Apocalyptic as Abstract Thinking about the Future

1 Advent A      November 27, 2016
Is. 2:1-5      Psalms 122
Rom. 13:8-14   Matt. 24:37-44

Lectionary Link

           Happy New Year!  Happy Christian New Year on this first Sunday of Advent.  Advent refers to coming!  Advent is a time for using the language of the future to inspire our lives in the present time.

The Bible is full of language about what is coming.  It is a book of futurism.  But what do we know about the future?  Future is only a function of the present because we can only speak about the future in the present.  So, language about the future is meant to affect our lives right now.

We live by a beckoning toward what is not yet.  And so, we like to anticipate what is not yet.  In our lives, we live by what we call probable outcomes.  In our commonsense lives, we observe what we might call statistical probability.  We know that there are likely predictive outcomes for most things in life.  In fact, we don’t even think about most predictive outcomes.  We have memorized so many redundancies that we take for granted most predictive outcomes.  In fact, when the usual outcome does not happen, then it stands out as unique.

In our commonsense moral lives, we assume what is natural and normal is goodness and freedom from pain.  We assume that fairness should govern our lives.   And when our commonsense universe of goodness, justice and freedom from pain is not the rule of the day, the moral order of the entire world seems to be upset.  When the moral order seems to be upset in our lives and  in societies at large, we call this a crisis.

      During crises, leaders are needed.  Inspiration is needed to help comfort the people in crisis and to help visualize potential future end of the crises.

       Much of biblical literature was written during times of crises when the moral order of goodness and freedom from pain was upset for a significant group of people of faith.  Prophets and teachers arose in these communities of faith to try to comfort people in pain and suffering.  Prophets came to inspire by presenting a visualization of a future beyond the current situation of pain.

         Advent is a season of a future beyond the current pain of life.  Advent is a season of visualizing a better world to inform the world now living with the imperfect practice of justice and love.

In the Bible, such literature is called “apocalyptic” discourse and it is a language of the future.  We read about language of the future in the times of biblical writers, but if the language of the future events written down by writers of the Bible has not resulted in those events actually occurring, what does this tell about apocalyptic and future language?  It tells us that the language functioned to comfort the people who were experiencing a time of crisis in their lives when the commonsense moral order of the world seemed to be upset for a significant number of people of faith.

We’ve read a variety of apocalyptic language today from our appointed Bible readings.  Some apocalyptic language is utopian language.  The prophet Isaiah wrote about perfect arbitration for all the nations of the earth, so perfect that the entire military industrial complex will be converted to agricultural enterprise.  The swords will be beaten into plowshares.  War will not be studied any longer.  How’s that for a rosy future?  How many of you believe such a future awaits us in our lifetimes?  The Psalmist wrote about an idealized Jerusalem and yet requests for prayers for the peace of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, the city of peace, has been anything but that for most of the years of its history.  St. Paul wrote even though the salvation of Christ has arrived, there is some more salvation which was soon to come.  Yes, people knew certain degree of spiritual health, and yet there was still significant more to come.  The Gospels have writing within them which include language of futurism, language of the apocalyptic.  Sometimes the early Christians were living in peace and comfort and during those times, it seemed as those God’s kingdom had arrived as the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. But sometimes the early Christians went through times of suffering and persecution and were even subject to martyrdom.  During these times the oracle of Christ occurred within their communities to comfort them to indicate an intervention to end the time suffering.  The metaphors and images of the apocalyptic were used to proclaim that suffering, would at some point have an end.  So, we have the futurism that people often call the rapture, the theme of either being left behind or taken.

One can see in apocalyptic writing various language used for motivation and for comfort.  Behavioral psychologists refer to at least two forms of stimulus response in learning behaviors, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.  And probably most of us would like to think that we respond best to positive reinforcement.  For our apocalyptic language we probably prefer the Walt Disney approach to a future utopian world even though we know it is a serious abstraction from what is actual in the world.  Utopian apocalyptic discourse is the positive reinforcement of a war-free world.

If we’re honest, sometimes it is only the fear of punishment or future harm which influences us to learn better behaviors.  We don’t like to admit that discourses about what we fear can motivate us.  But they do.  And so in the apocalyptic genre we have language of negative reinforcement.  If you know that your house might be broken into and robbed or injury come to you, what would you do?  You prepare with an alarm system or a security guard.  The possibility of bad things happening influences how we behave now.  The apocalyptic discourse of the Bible includes the language of negative reinforcement.

