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What does the sovereignty of Christ
look like to you? How do you experience
it? Reflecting upon these texts this
past week had me hear some scriptures outside of the texts beginning to tell me
or remind me of the story of Grace coming into the world, facing the cross and
resurrecting into a lifetime’s journey for each and every one of us who profess…
“11b…Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus
is Lord was the first creed penned by Saint Paul in his letter to the
Philippians. Christ the King Sunday is the celebration of why we call Jesus
Lord. Jesus is Lord, IS the reason why we have considered in the beginning
there was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. We are also told that the Word is formed by
breath—spirit, fire and it is shared as well in this manner. Actions speak
louder than words is the human response either shaped by Grace or shaped by
sin. Gracious or graceless is my understanding of our call.
Today's
Gospel challenges us to see the face of Christ in our neighbor to also see the
face of Christ in ourselves especially when we are aware of our sins. These are
sins of commission. We can however, all too easily become greedy and
indifferent in our lives labors and reach to neighbor in fact Satan preys on it
and makes it even more attractive to do so. These are the daily sins of
omission.
Why is
this creed, Jesus is Lord, so important for the modern disciple to say and
think about and pray upon daily? I would say why it is critically important is
that it’s not only reminding us but it affirms that profound and Amazing Grace,
love that Christ indeed gave us from the cross to the resurrection. We need to trust in not only the Lord but
allow this trust shaped by faith through Grace to flow.
Lately
our Friday night TV line-up has been sort of dismal… Ironic, since we have satellite! But usually Phil & I enjoy our family
ritual of Friday night pizza and hopping back and forth through various
channels finding something interesting to see.
This Friday we decided to watch the oldies station which had of all
things, “The Andy Griffith Show…” The
episode in particular was 50 years old!
It was funny and cute to see all the dated references in it. Those Iconic early ‘60’s America pop culture
references and so on. This episode in
particular, all humor aside, struck a fascinating cord for me literally! Since the episode ended with Andy strumming
and humming Amazing Grace.”
Basically
the plot of this night episode was Aunt Bea, going on gossip, goes out and buys
a 150lbs of meat from a different discount butcher. She feels guilty but again upon the prompting
gossip from friends, she fires up the old freezer and stocks up! Humorous stereotypes fill in the episode such
as she prepares some of the meat, Andy & Opie complain it’s tough and so on… Then the freezer starts conking out,
flickering lights and basically burns out.
The
very next day, Aunt Bea not wanting to have a 150lb loss of meat goes to the
kindly butcher, her regular butcher and embarrassed as well as feeling very
guilty asks if she could store her meat bought at the competitor’s store in his
freezer… Unlike our modern expectation
of his response, he is very gracious and considerate. Aunt Bea in return is very gracious and
considerate to him in response. When she
returns home, she finds that Andy has forgiven her following gossip and her
mishaps and has a new freezer waiting for her.
The episode closes with a family scene of Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea
sitting back enjoying the peace of the evening while he then picks up his
guitar and starts strumming and humming Amazing Grace.
Yes,
this is from a simpler age, one where we’d probably find ourselves making fun
of their innocence, somewhat silly expectations of behavior…. Since “we’ve
arrived.” Am I right though? We’re in the 21st century, people
don’t act so trusting, forgiving and gracious anymore do they really? Wow, a 50 year old episode, all iconic
pop-sensibility aside exampled to me anyway, the Gospel in action!
Doing
those do’s of the Gospel as Jesus’ disciples in this day and age has even more
challenges to it than we have had before. God, however calls us to live into
faith and trust in the Lord. Trust is
hard though, when we don the attitude that we’ve arrived intellectually and
spiritually. The ego feeds our denial of
the TRUTH! Faith is not an entity it is
being and becoming accountable knowing renewed, and refreshed daily by the
Gospel, that we are being judged. Hear
the Law not as fire and brimstone, but hear it as a beckoning from whom and why
we live today: Christ Jesus, the crucified Lord!
The
Gospel writer Luke continues in defining the sovereignty of Grace as Jesus the
Christ: “10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the
lost.” Where does the saving aspect
become real for us? It’s more than the
story beginning the marks of Grace in the world, but not of the world…. Being Jesus’
death and resurrection. It is saving
ourselves without ourselves becoming the stumbling blocks.
What do
I mean by this? It is saving ourselves
by denying ourselves and living into being and becoming children again. Being and becoming the children of Grace by
taking seriously the call and commissioning of each and every one of us to
invest in our spiritual formation. A
spiritual formation that is actively obedient to being shaped by the Living
Word of God and FAITH shaped gratefully by a love for God and neighbor that
TRUSTS in God’s provision to where the journey will lead!
As a
future pastoral leader, I understand where I am on the journey. This is whether to be a pastor for Christ or
a chaplain to culture… Do I cater or
cave into the purveying attitude of “cheap grace” and “go with the flow” to be
denying basically the sovereignty of Christ and the marks of Grace? Or do I
instead live into the unpopular discipline aspect of discipleship that we who
profess Jesus Christ is Lord; is? This
is the painful process of spiritual formation to be transformed by the Living
Word of God to be an agent of Grace in the world, but not of it! It’s not easy, it is being blessed to be a
blessing to others which I stole this statement from my mentoring pastor… but
it’s true! How do I realize being
blessed is being a blessing to others?
The
other day while I was sitting in a Starbucks doing my busy work on my computer
a homeless man kept trying to elicit my attention and aid in seeking to help
him get a ride up north to get public aid. It could be a very easy and natural
thing for us to say I can't help you go to the library look up social services. I did feel uncomfortable, but I thought about
it for a moment as another human being to another… I could divide my approaching this man with
all kinds of intellectual judgments and labels and everything else that makes
our society so entrenched with graceless behavior…. BUT I didn’t.
In fact
I shared some time talking to this person and asking him how he got to this
point and why he has not sought help sooner from the government or from his
immediate family. I could see by the way
the conversation was going that he only really wanted to solicit a ride and I
could've just ended it there in saying no… but I went out of my way to try to
talk to him without judging him, without dismissing him. I have to tell you that was very hard to do,
it was not at all easy both socially and spiritually for we've all become
mistrusting and guarded in these crazy and dark times we are in.
When
our conversation came to a close I noticed in his eyes a sign of comfort or
surprised that I didn't just dismiss him and I didn’t not at least listen and
be concerned for neighbor. It is very hard to live into the Beatific
commandments that Jesus gave us, that God the father gave us through Moses in
the Old Testament... but the challenge of the disciple isn't an easy or a popular
“choice.” It is however the calling of grace, the calling to live into the
lifestyle of grace.
Jesus
in today’s Gospel speaks once again to owning up to the reality of Grace and
the reality of facing our sin—trusting in the Lord to “do the right thing.” Jesus says: “40And
the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41Then
he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for
I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to
drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and
you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit
me.’
Jesus Disciples of course, were
troubled by these Words but that was because they weren’t really living into
them: “44Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw
you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not
take care of you?’ Jesus however imparts this instruction to them as a
loving teacher: “45Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just
as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to
me.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.”
Christ the King Sunday is more than
the close of the church year calendar or a “brick and mortar” statement of the
cycle of “being/doing church together…” It
is a Living and breathing (Holy Spirit fueled) reality of realizing deeply
introspectively AND outwardly that the Grace given was Amazing and that Grace,
living into the lifestyle of Grace is Christ’s reign in the world, but not of
it! AMEN
Christ the King Sunday; November
23rd, 2014; Year A; Lect 34; SOLA Lectionary
Nicole Collins
Psalm 95:1-7; Ezekiel 34:11-16,
20-24; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Matthew 25:31-46
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