Sermons for the Month

The King of Stability
DATE: November 25th, 2007
SERVICE: Christ the King Sunday
TEXT: Luke 23:33-43; Colossians 1:11-20

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

You could get whiplash while looking at the images of Jesus that are painted in today's lessons. That's because they are so different, miles apart from one another. (As these descriptions are given, look back and forth, as if one Jesus is on the west side of the church, and the other on the east side.)

In the early Christian hymn that the writer of Colossians offers, our Lord is described as the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. In Luke's Gospel we see a battered and bleeding Jesus dying a horrible death on a cross, an execution reserved for the low-lifes of the Roman world.

Yet, this is the One, Paul proclaims, in whom all things in heaven and in earth were created. Does that include the cross, the nails and the skin-piercing crown of thorns?

In Jesus all things hold together. He is the bonding agent of our lives. Yet, he's in bondage, pelted by insults, ridiculed as he suffers. The head of the church suffers? The firstborn from the dead must put up with a loud-mouthed criminal who mocks the very idea that this so-called Messiah can save?

Is this one in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell Christ the King? Or, is this one, with the sign above his head proclaiming him as King of the Jews truly Christ the King? The answer is YES.

On the cross Jesus is King with the power to forgive. He prays for the soldiers who are inflicting his wound, the Jewish leaders who instigated the crucifixion, the crowd that demanded it and the disciples who have abandoned him. He especially prays for Judas when he asks, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing". He hears the cries for help - both mocking and repentant - from the men beside him who are dying the same horrible death. His forgiveness reaches those who are not yet born, including all of us.

And, three days later, in the resurrection Jesus is King with the power to conquer death.

On the one hand, his suffering on the cross reminds us that there are no depths to which God will not sink to offer us the gift of divine love and grace. (1) On the other hand, his victorious resurrection reminds us that hope abounds; if Jesus is the firstborn of the dead then there will be a second, third and fourth born until the count includes us.

So, in fact, the images are not that far apart; they are merged into one Lord who rules in a unique way. That brings us then to this question, what does he look like for you? As you imagine Jesus, or better yet, encounter him, is he more like the sacrificial King or the exultant King, or a mixture of both? It seems to me that we perceive Jesus differently at various times in our lives. Are you "tuned in" enough to know how he looks to you today?

Now, I admit, that may be difficult to grasp. When I thought about that for myself I went back to the reading from Colossians and was drawn to this description of Jesus, "in him all things hold together." To me, those words speak of continuity, security, or better yet, stability - the sense that my life cannot come apart when Jesus is in the picture, at least not completely.

Joan Chittister, a well-know Benedictine Sister, writes that there are things in life that cannot be avoided: death, illness, change, personal expectations. What each of them does to us, she says, depends a great deal on the way we have dealt with lesser things. The purpose of stability is to center us in something greater than ourselves so that nothing lesser than ourselves can possible sweep us away.

Stability can be a lot of things; for Sister Joan it is the monastic life-style. For me, stability is what I see in Jesus. Wherever I am, Jesus is, no matter how difficult or dull life may be. We live in a world of quick fixes and constant transition which makes it tempting to look beyond ourselves, and beyond Jesus within us, for sources of contentment.

I like what Sister Joan writes about this; she calls it our tendency to wander. "Every store window holds a better bargain. Every relationship promises a more satisfying partnership. Every new place and new person and new possibility tempts me to try again, to try over, to try once more to find the perfect place or at least the place that's perfect for me."

"There comes a time in life," she writes, "when everyone else's family seems to have been better than my own. There comes a moment when having everything seems to be the only way to squeeze even a little out of life. There comes a day when this job, this home, this family all seem irritating and deficient beyond the bearable. There comes a period in life when I regret every major decision I've ever made. That is precisely the time when the spirituality of stability offers its greatest gift." (2)

What she calls the spirituality of stability I translate into my understanding of Jesus as the one who slows me down, calms my heart, shows me the value of the mundane as well as when it's important to take risks. He is the one who holds all thing together, and in doing so is the one who provides the stability I need to grow, whether that means accepting what is or being willing to step out in faith.

That's how Jesus looks to me today; he's the eternal bonding-agent. Who is he for you? It's a good thing to consider, especially as we enter this time of preparing to celebrate his birth.

The image you paint may be different than the descriptions in today's lessons; it may not have anything to do with stability, as is the case for me. Yet, there are things about him that will be true for all of us. He always is the one who through suffering offers forgiveness and through victory offers eternal hope … and that's just a beginning of the list of ways he impacts our lives. Jesus comes to each one of us in different ways to address various needs. Yet, he is divine love and grace present among us and in that he is always and forever Christ the King.

AMEN

(1) "A View from the Cross", November 22, 1998, Luke 23:33-43, www.sermonhelp.com

(2) Wisdom Distilled from the Daily by Joan Chittister, OSB, Harper San Francisco, 1990, pg. 151

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