Christ the King

Wingrave Methodist Church – 24th November 2019

Old Testament Jeremiah 23:1—6

The righteous branch

23 ‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord. ² Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: ‘Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,’ declares the Lord. ³ ‘I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴ I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,’ declares the Lord.

⁵ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
    ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.

Colossians 1:15—23

The supremacy of the Son of God

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Gospel Luke 23:33—43

³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.’

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’

⁴² Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

⁴³ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’

Sermon

Back in 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted a new feast day in the Roman Catholic church. He called it Christ the King.

Other churches adopted the feast day with the Revised Common Lectionary. It was moved to the last Sunday in Advent, where it remains today. There is also another name for this Sunday, which comes from the post-communion prayer, but I will leave you to discover that for yourselves. Listen out for when I pray this prayer after the sermon.

The Pope apparently wanted to highlight the increasing secularism of the age. People were more keen to live in the kingdom of this world than look towards the kingdom of heaven.

You may be wondering what was the link between secularism and Christ the King. In truth, the Pope was keen to settle an argument that had been debated in the church since as far back in time as St Cyril of Alexandria. The theological difference of opinion concerned the supremacy of Christ over all things.

And so, as we prepare to begin a new church year next week with the First Sunday of Advent, and the coming of Jesus, not only in Bethlehem, but the second coming as well, we pause and reflect upon who Jesus the Christ is in our lives.

To challenge our thinking we turn, not to stables and shepherds, but to the final trial of Jesus. If we are to live in God’s Kingdom, we, like Pilate, need to know the answer to the question “are you king of the Jews?” or in other words “Are you Christ the King?”

So, let’s have another look at Jesus’s trial before Pontius Pilate from John’s gospel.

1. The opening scene of the trial begins when Jesus is brought to the Roman procurator’s headquarters. Pilate asks what is the charge, and gets no answer—except that Jesus is a criminal.

2. Pilate retreats into his palace to interview Jesus privately. “Are you King of the Jews?” he asks. Pilate is not concerned whether or not Christ is the anointed one. ³⁵ “Am I a Jew?” he scoffs. But if Jesus is a political leader who might challenge the supremacy of Rome, and with it Pilate’s position and power, that is a very different matter.

From our perspective in the modern age, we know that John has been telling us, from the beginning of his gospel, that Jesus is in fact the King of Israel. When seeking Jesus, whom his brother, Phillip, has told him is the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets, Nathanael declares, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49).

The gospel then goes on to explain that Jesus is not a king that the world would ever recognise. He is a king who speaks to the lowly and the rejected. He is a king who serves rather than being served. Jesus is a king who enters the holy city, not triumphantly on a horse, but seated on a donkey (John 12:14). He is the Servant King.

Pilate asks what crime Jesus has committed. Jesus replies that his kingdom is not of this world. Pilate cannot understand such a king as that.

We know that Jesus is the Word of God that has become “flesh and lived among us.” Jesus has come from God and has come “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16b).

We also know that, in order to recognise this king, this only Son, we must be “born from above” (John 3:3). Unless we have experienced this new birth, we, like Pilate, are unable to recognize the kingdom of God that surrounds us on all sides—this is the reign of Christ the King.

In the end, Pilate mocks both Jesus and the Jews. He could never understand that Jesus is a king not of this world, and not like any in this world. But in the end, Pilate unknowingly speaks the truth. “Here is your king” he says to the people.

And over the cross Pilate places the announcement for all to see, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19)

Today’s gospel passage shows the practical effect of belief in Jesus Christ—both as anointed one and king of the Jews. Jesus has been brought to the ‘Place of the Skull’ as is crucified along with two criminals.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.’

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’

The only one to express any faith was the second criminal, who said.

⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man [Jesus] has done nothing wrong.’

⁴² Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

⁴³ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’

Today is the last Sunday in the church’s year. Today we are invited to respond, in preparation for Advent which is coming. Are we willing to accept Jesus as our King, or are we drawn more towards the kingdoms of this increasingly secular age, with all its evils and distractions?

Do we live in the time of God’s new reign? Are we followers of the Servant King? Does the way we live our lives reflect that service? Do we reach out to the least and the lost? In short—are we fully citizens of God’s Kingdom? And can we answer Pilate’s prophetic question: “What is Truth?”

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Stand Firm

2nd Sunday before Advent—17th November 2019—Gt Brickhill

Gospel Luke 21

Alleluia, alleluia. Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. All Alleluia.

⁵ Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶ ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.’

⁷ ‘Teacher,’ they asked, ‘when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?’

⁸ He replied: ‘Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am he,” and, “The time is near.” Do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.’

¹⁰ Then he said to them: ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹ There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹² ‘But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

Sermon

Jesus has a generally positive attitude to the Jerusalem Temple, which makes his predictions of the Temple’s destruction all the more stark.

We have been reading through Luke’s gospel. He tells us, for example:

• Simeon enters the Temple ‘guided by the Spirit’ (2:27);
• It is a place of ‘fasting and prayer’ (2:37; 18:10; 19:45);
• The boy Jesus was discovered there learning (2:46);
• Jesus attempts to protect the space as a “house of prayer” (19:45).

