Christ the King Sunday

Sermon delivered at Grace UMC on November 24, 2013

Christ the King Sunday

Jeremiah 23:1-6 (NIV)

(1) “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.

(2) Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord.

(3) “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.

(4) I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

(5) “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

(6) In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.”

Colossians 1:11-20

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled[a] you[b] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.[c]

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in[d] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in[e] him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Luke 23:33-43

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus[a] there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”]][b] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah[c] of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him,[d] “This is the King of the Jews.”

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding[e] him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah?[f] Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into[g] your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

This week has been quite an emotional enterprise for many people. In fact, as I began preparing for the sermon earlier on in the week, it became apparent that I had to really wait until later on in this week to find the right words to speak today. This is a week that has had some major remembrances and some major occurrences. While it may be tempting to not bring to mind some things that have happened this week, I know it would not be responsible if I were to just ignore them, no matter how hard they may be to talk about.

Some of the events this week are remembered by some of you because you lived through them. The assassination of President Kennedy is one of those “key” moments that, for those who lived through it, stay burned in your memory and you can recall exactly what you were doing that day, 50 years ago. My mother, I know, was in 2nd grade and she can tell me exactly what transpired that day for her. My father, in much the same was was just shy of 15 years old. Much like September 11 for those of my generation, it is a day that remains imprinted on our psyches, etched forever into the memory of our lives in a way that brings us to remember, to recollect, to feel a connection between then and now. It is part of who we are, no matter how close or how far we may have been from the actual event.

No one here was alive that day 150 years ago this week when President Lincoln spoke those famous words just a short drive away from where we sit this morning. We have no actual recollection of that day, but the words spoken, the emotions that war bring to mind, the idea that we are to honor those who sacrifice for the greater good, all of that stays with us. We have heard those words dozens if not hundreds of times. I remember in the fifth grade, when each kid in my class had to memorize that speech and stand in front of the class and recite it. I don’t know if they make kids do that anymore, but I hope they do. Especially in our world that is increasingly electronic, there is a lot to be learned from forcing ourselves to test the limits of our own memory, of our own abilities, to participate, even in a minimal way, with the events of our collective past. It helps us to tie together the past and the present, and in a way, helps us go from that past through that present and into that future which awaits us all.

We may know what Lincoln looked like from the various paintings and some of the photographs we have of him. We know that Kennedy looked like, we know what he sounded like. In the US, we don’t have kings, we have no one that, by right of birth or ancestry is chosen to lead the country as its ruler. To some extent, the closest examples we have of this is Lincoln and Kennedy. Not because they wanted that distinction, but because their legacy left such a lasting effect on the country that their lives speak to more than just their relatively short time in politics and their relatively short lives, both ending violently as the result of a hatred for difference and a fear of the change that comes from people standing up and saying to the powers that be, “No more will we stand for that which is wrong, no more will we wait by while others are denied their humanity because of distinction that humans make or because of how they were born, what color their skin may be or property rules that are not in line with the better angels of our nature, the better ideals that our faith represents.”

This week we also heard of the church trial of a member of our own denomination, again a small drive down the road for an act that he undertook. We may or may not agree with his action, and it technically may be against “church law”, yet what we must also understand that he acted according to a conviction that his faith brought him. We don’t always agree with how others interpret faith, especially if they interpret it differently than we do. I do not intend to stand here this morning and defend the actions of this particular member of the clergy, nor to I intend to stand here and rail against his action as being “unchristian.” My point is merely that, at no point in history have we all agreed on issues of doctrine or dogma. Expecting us to all agree at this stage in the development of Christ’s church is both unrealistic and downright dangerous. Doing so brings us to a point where we use the lesser angels of our nature while claiming a righteousness that in reality is nothing more than blind rancor.

Today is the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday we will gather together to celebrate, once again, that magical season of Advent and over the next couple of weeks, we will gather to celebrate the awaited arrival of that holy Baby, the Christ Child, who came incarnate into our world. We celebrate the arrival of a God who loves us so much that he came to us himself, incarnate, because it was the only way for us to truly believe and fathom and understand how very much we are loved by that God himself. Yet, today the church year ends. So, how do we tie together the end of one church year and the beginning of the next? The great thing about the church calendar is that it is, in a certain way, circular. We end where we begin. Christ, the King. Maybe it is not the best image to use in reference to Jesus Christ. We call him a King because that is the image used historically. Yet, it is not an image that speaks to us the way it may have spoken to those early saints of the church.

