11.20.22 "Christ the King Sunday" - a Nine Act Play

 Jeremiah 23.1-6; Luke 23.33-43

Christ the King Sunday: A Nine Act Play

1. The Skull

Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the year … not the calendar year, but the Church Year … it all began last year, with the Four Sundays of Advent … and next week Sunday, we begin all over again, with the Four Sundays of Advent, taking us into Christmas, the birth of Jesus.

Today, the crucifixion of Jesus … a strange way to celebrate Christ the King Sunday. 

A way of saying: Life can be hard … sometimes really hard.

It takes effort to do good, to choose mercy, to uphold the best of human instincts, to say no to the worst … it takes effort to be true to God, self, others … it can be hard, sometimes very hard.

What plays out here is power … two kinds of power … two kingdoms; one of Caesar, the other of Christ … one, an empire of love … the other an empire of crosses … crosses raised on hills and byways all across the empire - thousands of crosses, to remind everyone who’s in charge, who’s boss, who holds the reigns of power.

Jesus dies at a place where others have died, and many more in subsequent years … a public execution, a Jim Crow lynching, to terrify, intimidate … on a small prominence half a mile outside of town, “a hill of death and dead bones,” with two others deemed a threat to Rome … Jesus dies here … the ultimate surrender of God to the power of sin, to bring about the power of love … a place, called The Skull.

2. Jesus Speaks

It all stops here … there is no revenge, no armed effort to overthrow the powers … Jesus is clear: about non-violence … a philosophy that inspired Gandhi of India, and Martin Luther King, Jr. … 

Jesus lays before the Father in heaven a plea that those responsible for his death be forgiven because they haven’t a clue what they’re really doing … maybe that’s true of us, too, most of the time … in our way, as the spiritual puts it, we were there when they crucified our LORD.

In these words, Jesus clears the playing field … a fresh start.

The authorities would have loved to hear him rant and rail … scream and shout … as Emperor Palpatine says to Luke about the Dark Side, “Let the hate flow through you.”

Jesus says No! 

In the Garden scene, Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away. 

This is strength, of the highest kind … Jesus conquers the worst by giving to the world the very best. God is not a God of vengeance and punishment, but a God of grace, mercy, and peace. Father, forgive them!

3. Soldiers Cast Lots

There’s a sadness here in all of this … occupation soldiers … bored to tears, glad for a little diversion … a decent piece of clothing … roll the dice … winner takes all.

Occupation soldiers … how many wars had they fought … how many battles, won and lost, and won anew … here they are, in one of the more troubled regions of the Empire … a client state, but still a trouble-spot … resistance fighters popping up all over the place … the call goes out to the command post, the soldiers put on their battle gear, set out to pursue and capture.

There’ve been some theories offered that Jesus didn’t really die, but merely fainted. 

When he was buried, he revived. 

But this much must be said: Rome was a killing machine … the soldiers knew what they were doing - how many times had they done this? … and here they are, wagering over a decent piece of clothing … what else to do until their victims are dead? 

Jesus, believe me, didn’t faint; Rome knew how to kill people. Death here, and everywhere is real!

4. Mockery

We mock what we don’t understand … we mock those whom we deem inferior to us … we mock that which unsettles us… 

Mockery is a form bullying … the bully bullies only when the bully feels safe, when the victim is helpless …  

The leaders scoff, the soldiers mock - all of them victims of the Roman Empire … leaders govern at the pleasure of Pilate and his armies; soldiers are under orders… mockery is their own version of power.

The soldiers offer cheap wine - it was likely there to slake their own thirst - putting it on a sponge at the end of a pole, was, perhaps, an act of some kindness? … or, maybe, just to prolong his pain, torment him a bit more. Wine for the king. Mockery is an ugly business.

5. The Sign

The King of the Jews … some ancient texts tell us the sign was written in three language, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew … to be sure that everyone understood.

