The last time we chose to center a series on the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew was in 2020: “There Is Now,” https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/there-is-now. The pandemic was the backdrop to these stories, placing them in the context of urgency and immediacy. We have returned to this powerful chapter because we are in crisis again.
We name the crisis in different ways, but ultimately, it is an identity crisis. Who are we? What does it mean to be Christian? How do we stand against the misrepresentations of our faith by people of power and position in our society? Can we be citizens of a nation? Can we be patriots and also citizens of a kingdom and kin-dom of heaven? But for our purposes, what if we bring all these questions to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew? While it is usually understood to be about eternity, a second reading might offer insight into living in this moment with integrity and hope, all the while longing for the world to come. The only way we can begin to do that is to claim a vision. So, we say to one another, as Jesus said to us, “It will be like this.”