Biblical apocalyptic language used language of the future.  We are now living in a future many years after the language of the  apocalyptic was used in the Bible.  And that future has not occurred.  So, what does that tell us about apocalyptic futurism?  It tells us that apocalyptic language is an abstraction from the hard reality of life.  Apocalyptic language presents us with rather stark contrasts with what is happening in actual life and for what purposes?

It is for the purpose of survival that such visions of hope are proclaimed  to us to enable us to live by faith now, no matter what happens.  As much as we may want to wish the free conditions of life to permit only good and positive things to happen, we know that this is not true to life.

We know that to varying degrees good and ill are spread unevenly across the years of our lives and across the world even now.   We know it is always the best of times and the worst of times somewhere and somehow.

You and I need to have actuarial ability to live with the free conditions of time.  So did the people for whom the words of the Bible were originally written.  The reason that Bible has inspired relevance for us today is that we like people of all time live under the conditions of everything that can possibly happen to us.

We need a variety of instruction and teaching about the future to help us live our lives in a state of preparation for what is yet to come.

What is coming to your life?  What Advent of God is coming to your life?  What Advent of God is coming to your family?  To our parish?  To our state, country and world?  The apocalyptic language teaches us the abstract thinking of probability thinking so that we might be both comforted and motivated to live with purposeful faith in our lives today.

The Advent of Christ is always the future beckoning to us.  Let us live toward the Advent Christ.  In the most relevant way, the Advent of Christ for each of us is surpassing oneself in excellence in a future state.   The future Phil in different conditions of time beckons the current Phil in the current conditions of this time and place.   Let each of us look to surpass ourselves in excellence as we know the motivational relevance of the continuous Advent of Christ in our lives today.  Amen.

Sunday School, November 27, 2016 1 Advent Cycle A

Sunday School, November 27, 2016      1 Advent Cycle A

Themes:

The Beginning of Christian New Year

Review the calendars in our lives.  The Gregorian Calendar that we use.  School calendars, Sports Calendars, Work Calendar, Concert Season Calendars.  The Country’s Patriotic Time and Official Holidays.

Have children list the number of calendars in their lives.  Calendars are used to measure time.  Different calendars measure time in different ways depending upon the human events which are occurring at different times.

The Church Calendar

Why do we have one?  Because we want to schedule that time that we give to God, through learning throughout the year about the meaning of God for our lives.

How does the Church Calendar work?  It works like a school curriculum.  The church takes the Christian program of learning and divides it into a yearly cycle to presentation.  The year is divided into six seasons.  These seasons give us the opportunity to review each year different teachings about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the life of the church.

What are the seasons?  Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost

What does Advent mean?  It means “Coming.”  It refers to the first coming of Christ when he came as the baby Jesus at Christmas.  So the season of Advent is a time to prepare for Christmas.  It also refers to the future comings of Christ in our lives and the life of the world.  We believe that Christ will come to our future and this gives us hope that the future can be better no matter what seems to be happening in our lives or in our world.

What do we read during Advent from the Bible?  We read about John the Baptist and how he helped prepared the way for Jesus.  We also read about the future and how God will establish fairness and justice and how the promise of fairness in the future can help us survive now when we realize that our lives are not perfect and some harmful things are happening now even to good people.  During Advent, we believe that a future perfect world is still calling us as a model for how we can become better.

What is an important word during Advent?  Repent.  Repent means to Educate ourselves to keep changing our minds with better knowledge and wisdom, not just to know more, but to change our behavior as a way of preparing to greet Jesus as our friend.

A Sermon:

Happy New Year!  Did you have a big New Year Eve’s party last night?  Did you know that today is the first day of the new Christian Year.  Today is the First Sunday of Advent.  Let us renew our Seasons of the Christian Year.  Repeat after me.  Advent.  Christmas. Epiphany.  Lent East and Pentecost.  Now what is the color for the Season of Advent?  Purple.  And what kind of season is Advent?  Is it a celebrating season like Christmas and Easter?  No, it is a serious season.  A season of training and preparation.  Sometimes with all of the early Christmas parties, Advent is just seen as a speed bump in the road as people are racing to a Christmas celebration.

