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.