Christ the King Sunday
Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43; Jeremiah 23:1-6
History fascinates me, especially the history of ideas and the impact those ideas have on our world. A recent edition of Scientific American caused me to contemplate how 100 years ago this or maybe next month a 26 year old patent clerk in Germany began to make various notations and observations that would lead him in the spring of 1905 to send a letter to his friend Conrad Habict noting that he had some "inconsequential babble" to send him. That year of 1905 would prove to be especially important for the world, for in that one year of 1905 Albert Einstein would resubmit his papers in pursuit of a PhD and then publish some of those "inconsequential" babblings including in September of 1905 a paper on general relativity. The familiar formula of E=MC2 entered the world's vocabulary. Sixteen years later that paper would earn Einstein the Nobel Prize in Physics. Einstein would then devote the rest of his life to an unsuccessful search for a theory that unites all the laws of physics. A quest for a theory that would ultimately explain what holds our world, our universe, our cosmos together. We all know that because of Einstein's theories we have atomic energy and atomic bombs, we also have computers, cell phones, global positioning, digital cameras, explanations for stock market fluctuations and visions of journeys to far off galaxies and maybe even time travel. All because one man wanted to explain what holds the physical world together.
Most of us rarely venture in such extreme and intellectually demanding directions to order our lives. Yet in a very real sense the reason most of us are here this morning is because we too at some time were drawn to embrace a need to find a center to our lives. All the "why's" and "what's" of our lives are part of the quest we have for meaning and purpose. What is it that drives your life? What is most important to you right now? What holds your world together? Our friend Einstein was quick to observe the relativity of the universe the fact that what we see and know depends to a great degree on when and where we are at the time we claim to know anything. What claims the center of our lives depends to a great degree on the events of the moment. A new baby enters the life of a family in the congregation. It is almost. well, it is literally impossible to have any conversation with these new parents and not know that their world is centered in and defined by two major facts—a new born and sleep deprivation. Time moves on. The baby becomes a toddler, a child, an adolescent. Ever-changing priorities and needs shift the center of life. The complex calendar of activities for school, church, social and extracurricular activities take control of family lives in a way that is by many estimations unparalleled in history. The quest for centered moments that ground family and personal life becomes an increasingly difficult challenge. The panacea of a family meal together fades from fact to occasional possibility to memory and dream.
If Einstein was questing for a general theory of everything for physics the majority of Americans are questing for a general theory of everything for living. On this Christ the King Sunday, on this commitment Sunday for our Stewardship program at this end of the church year it is fitting that we should consider who or what will have authority in our lives. On what will we center our lives? In our second lesson for today we have an epistle or letter by the apostle Paul to the ancient church at Colossae. The letter was probably delivered by the slave Onesimus when he returned to his master Philemon. This is a story we heard from Pastor Chris a few weeks ago. We know from the Bible that Philemon lived near Colossae. The letter was written by Paul while being held in Prison in Rome and was directed to help a church and people who were struggling with setting priorities in their lives. Paul address the problem of competing priorities in people's lives. Competition of priorities that came from popular cultural philosophies, political leaders, and various religious enthusiasts. There was tremendous pressure to live politically correct lives. Rome's governing power was executed throughout the world with military might, and loyalty to the government was framed in terms of religious zeal. Religion and politics were being collapsed into each other by emperors who claimed divine revelations and close identification with God. People were seeking clarity for their life choices and it was to this setting that St. Paul wrote declaring that there was only one acceptable center one true authority and model for our lives. Jesus Christ! He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Paul concludes that there is but one symbol, image, theory, fact that holds our lives together—the cross. Here is one of the great challenges of the Christian faith that a symbol of failure and defeat. Humiliation, suffering and death becomes the form of God's power and redemptive strength. This is the language of theology. The preaching of the faith, but our lives are lived in the real world where the center of our being is not some conceptual category of redemption but the hard emotional struggle of a failing grade. A hurtful word, a job lost, a life-threatening medical diagnosis. Redemption may have meaning for life after death but what defines our lives is the daily struggle. What directs the choices we have to make in the midst of life? What does it mean that Christ holds all things together? The answer needs to become personal. Some universal cosmic power is great for the universe but in particular we want to know how that touches each of us. Just as we want to know how exactly Einstein's General Theory of Relativity makes a difference in our lives through computers and cell phones we use each day, so we want to know what it means that Christ is King and redeems the whole of creation when we look at our particular lives. If Christ is the King, if Christ is the defining authority in our lives what does that mean?
