one of the biggest problems of theology. How do you put these two things together? That God is omniscient, all powerful, running the world, and now by the world, I don't mean our little little piece of this little globe we call the earth. We're we're just one of the universes. I mean, he's running the whole works.
That's god's sovereignty. And the providence means that there's a rhyme and reason to this. That he that god almighty from the very be remember, there's no time with god. There's no space with god. There's no future to god.
There's no past to god. The only thing you can say about god is that he is present tense. So what seems what is for me absolutely future, unknown, not even guess that. And if I think I know it may be only to trouble me, to confuse me, to almost throw me into despair, It all makes reason with God almighty. He made the world with a purpose, and that purpose is going to be be achieved.
What whatever I do. Doesn't mean I'm gonna be saved whatever I do, but the world will achieve its goal. It is not a rhymeless. It is not a senseless. It is not a turbulent.
It is not a confused mess. It's all under the guidance of God almighty. And what he doesn't ask me to understand, and he doesn't he has no inclination. There's no suggestion that I will understand at this moment the purpose of my life and all that happens to me. He never remotely said that.
But we have that isn't that is the tremendous act of faith that no matter what happens, good, bad, or indifferent, it is God's will, and it is for his goal in which I'm playing a part, and it is the is for his purpose. The world is not absurd. It's God's world. The world is not confused as far as God is concerned. It's right on target.
Now I wanna read but I think I meant, but out of eight volumes of of Newman's parochial and plain sermons, these two quotations I got a hold of, and they seem absolutely given to me. First one, in regard to god's providence. Here these are the words of and these are this was written before he he went when he joined the church in Rome. This was while he was still at Oxford and and preaching in Saint Mary's Church, Oxford, the university church. Wonderfully silent, yet restless course of god's providence.
Truly notice. Silent. Truly, thou art a god that hidest thyself, o god of Israel, the savior. Now you put those two things when when you read this stuff of Newman, it just simply says, what are you trying to do when you get in the pulpit? It says it almost second you.
It's so good. Notice, the god of Israel, the whole of the old testament, and the savior, the whole of the new testament. Just two words. Then he goes on. If even devils, spirits by nature and experienced in evil, cannot detect your hand while you work, how can we hope to see it except by a loving faith?
Notice loving faith. Not faith, loving faith. How can we see it except afterwards as we look back, as a reward to our faith? Beholding the cloud of glory, that's our heaven, in the distance, which when present was too rare and impalpable, you can't get a hold of it, for mortal eyes to see. What more could I how could I add to that?
There it is in a nutshell, the providence of God. Well, that's the second point. The third point I wanted to make was to apply this to the Persian Gulf and I'm going to do it. I'm watching the clock because I'm going to end up with Newman with Newman if it cost me my life. It might well do it.
What now I listen to a lot of the TV stuff on Thursday and I've been listening to it every night since because thing we are living through a terribly critical period, terribly critical. No one knows where all this will end. And there was a lot of good stuff, but the emphasis of all I saw around Thanksgiving was this. The interviews with the troops, interviews with people over here whose whose husbands and sons and lovers and so forth have gone over there. And then, as I count, two very quick flashes from chaplains addressing some of the troops over there.
There wasn't anything suggestive of what George Washington said in his proclamation for the first Thanksgiving Day. Nothing remotely like it. Nothing. Nothing. Everybody seems to be confused.
Everybody seems to think I mean, oh, I got that it was a senseless thing. We don't understand it, but we're here to do a job and by golly, we'll do it. That was not all said that, but a lot of the the men and women over there, did say it. We don't understand it. It doesn't seem right, seems senseless, we'd rather be home, but the thing is we'll do our duty.
Well, that's just fine. Why should you do your duty? Why? If that duty is gonna lead you into the face of a of a bullet that's gonna knock you out for take you away permanently from your family. Why?
There was not the suggestion of a rationale a rational attitude towards what's going on over there. It was all whether or not Bush is right or Bush is wrong or whether we ought to oh, you know, all this stuff. Taking Kuwait or not taking it and all the rest of it. And, of course, then Israel comes in with this little which is not a little thing at all. It comes in and everybody's confused.
But we're here. We'll do our job. That's what we that's what we invested for. Not all said that by no means, but that a lot of them did, and and and that's a lot to say. Don't you ever think it.
The people the a lot of the shocks of the people back here, they were they were kind of numb about it. See, a lot of these reservists never thought this was going to happen. It's really hit them, and they're completely bewildered. Completely. And it doesn't make there's no rhyme or reason to it, apparently, at least as they see it.
How unfortunate that these men and women, both those who have gone the thousands of miles eastward and those who are staying home and facing very difficulties. But I mean real grave difficulties. Some of them don't know where to get medicine for their kids. This is terribly real, and they don't see any rhyme or reason in it, and that's even worse. If there was one thing proved by the by the Hollick House about the the Auschwitz and those other can one thing was demonstrated, empirically demonstrated that men and women can suffer almost anything anything as long as they can make sense out of it, as long as they can accept it as being somehow reasonable.
And that's the message of god's providence. That's the faith we have as Christians in God Almighty, that he is running the show and that that show is under his control. And nothing is done in vain. Nothing is done in vain. Now I want to conclude with this excerpt from Newman, and this was a totally other sermon.
Newman says or he wrote, of course, he said it first, The principle under consideration is this. Now just notice how he analyzes it. This you ought to I would dearly love to be able to give you a copy of this to put on your refrigerator door because you've gotta think about this. Whereas god is one and his will is one and his purpose is one and his work is one, whereas all that god is and does is absolutely perfect and complete, independent of time and place, sovereign over creation, whether inanimate or living, that in his actual dealings with this world, in all in which we see his providence, and that man is imperfect, and man has a will of his own and lives in time and is it moved by circumstances, god seems to work by a process, by means and ends, by steps, by victories. Hardly, hardly notice that, hardly gained, and by failures repaired and sacrifices ventured.
Thus, it is only when we view his dispensations at a distance in time as angels do that we see their harmony and their unity. Whereas scripture, anticipating the end from the very beginning, places at their very head and first point of origination all that belongs to them respectfully in their fullness. I you don't get that by my reading it, but I assure you that sense that that says volumes. It says everything that we are imperfect. We are imperfect.
We have wills of our own. We are largely we are largely dominated, dominated. We're slaves mostly to circumstances. Nevertheless, we can rise above it. We can see with the light of loving faith, the light at the end of the tunnel as they say.
We can see it, and we can live on that confidence and persuasion that it is the light of God beckoning beckoning us on and on and on. If only and with confidence, with tranquility, with serenity, and with vigor with vigor. If only we can grasp the great truth of our existence that God loves me, I have a I have a work to do, I I God will help me to do it, that everything that happens makes sense under his domain, If I only will be stir myself to love god and to have faith in his promise. In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, amen.