Brad Sullivan
Proper 29, Year C
Christ the King
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Canticle 16
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
We’re celebrating today Christ the King Sunday, thinking about the Kingdom of God and Jesus as king over everyone and everything. So, I could talk today about Jesus being king of the Jews as the inscription read above his cross. I could talk about him fulfilling the passage from Jeremiah, being the king of David’s line who is also the righteousness of God. I could proof text those passages to make the case that Jesus really is the king of us, and the Jews, and everyone else, but I’m not gonna do that. It would be boring, it would be legalistic, it would be informative, but I don’t think anyone woke up this morning hoping to get a lecture on Jesus’ royal credentials.
Thinking of the kingdom of God makes me think of first grade, walking under the breezeway awning on the way to gym class. It was around this time of year, maybe a little earlier, and being Houston, it hadn’t exactly gotten cold yet. I always looked forward the cold weather. It meant time to snuggle up with mom and dad by the fire place (sometimes we had to turn the A.C. down to do it), but snuggle up to mom and dad nonetheless, and winter-time meant Thanksgiving and Christmas-time, and a break from school. Everything about winter seemed fresh and new and exciting and loving, and my wife, growing up in Philadelphia might disagree; winter probably just meant really, really cold, but for me winter was kind of a magic time of year.
So on a particular day in first grade, I as walking towards gym class, and the first winter breeze of the year came by. I don’t know that winter had actually happened yet. I don’t think it even got any colder with that breeze. It was probably about 65 or 70 degrees, but there was a crispness to the air. It sounded like cold air blowing through cold trees, and that crisp sounding first winter breeze carried with it me the reminder and the promise of all of the beauty and newness and love of winter.
I’d love to say that every year since that year I’ve waited with anticipation for the first winter breeze of the year. But honestly, I sometimes forget, and yet every year, without fail, I have heard the fist winter breeze of the year, and every year, without faith, that breeze has brought with it the promise of renewal and love and the deep knowledge that all is well and all is right in the world.
Now, I realize that not all is right with the world. There’s a lot that’s wrong with the world, but for the few moments of that first winter breeze, all is right, and all is well. That first winter breeze is for me the Kingdom of God breaking through and inviting me in to share in the kingdom life, and it’s inviting me to share in the kingdom life right then in that moment and in every other moment of my life.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians that “[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son…” Notice we’re not waiting to be transferred into God’s kingdom at some future date after our Jesus bond matures. We’re in the kingdom of God right here and now. Jesus told his disciples “the kingdom of God is among and within you.”
Sometimes we know it doesn’t feel that way. Life’s not perfect…yet. There is still darkness in the world and in our lives. Paul didn’t say the darkness is completely eradicated, but that God has rescued us from the power of darkness. We don’t have to be held captive by darkness. When we’re caught up in dark thoughts or dark actions, we don’t have to remain bound by the darkness. When we have enmity towards others and are at odds with one another, we don’t have to stay that way. When we feel weighed down our lives or the world, we don’t have to remain weighed down, because God is with us to dwell with us to strengthen us so that we might, as Paul says, “endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled us [or invited us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” God has rescued us from the power of darkness and continually invites us to live lives of love and joy in the kingdom of God.
So what is this kingdom of God? What is it like? In short, the kingdom of God is like its king. Paul says that “in [Jesus], all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible…all things have been created through him and for him. If all things were created in and through and for Jesus, then the character and qualities and nature of Jesus were woven into the fabric of creation.
So then, what is that character, what are those qualities of Jesus that are woven into creation? Jesus was a man who, as he was dying a slow and brutally painful death, prayed to God to forgive the people who were mocking him and those who were responsible for his death. Jesus loved and forgave his tormentors.
Further, when this criminal is dying next to him, Jesus tells him, “today you will be with me in paradise.” Now we have a challenge with this part of the story, with “the thief who repented” in that we tend toward legalism in how we often read the story. The thief repented so he gets to go to heaven, and that’s the lesson we often take from this. That’s the rule. Even if we’re sinners our whole lives, if we repent just before we die, then we get to go to heaven. Some more devious among us might think, “cool, I don’t have to follow Jesus until just before I die. I can do whatever I want and still get to go to heaven so long as I apologize right at the end…yea Jesus.”
With all of that legalism, however, we miss catching another glimpse of who Jesus is in whose kingdom we live. A man is terrified as he is dying a brutal death, fearful of death, of what may lie beyond, and in the midst of his own brutal death, Jesus takes the time to comfort this man and to assure him not only that he would remember him when he went into his kingdom, but that the man would be with him in paradise.
Jesus is a man of love, forgiveness, and invitation to life in God’s kingdom. Love, forgiveness, invitation to life in God’s kingdom are qualities of Jesus woven into creation. These things are a part of our DNA. All of creation, being made by and through, and for Jesus, all of creation was made with love, forgiveness, and invitation to life in God’s kingdom woven in.
True, we often forget this fact. We overlook it. We don’t live into it, and the beauty of God’s creation, his kingdom, is that in those times, God loves us, forgives us, and invites us into his Kingdom. My wife and I found this out the other night. We had a fight the other night as couples tend to do, and then we talked through things and forgave and loved and were reconciled. I realized later, that was the kingdom of God. In that moment, we were rescued from the power of darkness and invited again to live the kingdom of God life. I also wondered, if that wasn’t a little low brow for the kingdom of God. Isn’t that just a relationship working out well? Isn’t that just repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation? Yes. That’s part of what the kingdom of God is. If the ordinary parts of our lives were not capable of or worthy of being the kingdom of God, then I doubt very seriously that God would have bothered becoming human to live an ordinary human life with us.
The kingdom of God life happens whenever and wherever people love and forgive and live joyful lives, giving thanks to God. The Kingdom of God also shows up in unexpected ways at unexpected times. God’s kingdom blows through us like the first winter breeze of the year for me or whatever way God’s kingdom comes for you. The kingdom is all around and comes with the promise of renewal, with the promise of love, forgiveness, and invitation to share in the kingdom life. Amen.
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