Christ the King Sunday
Luke 23:33-43

Dear friends in Christ,

They say all good things must come to an end. And so it is that we gather today at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Children have been on vacation from school. 70% of employees take the Friday after Thanksgiving off, although obviously not those that work in retail businesses. All those Thanksgiving weekend sales are coming to an end. You won’t have to camp out again overnight at Best Buy until next year. Today many people, especially those that traveled great distances, pack up their bags and head to the airport, or bus station, or get in their cars, and return home. All good things must come to an end. Tomorrow it’s back to the routine, another month until the next major holiday, Christmas.

The month of November is also drawing to a close and with it, another church year. A new cycle begins next week with the first Sunday in Advent. Today is the day to bring to and end all that we have learned since last Advent about the Savior. We call this Sunday Christ the King.

From the beginning of the church's year, we have been hearing about the king who was coming, the anointed one of God who would save his people. Astrologers from the east, the three wise men of Christmas tradition, came inquiring of Herod, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" Herod wanted nothing to do with this baby king, and tried to have him killed. When called as a disciple, Nathanael answered, almost prophetically, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel." At one point in Jesus' ministry, the people responded so enthusiastically that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday, he fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah: "Lo, your king comes to you, humble and riding upon a donkey," and the people greet him with the shout: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord." Kingship is the center around which the charges against Jesus are brought to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. "Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks. Hours later, Pilate has the legally required statement of charges placed on the cross above Jesus: "This is the King of the Jews," vs, 38 in today’s lesson. The ridicule of the bystanders and the hope of the penitent thief are bound up in this same kingship in today's lesson. "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" the soldiers taunted. The penitent thief cries out: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Everything appeared very grim for this so-called King on Good Friday. But
in the good news of the resurrection, we have celebrated the victory of Christ over death and the powers of evil. Jesus does reign as king and Lord of all! In light of the many was Jesus is referred to as king throughout the year, Christ the King Sunday does seem an appropriate way to end.

Because we believe that Christ reigns as Lord of all and is present in the Holy Spirit, we understand that the kingdom of God includes the world today. It’s not just up there in heaven. It’s right here where we live. I’m reminded of the saying, Christians must not be “so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.” In the reading from Colossians it says in verse 16, “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. For he himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Christ’s kingdom is here, right now, and we’re part of it.

Because Christ’s kingdom includes this world, Christians do have an important responsibility in managing and ordering the world. We acknowledge that there are many different forms of government and that God has the power to work through all of them. Obviously, God has placed us here, in the United States, and we are fortunate that we can be involved and have a voice and a vote in the way our country is run.

We want to see God’s kingdom and its values lived out in our community and the world. The challenge is, because we are human, because we are imperfect and yes, sinful, to agree on just what those values are and how to best bring them about. We all agree that we should, for example, love our neighbor, as Jesus taught. One way to do that is to provide for the hungry that live among us. There’s not a church that I know of, regardless of denomination or size, that does not support efforts to provide food for those in need. But when you start trying to discuss the root problems in communities that lead to hungry and poor people, people disagree. There are differing political philosophies as to the why there is poverty and how best to change things so that we don’t have as much hunger. This gets into politics, the often messy attempts to bring order for the common good. Politics is a tough vocation. But if we believe God’s kingdom has broken into the world, and that we are part of that, then we have some responsibility to be involved with government as we are led, to pray, and to ultimately trust God will sort things out according to His will. Not all are called to be politicians and to serve in government. It’s about the last thing I would want to do. But some are, and God does work through people to finally bring about His will.

A good example I read about was a man named William Wilberforce. He lived in England in the late 18th century. As a young man he was powerfully converted into the revival movement of John Wesley, later known as Methodism. He believed God was calling him to a political career. He ran for parliament and for almost 40 years was the leading crusader against slavery in the British House of Commons.

Wilberforce believed that God had brought him to political power to end the ghastly evil of the slave trade. In 1787, when Wilberforce began his crusade, slave ships from Europe carried 100,000 captured Africans to the Americas every year. In fact, Wilberforce’s England was the leader in this, with British ships carrying one-half of this human cargo. The huge profits represented a significant part of the British economy.

