Another World?
Christ the King Sunday, November 21, 2010. Luke 23:33-43 with Colossians 1:11-20 as bg
I thought that we would begin with a little trivia sampling. I will say a name and if you have any inkling who that person is, simply raise a hand. Diana Spencer, Kate Middleton, Philip Mountbatten, Charles of the House of Windsor? Who are these people? The first two are people who very well might have been the Queen of England. Kate Middleton still may be. Philip is Prince Philip married to Queen Elizabeth the Second. I raise these questions because today is denoted in the church as Christ the King Sunday. However such a connotation may have little if any meaning or us. For many people in North America the symbolism of the King or indeed of any royalty is long since past.
So let's wrestle with the Gospel in a different way. Have you ever wondered why there isn't a Canadian flag in this nave? Any ideas? It's because our ultimate allegiance isn't to our country. I am not telling you not to care about our country. But our primary allegiance is to God as revealed to us in Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently there is always at least one cross in every Lutheran worship space. The early Christians verbally put their allegiance this way, "Jesus is Lord!"
But once again, "Lord" is a name with fuzzy associations at least in 21st century North America. Next time you visit a mall just randomly ask a stranger who their lord is and they will likely look at you quite quizzically.
So, who is Jesus, for you? Both the second lesson and the Gospel share incredible insights as to Jesus' identity.
I suspect that the Gospel is the better place to start. Most of us know the story, even from Luke's perspective, quite well. At least we know the surface of the story. Jesus is being led out to the place of the skull, Golgotha. We don't know if that hill was called the Place of the Skull because its very shape was skull like or because there were usually skulls scattered over that hill. In any case, that particular hill was being used as a place of execution. There the Roman Empire demonstrated for any who passed by that any who questioned the Empire's authority in any manner, shape or form would be dealt with severely. Such person or persons could and would be hoisted up for all to see, mocked and executed in a shaming, horrific manner.
So it is, Jesus is being led to that Place of the Skull, Golgotha, to die. But once there, he is not alone. There are also two criminals. The leaders scoff at Jesus saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, IF he is the messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mock him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" The people stand by watching.
I wonder about this. Sometimes, in our minds' eye, we may be harsh on both the soldiers and the leaders. Yet, if someone is God, wouldn't they save themselves from a death sentence – and us too if we are in danger? Don't we expect to be delivered from hardship, pain, suffering and death by God?
I mean if someone is really "good", if someone is truly talented they strive to win – they don't lose to the competition. They do their best to win. And so, if someone actually is God, they wouldn't be there with criminals being executed in a shameful, horrific, excruciatingly painful way, would they?
Nevertheless, Jesus is there, with those criminals, suffering, dying. Jesus is there doing amazing things. He asks God his Father to forgive all those who have had anything to do with his condemnation and execution. He then extends to once criminal and perhaps to others a promise. The promise is that they will be with him that day in paradise. This is amazing on many fronts.
In all of this we must observe that Jesus' behaviour is different from ours in many ways. If someone is attempting to defraud or tarnish your reputation, how will you respond? At our best we will defend ourselves. At our worst we will attack the other verbally or in some manner or fashion. But that's not what Jesus does! He speaks the truth. He reaches out to others not to bless or even condone their actions, but to ask God to help them. Instead of responding to violence with violent vengeance, Jesus responds with deep care and concern. Instead of responding to hatred and abuse with depersonalization or generalization, "You know those bloody Romans, those religious fundamentalists", Jesus mediates on their behalf with the almighty God.
In his life, through his suffering and death, Jesus works to deliver all people and all creation into another realm. It is important to be careful here. Although this realm has spiritual dimensions, it is not only nor merely spiritual. From the time of Jesus walking on this earth his followers at their best have reached out to care for others, in thought, word and deed. We have built hospitals, schools, distributed food and emergency relief. We have worked politically to advocate for the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed – human and other creatures, whether we have been successful or not. We have done this in our best moments of following Jesus, not so that God will love us but because we are convinced that God in Jesus Christ does love us and the entire world, men, women, children and all of creation!
But living in such a way is not easy! Sometimes people will tell us to mind our own business. They say Christianity is only a religion, a "spiritual" kind of thing. But Jesus in all that He does, and the Spirit in her ongoing movement calls us to actively care for people and creation with our minds, bodies and spirits. The Bible is clear about this. Love God first with all of our hearts, minds and bodies. And then, love our neighbours as ourselves!
Following Jesus in this way means that we will need to necessarily live in a different realm than what we may think of as "normal", than what is our prevailing culture along with its expectations. But this is our call. This is to be our living as those who daily experience the amazing and incredible love and forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ.
To be sure, there is something that is incredibly difficult about this. Such difficulty has to do with our sinfulness – our ongoing rebellion against God in which we want to be little "gods", where we seek to do what we want to do. This is part of the difficulty but only part. The rest of the difficulty of so following Jesus has to do with what I like to call the "now" but "not yet". Jesus is ushering us day by day and this entire cosmos bit by bit into His new realm – but we aren't fully there yet. There is a lot of resistance within us, around us and in the realm of what St. Paul refers to as the "powers".
But we must not be deterred. We can pray. We do pray, each day or at least whenever we come to worship – "For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever. Amen"
Do we believe that God through Jesus God's Son and in the ongoing work of God's Spirit can and will actually deliver us into this realm which we see in Jesus on the cross? Are we seeking to live this way?