Christ the King Sunday
I was in 4th
grade when I ran away from home. I had just started the gifted
program at my school and it was one of those deals where they took all
of us “gifted kids” out of the classroom and we went to a special
program one day each week. We were given extra assignments and got to
do different things. Well, it was the night before my second day in
the gifted program. The first week we were given an assignment to do
a 1 page report on something, I don’t remember what the topic was. My
best friend and I talked about how we were going to complete the
assignment because neither one of us had ever written a report like
that before. We both decided the best thing to do was to go home to
our encyclopedias and just start copying until we got our one page
written. So that is what we both did. The night before that
assignment was due, my dad asked me how my homework was going and I
showed him my assignment and how I had just finished my one page
report. He looked and me and said, “Chad, you can’t do that. You
can’t just copy it straight from the encyclopedia. That is called
plagiarism and it’s a form of stealing.” I had never heard of
plagiarism before and I wasn’t buying it. I protested that that was
what my friend Eric was doing and his parents were okay with it. I
had completed the assignment and I was ready to go play. I certainly
wasn’t going to spend any more time on this assignment, especially if
it meant I couldn’t copy it from somewhere else. My dad reiterated
that this was NOT how we did things in this house. We do not cheat
and we do not steal. After lots of arguing, yelling, crying, and
getting upset, I said, “Fine. Then I’m not going to live here
anymore.” I went straight to the closet, grabbed a big fluffy
blanket, put my slippers on and ran away. I stormed out of the house
and I headed straight for a fort that I had made in the bushes. I
decided that that’s where I was going to live from now on. I was glad
I had taken the blanket because I remember it being cold outside.
After what seemed like an entire night, I began to get scared. I was
10 years old, I was cold, and I was living in my parents’ bushes.
Thankfully, eventually my dad came outside to get me. In reality, I
was probably only out there 15 minutes or so but he told me we were
going to Arby’s to get milkshakes. Milkshakes were the last thing I
wanted at the time, but I was living in the bushes – I had no choice
but to go along with him. We went to Arby’s so we wouldn’t yell at
each other and make a scene and we worked things out over milkshakes.
Across the table from my dad at Arby’s, I began to realize how
important he really was to me in my life. And I realize now that it
is not until we are faced with our own mortality do we really begin to
appreciate the things and the people around us. Its not until we are
sitting in those bushes with nothing but a blanket do realize how much
we have been given in life.
As I talk with people
about their faith in Jesus and the power that God has in their life,
the times that people feel closest to God and feel like Jesus really
is Lord of their life are the times when they have struggled the most
– when they have lost loved ones, or when they have been struck by
tragedy or found themselves in an incredibly difficult situation.
Those are the times that most Christians point to when they say that
Jesus is with them. A Lutheran theologian I was listening to a couple
weeks ago summarized it best when he said that “You have to be aware
of your own mortality in order to receive the good news of life in
Jesus Christ.” And by mortality, he meant that you have to be aware
of your own sin, your own brokenness in order to receive the good news
of life in Jesus Christ.
Now, being a human
being, especially being a young male, I don’t like to hear that. I
don’t like to hear that I’m broken, that I have sinned, that I have
hurt others, that I need someone other than myself to help me out, to
save me. But it’s the truth. You’d better believe I was broken that
night in 4th grade and I am just as broken today. My
actions, my thoughts, and my words are not worthy to be in the
presence of the majesty of Jesus Christ the King. And based on the
truth of the Bible, I can say that your actions, your thoughts, and
your words are not worthy to be in the presence of the majesty of
Jesus Christ the King either. We have argued with, yelled at,
cheated, stolen from, cried to, and ran away from God. More times
than not, we all find ourselves in the bushes, hunkered down, cold and
alone because we refuse to do it God’s way. And if we don’t find
ourselves there, we at least deserve to be there.
And this is where we
come to Jesus Christ the King, which is who we are celebrating today
and why our service is so unusual. Most kings, most leaders are
content to let the broken, the poor and the outcasts be pushed to the
fringes of society – out of sight, out of mind. I think of all the
kings of history who enslaved entire nations and let the poor get
poorer while they sat in their castles getting fat and gaining riches
through higher taxes. I think of presidents and congressmen who for
decades thought it was okay for women and for people of color to be
denied the right to own property and the right to vote. I think of
present day governors who purge thousands of people from Medicaid and
deny them access to medical care.
And then I think of who
our true king is and where we have found him within the past year. We
saw that our king wasn’t born in a royal palace and given lots of
servants. Our king was born on the fringes of society, in a manger
because there wasn’t even room in an inn. His first clothes weren’t
silk or gold, but rather bands of cloth that he shared with animals.
The first people to recognize him as king were the surly shepherds,
the working class. How many of us weren’t born into luxury and have
had to work hard for a living? Jesus is our kind of king. Now sure,
kings did come and pay homage to our king, but with this came death
threats and our king was whisked away to the far away land of Egypt.
How many of us feel displaced at times, feel threatened, feel
overwhelmed with our current situation? It is good news that Jesus is
our king.
This past year, we’ve also seen our
king hanging out with lepers, helping the blind to see, feeding the
hungry, bringing good news to the poor, and in strange stories with
surprising twists. Our king doesn’t sit in his mansion making
judgments against the poor and helpless telling them that if they want
help they need to first help themselves. No, our king is found among
the people, helping the people, sharing with the people, and helping
them carry their burdens. How many of us need this kind of king
because at times we are all sick, hungry, spiritually dry, worn out,
and victims of our circumstances. We all find ourselves in these
difficult circumstances and it is here where we realize that it is
good news that Jesus is our king and he is with us.
This past year we’ve also seen our
king hanging on a cross, dead. Again, this is not normally a place
that we see great leaders – hanging from a tree and buried in a
borrowed tomb. Yet, there was Jesus Christ our King, dying to defeat
the one thing that affects us all – sin. He was God and he gave up
everything so that we could live. God died that day so that he could
show us how much he loves us and how precious we all are to him. It
is good news that Jesus is our king and I’m not sure why you wouldn’t
want a king who is willing to die a humiliating death to save his
people.
And perhaps the strangest place we’ve
seen our king this past year is where we didn’t see him. We found him
missing from a vacated tomb! His absence from the grave is perhaps
his greatest moment of glory. Our seemingly powerless king is really
so powerful that not even death could stop him.
As we have gone through the Jesus
story this past year and this morning, I hope you have recognized that
Jesus Christ our King has always gone to the most God-forsaken
places. This is the way our king operates and does his work. And
this is good news for all of us because we often find ourselves in the
most God-forsaken places feeling like God has forsaken us. When in
reality, what God has forsaken is what we typically think of as a
king. God has forsaken all of that kind of power and has come to us
in the form of Jesus so that we could return to him and be a part of
his kingdom. It is good news that Jesus is our king.
The night that I ran away in 4th
grade, my dad came to me as Jesus Christ the King. I ran away, yet he
came and he found me. He saved me from my ignorance, my stupidity, my
sin and my shame. He brought me back into the family that I had
gladly walked out of and then he showed me how to live a life pleasing
to God. As we’ve gone through the Jesus story, I hope you’ve realized
that each of you are part of his story. When you do the work of
Christ, when you reach out to the fringes, when you work to heal and
to bring peace, when you forgive, when you seek the will of God, you
become Christ to others. And on the flip side, in those times when
you are faced with your own mortality and brokenness, when you find
yourselves in those God-forsaken places, realize that our King is
right there with you, saving you, healing you, and meeting you right
where you are, even if you’re hiding in the bushes. Amen.