So why am I trying to say that an image that worked for the church for thousands of years may not be the best image for us? Simple, the idea or image that comes to mind when we think of a King is a person who is separate, higher, aloof, and many times ignorant of the needs of the inhabitants of the Kingdom. We do have royalty in our world. Not only do we have royalty, we still hold them in very high regard. Even here in the US, where we stand for independence and democracy, we still look on royalty with an infatuation that doesn’t match up with our rhetoric. We are amazed at the weddings of the royals of the British Crown, the birth of their babies, the downfalls of their morality. Just about every little girl, my own daughter included, dreams of being a princess, or honestly believe that they truly are. Yet, we will stand on the corner and argue for hours about how a love for royalty will be the downfall of any modern republic.

Even here, the Kennedy family has been called, more than once, as America’s Royal Family. We know their travails, the ups and downs of their lives. We rejoice at the births of their babies and we cry along when one of them suffers tragedy. Yet, comparing Christ to this is not an image that really makes sense for our time and place. Christ is the King in the sense that, as God, there is nothing that isn’t under His control, His power, His presence. Yet, Christ is not the King in the sense that He is in it for his own gain, his own ends, his own thirst for power. We know this because His power came about in a very different way. It came about by being born, not in a palace with the best linens and servants to take care of every need, but in a stable, in a cave on the outskirts of a city, surrounded by his earthly parents as well as cows, donkeys, and maybe some random chickens clucking around. And it ended, at least in the earthly sense, not on a bed of gold surrounded by his riches and admirers, but rather, nailed on a cross, hung high for all to see, as those few who knew and loved him gathered together on the ground before him, weeping at the loss of this, their leader, their friend, a member of their family. This is not the birth or death we would expect from a King.

But, it is the birth and death of the one who proves that we are all God’s children and that God loves us so much that he is willing to intervene in the world in a way that we can understand, in a way that tells us that we can participate with this King in service, in sacrifice and in love for each and every other child of God that we encounter. That is the good news today. That despite our disagreements, despite the divisions present in this life, despite the hatred and anger and violence that we allow to infiltrate our lives, God is there with us. He is there with us because he loves us, because he wants us to claim the identity that he has given each and every one of us. God is real, that is the message today. God is real. God is real in a way that helps us through those difficult moments, through those difficult days in our lives. God is real and God is there. I would like to close with a story that, I think, speaks volumes to seeing God, to understanding God, and to trusting God as we should. This is what it looks like when we allow ourselves to not only to gather together to worship Him weekly, but we allow ourselves to experience this king in our world, in our struggle and through our difficulties.

Many of you have heard the name Frank Deford. He is a columnist for Newsweek and he is a sports and culture commentator on National Public Radio. He has also written a number of books, most of which are about sports, but not all. This is a story that he tells in one of his books, called, “The Life of a Child.”

Deford writes, “My daughter, Alexandria, died of cystic fibrosis when she was just eight years old. I know it helped all of us that we believed that Jesus was going to be there where she was going. That mattered. It’s all very grand - and spiritual - to expound something like Alex would be with God, but that is something hard to grasp.

But Jesus, whatever his parentage, had been a person, one of us. If we didn’t know for sure what He looks like, if He really wasn’t tall and slim and sandy-haired and blue-eyed, the way the great artists would have him, at least we have grown familiar with WHO the man is. You could deal with Jesus the way you finally meet someone who you’ve talked to a lot on the phone. You may be surprised at your phone friend’s appearance, but you KNOW that person, so looks are incidental.

You see, when a child dies - when Alex died - she has a special problem. The child is not just leaving one place for another. She is going to be alone in that new place. In fact, when Alex died it was going to be the first time she’d ever been alone. That was why Jesus meant so much to her - and to all of us - her parents and her brother, too.

An hour or so before she died, when she knew the end was close, she suddenly said, ‘Which way do I go?’ Maybe she just meant something simple like, ‘What’s the best place to turn my head now?’ But we had been talking about heaven, and I took some kind of deeper meaning. So I replied, ‘Any way you and God think is best, Alex.’

But, with what little energy was left to her, right away, she wanted a clarification. ‘And Jesus too, Daddy?’ she asked. Urgently.

She knew Jesus, and if He were there, she was comfortable that she would be taken care of.

