Christ the King
Proper 29 C
Transcribed from a sermon
given in 2013
At St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church
By Rev. Valerie Ann
Hart
Luke 23:33-43
Today we celebrate Christ the
King. As I said at the beginning of the service, it is the last day of our
year. It is the completion of the whole story of Christ from his anticipation
of Advent, his incarnation in Christmas, his work on earth during Epiphany, his
journey to Jerusalem during Lent, his death and resurrection with Easter, his
sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to his follower’s ministry in the
world which is celebrated during this long green season we have just completed
when Pentecost is past people of Christ are on earth. On this last Sunday we
celebrate Christ the King, the promise of the coming Kingdom of God. Today is the
conclusion the finale.
But what kind of a king, what kind
of a king are we celebrating. Throughout history a king has been the person
with the most power, the strongest with the most followers. As kids you may
have played king of the hill. You know, when one strong kid gets up on top of
the hill and the other kids try to get up there and push him down. The king is
the one who is the strongest. And throughout history the king of any country
was the one who had the most armies and was strong enough and rich enough to be
able to manipulate people well enough to have power. If somebody else came
along and had more power, he would push him out and become king.
But what kind of a king is Jesus?
On Christ the King Sunday the image that we read about of Jesus is him hanging
on a cross and dying. It is when people are saying that if you are a king, if
you are so great, if you are the messiah, get yourself down yet he chooses not
to. What kind of a king gives up his power? What kind of a king does not use
his power at the time when it is most needed? What kind of a king lets himself
be crucified? That is the question for all of us. The answer is that he is
different kind of king, a servant king, a king who didn’t come for himself, a
who didn’t come to rule, but came for all the people. It is a very different
sense of what a king is.
We read today about this poignant
experience of Christ on the cross being mocked and humiliated and no one
recognizing who he really is. Pilate put up the sign King of the Jews to mock
him. The religious leaders don’t recognize who he is, and thy make fun of him.
But there is one person there, the person who we are least likely to think
would have a deep theological understand, one of the others who are being
crucified with him, who recognizes who he is and what it means. Realizing that
Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, but is something more he is able to say
to him, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” A powerful,
powerful line. “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He didn’t
ask for anything in particular, just don’t forget me. And what is really
amazing is that if you look carefully through scripture there is only one person
in the New Testament, in all the Gospels, who is promised to be in heaven with
Christ. It is that criminal dying on the cross. And it wasn’t because he said
some particular statement of faith. It wasn’t because he had been baptized. It
wasn’t because he had gone to church. It wasn’t because he was a particularly
good person. He just recognized Jesus and asked him to remember him. And Jesus
promises that he will be in paradise with him that day. What a promise. Jesus
remember me.
So what does this have to do with
us who have been told of who Jesus is, who have been promised of what Christ’s
kingdom is, who know the creeds and all of that stuff? What does this have to
do with us? We don’t need to ask Jesus to remember us, he can’t forget us.
Those of us who have been baptized are told that we are marked as Christ’s own
forever. Baptism establishes a relationship with Christ that does not end.
Christ is not capable of forgetting us. On the other hand, we are quite capable
of forgetting Christ. So for us it is not to ask Jesus remember me, it might
well be Jesus asking us, “Friend, will you remember me when you go about your
daily business?” Will we remember him? Do we remember Christ when we wake up in
the morning and take a breath and realize that we are alive for another day,
when we see the sun rise and the earth alive? Do we remember Christ when we
have that cup of coffee or tea that has that unique drug called caffeine in it
that was a gift from God that comes from plants? Do we remember Christ when we
eat or breakfast or brunch or lunch? Do we remember Christ when we drive to
work or wherever it is that we go during the day? And when we are cut off by
somebody on the road do we remember Christ or do we just say “Oh, God!” Do we
really remember Christ when we are hurt by someone we love, by a child or a
parent or a sibling or a spouse? Do we remember Christ forgiving the soldiers
at the cross when we are feeling hurt and angry and resentful? Do we remember
Christ when we sit down and we are paying our bills? Do we remember Christ when
we think about our finances? Do we remember him when we thinking about how we
are going to spend our day? Do we remember him? That is the question for us
today.