The destruction of the Temple was not therefore something to be desired.

After the prophecy in today’s reading, Luke records Jesus as teaching in the Temple on several more occasions; and the final verse of Luke’s Gospel reports not only the disciples worship of Jesus (in itself quite shocking for first-century Jews!) but also how they remained ‘continually in the Temple blessing God’ (24:53).

In Acts, Luke’s follow-on from his gospel:

• Peter and John attend the ‘hour of prayer’ at Temple (3:1-3) and heal a disabled man who ‘entered the Temple with them’ (3:8-10);
• The apostles teach in the Temple area regularly (5:20-25); in fact, ‘every day in the Temple’ they taught Jesus as Messiah (5:42);
• Paul claims to have done nothing wrong ‘against the temple’ (25:8);
• Paul even received his ‘revelation’ (of Jesus’s Gospel) in the Temple itself (22:17).

Now, you may be thinking of the words of Jesus when he threatened to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in 3 days. You’ll recall that this promise was used by his accusers during the trial leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion.

In John 2:18ff he says:

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’

²⁰ They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

The same accusation is made in Matthew 26 and Mark 15—as well as against the early Christians at the trial of Stephen, the first martyr.

These accounts are rather different from today’s passage. Jesus seems to be warning the disciples about the so-called end times and how they should behave. How do I know this? Well, it’s the mention of earthquakes, famine, pestilence and persecution—all characteristic of eschatology.

For most of my life, I have lived in a benign religious environment where most faiths are tolerated, but the changing aspects of our multi-faith environment have led to shocking scenes of persecution against Christians where previously various different religions were practised side by side. This is even the case within the UK, so perhaps we should give more attention to the words of Jesus about eschatology in general and persecution in particular.

Jesus’s words of advice and command were of course addressed to a contemporary audience—and so we must be wary of adopting every saying as equally relevant to a contemporary audience. But we can distil Jesus’s commands into 5 pieces of advice:

· Be prepared to ‘testify’ (Luke 21:13);

· But do not prepare to testify in advance (21:14);

· Depend on Jesus’s ‘Wisdom’ (21:15);

· Family breakups will be part of this time (21:16);

· Do persevere (21:19).

Ultimately, although the teaching brings mixed news of persecution and family breakup, Jesus affirms:

¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

Persevere. Stand firm—because whatever happens in this world all around us, the victory will in the end be ours. Amen

It’s all about looking down on others

Last after Trinity—27 October 2019—Ivinghoe Benefice

Gospel Luke 18

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

¹³ ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

¹⁴ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Sermon

It’s rare for Jesus to explain to whom his parables are directed. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is one example when he does.

Jesus explicitly aims it at those who are confident in their own righteousness, who look down on others.

Which includes me, of course…. As you may have seen, many priests are good at spiritual superiority.

In getting to grips with this parable, we need to forget all we know about the stereotypes of Pharisees and Tax Collectors.

Pharisees

The Pharisees of the first century were not “legalists” who were trying to earn God’s favour. They were a Jewish movement that emphasized the importance of obedience to the law of Moses.

The Pharisees’ attention to things like rituals for cleansing one’s body or one’s cookware was part of a larger effort to encounter God’s holiness in everyday life.

Not only did the Pharisees seek to follow the Law, but they also spent time developing the Torah—the oral body of interpretation of the Law. Even if the Pharisees became arrogant and contemptuous of others—they certainly were not villains, otherwise Jesus would not have spent so much time debating with them.

Tax Collectors

It’s hard to be sure what part the tax collectors played in collecting individual taxes, but we know private citizens were encouraged by the Roman authorities to bid for contracts to collect taxes, and to line their pockets with whatever they could recoup over and above what was properly due.

Forcing people at point of dagger to hand over more than was due did nothing for these men’s social standing—nor did the fact they were prepared to collude with the Romans. But tax collectors were not murderers or anything more than petty scoundrels—otherwise Jesus would not have socialised with them, nor reached out to them as objects for his mercy and compassion.

Justification

Having understood a bit about the Pharisees’ search for holiness and the Tax Collectors’ pursuit of money—we can now turn to look at what was the point of the parable.

The Pharisee gave an account of all he did—with thanks to God for his righteous and holy life. What help did he seek? None. He was not looking for forgiveness. He did not have to ask for mercy, because he did not feel in any need of it. After all, following the Law was what God asked of his chosen people, and that’s exactly what the Pharisee did.

The tax collector on the other hand could not bear to look up to heaven and pray to God. All he managed was “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Yet Jesus says:

¹⁴ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’

When the tax collector leaves the temple “justified,” he goes home unburdened. Vindicated. In restored relationship with God.

But when Jesus says, “This man went down to his home justified” we should imagine his words taking his audience’s collective breath away. The tax collector is not the kind of person one might expect to be so easily restored. Beating his breast in sorrow, the man utters a simple request for mercy and confesses his sinfulness. But he does not promise to change. He does not offer to pay back what has extorted nor find another job.