We know what expectations there may be that litany of good works and right living that every Christian can identify even if we can't live it. Doing justice, serving others, tithing our finances, witnessing and worshipping and praying. Living good lives. We know the list, but if we could do all these things we wouldn't need redemption. We wouldn't need the cross. We could do it all ourselves. But we know we can't. Our lives are not perfect. Which brings us to the cross. Probably the most recognized symbol in the world a vertical line that draws the very earth and heaven together. A vertical line that reaches across time and space proclaiming God's descent to the world in human form. A vertical line interrupted by the horizontal slash of human suffering, the cross beam on which was crucified the love of God, a love that would embrace the world with arms outstretched in human pain. Christ the King enthroned not in power over our lives but rather the uplifting force of creation. The one who proclaims each moment to have meaning and purpose before God. The proof is found in a God who proclaims in the face of death the power of life. No moment is without redemption. Grace enables us to see in new ways, to focus not on the things that fail, on the problems and the wrongs but on the possibilities and the hopes. The visions and the dreams, the life beyond the grave. Not all the world yet knows this power we see the toddler about to walk. Watch in wonder the first wobbly steps, pick them up when they fall and cheer them when they smiling stand alone, This is life and hope and promise.
But there are those children of the Sudan who are too weak to stand. Children of Iraq too afraid to step outside. Children of our own land too abused to risk a smile. This is the cross. The point at which suffering and need meet, transforming faith and grace. I do not know this child in want or need, yet I know that God does. And that because redemptive love has touched my life, that same grace grows beyond me and this moment to embrace others. Miracles that defy the laws of physics become possible. Children expected to die, don't. The story repeats itself again and again. Not just with children but with adolescents. Young adults through mid-life and into senior years. The cross provides a center from which to live. God's grace carries us on, transforming the impossible into the possible, the simple into a moment of insight. Grace enables us to see beyond the moment. A simple ballad by Kenny Rogers comes to mind.
Little boy, in a baseball hat, stands in the field, with his ball and bat Says "I am the greatest player of them all!" He puts his bat on his shoulder, and he tosses up his ball, And the ball goes up, and the ball comes down, and he swings his bat all the way around. The world's so still you can hear the sound, as the baseball falls, to the ground. Now the little boy, doesn't say a word... picks up his ball; he is undeterred. Says "I am the greatest there has ever been!" And he grits his teeth. And he tries it again. And the ball goes up, and the ball comes down, and he swings his bat all the way around. And the world's so still you can hear the sound, as the baseball falls, to the ground. He makes no excuses; he shows no fear. He just closes his eyes, and listens to the cheers. Now the little boy, he adjusts his hat. Picks up his ball. Stares at his bat. Says "I am the greatest, and the game is on the line!" So he gives his all, one last time. And the ball goes up, like the moon so bright, swings his bat, with all his might. And the world's as still as still can be, and the baseball falls; and that's strike 3. Now it's supper time, and his momma calls. Little boy starts home, with his bat and ball. Says, "I am the greatest, that is a fact... but even I didn't know, I could pitch like that." Says, "I am the greatest, that is understood... but even I didn't know, I could pitch that good."
The world is not an easy place, even beyond the wars and rumors of wars there are all the things we throw at each other and ourselves. We miss a lot of it. Can't always handle most of it. But God's grace gives us a different perspective. The cross provides a center. We who have found our center in Christ the King are called on to respond to God's grace to proclaim Christ's victory over all that denies life and hope, we can become the redeemed witnesses of God's grace. Redemption is the power of God to help us see beyond ourselves and our limitations The Christ who holds all things together also holds us Jesus taught his disciples to see the world as a place filled with God's creative Spirit. A place where pain and suffering are invitations to knowing God in new forms where strength was found not in the abuse of others but in the affirmation of their gifts. Where critical words were not spoken without the love that points to new ways of doing things, where judgment is not destructive criticism but the source of new life. The quest for a cosmic theory of the whole continues, but we have found our center. Jesus Christ.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross. A formula even simpler than E=MC2. Not a theory, but a fact of faith.
Amen