Here is a pretender to the throne … here’s what happens to anyone who challenges the power of Rome … there is but one LORD, one Savior, one Son of God, and it’s Ceaser … 

All those titles, including allusions to a virgin birth, were attributed to the Caesars …  

A point of irony - here IS the king … whose throne is not of gold, but hewn wood, who’s glory is found in the sacrifice of love.

Jesus takes upon himself the worst of it, so the worst will not prevail, but rather something else, the Kingdom of light and peace … thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

6. Criminal #1

A bitter man … and who can blame him? … nailed to a cross … naked … 

He’s bitter … he’s lost the game … from what we know, he wasn’t “a common criminal” - he was a resistance fighter, a partisan, a Zealot - an idealist … determined to set his people free … he chides Jesus … 

He calls Jesus “Messiah” - was he expecting a messiah like King David, with the might of sword and spear, chariot and steed? But here’s a Messiah who comes to Jerusalem on a donkey. 

I'd like to think that when Jesus speaks of forgiveness and hope, he includes this forlorn and broken man, too … none are excluded. All are forgiven. 

It has to be this way, or there is no way at all.

7. Criminal #2

The second criminal makes an usual move - he accepts his fate, Look, we knew the risks we were taking … we gave it our best, and we lost. There’s no one to blame, no one to chide. 

This resistance fighter knows the underground of resistance … he knows Jesus isn’t a part of it … Rome crucified Jesus - not for his physical resistance to Rome, but his spiritual resistance … what he said, and what he did, to give people a better life … and then the decisive moment: Jesus disrupts the currency and commodities market in Temple Square - overturns the tables, declares his Father’s Temple to be a place of prayer.

Rome realized, here was a dangerous man …  

The religious leaders of the city agreed … 

A tragic alliance - political power anchored in Rome, religious power anchored in Jerusalem - to maintain the status quo, to keep the peace … 

To this very day, this “dangerous man” inspires our quest for freedom and dignity.

8. Criminal #2 to Jesus

The cry of every soul … remember me … don’t let me be forgotten … don’t let me be swept aside by the violent tides of time and war … let there be a place for me … somewhere somehow … 

This lonely man on the cross … he accepts his reality, his fate, and turns to Jesus … the flicker of faith … hope … that maybe, just maybe, this Jesus on the cross is going to make it … there will be a better day … and when that day arrives, remember me … I did my best, as I knew it to be … I tried hard to do what’s right … I gave my life for me people.

Don’t forget me.

Here’s the plea of every soul … don’t let the sands of time bury me … some built pyramids, others mighty monuments … some leave behind remarkable books, achievements, discoveries and patents on this and that everything else. But in the end, history has its own cruelty … but eternity never forgets.

Remember me …

9. Jesus Speaks

Today, you’ll be with me in paradise … comfort for a dying man … to assure him that his life counts … there’s more to life than meets the eye … 

Last week, I noted how the modern world has pretty much eliminated from life the thought of eternity … in some respects, because eternity was used an excuse to change nothing on earth; preachers told the poor and the suffering to hold on, to wait for them golden streets … while the rich here enjoyed earthly gold, and denied life to millions.

The words of Christ call for the integration of the two dimensions - eternity is not an escape clause, but the energy of moral and spiritual transformation, here and now.

There is a dimension of life far and beyond our lifespan … life counts, our decisions are important, and the good we do is added up in ways we cannot even imagine …“in life and in death, we belong to a faithful Savior” … when the little girl asked her mother, “Will grampa be there?” … and the mother said, “Everyone you love will be there.”

Today, you’ll be with me in Paradise.

Hallelujah and Amen!

The Hour Has Come

Psalm 119.9-16; John 12.20-33

March 22, 2018

I like being a Presbyterian.

