November
24, 2013
Last
Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
“Christ
The King” Sunday
The Rev. David Kendrick
I was only two when
John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and so I have no personal memory of that
day. But since it was the first time
that American history was televised, the images can make you feel as if you
were there. And because I suspect that
many of you do have a personal memory of that day, I'm sure that the emotions of
so many millions of Americans have reverberated down to this day. I feel for Caroline the daughter. Somebody wondered online how it must feel for
her to have her father's death still treated like a cold case. I also wonder how it feels to know far more
of your father's secret faults than most children ever learn, and to have that
paraded before millions.
Those for whom his
murder is still a cold case, and those who focus on the underside of his life
and presidency, may have very different opinions of his greatness. But they have one thing in common:
suspicion. And it saddens me to say that
perhaps the most enduring legacy of President Kennedy's assassination is
suspicion of those in authority. Over
the past 50 years, some of those suspicions have been confirmed, most have
not. There was another anniversary this
past week, the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, where
he spoke of his hope that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, would not parish from the earth.
Even government of the people requires shepherds, albeit elected
shepherds. And I still mourn the loss of
trust in our shepherds.
But truth be said,
it has always been thus. Our suspicion
of the shepherds is really the same message that God has been sending ever
since the prophet Jeremiah first spoke the Word of God to the religious and
political leaders of Jerusalem: “Watch out, you shepherds who destroy and
scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the LORD. This is what the LORD the God of Israel,
proclaims about the shepherds who ‘tend to’ my people: You are the ones who
have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven’t attended to their
needs.” We are rightly suspicious of
those would-be shepherds who would demand our service, in the government and in
the church. We Americans especially
prize our independence from authority.
We don't like to call anybody “Lord.”
And that is respected even in our church. Look through our Book of Common Prayer, and
you'll find that only priests and deacons are to “obey” anybody, namely bishops.
But can we confess
that something, or somebody, is our Lord?
Back in his “Born Again” phase, Bob Dylan still wrote some really good
songs, one of them being, “Gotta Serve Somebody.”
You may be rich or
poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in
another country under another name…
You may be a
construction worker working on a home
You may be living in
a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns
and you might even own tanks
You might be
somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
But you’re gonna
have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to
serve somebody
Well, it may be the
devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna
have to serve somebody
It’s not that
simple. There are lots of forces out
there, and not all of them are bad in themselves. We just end up giving them too much authority
over our lives. But on this day, we
acknowledge that there is one person who has authority over us, Jesus the
Christ, whose title, “Christ” means “Anointed King.” He is not some disembodied spirit that we
might feel on the back of our neck. He
is a real human being, who walked and talked and acted like the only kind of
King whose power is truly secure. We see
this King, who let himself be nailed to a cross, and said, “Father, forgive
them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”
We see this king whose authority did not rest on winning a battle or
destroying his enemies, or creating an empire with heavily fortified
borders. We see this King offering mercy
and forgiveness to those who ask for it, whatever they have done. There is nothing in the Gospel to indicate
that the “Good Thief” on the cross was actually being executed for
stealing. It might be more accurate to
call him, “Good Murderer,” or even, “The Good Terrorist.” No matter; this King takes anybody in,
including you and me, with all our secret faults.
Jesus is our Lord,
and if he is Lord then [blank] is not.
How would you fill in that blank?
Earlier this week, a group called Occupy Advent posted this very
question online. Here are some of the
answers they got:
If Jesus is Lord,
then my anxiety is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my view of perfection is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my sexual desires are not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my need for security is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then circumstance is not.
If Jesus is Lord
then my grades are not.
If Jesus is Lord
then Black Friday is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my pain is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my failures are not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then your opinion of me is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my paycheck and bank account are not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then the Book of Discipline (and all church “law”) is not.
If Jesus is Lord,
then my schedule is not.
We all have lords in
our life. It’s just that usually,
they’re not the ones we’re the most conscious of. They’re not the lords that we’re the most
suspicious of. They’re the lords that we
don’t even think about when we instinctively react, as opposed to thoughtfully
respond.
On this Sunday, the
Church year ends. Next Sunday the Church
year begins with the first Sunday of Advent.
On this Sunday, we see Jesus dying.
Next Sunday we begin to prepare for Jesus’ coming. In that Advent season of preparation, there
will be time to consider all those forces that claim to be our lords and how
they affect our actions. In that Advent
preparation, there will be time to learn what we should be suspicious of. But know this Sunday that no earthly power is
bigger than the Life whose only power is that of self-giving love. And he is our only Lord, in this life and the
next, now and for eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment