This sermon was delivered at Holy Trinity, Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on Sunday the 20th November 2016; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Canticle 16 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43
Please join me in a short prayer from Psalms 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Amen.
Introduction
Today is known in the liturgical calendar as the “Feast of Christ the King”, and every year that I do a sermon on this, I need to remind myself about what the “Feast of Christ the King”, is all about … and so this year I looked it up in Wikipedia, … and it said that “the feast was instituted by Pope Pius the 11th in 1925, for the universal church because of the increasing denial by secularism, of Jesus as our king, and the power it gave to the church authority”.
So we can see from this that the Christian church was having problems away back in 1925 … and this was made worse by the rise of non-Christian dictatorships in Europe … dictators who were strongly influencing the catholic church … and winning the people over … and by doing so, were asserting their authority over the Church.
And so, just as the Feast of “Corpus Christi” was instituted when devotion to the Eucharist was at a low point, the “Feast of Christ the King” was instituted during a time when respect for Christ and the Church was waning … and it was hoped that the feast would do three things: … first, it should help various nations see that the Church has the right to freedom, and … immunity from the state; … second, that national leaders and their people would show some kind of respect to Christ and the church; and third, … that the faithful would gain strength and courage from the celebration of the feast, as we are reminded that Christ must reign in our hearts, as King.
Where are we today?
That was away back in 1923 … so where are we today? Well, … as you know, the church does has immunity from the state, and every now and them the state may take even notice of the church, if it suits them; … secondly, I have great trouble believing dictators like Hitler, and Mussolini, and Franco, and Ceausescu and a whole host of despots … read their bibles and said their prayers before going to bed at night, and thirdly; … look the empty spaces in our church, I remember this place being full, … but it is not just our church, most churches are struggling with membership in this modern scientific age. An age where individualism is generally the norm, … and only the authority many people acknowledge is for themselves, … and that the idea of Christ as the ruler in their lives is beyond a joke. …. No, sorry for being so cynical here, but I am showing my disappointment that the universal church as a whole has lost, and is loosing much of its credibility in these modern years.
Many people believe in a republic.
And there are many reasons for this as we all know, … and we all have our theories all of which I am sure has a foundation … but one of these theories involves the fact that many people today believe in a republic, … why … because they do not like the idea of kings and queens and the whole system of monarchy … believing it to be obsolete and possibly oppressive. … So it becomes increasingly difficult to promote Jesus as the Lord and King in such a hostile environment, because the words "Lord" and "King" belong to a oppressive system of government.
Jesus is not an earthly king as we know them
And yes, many Lords and Kings over the years have been abusive, intimidating and oppressive, but people being people remember the bad monarchs long after they have forgotten the good monarchs, … however, and this is a big however, … what these people do not understand is the fact that the kingship of Jesus is not one of dictatorship, … but one of humility and service, and Jesus made this clear in John 18:36 when he said, “My kingdom is not of this world”, … which you could be translated, “the way I do things is not as the world would do them, my kingdom has a completely different order”.
And Jesus gives an example of this in Mark 10:42-45, familiar verses where he says … "You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over them. … But it shall not be so among you. … But whoever would be great among you must be your servant … and whoever wants to be first among you, must be the slave of everyone else. … For even the Son of Man, came not to be served, but to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for many".
You see, Jesus here is letting us know that he knows the oppressive nature of secular kings, I mean, look at Herod for instance who ordered the death of all those innocents. … So in stark contrast to them, Jesus connected his role of kingship to humble service, … commanding his followers, that is us, … to be servants as well. … And this is where we Christian struggle, thinking we are to live a life of humility and servitude, where we let everyone walk all over us.
This is not what it means, because by saying Jesus is the king, we really mean that he is the servant king, … a king from another world, another realm even … a king from a far greater world, but a king never the less, and if we are going to life in his kingdom, we should get ready to live the way of his kingdom right now, … realising that it is a far greater way to live, a life where we are demonstrating strength and power and authority, but through service.
True humility and service for others
When we worship Christ as our King, we are not celebrating an oppressive King … but a King who was willing to die for his people … people that did not even know him … or even need him. … He died for people that did not even love him … and some who even hated him … but he died for them all the same. He died to give us true freedom … but freedom only through or in him.
And we know this freedom came at a cost, 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 24 says, "He himself bore our sins, in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin, and live for righteousness”. … Jesus as king, our servant king, did not try to save Himself, for himself, ... Jesus came to earth to save us, … and set us free.
And this is clearly seen in our Gospel readings today, where we see Jesus as the ultimate servant king, … that while he was dying, … he even prayed for those who were doing it to Him, … “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.
And we are familiar with this verse, but what we are not familiar with is that Jesus is not saying this through pity, or weakness, or misfortune, or disappointment … he was forgiving them through strength … Jesus was forgiving people of their sins right up to the very end, because … Jesus was on a mission … and with his dying breath, he was still thinking of others.
… You will therefore notice that this is not the normal way of dying, this is not how modern people think or behave, but Jesus was never normal, … yes he was human, but he came from another realm, … and in that realm, they behaved differently, … they behaved in a way that rings out weakness to us mortals, … but really, behind that weakness is a strength that is so great, but so difficult for us to measure.
Doing the right thing.