This past week has been the
fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK. I’m sure if you turned the TV
on once during the week you have realized that because there have been so many
specials remembering him. When I think about JFK and the wonderful quotes from
him, the one that I can’t forget is when he said “Ask not what your country can
do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It is a profound statement
of what is important. In many ways since JFK we’ve gotten even more of a
consumer society. We have gotten even more into a society that asks what is in
it for me. Whether it be the tax code or a new law or health care or a new
store we might go to. Is that store going to be the best for me? Does it have
the best parking, the best prices? What is in it for me?
One of the conversations that
church leaders have been having for the last ten or fifteen year, is: How are
we as churches to be in a consumer society? Less and less people chose a
particular church because that is how were raised so that is their
denomination. More and more they pick a church that satisfies their needs. Is
it a church that has good parking? Is it a church that is near my home? Do I
like the people there? Does it have the kind of classes I want to take? Is the
service short enough, or long enough? Is the preaching what I like to hear? Is
the music my kind of music? Does it satisfy me? And that is the consumer
mentality. The danger is that we start saying that about Christ or the Church.
You do sometimes get that sense
that people are going to church and being in relationship with Christ because
of what Christ can do for them. Obviously being in relationship with Christ is
the best thing that we can possible do for ourselves. It brings us peace and
joy and meaning and purpose and it helps us at the tough times. We go to him
for healing. That is all absolutely right, but that is not all of it. There are
times when we desperately need Christ’s help. But there are times when Christ
needs us. It is a relationship. It is a friendship. And any friendship where
you just go to the other person and ask for help is not a friendship anymore.
We also need to ask what can we do for Christ. Not just what Christ can do for
us. And what can we do for Christ’s church, not just what the church can do for
us.
On those days when we are feeling lost and alone,
and we come to church, and we so need to feel God’s love, we feel God’s love
not just through the service but by the other people around us, by the welcome
at peace, by the sense of a community gathered together. If the only people who
came to church on a Sunday morning were the ones who were hurting there would
be nobody there to help them. So we need to ask not just what Christ and the Church
can do for us, but what we can do for the church and for Christ? We need to ask
what we can do to help to bring in Christ’s kingdom.
The other thing that I remember
from JFK is his challenge to the country to have a person on the moon within a
decade. Looking back, it might not seem as dramatic as it was, but at the time
it wasn’t even known if it would be possible. It was a big audacious goal. It
was a challenge It was a challenge that took money, time, effort, and everybody
coming together and working on it. Out of it not only did we get a person
standing on the moon but more importantly we got the miniaturization of computers
and we have satellites that we can use for our GPS. If we hadn’t had the work
to get to the moon do you think we would have a cell phone whose computer is
larger, has more computing ability, than the great big room sized computers did
fifty years ago? Teflon and a whole bunch of other things that inform our lives
were secondary effects of this great audacious goal.
It has been a long time since a
leader in our country has had a goal like that, that has challenged the country
to come together for that. But those kind of goals can be important to a
community. St Barnabas is right at the edge of a change. I’m only going to be
your rector for two more months and then there will be a person, an interim, a
priest who will be here to help as the community comes together to figure out
where do you go from here. Who do you want to hire as your rector? What direction
do you want to go? St. Barnabas is in a really good place to have a big
audacious goal. This is a community that is healthy. It is not broken apart. It
is working together. We have wonderful, generous, loving, caring people. We
have brilliant people giving talks on philosophy. We have people with hearts
that give to the homeless. We have singers that share their gifts. St.
Barnabas, with God’s help can do just about anything. I would like to encourage
and challenge this community to as you think about the future think big. Think
about what this community can do to help bring in the reign of God. Think of
how you can share Christ’s love with the thousands of people who live in this
are. Think of what kind of a difference this church can make. Have a goal like
having a person on the moon that is worthy of the people who are here. And
through it all each and every day remember Christ. Remember Christ’s kingdom,
and remember that now that you know of Christ’s love your responsibility is to
share it with others.
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