Year C
Feast of Christ the King
November 20,
2016
I was visiting with my Pastor
last week
And he said that after
Eucharist on Sunday
A Parishioner came up to him
and said
“I can’t believe that you
didn’t preach about the election”
Then he commented to me
“I thought I did!”
It seems to me that there is
preaching everywhere
Some of it very reflective
and healing
Some of it not so much
I was talking to my younger sister
yesterday
She told me a story about one
of her friends
This Friend was driving
through a drive-thru
Starbucks maybe…or Wendy’s
And as she was picking up her
order she noticed
The driver in the car behind
her
Giving her the finger
…energetically
and there was a youngster
sitting in the passenger seat
who joined in
She wasn’t going slow
Her order wasn’t particularly
complicated
So she surmised that it must
be her political bumper sticker
She began to fume and steam
with anger and self-righteousness
…understandably
But she caught herself
And thought
NO…Jen…don’t play that
game…it is a lose-lose
What to do…
What to do…
And then she paid for their
order.
That preaches
Today’s feast
With its King and Kingdom and
Reign
And its two thieves…
It preaches
This week…sitting with our
texts
I called to mind a quote from
Owen Barfield
About words
Owen Barfield was, amongst
other things, a renowned Philologist
…which now I know…Is a
studier of words
Philologists dig into
historical contexts via words
If a word, that has always
been used in a certain way
Suddenly takes on a new
meaning
Well…That is an indication
that something is afoot
And Owen Barfield
Surmised that
Regardless of one’s religious leanings
Or lack thereof
It is very clear, just by the study of words and their
meanings
That something profound happened in the first part of
the 1st century
And his quintessential proof
Was the word SACRIFICE.
Sacrifice
Until that time
Always referred to a blood
sacrifice
Offered to appease an angry
deity…or at a minimum an obligation in atonement
The Biblical narrative tells
of a development too
First Human…first born…virgin
Then animal…Unblemished
Then first fruits of the land
But with Jesus
The notion is radically
turned on its head
Sacrifice
From Jesus on
meant Self-Sacrifice
We don’t have to say
self-sacrifice because that is what sacrifice means
Which means it is freely
given
Not in atonement
Not out of obligation
Not to appease or as a
talisman against divine retribution
And the shift in meaning
stuck
The Christ event
The life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus
Does the same thing to the
word KING
…but unlike SACRIFICE
It didn’t quite stick…at
least not very well
Which…in a way…is why
Cultural pressure has caused
us to take stock and re-name the feast
The Reign of Christ…
An effort to tame the
patriarchal sting
We are in Chapter 23
The long journey to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel
Has ended at the cross
The mocking sign
“The King of the Jews” HAH!
It was a joke
Another humiliation
A kind playground bully saying
“what a joke…Some kind of KING
you are”
I can hear the taunts
I recognize them
Because I have…plenty of
times...
found myself hiding in the taunter’s crowd
found myself hiding in the taunter’s crowd
Hoping that I don’t stand out
too much
But without enough courage to
break away
Jesus is so right when he
says
“They do not know what they
are doing”
No…we never know
When we are caught up in a
frenzied moment
When we have lost our
capacity to think clearly
Like the Driver of the car in
the drive thru
Caught up in the moment
It is hard to separate from
hype thinking
We don’t know what we are
doing
We are in over our heads
The soldiers and the criminal,
the
one on the left,
(that is a directional note
not a political one) deride Jesus
It is what they are
comfortable doing
“And the people stood by
watching”
they are complicit, aren’t
they, in their silence?
Jesus is mocked
Not because he is a Messiah-Wanna-be
No it is because he is a Kingly
Pretender
And KINGS and REIGNS and
KINGDOMS are not to be messed with
The rulers, soldiers, and the
one criminal, the one on the left,
They think they know Jesus
They know him by his ridiculous
title
“The King of the Jews”
They know very little
But they are filled with so
much
Pretense, bravado,
self-righteousness
The good thief, the one on
the right,
KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING
In this scene
He and Jesus are the only
ones.
Titles? He’s not interested…
He is encountering the person
Jesus…
Hanging there
On a cross like his own
He simply calls Jesus by name
“Jesus,
remember me
when you come into your Kingdom”
He calls him Jesus
But he knows…he knows…Jesus is a King
And Jesus replies
“Truly I tell you
TODAY…TODAY…
you will be with me in Paradise”
The incredible Good News my
friends
Is that Jesus is waiting
He longs…longs…for me and for
you to do whatever is necessary
…the inner work
…Rearranging of priorities
…Reconciling what is broken
in our lives
Whatever is in our way
Whatever is necessary
So that THAT kind of openness and
emptiness
Might cause us to turn our
gaze
And make that one…longed-for
request
A request to a radically
different kind of King
For a place in a radically
different kind of Kingdom
The bottom line:
Request the Kingdom
And the Kingdom-Bearer
springs into action…RIGHT NOW…THIS
DAY
…Today you
will be with me…
It is God’s pleasure to give
people the Kingdom
It is not a duty
Or an obligation
Or a burden…it is God’s
pleasure
And what is this Kingdom?
In the next couple of weeks our
Advent Visionary
Isaiah the prophet
Will be painting a picture
for us
We will hear words…
In fact we heard them today
in the opening hymn…
We will hear words about
Swords being turned into
ploughshares
How Nation shall not rise
against nation
Nor shall they train for war
We will hear about The
peaceable Kingdom
Where Wolves and lambs nap
together
Calves and lions graze alongside
each other
Parched Lands bloom and exult
The blind see
The lame walk
The deaf hear
And The mute sing
This is God’s longing
God longs for This Kingdom
And what the Good Thief
Gives such beautiful witness to
Is that it is also our deepest
longing
A couple of years ago
when I was having trouble
seeing the path ahead
I had a mentor, a wise old
Dominican Sister
And she counseled me
She said “Find a small,
beautiful and empty bowl and set it before you
…In the place where you spend
much of your time…
and when you see it pray that
God will fill it…
it may take some time…but it
will fill”
If that empty bowl is to be
me
The hard part is getting it and keeping it empty
--here it is…I picked it up
this morning…here’s a nail file, a paper clip, a few staples, a gof ball marker…
I try to keep it empty but
the stuff keeps coming
The Good Thief, the one on
the right,
because of his clarity and
honesty and contrition
Had RADICAL emptiness…in
humility and freedom
And it was a pleasure for God
to pour his life into that
open and empty bowl
that was the life of the dying
man hanging to his right
The Good Thief is a picture…a
vision…of sin reaching for wholeness
And Jesus is a picture…a
vision…of the fullness of God filling our emptiness.
Maybe this Advent
Maybe starting this week…
…maybe after Thanksgiving
We can escape from all the
“filling up”
And instead get a little more
empty
So that we can become a
little more like the Good Thief
Open, empty, honest…reaching
for wholeness
And we will turn our gaze
And in his longing God will
rejoice
And fill our lives with his
own life
And we will pause
And that new life
That light within us
Will prod us to act with love and forgiveness
And we will pay for the mockers order
And we will have preached
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