The Christmas List (Matthew 25:31-46)

Doomsday is coming.

That appears to be Ezekiel’s message.

I read through the whole book of Ezekiel this month, and most of it – the first 32 chapters – talk about the impending cataclysm.

It sounds like a prediction of the future. “The doom is coming.” The truth is that the doom had already come. The nations were in exile. Ezekiel himself was in exile. And Jerusalem had been ransacked.

That’s one thing you should understand about prophecy: it’s not so much predicting the future, as it is speaking truth. A prophet sees things as God sees things, and provides an interpretation for what is going on in the present.

For 32 chapters, Ezekiel describes the current situation, and how it is caused by the unfaithfulness of God’s people. At times Ezekiel describes fantastical visions of beasts and wheels spinning within wheels, to get his point across. At other times he uses vivid metaphors, comparing Israel and Judah to prostitutes, describing in, uh, great detail how they have been unfaithful.

Finally, in chapters 33 and 34, the mood starts to change.

A little.

First, Ezekiel says that God’s anger won’t last forever, that it’s never too late to turn back to God.

Hints of restoration start to appear.

But at the same time, Ezekiel reminds the people what got them into this mess in the first place:

He speaks to the shepherds – the leaders – of Israel. He says that their job is to care for the sheep, but they have only been caring for themselves. “You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak. You have not healed the sick. You have not bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strayed. You have not sought the lost.”

The metaphor then shifts slightly as Ezekiel describes God’s judgment: “As for you, my flock, the Lord God proclaims: I will judge between the rams and the bucks among the sheep and the goats. Is feeding in good pasture or drinking clear water such a trivial thing that you should trample and muddy what is left with your feet? But now my flock must feed on what your feet have trampled and drink water that your feet have muddied.”

Now maybe I didn’t read those first 32 chapters carefully enough, but here, finally, it seems clear what Israel has done wrong. Here, in chapter 34, it is very clear.

The people of Israel have only been concerned about what they could get for themselves. Especially those at the top; the people in charge, the leaders. They’ve only cared about their own interests, and not the interests of the people.

And because they have all the power, they have arranged the social and economic systems so that they could prosper.

So what if everyone else is suffering.

The poor masses: they shouldn’t rely on the leaders, anyway. They shouldn’t rely on the government. They should get a job.

Well, actually, most of them do have jobs. They’re working as hard as they can. And they are struggling.

In fact, they’re dying.

Perhaps Ezekiel was an inspiration for Jesus, because in the scripture we heard a few moments ago, Jesus sure sounds a lot like Ezekiel. In separating the sheep and the goats, Jesus shows how essential it is to care for everyone, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit those in prison, and welcome the stranger. The point can’t be any clearer than it is in that passage. We are to think of others and their needs, to care for others, and to share the wonderful abundance that God has given us. We are to make sure that those at the bottom are able to share in the abundance of creation.

Now, how do we do that?

Well, there are the obvious ways: give the hungry person a sandwich! Give the naked person some pants!

And through the church, we are doing just that. In the past year, we’ve collected shoes and blankets, we’ve cooked food for the homeless and handed out sack lunches, we’ve collected money to support Week of Compassion and other organizations and ministries that help those in need around the world.

We also need to call upon our leaders in government, and hold them accountable for how they treat those who are the most poor and vulnerable. That is exactly what Ezekiel did, speaking to the leaders, those in positions of power, the shepherds of the people.

But we also need to be held accountable ourselves. And perhaps, this week, the place to start is with our own Christmas lists.

The shopping season is upon us.

It begins (“officially”) even before the turkey and the pumpkin pie have settled into our stomachs, although I have heard reports of people who have already been camping out for weeks in front of a Best Buy just to be first in line when it opens on Black Friday…

Which really makes me think that Ezekiel and Jesus are asking us this question:

“What’s on your Christmas list?”

Christmas is a time of good news. “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of good news.” But who is the good news for? Who benefits from your Christmas list?

The biggest store chain in America is WalMart. Much of America’s Christmas shopping is done at WalMart. As a result, the Walton family is the richest family in America.

Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has coordinated the building of a beautiful art museum in the Ozarks of Arkansas, two miles down the road from WalMart headquarters. The New York Times quoted her as saying, “For years I’ve been thinking about what we could do as a family that could really make a difference.”

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg magazine article points out that Walmart employees make $8 an hour, most without benefits. Many of them rely on food stamps. Some employees, even though they work, find that the pay isn’t enough to afford housing, so they live in their cars in Walmart parking lots.

This raises an important question: if Alice Walton really wanted to do something with her family’s fortune that “makes a difference,” perhaps she could have used some of that money to provide better pay or benefits to her employees.

To the rich and powerful, the prophet says: “You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak. You have not healed the sick. You have not bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strayed. You have not sought the lost.”

To his followers, Jesus says: “I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink.  I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’”

OK. It’s easy to criticize and complain, isn’t it? We can trash talk people like Alice Walton all we want, but it’s probably not going to change a thing, is it?

So what can we do?

A friend of mine recently posted on facebook some thoughts that turn this issue around, and place the responsibility back with each of us. Darrell McGowan is a Disciples pastor who recently retired from being pastor at First Christian Church in Fullerton. He wrote:

“If you’re living in the U.S. and you think things need to change, mind your money. In a capitalistic culture, the consumer drives everything. If we all made sure our expenditures reflected our values, we’d be amazed at how much our world improved!”

Darrell is right on.

He also added that “If you complain about corporations that treat their people poorly and you still shop there, you’re a hypocrite.”

The responsibility doesn’t belong solely to people like Alice Walton. Yes, we need to hold our leaders and our billionaires accountable. But the responsibility also belongs to each and every one of us. After all, the Walton family fortune was made possible by every decision of every person who chooses to shop there.

Which brings me to an important point: How you spend your money, and where you spend your money, is always a moral decision.

Every time you spend your money at Walmart, you are choosing to support Alice Walton and her family’s decisions on what America needs and how we should or should not “make a difference” in the world.

Remember, Christmas is about good news of great joy for all people. How you spend your money at Christmas has the power to bring good news to many, or good news to a few; it has the power to bring good news to those who already have a disproportionate amount of the earth’s wealth, or good news to those who desperately need some good news in their life.

I’m not saying that every dollar you spend between now and Christmas needs to be given away to charity. There are many ways you can take a step away from feeding the already fat sheep with your money, and take a step toward making the world a better place with your purchases.

1. Learn which companies treat their employees well. Winco and Costco both treat their employees well, and their prices are comparable to Walmart’s. In-n-Out treats their employees better than McDonald’s. Those are easy decisions to make.

2. Shop locally-owned small businesses. When you shop locally, your money goes into the pockets of your neighbors, people who live in the same community as you, who send their kids to the same schools your kids go to. The local economy is supported, and the community is healthier, when you shop locally. That’s much better than shopping at a giant corporate store, where much of your money just contributes to a CEO’s personal fortune.

3. Consider which gifts have the most meaning. I have found that while a new sweater may be nice, having a friend treat me out to dinner, or even host me for a homemade dinner in his or her home, is much more meaningful.

4. You can, of course, make a contribution to a charitable organization on someone’s behalf. Just make sure it is an organization that is dear to the recipient’s heart.

5. Finally: be thankful. Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite holidays, but it really irks me that so many spend the day of giving thanks by planning and plotting their shopping strategy. Be sure to truly give thanks, before you start worrying about all the stuff you want that you don’t currently have. Don’t let your thanksgiving prayer be, “God, thank you for everything, but I gotta cut this prayer short because there’s a whole bunch of stuff that I really want and the stores have everything on sale.”

No, no, no. Be thankful. Be truly grateful. For one day at least, let all your thoughts be thoughts of gratitude for what you have. For one day at least, stop focusing on what you don’t have.

If there is any good news to be found in this crazy circus that Christmas has become, that’s where it will come from. The Christmas ads have been running for a month now, and people complain that they start too early. Well, the way to fight back is to be grateful for what you have.

Gratitude is a truly revolutionary attitude these days. The advertisers don’t want you to be grateful. They want you to be dissatisfied with what you have, so that you’ll buy more.

So be thankful. Truly thankful. Consider how good life is. I’m not saying that life is perfect or without struggle. But life is good. God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good.