  Advent is a time for us to pray just a little bit more.  To give just a little bit more to those who are needy.  And to take good care of our selves.  Take good care of our bodies.  We see all of the Christmas sweets coming out early, but remember Advent is a time to prepare and take care of ourselves.  And why should we take care of our selves and our world?

  Because Advent means: Coming.  We are preparing for the coming of someone very important.  When someone special is coming to your house, what do you do?  You rush around and clean up the house.  You fix some special food because you want everything just right for the coming of the special people in your life.

  During Advent, we prepare our selves for the coming of Jesus Christ.  And Christ comes to us in many ways.  Christ came to us as the Baby Jesus in the manger, and that is what we celebrate at Christmas.  Christ comes to us each day in special way through the love and care of our family and friends.  Christ comes to us as we gather to bless the bread and the wine and receive the presence of Christ into our hearts and as we know that Christ is as near to us as the bread and wine become after we eat and drink.  We also believe that Christ will come in our future in many special ways.

  So, Advent is a season of preparation, when we make our selves always ready for the special coming of Christ in our lives.

  So before we rush to Christmas celebrations, let us remember that we are in the season of Advent.  And Advent is a special season of preparation for the coming of Christ.  Is Christ welcome in your home?  Is Christ welcome in your life?  Of course he is.  Advent is season when we practice for the welcoming of Christ into our lives.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 27, 2016: The First Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: We Light the Advent Candles, If You’re Happy and You Know It,  Father, I Adore You,  Soon and Very Soon

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song:  We Light the Advent Candles (While lighting the first purple candle)

We light the Advent candles against the winter night, to welcome our Lord Jesus who is the world’s True Light, to welcome our Lord Jesus who is the World’s True Light.

The first one will remind us that Christ will soon return.  We light it in the darkness and watch it gleam and burn.  We light it in the darkness and watch it gleam and burn.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Prophet Isaiah

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 122

Peace be within your walls *and quietness within your towers.

For my brethren and companions' sake, * I pray for your prosperity.

Because of the house of the LORD our God, * I will seek to do you good."

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – 

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it, then your face should surely show it.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

…Make a high five…. 

…shout Amen!….

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat the bread and drink the wine, we can know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as this food and drink that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song:   Father, I Adore You (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 56)

1          Father, I adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.

2          Jesus….

3          Spirit…

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Soon and Very Soon (Renew! # 276)

1-Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King; soon and very soon we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Alleluia, alleluia, we are going to see the King.

2-No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there we are going to see the King.  Alleluia, alleluia, we are going to see the King.

3.  Repeat verse 1

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

Sunday School, November 27, 2016      1 Advent Cycle A

Interfaith Thanksgiving Meditation

Thanksgiving is more universal in humanity than in the ways it has become celebrated within my faith tradition, so I begin outside of any tradition and contemplate the natural place of Thankgiving within human experience.  Thanksgiving is the celebration of the completion of exchanges of human reciprocity.  Someone has a need, someone addresses and fulfills the need and thanksgiving celebrates the completion of a human contract.  To be thankful is to be those who have needed others.  To be thankful is a perpetual calling to use one's gifts to give other people the occasions to be thankful.  To be thanked is the esteem of being useful to and appreciated by another person.  To be thankful is to appreciate the timeliness of someone in the provision of a needed gift.

Thanksgiving is important gift that human beings have to give  to God who has everything but who draws from us this gift.  Thanksgiving is valuable because it comes from an exercise of our freedom.  Thanksgiving comes from the sense of satisfaction and enjoyment when a need is met.  God supplies the human need for the sense of the holy and transcendent.

The weekly Sunday ritual in our church is called Holy Eucharist, also call Holy Communion and The Mass.  Eucharist is from the Greek language and it literally means Thanksgiving.  So for us, Thanksgiving is not a once a year secular holiday, it is the essence for why we gather as people of faith.

In our Eucharist, we acknowledge that all things have come from the plenitude of God.  We have the privilege to recognize this and thanksgiving is how we offer back to God what is already God's.  And in so doing we believe that in this event of covenant between God and us, God meets us with the promise of the continued divine presence in our lives.  We observe this renewal rite by making our selves intentionally present to God and believing that God, in turn, renews the divine presence with us.  Eucharist is a liturgy of the Thanksgiving exchange between God and us.

