Is This Man Your King?

---

Sermon for the Last Sunday after Pentecost: The Feast of Christ the King (Proper 29 C)1 20 November 2016

Emmanuel Church, Greenwood Parish (The Rev.) Christopher Garcia

Is This Man Your King? “That man will never be my president.” Those words got wide press eight years ago. “That man will never be my president.” Those words got wide press twelve days years ago. Whether they were spoken out loud or in the silence of our own hearts, whether eight years ago or twelve days ago, “That man will never be my president,” I think those words are really more a commentary about those of us who say them or think them, then they are a commentary about the president or president elect. And, I think, they reflect a basic misunderstanding of the office. The electoral process has happened. The various states certify their results. The Electoral College cast their votes. On the 20th of January 2009, Barack Obama did in fact become the 44th President of the United States. In all likelihood, in 61 days from now, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as our 45th [President]. Whether you or I think that is a good thing or a bad thing isn’t really my point. As a statement of fact, that man is, or will be, our president. Your president. My president. How we relate to the president, that is up to us. How we act as citizens, ah, that is up to each of us. How we treat each other, how we treat everyone we meet, that’s up to you. That’s up to me. Today is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday in our liturgical year. Is Christ our King? Do we, does each one of us, accept the legitimacy of Jesus claim of authority over us – his authority over how we live, how we spend our time, our money, how we order our lives and our relationships, his authority over how we treat each other and how we love everyone we meet?

Proper 29, Year C, Revised Common Lectionary. Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 46, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-43. “Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” 1

2 Rather than saying, “I have the right to do thus and so,” do we embrace an attitude that says, “God, you have all authority, all rights. God, I submit willingly to the fact that you know better what’s good for me, you love me better than I can love myself. God, I trust you. God, I believe and lean into the reality that you want only what is best for me.”? Last week I talked about the lectionary as a year-long dialog. In the first half of the year, God talks to us; we hear the Jesus story. This year we listed to Luke’s Gospel. Next week, we’ll start the cycle over again, and we will listen to Matthew tell the story. For the first half of each liturgical year, from Advent through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Eastertide, to Pentecost, we hear what God has done for us in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In the second half of the year, we respond to God. What does the Jesus story mean for you and for me? How do we live in response to the Jesus story? What does it mean to be part of the Jesus movement? What does it mean to be people of the way? Today, we reach the end of this year-long conversation: Jesus as King. Jesus as the ultimate authority over you, and over me. To be sure, Jesus holds up a very different sense of kingship. Jesus reign is not based on power, or will, or ego, or compulsion. His kingship is built on an invitation. His kingship is built on self-giving, costly, love. His power, his authority, comes from the cross. It is kingship, and love, focused on reconciliation – making things right between humankind and God; thereby making things right between each other. The Collect, the prayer we pray at the beginning of the service, often sums things up – collects our intentions - and sets the tone for the day. And today’s collect is a good example. We prayed, “God, your will is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son. Grant that all of us, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.” Do you see the contrasting image that this prayer brings into focus? God wants to restore all things. God wants everything to be in right relationship, for us to love god and to love each other, just as God loves us. But we are divided and enslaved by sin. Each of us pursues our own goals, our own vision, our own idols. Left to our own devices and desires, we are lost.

3 This division, this getting lost, is nothing new. In our first lesson today, God spoke to the leaders of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, some six centuries before Jesus. God said to those leaders, “you have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and have not attended to them.” But what is God’s will? Unity. Unity, based on love, not compulsion. Reconciliation. Reconciliation, based on love. A right relationship. A right relationship, based on love. At the time of Jesus, many in Israel wanted a strong political king, a leader in the cast of David and Solomon, someone who could unite the kingdoms and drive out the hated Romans. But that is not what God had in mind. Political leadership is not what Jesus needed to do. God’s plan is Unity. Unity, based on love. God’s plan is Reconciliation. Reconciliation, based on love. God’s desire is a right relationship. A right relationship, based on love. So our Gospel lesson today shows us an image of a king that is not at all in keeping with the world’s notion of kingship. Jesus is condemned to die. Jesus is nailed to a cross, for public execution, along with two other condemned men. Soldiers gamble for his clothing. The crowds mock him. Jesus responds in love. He prays for forgiveness for his executioners. “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” He reaches out in love to those who die with him. “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” At the cross, Jesus shows us what self-giving, sacrificial love looks like. At the cross, God shows us how far God will go to bring us back to God. At the cross, God invites us into Unity, based on love. At the cross, God invites us into Reconciliation, made possible through God’s own love for us. At the cross, God invites us into a right relationship, a relationship of love. Love triumphs, even over hate and death. This is what God’s kingdom looks like. God, reaching out and meeting us and sharing with us in our brokenness and confusion and division. But God offering us something better, something infinitely better. Freedom. Unity. God’s plan. God’s kingship. God’s perfect, loving authority. The Feast of Christ the King Sunday has something to say about God, but it also has something to say to you and to me. As we began our worship today, we sang “Crown him with many crowns.” The hymn has wonderful poetic

4 imagery: “Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his thrown”; “Crown him the son of God, before the worlds began”; “Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed over the grave”; “Crown him the Lord of heaven, enthroned in worlds above”; and finally, “Crown him, ye kings, with many crowns, for he is King of all.” Yet Christ the King Sunday challenges each of us. Because what really matters, is the question of whether Christ is King to each one of us. To phrase the question a little differently, “Is this man your king?” Is Jesus king in your heart? Is Christ king in my heart? Is Christ king in your life, in my life? Will you let Jesus transform how you live your life? Will you live for him? Will you let his love live in you? Will you let him love through you? Amen.