But Wilberforce knew that slavery was a terrible sin against God and neighbor – even though almost all respectable people of his time quietly accepted the prevailing view that slaves were just property to be bought and sold like coal and cattle. Wilberforce prayed and lobbied. In fact, his small circle of friends regularly prayed three hours a day for their many tasks, including the crusade to abolish the slave trade and slavery.

It took years of hard work. It took great commitment to the belief that persons and ethics matter more than money and profit. But after a 20 year struggle, the British parliament finally abolished the slave trade in 1807. Twenty-six years later, in the very year Wilberforce died, the British parliament abolished slavery itself. Slowly, over the next century, the rest of the world did the same.

Wilberforce was the central player in this momentous change in world history. He did it because as a Christian he just couldn’t see how this could be right- even though parts of the Bible could be used to justify slavery. Lots of Christians disagreed with him. But he acted on what he believed to be the greater truth of scripture about the equality and goodness of all human beings, and eventually that point of view prevailed. No one would ever consider going back to slavery today. On Christ the King Sunday we recognize Christ as Lord of all, including the world. We’re all called as believers to be engaged in the world, to live and work for the values we believe, and to trust God will work through us to bring about His will.

But, of course, Christ’s kingdom extends beyond this world as well. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus says to the repentant thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Christ’s kingdom is not limited to this earth, but extends into the eternity of heaven.

This new kingdom comes and is available to us very differently than we might expect. At God’s chosen moment, the King came. But he didn’t look like the king the people were expecting. He was born in a barn. His mother was a pregnant, unmarried, teenager. He lived in a back hill town, Nazareth, in a nowhere nation occupied by Rome. He didn’t raise an army or restore Israel to power.

Rather, God chose to bring his new kingdom by becoming one of us. Jesus is born in the most humble of circumstances to show that this new kingdom will be for all people, regardless of status or power. He lived as we live and suffered as we suffer, even to the point of dying on a cross. In this kingdom the king dies so that his followers might have a place in the kingdom.

In an issue of the devotional book The Upper Room of a few years ago, Darly Knauer writes about an incident he and his wife witnessed on their first visit to an amusement park. As they were waiting in line for the roller coaster, the coaster operator announced that the ride would be temporarily closed for minor repairs. A technician arrived and they watched as he fiddled with the safety bar and harness on the last car. Other riders began joking about avoiding that last car on the coaster. It wouldn’t do to have a faulty safety harness on a ride that featured drops, loops, and curves. But once the technician had finished with his repairs, he climbed into the last car and strapped himself in with the repaired safety harness. Then he rode the roller coaster alone. He went before the other riders to assure that all who came after him would be ensured a safe ride.

In a way, that’s what Jesus the king has done for us. He became one of us and went to death before us, to assure that we might pass safely through death to eternal life. He died that we might have a place in his kingdom.

Actor Kevin Bacon had a conversation with his six year old son after the boy had seen the movie Footloose for the first time. Bacon’s son said, “Dad, that was really cool how you jumped up on the roof and swung from the rafters. How did you do that?”

“Well, son” said Bacon, “I didn’t actually do that part. A stunt man did.”

“What’s a stunt man,” asked the boy.

“That’s someone who dresses like me,” said Bacon, “and does things I can’t do for myself. Things that are too dangerous.”

“Oh, well, what about that part in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet,” persisted the boy. “How did you do that?”

“Well, son,” said Bacon, “that was the stunt man again, not me. He’s really good at gymnastics.”

“Oh,” said his son. Then there was a long pause. “Dad,” his son asked, “just what did you do in the movie?”

Bacon sheepishly replied, “I got all the glory.”

Someone took his place, that Bacon might receive all of the glory. That sounds familiar to me. Jesus took our place, that we might receive the glory of heaven.

As we end this church year, we are reminded that we are part of a new kingdom. It is a kingdom brought by God in the person of Jesus Christ. It begins now, and is brought to perfection in the life to come. No other kingdom on earth, not even our own nation, is as important as God’s kingdom. For no other kingdom is eternal. Thanks be to God for giving us a place in his kingdom through the life, death, and resurrection of his son. Amen