Dolly and Naji

​Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
The Feast of Christ the King, Year A
November 22, 2020
 
It all started with as car accident in 2013. Dolly Parton, of country music fame, had been in a fender bender, and out of an abundance of caution, she went to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to be evaluated.  Her injuries were not serious, but she did need a surgical consult in case there were internal injuries.
 
Her doctor was a man named Naji Abumrad, professor of surgery at the prestigious research hospital.  Dolly being Dolly chatted up her doctor.  By all appearances, they had little in common, but in getting to know one another they found real common ground.  Dr. Abumrad is a Lebanese immigrant from a remote and very poor mountain village.  Immediately, Dolly identified.  She grew up poor in a remote mountain community too.  They both had large families.  They both had found success in their respective fields.  They both had deep gratitude for what they had been able to accomplish from their humble beginnings.  They both had a heart for helping others.
 
Dolly being Dolly kept up with her new friend, asking about his work and taking an interest in his scientific research.  In April of this year, just after the big COVID lockdown, Dolly asked Dr. Abumrad about what research that could be done to find a vaccine.  He told her about Vanderbilt’s partnership with Moderna and promising work in some initial stages for a vaccine.  Without even being asked, Dolly made a gift of one million dollars in honor of Dr. Naji Abumrad.
 
To be clear, a million dollars is not nearly enough to fund such a massive and emergent effort, but her gift got the project off the ground and as it did, they drew attention and were able to secure gifts and grants of many more millions.  This past week, Moderna announced that their trials had yielded a 95% effectiveness rate.  What started through an unlikely friendship led to a vaccine with the potential of saving millions of lives and helping us all regain opportunity to be together.  If all goes as well as we hope, plans are already in the works to begin rolling out the vaccine in early 2021.  This is a great story and a great gift to humanity.  It all came from a human-to-human connection about the experience of poverty and the opportunities of generosity.
 
Today we celebrate the last Sunday of our Church year.  Advent begins next Sunday.  On this occasion that we call the Feast of Christ the King, we are put in mind of the primacy of Jesus way of love that rises above all earthly constructs of power and control.  And the lessons we read for this day, we are invited to turn our perspective of power inside out and upside down. 
 
In gathering his disciples for one of their last meetings, Jesus reminds them and us that the highest and best acts we can do out of love for God is to help one another.  The disciples have been angling for places of privilege in the coming Kingdom of God, but Jesus challenges them to bring about the Kingdom of God in the here and now.  Doing so does not happen through flashy displays of wealth and influence, rather doing do comes through serving God in serving people in need.
 
The pastoral metaphor Jesus employs is separating the sheep and the goats.  Sheep are well known to his folks.  They are sources of clothing and food.  They are low maintenance creatures that feed on grasses and cause very little trouble.  They may not be the brightest of beasts, but they are gentle and easy to tend.  Goats, on the other hand, are more ravenous and combative.  They consume everything in sight, pulling up plants be the roots and laying waste to pastures.  They need to be corralled and limited in number to protect precious grazing land.  When Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats to bring about the reign of God, the people know exactly what he means. 
 
The story is not so much about damning the goats to eternal fire as it is helping us to remember to channel our inner sheepness and put away our tendency toward goatness.  This reign of God that folks seem to put off as some apocalyptic event is meant to break into the here and now.  We do not care for the least and the lost in order to gain favor with God as much as we care for the least and the lost because of the favor God has already shown to us.  We are not about dominance.  We are about humble service.
 
On this Christ the King Sunday, we do our formal ingathering of pledges for the work of God through Emmanuel Church in the coming year.  You all are really generous folks, even in an uncertain time.  If you have yet to pledge, please do so that we might plan and budget appropriately for 2021.  It will be a year when healing and hope will come together and it will be a year of restoration and revival even if it is gradual. 
 
We give of our treasure, our time, and our abilities not because it will gain us more favor with God.  We give because we are grateful and we are gifted and we are all in this world together for God.  Early in my ministry, one of my mentors had me look at the list of the most generous givers in the parish relative to their abilities.  He wanted me to see that list to teach me that those were the most engaged, active, and joyful folks in our community.  The grumblers, as he called them, kind of remained on the fringes of our community and rarely gave much at all.  I will never forget that lesson.  In this parish, I do not look at who gives how much, but generosity of spirit abounds here.  I know that first hand.  Thank you and thank God.  Emmanuel lives into its name:  God with us.  The Kingdom of God is not far off or some futuristic reckoning.  The kingdom of God is here and now.
 
I believe this because holiness happens.  What started with a car accident in 2013 resulted in a friendship and unlikely kinship between Dolly Parton and Naji Abumrad.  From that, love gave way to generosity, which gave way to opportunity, which gave way to help and healing for who knows how many.  They did not do it all, they simply played their role in the helping the reign of God thrive.  They took what they had and what they knew and leveraged all of it for good.  Seriously, Dolly Parton has plenty of money, but she does not have as much as she could have because she gives lots and lots of it to serve others.
 
Love in action works this way.  It multiplies.  We do not have to have hit songs or medical brilliance.  We do not have to have great wealth or enjoy positions of high esteem. We do not have to be perfectly pious or completely put together.  All Jesus asks is that we are willing, that we are available, that we are creative, and that we are grateful.  Even as we do small things with great love, God does great things through the likes of us.  Amen.