In Thanksgiving, we are invited to both the general theory of thanksgiving and the individual articulated events of thanksgiving.  From the cloister of our familiar communities we may profess the general thanksgiving beliefs of our particular religion but in practice we can become like the proverbial Charlie Brown:  "I love mankind, it's people I can't stand."

I am thankful for God; it's those Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, Atheist neighbors I am not thankful for.  Remember we validate general thanksgiving by particular practice of thanksgiving to real and particular people.

We are called to live beyond the religious ritual of confessing that we are thankful for God; we are called to be individually and particularly thankful for the many, many different people who are brought into our lives each day.  Thanksgiving as specific and particular appreciation of actual people is how we make our prayers of thanksgiving valid in our every day lives.  We are called to be thankful in new ways for new people beyond our own familiar communities.  We honor the American tradition tonight by expressing our thanksgiving for one another in this diverse gathering of people of faith.

Let us turn to each other and say: Thank you for being here.  Thank you for being who you are.  This world and my life has need of you.

Christ as King?

Last Sunday after  Pentecost, Cp29, November 20, 2016  Christ the King

Jeremiah 23:1-6  Ps. 46           

Col. 1:11-20    Luke 23:23-33   

Lectionary Link

   The Gospels are literature of the early church which gather pieces of Christian information from the root event of Jesus Christ through the time when the last editor did a "final" textual edition of a Gospel.  The Gospel is like quilt work piecing together material of the garments of thinking, preaching and reporting and recombining them in a form to serve up the intentions of the writers.
  The feast of Christ the King is a relatively late addition to calendar of the church and the lectionary makers decided to instantiate the Christ as King with a portion of the Lucan Passion account.
  In using the account of the crucifixion as a reading about Christ the King, we are invited to the sense of irony that the Gospel writer has about the meaning of Christ as King.  Irony occurs when many reading audiences have competing relationships to a certain idea based upon the circumstances of their relationship with the subject matter.
  What did the Gospel writers believe?  They believed that Jesus had a cosmic birth with legendary birth discourses that rivaled the birth discourses of the famous Caesar.  If Caesar was the king of the earthly realm; Christ was the one above all angels,  principalities and powers in the invisible realm, a realm which though invisible can be found everywhere.  It is a realm, a kingdom, into which the Gospel writer has access through the receiving the Holy Spirit.
  The Gospel writer is able to rewrite the passion of Jesus from having a post-resurrection "elevated" perspective.  Such an elevated perspective accounts for the pronounced understanding of Christ as King while being crucified.
  One of the most ironic evidence of Christ the King on the cross is the presentation of his clemency.  A king has the power to pardoned.   There are two acts of kingly clemency offered from the cross.  Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."  What an irony, "Guys don't you know you've just about to kill the king of angels?  That's really ignorant.  But Father forgive them for their ignorance about me."  The other act of clemency is seen in the interchange between the repentant thief and Jesus.  A king has the permissive power to say, "It's never too late to change the direction of one's life, even one's death bed.  Forgiven, not just forgiven but promised to be conveyed to and met in Paradise."  Only a king has the power of the clemency, but from the cross?  The cross is the ultimate place of weakness of Jesus and yet he is presented as asking for forgiveness of the ignorant and granting clemency to the repentant thief.  This is the ironic king of the Gospel writer.
  The Gospel writers goes to some detail to show what the Roman soldiers believed about Jesus as King.  They saw him as a pathetic pretender to the throne.  Those who presented Jesus for trial cried, "We have no king but Caesar."  It was very dangerous in Palestine to be regarded as an unsanctioned king.  King Herod was a king of the Jews but he served as a loyal surrogate for Caesar.  And then there was the dual notion of messiah and king.  Many Jews did not regard Jesus to be a messiah or a king, because they expected the king-messiah to be one who would come with the show of force to deliver Israel.
  This highlights a further ironic; the disagreement between the followers of Jesus and the Jews who remained in the synagogue regarding the meaning and manifestation of the messiah.
  There is plenty of evidence that even followers of Jesus wished he had been more than a wisdom teacher and wonder worker; some had hoped that he would also be exempt from suffering and death.
  The reason that the Gospel writer was not a member of the synagogue was that the writer believed in Jesus as the Messiah as one who was anointed or selected by God in a very special way through his life, death, post-resurrection appearances and the ability for an experience of Christ to be accessible to so many new and different people.  For the Gospel writer, the outcome and success of the church was proof of the messiahship of Jesus.  God did something different with Jesus than the notion of the messiah which prevailed in the synagogue.  God did something different with Jesus than being an earthly king like the Caesar.
  Jesus was the Messiah because He manifested the divine appointment by being God's unique Son who invited each person to know oneself as a child of God.  Jesus was the Messiah because He by God's power reappeared to his disciples after his death.  This power of reappearance was proof of his preserved and continuing life.  Further, even when the Risen Christ was no longer appearing in apparent visible ways, He became known within the interior lives of people who claimed to have their hearts cleansed by the presence of God, the Holy Spirit.  The experience of the early Christians compelled them to confess Jesus as the One totally possessed with God's messianic purpose and so for them, Christ was indeed the King.  Jesus as the Messiah was able to make many people feels as thought they were sons and daughters of God.  As a king, he was able to usher many into a Royal Family.
  How do we appropriate Christ as the messiah today?  We accepted that he has ushered us into the family God.  We celebrate this in our baptisms.  The Chrism of baptism is related to the Christ, the messiah, the anointed one.  The anointing with the oil of chrism bespeaks that each of us is to be taken into God purpose within the ministry that we are given in our lives.  The chrism of baptism, signifies to us that we can find the charisma, the inner charm to complement any outer ministry or vocation we have in this life.  We can be talented people with many gifts, but without the inner grace, the charism of being taken into God's purpose, we can have empty vocations and empty ministry.
  Today we confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ and the king because we believe that we can find the inner grace to add an inexpressible spice to the ministries and vocations of our life.
  Christ is the King of the invisible realm who will not force himself on the lives of people in the visible realm, but He will allow himself to known by anyone who wishes his forgiveness and divine grace.
  Today, with joy and with the irony of the Holy Spirit, we confess Christ as our King.  Amen.