Justification, for the tax collector, comes with simple, real, costly contrition. Forgiveness will almost certainly lead to repentance and reconciliation—but that is for the tax collector to offer.

Contempt

But what follows from the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector is not the full explanation. The Pharisee’s main problem is that his prayer regards the tax collector with such contempt. He assumes his corrupt neighbour has placed himself beyond God’s mercy when in truth he has not. So the message of the parable—for me—is one of contempt not just sin.

The parable exposes the disdain we harbour. What is disdain? It is the manifestation of a belief that we know better than God who should receive mercy and how they should receive it. Disdain is the failed attempt to put ourselves in the place of God. That’s the ultimate sin, and the rationale behind this small but powerful parable Jesus told.

Contrition or Contempt?

Contrition or Contempt. All of us—priests, parishioners, publicans, Pharisees, pastors, politicians, or perpetrators—are capable of either contrition or contempt. Those attitudes express themselves in how we view our neighbours and in what we rely upon to guide our daily lives.

Take the example of the tax collector—he could not bear to look up to heaven and pray to God. All he managed was “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Amen

Parable of the Shrewd Manager

14th after Trinity—22nd September 2019—Wendover

Gospel Luke 16

The parable of the shrewd manager

¹ Jesus told his disciples: ‘There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”

³ ‘The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg – ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.”

⁵ ‘So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?”

⁶ ‘“Three thousand litres of olive oil,” he replied.

‘The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifteen hundred.”

⁷ ‘Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?”

‘“Thirty tons of wheat,” he replied.

‘He told him, “Take your bill and make it twenty-four.”

⁸ ‘The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

¹³ ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

Sermon

The parable of the shrewd manager

The parable of the shrewd manager or dishonest steward comes after a similar passage in Luke chapter 15—the parable of the Prodigal Son.

In both parables, a subordinate is accused of squandering resources belonging to his superior— either the prodigal son’s father or the master of a house steward.

The Parables follow one another, but I will leave you to judge whether or not they are linked. They do seem to have several things in common.

Both stories run counter to our ideas of justice and fairness. The prodigal son comes to his senses and returns to face the music. He is rewarded, but his elder brother (who did not waste or squander anything) is left in self-imposed exile from his father's grace and mercy. His story can indeed be called The Parable of the Lost Son.

The Shrewd Manager on the other hand, at first seems to be treated very badly. When called to see his master, the report of his inefficiency is accepted without further enquiry, and the manager is summarily dismissed from his job and his future livelihood.

For the moment, we’ll assume he has been guilty of dishonesty, since that seems to be the implication of the teaching with which Jesus ends his parable. But what happens next is very strange.

After getting the sack, the Shrewd Manager comes up with a plan of action to ingratiate himself with his former master’s debtors. He could not make deals on his master’s behalf if his cash books—the symbols of his agency and his authority to make deals—had been taken away from him on the spot, so we have to assume his dismissal was not quite so summary as it seems.

His plan was to call in his former master’s debtors one by one and come to an accommodation with them, which was highly advantage to the one who owed money and prejudicial to the one who was owed. Debts were halved or heavily reduced in full and final settlement of what was due.

Now you might have thought the master would kick himself for not taking away his former steward’s authority. Far from being angry, the master commends his former steward for being shrewd.

This is where our sense of right and wrong rebels. The next few verses defy any simple explanation. Perhaps we should start at the end—the punch line Jesus is working towards.

¹³ ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

This proverb picks up the master’s first words when finds out what the steward has done:

For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Luke loves contrasts. Economic restitution is part of the joy of Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:53) and the gospel proclaimed to tax collectors such as Zacchaeus. When Zacchaeus restores what he had defrauded four-fold, he is justified, as proclaimed by Jesus, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:8).

What Jesus is saying is that, in a time of oppression of the poor, fraud, overcharging and violent debt collection, the debts the steward managed were almost certainly exorbitant, and all he had done was charged a fairer sum. In doing so, no one was really wronged, and the jobless steward might get another job from one of those merchants by showing himself honest and fair dealing.

Remember that no Jew was permitted by their law to charge interest, let alone reduce it, and all debts were written off automatically each jubilee year for everyone.

Going back to Jesus’s punchline, the disciples are sometimes called ‘children of light’ and those outside the Kingdom are contrasted as the ‘children of this world’ who love darkness more than light.

If your standards are the same as those practised by this evil world, and you cannot be trusted to behave in a distinctly better way, how can you expect to be trusted with the things of the Kingdom of God?

The steward redressed a number of wrongs by his own changed standards, and the master commended him for it.

No one, God says, can serve me and behave as the world does. Either they will love one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other. You cannot have it both ways.

As if by way of a bookend, Luke then follows up with another Parable that might also be linked: the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Lazarus loved the good things of life, but ignored the poor beggar sitting by his gate. When the rich man dies, he petitions Abraham to reverse his fate—or at least warn the rest of his family to repent. But Abraham replies:

Son remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.

The rich man passing Lazarus on a daily basis received his comeuppance. It was too late for him to repent. But the shrewd manager was commended by his former master for his actions: for that man, it was not too late.

Amen