After that, the abstraction of Jesus, the Son of God, the Jesus Saves and all that, was crystallized for me into something much more vivid. Even now, I see Him there to welcome Alex, to show her the ropes in this new place and to make sure she felt at home.”(Sullivan, et al., 1996)

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Sullivan, Robert, and Frank Deford. "He Is All Things to All Men." 1996. Who Do You Say That I Am?: Reflections on Jesus in Our World Today. New York: Macmillan USA, 1996. 100-01. Print.

As part of my studies in seminary, I have to take preaching classes, of course, it is school for preaching after all. The following was written for a class and then was given at Grace UMC in York on November 17, 2013. 

Romans 10:5-15 (NRSV)

(5) Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them”

(6) But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)

(7) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

(8) but what does it say? “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

(9) because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

(10) For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

(11) The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”

(12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.

(13) For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

(14) But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?

(15) And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

If you ever have the chance, I encourage you to take a trip to the small Central American country of Nicaragua. Despite what you may think of this backwater, impoverished country and its complicated and difficult past, the truth is that if your heart and your mind are open, you will see some of the most amazing things you could imagine. Let me set the scene. You arrive at the airport in Managua, and after a day or so adjusting to the tropical heat and amazing cuisine, you head off to towards the thing that you have really come to see. If you are lucky you can catch a bus. Now, this bus will probably be way too full, you might have to share a seat with three or four other people, if you can find one at all. There’s even a chance that sitting next to you is a cage with two or three live chickens. Don’t be too alarmed, this is very much to be expected, just keep an open mind.

If you travel northwest of Managua a few hours, you will eventually get to an intersection with not much there except the highway and a gravel road leading up into the mountains. If you have called first, someone can be there to meet you. They will put you in the cart that is attached to the tractor and they will begin the ascent. Enjoy the ride, travelling like this up through the mountains, you will be blessed with amazing views of this tropical rainforest. After forty minutes or so, you will arrive at the top, past many of the clouds. When you get off the cart, you can walk around this small little hamlet. There is not much here. About half a dozen houses, a few barns, and one main community building. Everything else is just forest for as far as you can see. It is likely that some children from the community will come out to greet you. They will want to play games, they may ask you for some candy, and they will take to you to the main building where you can meet with the adults in charge. You see, this isn’t any old backwater village. You are standing in one of the most amazing coffee plantations you will ever see.

Now, coffee plantations may be a dime a dozen in places like Nicaragua, but this one is different. The entire plantation works together to get the job done. Every person has a job. Some tend the fields, some prepare the meals, some teach the children, some serve as doctors or nurses or even clergy. But there is more. This particular plantation is made up of three different types of people. In the seventies and eighties, Nicaragua was in a constant state of war. I don’t want to go into details, but in this civil war there were really three separate factions. First, there were the Sandinistas, the revolutionaries. They were fighting the government’s forces, the National Guard, who in many ways served as the dictators death squads. Lastly, there were the Contras, or the counterrevolutionaries. These were mainly impoverished rural dwellers who were supported in funds and weapons from the US and other western powers who were, for right or for wrong, fighting the threat of communism. These three factions were in an all out war and would kill on sight. After the war, though, things had to change. This particular coffee plantation was an experiment. Equal numbers of families from each of the three factions began this enterprise shortly after the war ended. To this day, they live and work in peace with each other and, despite pitfalls and setbacks, they have become a success story. What is it that has enabled them to literally trade swords for plowshares? Their faith.

The scripture that I read this morning, is likely one of the most eloquent that Saint Paul ever wrote. Many theologians count the epistle to the Romans as the most theologically pure and well written of any that we have. And there are any number of different approaches to take when considering Paul’s words today. However, I want to focus one one main idea that I think speaks volumes about the larger point Paul is making. He mentions it right at the beginning of the reading. Paul makes an important distinction. There is a big difference, he says, between righteousness that comes from the law and righteousness that comes from faith.

