Christ the King Sunday, 20 November 2016

I.N.I.

a sermon for Christ the King Sunday, 20 November 2016, to be preached at Christ Church, Accokeek, Maryland, and based on verses from all three of the appointed lessons for the day, i.e., Jeremiah 23:5; Luke 23:36-38, 42-43; Colossians 1:12-14

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our elections are nearly two weeks past, but I daresay we are still very much in a political season. That is not, however, why the Church calls today Christ the King Sunday (as if to differentiate political offices from kingship). We Christians have been observing Christ the King Sunday for years as a special time to mark, remember, and celebrate Jesus's role as our chosen and anointed Leader, as Christ the King. And while, of course, Jesus Christ is King all year long, it is fitting to remember it today on the last Sunday in our church's liturgical calendar.

Now, when I was young the last three Sundays in the Church year zeroed in on the last things that will come at the end of time. The lessons and hymn and sermons focused on the coming judgment. End of Church year equaled end of time. It was all about Christ's Second Coming. That was to prepare us for Advent and Christmas, our Lord's first coming into the world. We don't have quite that emphasis today. Today we meditate on Christ's role as King in preparation for re-living His first revelation as our King when He was born in Bethlehem.

In coming weeks we will be walking though some of Isaiah's prophecies of the Lord's coming. Today's Old Testament lesson, though, is from Jeremiah, who came along a little after Isaiah. He spoke in troubled times. Israel had been a divided nation for generations, and the northern kingdom, Israel, had been snuffed out. Then as Jeremiah proclaimed the Word of the Lord, the enemies of God's people were gathering to do the same to the southern kingdom, Judah. Babylonian power was growing, and Jerusalem was about to be overrun and destroyed. In that dark and dreadful time the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. About the middle of his book we read: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." (23:5)

Anyone who heard him share this word probably said something to the effect of "I sure hope you know what you're talking about." David had been promised a forever kingship and his descendants had pretty well wasted away his patrimony. The divided kingdom and loss of the northern kingdom was the least of it. Most of their kings throughout their history were on the 'bad kings' list; few were on the 'good kings' side of the ledger. Most of their leaders had not been righteous. Most had not dealt wisely with their people and the challenges that faced them. Most had not executed justice throughout the land. The remaining faithful descendants of Abraham and Sarah who were there to hear Jeremiah would have been eager to see a "righteous Branch" spring up from the root of Jesse. That is, they'd have been most happy to finally live under a good king descended from David.

At the beginning of this chapter 23, Jeremiah proclaims woe to the faithless shepherds who had scattered the flock of Israel through their rejection of God. God's Law proclaims their destruction. But then, of course, Jeremiah proclaims the Gospel, the good news, that the Lord will break into this pitiful history and raise up a righteous Branch to reign as King. Not like kings of the past and present, but One who will be faithful, one who will deal wisely, one who will execute justice and righteousness in the land. Rely on the promise, is what Jeremiah wants his hearers to do. The Lord has promised it, and when this Branch, this righteous, wise, and just King comes, then God's people will be saved and will live in safety (23:6).

The promised King did come along. But not immediately. As I reminded you a bit ago, we are about to enter the season of Advent in which we reenact our preparation for the coming of that King, born of the Virgin in Bethlehem. But as we know -- and as we're reminded in today's Gospel -- the King was not warmly welcomed with open arms, hearts, and minds. Half a millennium after Jeremiah announced this promise, Jesus the righteous Branch did rise up. And then for a whole raft of reasons He was cut down shortly thereafter. When this Branch was hung on the tree of the cross at the place of the Skull, Calvary, the Roman soldiers who had nailed Him to it joined the leaders of the people in mocking Him.

We don't know these men. We don't know their names or their histories and biographies. But we can maybe be safe in describing them as typical military men who followed orders first and then only later (if then) thought about the implications of what they had done. Here they have nailed our Lord and King to the cross, and maybe one of them asks their sergeant 'What is this one being crucified for?' The sergeant answers something like 'I don't know. All I've got is the usual sign to post over his head. I guess the lieutenant was being sarcastic; this one says "This is the King of the Jews." Probably means the guy is a rebel leader. Or wanted to be.' So the soldiers, loyal Romans whose job it is to defend Caesar from rebellion out there in the hinterlands, the soldiers take to mocking Jesus with their "Hey, if you really are the King of the Jews, save yourself why don't you?"

And Jesus ... Jesus the righteous Branch, the true King who deals wisely and executes justice and righteousness ... Jesus extends His love even to these soldiers, praying to the Father that He would forgive them. Jesus knows that these soldiers are just dumbly following orders, that they - in His words - didn't know what they are doing.