Last Sunday after  Pentecost, Cp29, November 20, 2016  Christ the King

Jeremiah 23:1-6  Ps. 46           

Col. 1:11-20    Luke 23:23-33   

  Today, on the Feast of Christ the King, we have the rather ironic proclamation of Jesus as King.  We have read an account of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.  The Roman soldier wrote a mock inscription above Jesus on the Cross in three different languages: This is the King of the Jews.

  Remember the Gospel is the literary art of spirituality of the early church.  The writer knew that in telling the story of Jesus the use of this inscription would be full of ironic meanings.  Why?  In the context of the actual life of Jesus, Herod was the King of the Jews, but also Caesar was the King of Jews, because Herod was just a "puppet" regional king for the Caesar of Rome.  The meanings are further problematized because of nuances to the very meaning of the word "king."  The Hebrew scripture uses at least two words for "king."  A king was a "malik" or a "mashiach."  In the history of Israel the rulers of other nations would normally be called "malik" or king.  "Mashiach" meant king in a different sense.   Mashiach comes from the act of anointing with oil.  This was a rite of designating that God had chosen or set aside someone for a divine purpose.
  In the record history of Israel, the age before the kings of Israel was the age of the Judges.  We are told that God did not want Israel to have a king; they were guided in leadership by religious figures.  But the people of Israel clamored to have kings like their neighbors; kings who could assemble armies and protect them.  Samuel warned the people of Israel that kings would be costly; they would take taxes and men for armies.  But the people decided they wanted to be like the surrounding nations and have their own king and so Samuel under divine guidance anointed Saul as the first king.  Saul then was both a king and a messiah.  The king of Israel was supposed to have a dual function; he was to be a king in the secular sense, but also a king in the sense of being committed to God divine purposes.  Saul and his family lost their "messiahship," and Samual anointed David to be the messiah and king of Israel.  David, who was far from perfect, was regarded to be the kingly ideal and he achieved the divine purpose of unifying Israel and setting the kingdom up for his son Solomon who was anointed and whose most significant achievement was the building of the first Temple.
  One can see a degree of flexibility in the term messiah.  A messiah could be a king and a king a messiah.  A messiah-king could also lose the messiah designation, like Saul did.  Priests could also be designated as messiahs in certain roles.  Foreign kings like Cyrus and Darius could be designated as messiah in that they preserved the Jewish people in exile and sponsored the rebuilding of the temple.
  During the intertestamental period the notion of the messiah was developed to address the expectations of a suffering people to have arise for them a messiah king who could restore the kingdom of Israel to independence and freedom.  It was "almost" sacrilegious to call someone a king or messiah of Israel if it did not involve the freedom and independence of Israel.
  So Messiah became the designation for a future superhero figure who would be God's obvious choice for a significant political intervention in Israel.
  Jesus of Nazareth came into Palestine and even to have it suggested that he was the Messiah was both significant and controversial.  Everyone did not agree upon the meaning of the Messiah.  Many thought that the messiah should also be a powerful earthly king who would bring judgment and deliverance.
  So to say Christ the King, is to suggest that the Messiah should have some significant political sway in the world.
  The feast of Christ the King promoted by Pope Pious IX in the 1920's  when the papal states in Italy were being taken from papal control.  The Pope could no longer be a "earthly political leader."  He was soon to limited to control of only the Vatican compound.  This was also after the Bolshevik revolution and the increasing rise of completely secular if not atheistic forms of government. 
