RonBlog

Sunday 21st November, 2010 Sunday next before Advent
Christ the King
Sentence
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud O daughter of Jerusalem. Lo, your King comes to you, triumphant and victorious is He, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9
Collect
Stir up, we pray, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful people, that they plenteously bringing forth the fruits of good works may by You be plenteously rewarded, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Eternal God, You exalted Jesus Christ to rule over all things, and have made us instruments of His kingdom; by Your Spirit empower us to love the unloved, and to minister to all in need, then at the last, bring us to Your eternal realm where we may be welcomed into Your everlasting joy and may worship and adore You for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever Amen

Old Testament Lesson Jeremiah 23: 1 – 6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord, Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD. 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. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

FOR THE PSALM Song of Zechariah
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: Who has come to His people and set them free
The Lord has raised up for us a mighty Saviour: born of the house of His servant David
Through the holy prophets, God promised of old: to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us
To show mercy to our forebears: and to remember His holy covenant
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies
Free to worship Him without fear: holy and righteous before Him, all the days of our life
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High: for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways
To give His people knowledge of salvation: by the forgiveness of their sins
In the tender compassion of our God: the dawn from on high shall break upon us
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death: and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Epistle Colossians 1: 11 - 20

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the 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. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

GOSPEL Luke 23: 33 – 43

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!"
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

NOTES ON THE READINGS

A few comments before we start may be of some help. If you are wondering at the apparent disconnection between today’s readings, it may be of use to ponder the title for the day. Christ the King.
It is obvious that these days require almost a re-translation of ‘King’ anyhow, even whilst wondering why we retain such an obsolete title. The real problem, in Jesus’ day as well as ours, lies in the perception of what makes a King and what is the role. Humans would point to power and control! And that is where our Lord would part company. David was the icon of king, and he began as shepherd, and that view has never left the Biblical outlook. SHEPHERD. And if you were wondering, John in Revelation makes it quite clear that Jesus’ Kingship is expressed most fully and completely when He is on the Cross. Here is Shepherd-King par excellence. Neither priest nor prophet nor king of any sort is of any value to other than himself or herself unless he/she is patterned on Christ. Don’t get all religious and gooey about this! The only way to rule is a servant. Like Jesus. And that applies in any realm of human activity, for believers or for unbelievers. Ponder that if you would please.

Old Testament Lesson
So now it is clear why this ‘shepherd passage’ is set for today. The great tragedy of Israel is that whilst it was well set up to operate in the line of servant-hood, it rarely reached the ideal because humans are not all that aligned to altruism. If I am in charge, then it is not long before I am likely to turn that into control. (How many control-freak clergy -- or lay people! – do you know?) Israel was little different. Yet the prophet was quite clear that things needed to change and to that he pointed.
Whilst it seems that most of the attention of Christian readers of such passages is to recognize the focus on Jesus and His ministry, it is important to note that the servant-hood of Israel had always been the prophets’ focus. That is saying, in effect, that Jesus ministry of reconciliation (vertical and horizontal) is the Christians’ ministry as it was for our Lord.

For the Psalm
Here is another of the canticles that we used to sing in the choir many decades ago in my home Church. Even then both the music and the words conveyed the confidence its authors held in the God Who wrought great things for them --- and us. That confidence stemmed from generations, centuries, millennia of history of the God Who gathered His people together and supported them. That support continued in spite of rugged disobedience and failure: thank heaven!

Epistle
And the Epistle carries through the challenge to continue to be the People of God in spite of failure and contrary pressure. But there is more in this than that: as it was something I missed in my early years I thought it wise to underline it all here.
Look at what St. Paul writes concerning Jesus. It is staggering stuff, and concerns every human on the planet if it is true. Most Christians see Jesus as their Saviour, and that He certainly is. But still these days many people miss the impact of the Lord part of the equation. And what it all means. GO back over those words again and ponder, please. ‘He has rescued us from the power of darkness is no vague business but something totally significant. Darkness is not knowing where you are going and what life is all about. Now you know. Look at the stunning statements continuing to be made about Jesus here, in terms of creation (and that also means point and purpose.) In Him all things hold together is another way of saying that if Jesus is rejected, then all that is left is nonsense. No point, no purpose, no direction. And that applies not just to Christians but to all humans.
This is not some sort of exclusivist statement: it is actually getting across the message that all we have been commenting on over the years is that Jesus, Lord, is guarantor of those important if less tangible aspects of life will outlast everything else. Justice and truth and integrity; compassion and love and caring. Self-giving not getting. So that wherever you encounter such aspects of life you can be certain that the Lord of all is there even before you. You can also be certain that, regardless of the events of any given time in history, evil and sin and death will be overcome. In fact, in Biblical terms, evil is overcome when it is shown up for what it is. When it is visible, incarnated.
It is remarkably powerful stuff, and in a way it is not proven! It is spread out before you as an offer, a direction to take, a path to follow. As I have often said, I follow Christ because He is the only One I have found Who makes such sense in life and about life. If there is no resurrection I must follow Him still, because nowhere else have I encountered such truth and reality.

