Sunday, November 25, 2012

Have You Seen Jesus Our King?


Psalm 15:1-3; John 18:33-37

Christ the King Sunday, November 25, 2012
 

            Rev. Robert Shaw, Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Winfield, Indiana, has a sister who lives in New Jersey.   In the direct aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, she and her home congregation met for worship despite the widespread power outage.  They huddled together under blankets.   Candlelight illumined them.   A piano guided them in songs of praise and petition to God’s glory.  

            After sharing his sister’s report with one of his congregation members, Pastor Shaw was given a very good, faithful suggestion.  He had to have wondered how the congregation would feel about the idea; had to have weighed in some measure what the majority response would be if he followed-through.   Being Presbyterian and celebrating the priesthood of all believers, he wisely knew not to make the decision on his own.  So he presented it to the congregation’s worship committee.   I’m happy to report the good, faithful, slightly radical suggestion was agreed upon.    And so, last Sunday, the 18th, Christ Presbyterian Church in Winfield, Indiana, voluntarily turned the heat off, unplugged everything, and worshipped by candlelight.   They did so, according to Pastor Shaw, in order to “worship in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who might not yet have power available in their homes or places of worship” and to take up a special collection for Super Storm Sandy relief.  

            Faithful FPC friends, have you seen, have you seen Jesus our King?   He’s here, on earth as it is in heaven, in plain view.

            Thousands of civilians are hiding today, this very hour, in caves along the Nuba Mountain range of Southern Sudan.   The civilians fled for their lives as the result of door-to-door killings, looting, destruction of property, and aerial bombing carried out by Sudan Armed Forces.   And this is the pulpit-ready, PG version of what’s been happening following the command for a clean extermination of Nuban people by their own undemocratically elected governor.   “Don’t bring them back alive. We have no space for them” were his devastatingly evil words.  Genocide reporting journalists were subsequently banned from the region, and humanitarian aid organizations were forced to evacuate their workers.

            Among the workers ordered to evacuate was Ryan Boyette, nephew of our own Angela Mannion.    He had moved to the Nuba region of Southern Sudan in 2003, deeply motivated by his evangelical Christian faith and while working with Rev. Franklin Graham’s aid organization Samaritan’s Purse.   It’s where he met his wife, Jazira.   As Nicolas Kristof reported in the New York Times in October of last year, Ryan decided he could not flee despite being ordered to do so by Samaritan’s Purse.    He told Kristof, “A lot of people tried to convince me to leave.   But this is where my wife is from, this is where I’ve lived for eight years. It’s hard to get on a plane and say, ‘Bye, I hope to see you when this ends.’ ”   He stayed and founded Eyes and Ears of Nuba, a small team of full-time citizen journalists who, in the face of very real danger, report on the day to day atrocities being perpetrated by the Sudanese central government.   You can get these reports – born of tremendous faithful passion to end this horrendous injustice -- on line at www.nubareports.com.  

            Faithful FPC friends, have you seen, have you seen Jesus our King?   He’s here, on earth as it is in heaven, in plain view.

            A couple years ago, there appeared a very positive and growing trend to report about U.S. churches.    It’s a response to the reality of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its consequential, often devastating impact in the lives of our military veterans.    Here are a few highlights …

            A nondenominational church is offering professional counseling on its campus at an affordable rate.  The same church offers classes to vets with PTSD and to their families, taught by the likes of Vietnam veteran John Blehm, who, before his being diagnosed with PTSD in 1997 and his growth in faith, said people had generally considered him, to quote, “a crazy alchoholic.”  

             And there is a retired U.S. Navy Seal named Mark Waddell who has reported that it was a church member who helped him most while he was coping with PTSD.   She did more than pray for him, she spent many loving, supportive hours helping Mark and his wife clear out and move on from their garage-full of military gear, with all of its desert dirt and muddy, bloody boot triggers. 

             Here also the words of PTSD sufferer Nate Self, a West Point graduate, former elite Army Ranger, recipient of a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, and who sat next to President Bush in the 2003 State of the Union.   Active in his congregation’s military ministry, he has offered this witness -- "If people think the VA hospital will solve all the problems, they'll overlook the greatest source of healing in any situation: Jesus.  The majority component for recovery is a spiritual solution, more than any secular clinical answer."[i]

            Faithful FPC friends, have you seen, have you seen Jesus our King?   He’s here, on earth as it is in heaven, in plain view.