  So the threatened Pope thought it would be good to have a Feast of Christ the King, as a way of asserting the significance of Christ to the political world.
  We know that in America religion and politics can often be problematic.  We live with a government that was formed to keep specific religious practices out of government even while protecting everyone personal freedom to worship when and where they want, except if they get pushy about forcing one's particular religious expression upon people who don't want them.
  I think that you and I can appropriate the feast of Christ the King through an understanding of our baptism.
  The oil of baptism is called Chrism.  Chrism comes from the same root word, for Christ, or Christos.  Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, the anointed.
  You and I in our families and in the parish and in our vocation need what I would call both outward position and inward affirmation.
  A king or leader can have the official position within society.  But a king can be really a failure.  He can be a tyrant and an oppressor.  He can be feared and secretly hated by his people.
  To be a good king, a king needs to have the official position but also the inward charisma of kingship.  Through charisma the king wins the respect of people.
  You and I in our lives we might have outer signs of positions and ministry.  We might have the outward profession of faith.  We may have degrees and certificates which announce to the world that we have the authority to do this or that.  But if we do not have the inner grace or charisma in what we do, we can be empty holders of positions.  We can have valid and official ministry without have effective and graceful ministry.
  When we measure the worth of office and charisma, the charisma is more important and it is more validating in its effect.  When we look at Jesus of history, we find that he did not have a palace or throne.  But he did have a winsome charisma to attract the profound allegiance of a group of followers.  When we look at the Risen Christ, we understand that the realm of Christ is not in the trappings of earthly kings; the realm of Christ is with that interior realm of grace and it is a total charismatic grace-filled realm, to which everyone who wishes can have access.
  I do not believe that Christ can be understood as an earthly king or leader.  Yes, leaders have and claim to rule on behalf of Christ and often for good reason, namely the protection of the rights of Christians, but the natural order of this world may never be completely the kingdom of Christ because the kingdom of Christ cannot be an imposed order.  An imposed order would violate the most cherished notion of moral and spiritual worth, namely the freedom to choose Christ as the king and lord of our lives.
  When we were baptized we were anointed with Chrism, and so we have become anointed ones, even little messiahs.  But before we get inflated complexes, let understand the meaning of our anointing.  It means that you and I can be taken up into a higher purpose, a divine purpose as we allow the Holy Spirit to guide the words and deeds of our lives.  And while we may attain significant positions, vocations, ministries with official designation, let us seek to have first of all the charisma of our callings.  Let us seek to have that inner charm which can help us be winsome through service of others in our practice of love, kindness and justice.
  On this feast of Christ the King, let us not think about being a strong church with power to force the conversion of all people; let us seek to have the messianic anointing of our baptism be realized through the charisma, the inner grace of our lives which enables us to win others to the charismatic purposes of Christ through love, kindness and justice.
  If each Christian is able to get into the charismatic or graceful purpose of one's life, then we can be heavenly citizens, cosmic citizens while we try to make local living as heavenly as possible for as many people as possible.
  This, I believe, is the very best way to celebrate on this day and in our lives, Christ as King.  Let us make the Christ the Cosmic King very, very local through grace-filled charismatic living today.   Amen.