Then Luke takes the focus off the soldiers and moves it to the criminals. Don't you think it wonderful how Luke's telling of this whole scene in Jesus's life doesn't include His disciples or even the adoring crowds that so often followed Him? In Luke's Gospel, Jesus on the cross prays, of course, but it's Roman soldiers and convicted thieves whom we hear talking to Him. It's the outsiders, the foreigners, the ones rejected by society who interact with Jesus. And so the first thief -- who comes across to me as one who must have been pretty disagreeable in life -- joins right in with the soldiers in mocking Jesus: 'Hey, you! You're supposed to be king of the Jews, right? Well. I'm a Jew and I need you to do something kingly for me. Get us down off these crosses already!'

But the other thief, listen instead to him for a moment. After rebuking his partner in crime he says to the Lord, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." What a simple and profound prayer! Spoken in a time of deepest need. Direct. Full of faith and hope. And acknowledging Jesus's kingship. We don't know where this faith came from. Maybe he had been in the crowds that heard Jesus preach. He may have witnessed some of Jesus's miracles. (Either of these could have been great settings for him to snatch a purse off someone's belt.) Or he may just have noticed the way Jesus acted as the 3 of them had been brought out of Jerusalem to the execution site. He may have only then seen and heard and reflected on the things Jesus said and did. He may only then have let the Holy Spirit work faith in his heart. This thief may have had a conversion there on his own cross shortly before his death and realized that, yes, Jesus IS the King we Jews have been waiting for all these centuries.

And then Jesus speaks. In Luke's Gospel, again, this is the only time Jesus on the cross speaks other than in prayers. Jesus replies to the thief, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

So Jesus equates the Kingdom of the thief's last request with God's Paradise. But don't forget to focus a moment on the possessive pronoun "your" in what the thief says: "your Kingdom." The faithful witness of the dying thief is that Jesus is King. He is saying that Jesus is the One who reigns. And if he had learned his Scriptures -- as he well might have before committing his crime -- he just may have thought of the prophecy of Jeremiah. He may have had an insight right before his death of the way he could enter into the Kingdom of wise dealing, of justice, and of righteousness.

Justice would have called for punishment on account of his crimes. He had been caught in the Roman judicial system and knew in his body their brutal system of justice. Now this thief wanted God's justice. And he wanted to live in the Kingdom of righteousness, all his sins paid for. He believed, he knew, that Jesus was an innocent man, that -- as he told the first thief -- "we are condemned justly, but this Man has done nothing wrong." And from what he said to Jesus, he knew and believed that God forgave his own sins in Christ. This dying thief knew in other words, knew by faith, what Saint Paul would later write about Christ the King in today's epistle.

There in Colossians 1:12-14, Paul writes that he's "giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins." This morning I have to wonder whether when they were traveling together Luke told Paul what he had learned about the crucifixion. Maybe at that point in their lives Luke had already started outlining his Gospel and had notes on eyewitness accounts from Mount Calvary. Maybe even, pious legend might express, the centurion who was in charge of the soldiers there (the one who saw Jesus die and exclaimed "Surely, this man was innocent.") had talked with Luke. In other words it seems to me possible that this scene from the crucifixion is the backdrop to what Paul then wrote to the Colossians. The thief on the cross was enabled by the Father to share in the inheritance of the saints of light ... just as all of us thieves in this church are enabled to share in that inheritance by our Father. God has rescued us, Paul writes, from the power of darkness. No matter what our background and personal history, God the Father has reached into our lives and rescued us through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His sacraments, rescued each of us from the power of darkness. And after our rescue we are not deposited in some dreadfully uncertain limbo of a refugee camp somewhere. No, Paul tells us, we have been 100% rescued and transferred into the Kingdom of God's beloved Son. That is where our real citizenship is registered: The Kingdom of God's beloved Son, Paradise, Heaven itself with Jesus Christ ruling as our one and only King, that is where we now really belong. Our King, Paul tells the Colossians and all us fellow believers with them, is the one in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

Until we can fully realize that hope, we live here praying with the thief that King Jesus remembers us when He comes into His Kingdom. But until we walk into Paradise, we work with King Jesus here on earth to execute justice and righteousness in the land. The power of darkness from which we have already been rescued still surrounds us in this life to be sure. We don't need to look very hard to find evidence of it. But you and I have the power of God's Word to keep this darkness at bay. We have our baptisms assuring us that we now already belong in the Kingdom of light. We have the strength of God coming to us in Holy Communion. We shall overcome the evil of this world because you and I are children of God, fellow heirs with St Paul, the thief on the cross. and all believers across time. We are members of Christ the King. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

S.D.G.