{"id":1935,"date":"2010-11-23T20:07:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T08:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1935"},"modified":"2010-11-23T20:09:59","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T08:09:59","slug":"sermon-from-me-about-obedience-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/archives\/1935","title":{"rendered":"Sermon from me about obedience to Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Michael\u2019s Anglican Church
\nSermon for 21 November 2010 – Christ the King
\n\u00a0
\nPsalm 122:1-9; 2 Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:32-43<\/a>
\n\u00a0
\nToday\u2019s theme is \u2018Christ the King\u2019. I want to explore this idea with you today in the light of particularly our Gospel and Epistle readings. Kings, queens, monarchies \u2013 they\u2019re old fashioned things; they don\u2019t have much currency or relevance for us here now. Well, I say that, but of course this week many New Zealanders, including my own wife, seemed quite excited to learn that Prince William and Kate Middleton are now engaged, and eager to hear the exact circumstances of the proposal, and precisely how everyone felt before and after. But really, even if William at some future date is crowned King, New Zealand\u2019s Head of State, and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, it seems very unlikely to make a difference to any of our lives. And if the idea of kingship doesn\u2019t really speak to us in our contemporary setting, what does that mean for the idea of the \u2018kingdom of God\u2019 that is so often talked about from this lectern by various preachers?<\/p>\n

One possible answer is that we have to find new ways of talking about the significance of Jesus that in ways that our contemporaries can understand. But before we do that, we better make sure our new ways of talking don\u2019t miss out anything crucial that kingship conveys.<\/p>\n

The language of kingship has another problem for us, much deeper than that it is a bit old-fashioned, and that\u2019s that some of what kingship conveys fundamentally challenges how our society teaches us to understand ourselves and our world. Let\u2019s look at the Colossians passage again and I\u2019ll try and explain what I mean.<\/p>\n

Here at the start of the letter to the Colossians, I\u2019m told that the Apostle Paul is probably quoting or modifying a hymn that the early Christians sang. I paraphrase: Christ is the invisible God made visible, the firstborn of creation. Everything that exists, particularly every kind of authority and power, derives from him; and everything is for him. He holds the universe together. He has gone through death and out the other side, so that \u2018he might come to have first place in everything\u2019. The \u2018fullness of God\u2019 is in him; and in him God is bringing the broken universe back to wholeness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an amazing, all-embracing, cosmic vision. Paul and the hymn-singers are ascribing \u2018every possible importance\u2019 to Christ. This rich and complex passage has a lot of other things to say, but one thing it\u2019s saying is that there\u2019s no society or structure or nation or corporation or family or person or university or economy or ecosystem or anything that doesn\u2019t exist because of Christ and for Christ. There\u2019s nothing that Christ is not in charge of, nothing that Christ is not King of. And it\u2019s this authority thing that I think goes against the grain for us; and particularly authority\u2019s corollary, obedience. Our society trains us to see ourselves as free, rational, independent, self-actualised agents who make our own rules and make our own decisions \u001f\u2013 so long as we avoid impinging on other\u2019s freedom to do the same. For most of us, with the possible exception of those with military experience, the thought of setting aside one\u2019s own will in favour of someone else\u2019s just doesn\u2019t sit well. Obedience is not a very appealing virtue.<\/p>\n

In part because of this, we in the Church are tempted to limit Christ to being our saviour, comforter, affirmer. This is so for all Christians, and maybe particularly for ostensibly Christian nations \u2013 to put God\u2019s name on our own agendas. So how do we escape from that trap? What is the content of obedience to Christ the King?<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n

An obvious starting point is the Gospel accounts. The Church confesses that the Christ of Colossians\u2019 cosmic hymn is the human being who lived an earthly life in Palestine. It occurred to me to go through the Gospel of Luke and make a list of the commands Jesus issues that seem like they\u2019re likely to have some continuing applicability. The whole list is in the slideshow, but here is a representative, paraphrased sample:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Love your enemies.
\n\u2022 When you are slapped, offer your other cheek.
\n\u2022 When someone takes something of yours, don\u2019t demand it back.
\n\u2022 Love people who don\u2019t love you.
\n\u2022 Lend without expecting a return.
\n\u2022 If you want to follow me, leave your self behind, daily take up your cross and come with me.
\n\u2022 Treat the least among you as the greatest.
\n\u2022 Have no fear \u2013 God values you highly.
\n\u2022 Be on your guard against greed of any kind.
\n\u2022 Be ready for the coming of the Son of Man.
\n\u2022 When you give a party, invite outcasts and people who can\u2019t invite you back.
\n\u2022 Someone who divorces and remarries commits adultery.
\n\u2022 Forgive endlessly.
\n\u2022 Proclaim forgiveness of sins to all nations.<\/p>\n

This is obviously a sort of na\u00efve approach \u2013 everything is out of context and it misses out big chunks of the Gospel of Luke that may have ethical significance: the narratives of Jesus\u2019 actions, the healings and parables, the temptation, the crucifixion and resurrection \u2013 but it\u2019s still a useful cross-section, and I think it is important to be confronted with this material. Whatever our understanding of Christ as King, and whatever our understanding of how God\u2019s will for us is known, if there is no connection between our own lives and our community life and these words, that ought to give us at least pause for thought.<\/p>\n

They are certainly challenging words \u2013 but are they impossible? Further on in the letter to the Colossians Paul says again that God\u2019s fullness lives in Christ, and extends it, saying \u2018and you have been filled with Christ\u2019. So we\u2019re directly connected with that cosmic vision \u2013 the same empowering Spirit that is in Christ is in us. For Paul this means an amazing freedom \u2013 even a kind of anarchy \u2013 Christ is king, so no one else is. He won\u2019t let any human authority, or any hardship, get in the way of living and proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n

One way of thinking about the way of life that is sketched out by the commands of Jesus I mentioned is that it is life lived \u2018as if\u2019 the Colossians hymn was a present reality. I say \u2018as if\u2019 because of course despite Christ holding everything together and being in charge of the whole show, the universe isn\u2019t yet finally reconciled to God. This way of life is a kind of emissary from God\u2019s future, signalling that something really good is on the way.<\/p>\n

I said earlier that we might need to find new ways of talking about the significance of Jesus. But more important is that we flesh out whatever language we use by lives that give it content. The most important content that\u2019s given to the word \u2018king\u2019 is of course supplied by the Gospel reading. The \u2018King of the Jews\u2019 is on the cross. The God who made the universe is suffering like the worst kind of criminal. This has to challenge our ideas about how authority should work, and is surely a good reason to get over any discomfort we might have with the idea of \u2018obedience\u2019, and treat Christ not as a figurehead but as the true King.<\/p>\n

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Michael\u2019s Anglican Church Sermon for 21 November 2010 – Christ the King \u00a0 Psalm 122:1-9; 2 Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:32-43 \u00a0 Today\u2019s theme is \u2018Christ the King\u2019. I want to explore this idea with you today in the light of particularly our Gospel and Epistle readings. Kings, queens, monarchies \u2013 they\u2019re old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1941,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions\/1941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}