Christ the King 2022

 Welcome to Christ the King weekend, when we grapple with our creator coming into our midst to serve and to sacrifice and to share abundant life, to be a completely different kind of king than we were expecting and to teach us how to use power for the common good.  The scriptures paint a picture of Jesus there at creation, the word bringing everything into being, holding all things together, heading it up. Something happens between then and the reading from Jeremiah, where kings and leaders, who are supposed to be shepherds have scattered the flock and driven them away. These rulers have been destructive, greedy, selfish, and neglectful. But God has a plan to bring everything back into balance, to gather the remnant and make sure that the flock flourishes under God’s care. A good king is like a good shepherd, and a good shepherd will lay down his life for the flock.  There is a major contrast between this world’s kings and Christ the King.

We may not have a king, but we have many kings, many priorities of this world that are different from God’s priorities.   We have as king our entertainment, our sports and movie stars.  We track their movements, celebrate their weddings, cry at their divorces, and are shocked or not at their flaws.  We worship as king our comforts, our house, our clothes, our vacations.  We worship as King our money, our capitalist system, we can’t picture any other way.  We worship as King our church, the way we’re used to worshipping, our building, our position, the respect people give us, our pew, our relationship with the pastor, how important we feel when we find justification for continuing to live our lives just as we do.  We worship violence as we view it in movies and on TV and as our country’s military budget soars above all others.  We put our faith in walls to keep us safe and help us keep what is “ours.”  We worship ourselves.

                But sooner or later all these kings fail.  They are not forever.  They are not free of corruption.  They cannot give us the satisfaction and hope that God can.  They can’t give us the love and forgiveness and new life that God can.  God reigns and Jesus is our king.  We are subject to his judgment.  We are subject to his laws.  We are subject to his love and new life.  Put aside your other kings and focus on the one who gives us life.  There is no border to his Kingdom.  We are all brothers and sisters.  There is no violence, no greed, no consumers.  There is only loving relationship, inclusion, welcome, forgiveness, hope.  There is new life in this new kingdom which is coming into the world.  

Today, it’s a little bit of a shock on Christ the King day to find Jesus on the cross. This is not a place for a king. A king should be comfortable, protected, honored, and loved. The cry is always, “Long live the king!” Here he is not living but dying. Instead of fine clothes, he has been stripped. Instead of a crown of gold, he wears a crown of thorns. Instead of sitting on a throne, he hangs on a cross. Instead of glory and power, he is weak and powerless.

Or is he? Was it a more powerful act to stay on the cross and not use his power for his own gain, but to show power in vulnerability and remain there to save us all? Jesus had the power, the ability to act, to remove himself from the cross. But he chose not to, because he was the only good king, showing all of us how to use our powers to benefit other people rather than ourselves.

So, now we come to our congregation. We are meant to remember who it is this church represents and whose value system we go by and whose life we follow. There have been times when leaders of this congregation have been good shepherds and times we haven’t. There are times this church has been afraid and other times it has been courageous. There are times this church has been selfish and other times selfless. We are on a journey to follow Jesus and sometimes it seems Jesus is getting through to us and sometimes we miss entirely. Yet, Jesus died to give us the example to follow and the chance to try again when we fail and the chance to give God credit when it goes well.

Despite any shortcomings we’ve had, this is a day when we can truly celebrate what Jesus has done for us and through us. This year we celebrated a baptism and new members, the lives of some wonderful members who rest now in God’s presence, including John Rasmussen, Donna Harrison, Bill Miller, and Bruce Burmeister.  We have a Confirmation class of 6 and Sunday school besides, many young worship assistants offering their gifts.  We’ve adopted this beautiful piano and enjoyed the special music played upon it as well as other offerings of special music.  We’ve had such an outpouring of support for Zarephath including the path and peanut butter and pie. We have furthered our partnership with Santa Cruz and worked together on Lenten services and church cleanup day and got to know each other. We shared our joys and pains, came to one another's aid, and worked together to be a welcoming presence in our community.  We’ve made great strides in our disaster preparedness endeavors, getting ready in case of a small scale disaster to offer water and charging stations to neighbors in need. 

It seems the Gospel story is going to end with Jesus on the cross, but one of those crucified with him see that there is going to be more to this story. Maybe he hears Jesus say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Maybe he perceives that this forgiveness may even extend to him. He takes responsibility for his crime when he states that he deserves what he is getting. He sees that Jesus has done nothing wrong, and in fact is doing everything right. Jesus is offering forgiveness to those who are hurting him. This man wants to be remembered by Jesus. Where others only see a devastating and tragic end, he sees a future, a beginning, an Advent. This story goes on. We know Jesus will rise. We know that we all share in the resurrection and that new life starts immediately, today, in the kind of lives we will live, in the way we will use power to benefit others, in the way we will give ourselves away for the sake of others. Although this reading is depressing and would be shocking if we hadn’t heard it a lot of times, it holds a promise of new life for everyone. Jesus says, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” In fact, paradise is the word for garden. It is as if the readings are taking us full circle from the creation of God’s perfect universe, through sin and brokenness, to God’s intervention and humankind’s efforts to destroy God, to the cross, and finally back to paradise garden again, where we are one with God and this beautiful world God made.

                Pastors and musicians have been a little dismayed to find Joy to the world in the Advent section of our hymnal, because to us That is a Christmas song and Advent is a time of waiting.  But today at least some of the verses are right on, Joy to the world!  Let earth receive our King!  This king is not dressed in jewels and fine fabrics.  This king comes in rags and sandals.  This king is not found in a castle, but in the slums.  This king stoops to wash our feet.  This king feeds us with his body and blood.  This king goes out searching for every last one of us when we are lost.  This king rejoices when he finds us.  This king is not full of self-importance, but love and compassion and mercy.

               May Christ the King rule in our hearts and help us set our priorities.  May we follow the servant King in works of charity and justice, seeing the world’s power for what it is, weak and temporary and an illusion, and looking to God’s kind of power, in vulnerability, in poverty, the truth of the love that lasts and unites this world under the reign of the only one who is trustworthy and genuinely concerned for all life, Jesus Christ, our King.