I was born and baptized a Presbyterian … then grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church … either way, clear and concise is our theology …

Theology is what counts … lots of other things count as well, but at the center of our Presbyterian life is theology - what we say about God, or more precisely what God has said about God … 

By the way, when I say “Presbyterian,” I’m referring to what we were called in England and Scotland in the 1600s, because of our form of government … we are governed by Presbyters, or Elders, and linked to one another by our Presbyteries… other churches were called Episcopal, because they were governed by Episcopoi or Bishops, and were linked together through their bishops … and others were called Congregationalists, because each congregation is unto itself, not linked to any other congregation in any formal sense.

So in England, where the questions of governance were debated and wars were fought over it, the three branches of Protestantism were named: Episcopalians on the one hand, Congregationalists on the other, and in the middle, with elements of both, Presbyterians.

When it comes to Protestants here in America, we’re one of these three groups … sometimes we hear the term “non-denominational,” but what that really means is, “congregational” … Baptists, and Assemblies of God are congregational, and other fundamentalist and evangelical churches, like the megachurches … or church life on TBN and other religious sources, all stand alone, congregation-by-congregation … they have associations, or fellowships, or even create satellite congregations, but they’re not linked together like Episcopalians, or Presbyterians … 

Anyway, when I say “Presbyterian,” it’s a reference to our form of government, how we govern, or manage, the local church, and how we’re linked together … in other words, we are stronger together: we believe that our unity reflects the unity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit … we believe that our fellowship and community reflects the love of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit binding us to God and binding us to one another.

Christ prayed that we might be one … and though it’s terribly hard for us human beings to get that worked out, it remains the prayer of Christ, and must be our prayer as well … 

Now, things get a wee bit complicated … on the continent, churches governed as Presbyterians are called Reformed Churches … 

When the Scottish arrived here, they were Presbyterians … when the Dutch arrived here, they were Reformed, and so were the Hungarians and the Germans and the French immigrants …

Many of these churches have since merged into the mainstream of American Presbyterianism … 

Different names, but the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches are governed in much the same way, by Elders, and both share in a common and glorious theology inherited from John Calvin in Geneva Switzerland.

In other words:

We are Presbyterians in our form of government … we are Reformed in our theology … we are Presbyterian and we are Reformed … a strong and vital heritage, something of which all us can be proud, and for which all of us can be grateful.

Our theology always begins with God, with creation … I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth …

Our focus is on God, and then, specifically, what God has done in Christ … and what Christ has done for the glory and the honor of God … it’s all about God … God’s work, God’s purpose, God’s saving grace … we are saved by God, we are preserved by God, we are held and made holy by God … every bit of our faith is God-created … our journey through life is guided and guarded by the Sovereign God, maker of heaven and earth … 

We are bystanders to all of this … we’re not participants in this mighty work of God in Christ … 

We are witnesses to this work … like someone witnessing a glorious sunset …

We are witnesses - we see Christ upon the road to Jerusalem … we walk with him into the Holy City, we might even wave some Palm Branches on Palm Sunday, shout Hosanna, and then, sadly enough, maybe we join the crowd calling for his crucifixion …

Part of our story is sad:

Like Peter, we end up denying Him.

Like Judas, we betray Him.

Like the disciples, we fall asleep in the garden and then we all run away …

We’re not a part of this salvation work … this is God’s work, God’s work alone. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

What had to be done, only God in Christ could do … what was needed to bring about the light of a new world, only God in Christ could do … for God alone is the creator of all that is light: the very first thing God said: Let there be light.

For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts….

God has done the great work of redemption. What we couldn’t do, God in Christ has done.

Just like Adam and Eve - they come at the end of the story, not before, or even during … they are not self-created, but created by God. God is everything in all of this mighty work.

And by the Holy Spirit, we are caught up and brought into the work of God in Christ … and into fellowship with one another: once we were lost, but now we’re found … to God we belong, now and forever more … there is nothing, nothing anywhere, nothing anyhow, that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD.