What I am getting at here is that Jesus was not afraid, … he was not thinking about himself, … he was not looking for a way out, … he was instead thinking about doing the right thing regardless of the cost, … he was dying a horrible death, to reconcile man to God, … and looking at the people who were crucifying him, … this reminded him that they needed that reconciliation, … and he knew that on the cross, he was doing the right thing.
The children at Sunday school used to sing a song, “gentile Jesus meek and mild”, and somehow we all grow up believing Jesus as being weak, whereas he was showing a strength that non of us could ever imagine, … because while looking down on these evil people, all he could see was the love in their hearts, … love yes, but a love that was so depressed and deeply hidden, … a love that could only be brought to the surface by his death.
And these horrible people in verse 35 said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God … the Chosen One”. … Yes he was the chosen one … but he was chosen to die … he wasn’t chosen to run scared and save himself, … which he could have done at any time, … but had he done so … he would have denied God, … and he would have sided with Satan.
Yes Jesus was physically weak on the cross, but mentally he was a true and worthy king … a king loyal to his subjects, and a king who would not put his personal feelings in the way of their safety. … And this is not new to us, as we see sacrifice being made by him throughout the Gospels, … the most notable being in the Gospel of John when he “took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist,” and began to “wash the feet of his disciples”.
Humbling yourself, stooping low, as God has done.
And do you remember Peter … he wanted nothing to do with this, he said, “You shall never wash my feet” … but Jesus said to him, “Unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me.” … You see from Peter’s viewpoint, Jesus was degrading himself by washing his feet, … yet from Jesus’ viewpoint, he was washing Peters feet through strength, by showing him that he was big enough that he could, … that he was not debasing himself but showing strength that he could stoop down to help them. … Jesus was big enough that he could show them comfort and compassion because … he was in a position to help them, and … he could only help them if he was somebody in authority, as we all know.
… And when Peter worked this out, his response was brilliant, he said, “Then Lord … not just my feet but my hands and my head as well”. … You see, Peter had already worked out that Jesus was the messiah … the messiah sent by God to help his people.
And this is to be our attitude as well, we must be big enough, and strong enough, to humble ourselves and help others. We are not to do it for personal gain, or maybe recognition that the Lord will be impressed, no … we are to help others because we are strong enough to do so.
Gaining strength through humility.
And if we are not, this is a great way of gaining strength and authority, … by helping others … by taking our minds off ourselves, and doing the work he wants us to do. We do not do it to get his approval … we do it because we already have his approval. … And like Jesus our King, our servant leadership is to be unselfish, and forever giving … because servant leadership is leadership without an ego to feed. … And have you ever noticed those leaders who are in service to others … they just seem to have endless energy.
If this is the first time you have heard humility being put in this manner, a manner of strength and authority, as opposed to weakness, then please only try and understand this principle at first, it takes a wee bit to sink in, but when it does, you will see the New Testament opening up for you, … and life will open up for your as well, because it comes with its own rewards which … are kind of difficult to describe, … but you know they are there, and you even begin to feed off them.
A reward for Jesus
Anyway we must ask, what reward did Jesus receive, … well Philippians chapter 2 starting at verse 7 tells us, and you will like this, and I know you know it, but says, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore … God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and … every tongue confess the Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. … That is some reward.
In finishing
Now in finishing, I want to look very briefly at what we have I just said, using that logic, but in reverse order starting from that verse, which concluded “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth”, from which we see clearly that Jesus is a King.
Now, … (here is the physics bit first), our God is the “Alpha and Omega”, meaning that time means nothing to him, … and Jesus came from heaven to earth to save us, … and if Jesus was God before he came to earth as the bible tells us, then he must have been a powerful and clever man which he was, … but what does he do with that power? … He allows himself to be born in a stable … he lived as a lowly carpenter, he lived as any other human being, … he met and dined with the lowest of the low, … and finally, … he died a horrible shameful death on a cross.
I don’t know about you, but to me that took a lot of strength and power of character to do that … power he drew from his father, … his father who was looking after him because he was on his father’s mission to conquer death for humanity … and so he carried out his father mission willingly, despite the complexity.
Conclusion.
… We as Christians hear it all the time from the world, that we are supposed to be weak, to the point of letting others walk all over us, … we are meant to show love to other people so much that we are to “turn the other cheek” to those who would abuse us, … but that way of thinking is not from the bible. … The way of humility is the way of strength and power, … strength and power focused to help others in find their way to the Lord, … and if that means we are to “turn the other cheek” in doing so, then we do it through strength and purpose.
True power and authority stems from putting the Lords humility into practice, … he is our role model, … and like him we are not here to be served, … we are here to serve, in his almighty name.
Amen, and may God bless us in his almighty name.
Please join me in a short prayer, let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he came to earth as human being, and we thank you that he was strong enough to listen to you, and to carry out your mission here on this earth.
Father we confess to you today, that we find this difficult … we find it difficult to communicate to you, and we find it almost impossible to hear your voice.
Father, all of us hear this morning want to hear you voice. … We want to hear that you know everything that is going on …we want to hear that you are in charge … we want to hear that you are watching over us … and we want to hear that you have a plan for our lives, and that you are helping us to work this plan out.
Father we also ask this morning to refresh us, to let us draw strength and power and wisdom from you, so that we will be in a better position to help you, and your mission for this world.
Father you spoke these things constantly to Jesus while he was on this earth, so as people of his, we ask you to speak to us now, in his almighty name.
Amen.