            “So, you are a king?” inquired an incredulous Pontious Pilate of Jesus on behalf of Caesar Augustus and the Roman Empire.   “My kingdom,” Jesus replied, “is not from this world, is not from here.  You say that I am a king.  For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

            What a dramatic exchange!   It invites us to ask -- What sort of kingdom belongs to Jesus and where oh where is it?  What does his royal reign have to do with such actions as showing solidarity to those displaced by life’s storms, supporting those risking their lives for justice in remote parts of the world, honoring those who have clashed with world powers in defense of human freedom and come home traumatized?

            Talking about Jesus’ kingdom not being from this world can be really problematic.  It can lead folks to believe Christ’s kingdom is strictly otherworldly -- up and out there in “heaven,” remote from our very real and relevant life experiences.    It can further lead to the assumption that God, through Jesus, will only sort out this world’s mess at some distant point in the future.  In this understanding, Christ will only be king on the day of a second-coming.   

             Now, the Bible does teach us about the eternal, the “cosmic” aspects of Christ.   And it’s quite faithful to affirm that His power is far vaster than we mortal, sinful human beings will ever be able to comprehend.    We do also rightly confess our belief in His coming holy return.   However, we should wonder … according to all four Gospels, was this what Jesus himself first and foremost focused on when he preached about his fully, finally bringing about the kingdom of God?  

            I’ve been studying this intently over the past month, companioned by the writings of a greatly respected New Testament scholar named Tom Wright.  You may recall I talked a bit about him a few weeks ago, after I heard him lecture in Princeton for three days.   There are very long, interesting, solidly academic answers to the question about what Jesus’ preached about God’s kingdom.   And it is absolutely necessary to understand all the ways the Bible teaches that He is the fulfillment of Israel’s historic, prophetic expectations.   But we don’t need to explore too much of this here this morning because it all really does get summed up perfectly in our Lord’s Prayer.    The long-prophesied, rescuing, redeeming, fully loving reign of Christ exists on earth as it is in heaven.  Faithful FPC friends, He’s here in plain view.    Jesus is at one and the same time cosmic and intimately connected!   

            The Gospels are clear about this. There is no question that Jesus was speaking “of a kingdom in and for this world.”[ii]   It’s not from this world because in our sin humans have from the very start equated power with violence, oppression, injustice.    It is instead from Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth.   Jesus, God in the flesh, defines this holy kingdom in a radically different way.   The Gospels report His teaching that it is a slow growing, nonviolent seed that produces unexpected reversals of power and privilege.   This is the truth He testified to in front of Pilate, that firm biblical figurehead representing the way of worldly empires.    

            So the kingdom of Christ glorifies God’s sovereignty.  It’s a reign of power built from our loving all God’s children as we want and need to be loved and in ways born of great humility, selflessness, and bold service.    Our Lord modeled this way of living all the way to the Cross and in His resurrection, and continues to live it through the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.   Here, on earth, as it is in heaven.   Jesus most simply and precisely defined holy kingdom living when he preached, “Anyone who wants to be great among you must become your servant.” (Matt. 10:43).   

            It’s worth concluding this biblical point, for today, with a good quote from Tom Wright.  It’s from his book Simply Jesus, which I would love to lead a study of here at FPC (just let me know if you are interested!) and it sums up the ongoing work of Jesus as our King with words that celebrate (among a world full of other strong examples) the faithful actions of Pastor Shaw and his congregation, Ryan Boyette and his team, and veterans like Nate Self.   Rev. Wright writes --

            “This, then, is how Jesus puts his kingdom achievement into operations: through the humans he has rescued.  That is why, right at the start of his public career, he called associates to share his work and then to carry it on after he had laid the foundations, particularly in his saving death.  It has been all too easy to suppose” Wright reinforces for us, “that is Jesus really was a king of the world, he would, as it were, do the whole thing all by himself.  But that was never his way – because it was never God’s way.  It wasn’t how creation itself was supposed to work. And Jesus’ kingdom project is nothing if not the rescue and renewal of God’s creation project.”[iii]

            So let us commune now with our King.   Let us recommit ourselves to be led on, until, as our triumphal closing hymn wonderfully words it, “sin’s fierce war shall cease, and holiness shall whisper, the sweet amen of peace.”    Hearing that holy whisper, all God’s children gathered here today, say, “Amen.”

           

 

                                   



[i] http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2009/august/7080309.html?start=1
[ii] Wright, N.T., How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, p. 216-217.
[iii] Ibid.

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