GOSPEL
Show me anyone anywhere else where forgiveness of perpetrators is so readily offered in spite of the heinous injustice and damage caused to a person. The Cross is the symbol of reconciliation, both vertical (between God and us) and horizontal (between us and others.) And the process and the manner of operation is exactly the same. (Give a yell for more information if that is too brief a statement for you to follow.)
I remember when I first read the statement that hit me between the eyes, that John in his Revelation shows that the Kingship of Jesus is most evident when He was on the Cross. That was no blithe statement, but one of fact. Here most clearly is seen the nature of His Kingship: the total giving of Himself for others, out of profound love for them. Some Kings used to make propaganda sorts of statements along such lines, but their actions and attitudes were totally distant from any such reality. SO when we talk ‘King’ we really do need to convey precisely the nature of that Kingdom and Kingship.

NOTES FOR A SERMON
It may seem a little strange to you, but if ever you wondered why the early Apostles saw the need to write the various books that later made up the New Testament, there were two basic reasons. The first was to provide wider information about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and also of His teaching which is a significant part of the Gospel.
As time went by, and the expected Parousia did not appear, several other matters came to the attention of the Apostles, including the need to provide clear and clearer teaching about Who Christ is. In fact one of the greatest misunderstandings of those post-Biblical times was the threat of false teaching from all manner of ordinary and weird and wonderful sects and other groups. Of these probably the Gnostics were the most dangerous. (It has to be said that much of the distortion of Christian Faith of that period stemmed from those people. John’s Gospel, and its prologue in particular, was written to combat such nonsense.)
Less well know is the fact that Revelation was written, not to warn people of the end of the world, but to challenge the Church of the time to understand the breadth of the Faith far more clearly so that they could combat the rising perception that the Caesar was rather more obviously Lord than Jesus. You may well know that Roman citizens were expected (no it was demanded of them) to vow their allegiance to Caesar in one of the multitudes of temples in order to retain their status. Their vow consisted of two words, in Latin – Caesar Lord. And that ran contrary to the short Christian creed that Christ is Lord: As Roman power increased, that Christian creed looked less and less tenable.

Hence the writing of the Apocalypse. In very traditional Jewish style, John’s stunning book provides all the evidence necessary to provide people with solid grounds for understanding not only that Jesus is Lord or King, but also the clear and remarkable nature of that Kingship. In those days the concept of kingship was a powerful one, and all the evidence was there as people were confronted with the irresistible power of empire. The King’s word was law, and in his hands lay all power of life and death. No one could gainsay the King. And that had been the case over thousands of years in numbers of empires stretching back further than people’s memories.
But there was none of that sort of power and prestige in Jesus’ little pretend kingdom, so where does the truth lie? John’s well-thought out book drew constant and powerful contrasts between the ‘kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of our Christ.’ And the contrast is really devastating. It is a contrast between force, demand, propaganda and control .... and love and compassion and truth. And two fascinating areas of the difference are illustrated. The first is the fatal disparity between the two and the demand of the first to destroy the second; and the second area has to do with the relative effectiveness of the latter. You do not need any proof to realize that force and war corrects no issue but only aggravates existing ones and produces new areas of conflict. And you may well have first-hand experience of how the slower-working method of the real Kingdom has far more lasting and peaceful outcomes for good for everyone involved.

It may well be hard for modern readers to espy all that is being said in this most remarkable book, but one certainly needs to be aware of the development of concepts and ideas over many hundreds of years. One of the big hurdles for old Jewish thinkers was the focus of King David and Messiahship, a hurdle that seems not to have been looked at up to Jesus’ own time. That view was triumphalist and powerful, leaving Israel with the expectation that God would solve all problems and issues by His powerful Messiah, whoever that should be. Even John the Baptist’s expectation was one of power and correction and punishment, and you will recall John’s dismay that Jesus was not fulfilling his expectations at all!

But read the prophets, especially Isaiah and his series of cameos on the Servant of the Lord, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel who looked for a shepherd’s shepherd, still somewhat Davidic but radically different. And look to see your own expectation of who it might be who could solve this world’s ills, and whether you expect them to use force and power, military or whatever, or whether you see a rather more effective way. And then go on to see that it is not just the Servant of the Lord who is to deal with issues, but also you who are His followers. I am where the trouble starts; small wonder then that the Lord of Hosts sees the necessity of a human response to the human problem.

Incarnation and sacrifice. This is why GB Caird iterated often that the Kingship of Jesus is visible most strongly when He was on the Cross. Self-giving (as opposed to self-obsession.) Refusing to retaliate to human evil because that would multiply the evil, not reduce it. Absorbing all the hate and fear and anger rather than retaliating. Here is what looks like weakness being the very opposite of weakness, but only to those who see and understand what He was doing. Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it lives alone.
Thank God that, in Jesus of Nazareth you have a King worthy of the name, not just for Himself but for all humanity who understands and follows and puts their trust in Him