He is not saying that the law is irrelevant, but that it is not all that we make of it. He is making a distinction that is both a recognition of the past as well as an invitation to the future. The law had been THE way to live righteously. Just in this short passage there are a number of references to the Torah. The law has served a purpose and that is to be recognized. Theologian Bruce Shields argues that “the law is a helpful guide to living in the will of God, as long as we do not demand more of it than God intended. It is not a way to earn God’s favor. God already loves us. It is not a way to work toward justification. In the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has already done all that is necessary for our justification.” (Shields, p.63-64)

To some extent, it is hard for us to really understand just what Paul is saying here. Think about it, Paul is writing this at a time and place when there is no real common understanding of the difference between what we call the Old and New Testament. Before Christ, righteousness is through the law. But for Paul, that wasn’t so long ago. So, while there was an understanding that Christ changed that, it is not something that is taken for granted. But, for us it is. Especially, here in 2013, most people will have heard that we are justified by faith. Especially people who are in church. We have heard it our whole lives and our parents heard it their whole lives and our grandparents and so on and so forth. Granted, those unfamiliar with church might not have heard it, but many of those will have some basic knowledge of it. So when we read these words, we need to be cognizant of the fact that we are reading it and interpreting it in a context that is very different from the one Paul wrote in.

But then again, maybe it isn’t so different. We know that we are justified by faith, but in our practice, we act as if we are justified by the law. We read the Bible and we understand it to say one thing or to say another and from that point on, we just parade around with an air of superiority, knowing that we are right. We read scripture and are quick to point out how others have been lax in their own lives. We see it all the time, even if we don’t recognize it. We see certain ideologies, certain behaviors, certain lifestyles and can immediately point to chapter and verse to back up our belief that the particular individual isn’t following the laws of God. Unfortunately, this isn’t a trait common to one brand of people, it is one that we all are guilty of.

Over the past couple of years working in the church, I am amazed at how blatant this becomes sometimes, especially when I do it. I, and others here, can beg and plead with this congregation to open up, to not only be welcoming to the community around us, but to venture out into the neighborhood, introduce yourselves, and invite people in. Yet, when it doesn’t happen, I have to imagine that the whispering begins. I can’t go out there, the neighborhood is full of addicts, it is full of drug dealers, it is full of those people on welfare who won’t go and get a job and be respectable. There are those who flaunt around their sexuality as if God is ok with what they are doing. And, even worse, there are democrats all over the place. They certainly can’t be righteous because I am and they are nothing like me.

Yet, even when I hear these things, and I do, and they bother me, I find myself or others saying equally judgmental things. I know I tend to complain about those who care only for their own needs and act as if the world would be a better place if everyone was just more independent, because I disagree. I am dismayed that so many conservatives can honestly think they are right with God. Because, deep down, I know I am right and those who are different just can’t be right with God.

See where I am going with this? You see, I am not trying to condemn but rather to show how we all tend to condemn before we praise. I have tried to be honest here, about my own faults, and they are many. Hopefully you all can see a bit of yourselves in some of this, because I think we all can. And yet, we read these words from Paul, we say that we are saved by our faith and our faith alone and then we wonder why people say the church, any church, all churches are full of hypocrites.

So, what does it look like to both believe and live in the understanding that we are righteous by faith? What does it look like to do exactly what Paul is suggesting here?

It looks like the coffee cooperative that I described earlier. People able to get over some very difficult pasts and work together into the invitation they have gotten to their future. It looks like an apology given to that person you misjudged. It looks like that group of friends at the restaurant who meet every week and argue over their different politics, but each week a different person picks up the check and they all walk out together looking forward to their next meal together. It looks like every member of this church, looking past what we think we see in those around us to be able to see the heart and mind and very hands of Christ himself as we greet one another, as we worship together, as we pray for each other and as we serve together.

We, the church, have a herculean task in front of us. We are called to be the light for a world full of darkness. We are called to bring the good news to the world. We are supposed to be those who Paul describes as having beautiful feet. Our task is not to bemoan, to complain, to belittle, to ostracize, to judge. Yet we all do each of these things far too often.

Our task is not to enrich ourselves, or to ensure that our futures are comfortable. We gather together weekly, sometimes more often and go on and on about what it means that we can’t earn salvation. We take pride in knowing that we are God’s even before we know who we are. We evangelize, convincing others that our faith is simple and easy. We say our prayers and expect God to do the rest. Because, we convince ourselves, if all we must do is accept the truth, that God will take over. The thing is, even though all of that is true, it will work only when we let ourselves be open to God working through that faith to change the world. And we can’t truly be open to letting God work through us if we can’t see the good, the divine spark in the eyes of so many around us. God promises lots of things, but he never promises it will be easy. If anything, he lets us know it will be very, very difficult. But if we do the work, if we are open to seeing the Risen Christ in each others eyes and in the lives of all of those we encounter, then God’s will can be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

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Shields, B. (2004). Preaching Romans. (pp. 65-66). St. Louis: Chalice Press.