And with that, let’s do some practical theology … 

Sometimes people ask, “Are you saved?” When I lived in Oklahoma, I got that a lot. 

Turn on religious TV, and you’re likely to hear someone asking that question.

Here’s my answer: “Yes, I am, because of what God has done in Jesus Christ.”

Not because of anything I’ve done, or have tried to do … 

Not because I went forward in a revival … not because I had a great emotional, spiritual experience at 2:00 in the morning … not because I got baptized in a river, or the ocean, or someone’s swimming pool … not because of anything I’ve done, or anything that I’ve experienced …

Certainly not because of my purity, my goodness, my prayers, my repentance, my tears, or even my faith … which hardly sets any records.

It’s all about God … God in Christ … God did it, God does it, and God will do it.

Are you tracking with me?

This is important.

I recently saw a meme on FB: “The best decision I ever made was to follow Jesus Christ.” Stuff like that drives me crazy … it’s self-congratulating  … something I did … and it’s not true.

It’s not our decision … it’s God’s decision, God’s love … we are saved by grace … not of our own doing, as Paul the Apostle says, lest any of us should boast.

And heaven knows that so much of evangelical Christianity is full of boasting … “I chose Christ” is pure nonsense … no one chooses Christ … no one … it’s God in Christ who chooses us … all of us … everyone of us … all of creation, all creatures great and small.

It’s all about God … God in the morning, God in the evening … God at noontide, God at midnight … 

“I was saved 2000 years ago when Christ died upon the Cross …” said Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

And even before that, we were saved … remember what the Apostle Paul wrote? 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world …

It’s God’s decision … when we’re good, and when we’re not … when we’re faithful, and when we’re faithless … when we believe, and when we don’t … when we’re loving and kind, and when we’re little snots.

You see how this works?

The focus is on God … not ourselves … but only God … God in Christ.

Yes, we’re saved … because of what God has done in Christ.

And when we’re clear about God in Christ, then all kinds of things fall into place!

When I die, I belong to God … because in life, I belong to God … before life, I belonged to God … because everyone and everything belongs to God … the living and the dead … the past, present and future … 

Now, at just this point, some evangelical will say, “If we’re saved, no matter what, then I can go out and live my life any ol’ way I please?”

Paul the Apostle dealt with this in his letter to the Romans … the point being,  if you wanna go out from this place today and live like hell, go ahead; give it a try … but guess what? … the Great God Almighty goes with you … remember the Apostles’ Creed? Christ descended into hell, there to set the captives free. 

Even in hell, the love of God in Christ prevails and wins the day … even when we’re stupid and silly and just plain crazy … God’s love wins the battle. Period! All the time, and all the way.

But in reality, who here is going to walk away from God and live like hell? 

Are you prepared to give this all up? To never again sing “Amazing Grace,” or say the LORD’s Prayer? Could you turn your back upon Christ and never utter his name again in faith? Could you walk outta the fellowship of Christ and never again give it a thought?

It doesn’t work that way, does it?

It’s a foolish question … because the love of God in Christ prevails and wins the heart and wins the mind … the love of God draws us upward … when I’m lifted up, said Jesus, I will draw all people to me.

The Gospel News:

We don’t have to worry about our salvation, because our salvation is not ours to worry about - it belongs to God in Christ, and God is pleased to give salvation to us, and to all the world … and what God gives, God preserves … God will see us through, to the end, and beyond.

Dear friends, if any of you should be anxious about your salvation, your eternal destiny, look to Christ and the promise of God the Father in Christ … you are safe in Christ, even if your life is in shambles … Christ surrounds you with his love, even when your faith is battered and broken … his saving love holds you, his redeeming love keeps you … until the end of time and beyond.

Dear friends …

When hour came for the Son of God to be glorified, on that terrible cross, God in Christ worked out the glory of salvation, for the world … all the world … and that includes, you and me.

Dear friends:

To God be the glory.

Hallelujah and Amen!