Sermon: Christ the King Sunday

John 18:33-37

INTRODUCTION:
Does anybody else remember the phrase "out of this world"? We used to use it to describe the indescribable. Whether it was a hot fudge sundae, a musical group or some very attractive person that took our breathe away. They all could be described as being "out of this world."
That's the way I would describe the cooking at our church Common Meal. It's so good it will make your tongue slap your eye clear out of your head. It's "out of this world."

Someone once described Christianity this way: "Things aren’t always perfect, but the benefits are out of this world."

And that's how Jesus described His Kingdom when questioned by Pilate. Well, actually Jesus said, "NOT of this world." But you get the idea. Jesus was making a distinction between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. Pilate understood what Kingdom meant: The Kingdom of Rome RULED the world with brutality. Obviously, that was the only “Kingdom” he knew.

But what is this Kingdom Jesus talked so much about? How are we supposed to understand it?
Whatever this kingdom is, we want it to be simple, easy to understand. How sweet is the sound of anything untainted by complexity, anything uncluttered or un-muddled by controversy. We long for the straightforward yes or no.

But we have to be careful: As playwright Oscar Wilde once noted, “The truth is seldom plain and never simple.” Sometimes its necessary to walk through the mess of our flawed assumptions before we find our way to the truth. Maybe that’s what Jesus was trying to get Pilate to see.

Pontius Pilate wanted a simple answer from Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Spit it out, Yes or No. Answer plainly. Above all, answer briefly. “Are you the king of the Jews?” The question is clear enough, isn’t it? Lets hear it, Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?”

I cannot help but think that Pilate asked the question with some sense of amusement.
There stood Jesus, battered by a night of brutal interrogation and abuse. He had been ushered before Pilate with insults.

He was unaccompanied by an entourage, in fact all of his disciples had fled. He was unsupported by an army. His position was certainly not fit for a king, not by Pilate’s standards.
“Are you the king of the Jews?”

The very idea that the bruised and battered man that stood before him could be taken for a king must have seemed funny to Pilate. He allowed his soldiers to humiliate Jesus. They mocked him, shoving a crown of thorns on his head, and bowed before him in jest. King Jesus, indeed. There was nothing royal in this appearance. At least nothing that could be seen by Pilate’s eye.

You see, Pilate’s eye had been trained by what he had previously seen of kings. He knew only of kings whose reign was sustained by violence and oppression. A king who was not a power-broker was without meaning to Pilate. You see, Pilate was impressed with the murder and treachery of Herod the Great, or the domination and oppression of Tiberius Caesar. These men did not hesitate to put to death their rivals on trumped-up charges. The earthly glory of Rome filled the mind of anyone who thought of Kingly power. With all of this as a backdrop, Pilate asked Jesus if he were King as if it were some kind of a joke.

However, in the face of all this, Jesus told Pilate the truth. The truth was to difficult for him to understand. The truth was not as obvious to the eye as Pilate had thought. The truth is not always what you think you see.

Jesus cut to the heart of the matter. Jesus told Pilate what his kingdom is about, and where his authority is from. “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to you. My kingdom is not from here.”

Not of this world. No turf to protect. No borders to defend. No soldiers to train and arm. No enforced subjugation of the people. A kingdom without coercion. A kingdom made up of people who say no to violence. That is Jesus’ kingdom. A kingdom of justice, and peace, and love.
There have always been those who believed that power comes out of the end of a gun, or by the edge of the sword.

But Jesus knew that the only power that matters is the power that comes by following the will of God in peace. Jesus shows us the truth that domination and manipulation of people are not the true signs of power. Certainly not the sign of God. The grasp of control and the capacity to coerce are not nothing but human folly… that leads to destruction.

True power is seen in the love that does not lash out in fear and violence. True power hangs from a cross in self-giving love. True power in our lives is in picking up that same cross and following Jesus.

From first to last, the royal power of Jesus was seen in his sacrificial life of self-giving love. It was seen his powerful ministry of healing and hope he gave this world; it was seen in the sacrifice he made on the cross, but most of all, it was seen in the empty tomb that declared his kingdom to be without end. All of these things made the eternal and lasting statement about the quality of his kingship.

Brothers and sisters, when we allow the loving quality of Jesus’ kingdom to capture our imagination, to rule our lives, then we will we discover what the self-giving grace of God really means for our lives.

In Michael Tournier’s novel The Four Wise Men, a young prince named Taor is deposed of all his worldly authority by a violent revolution. Prince Taor’s royalty had been reduced to rags.
He resented the poverty into which he had fallen. Daily he dreamed of retaking the throne that was rightfully his and exercising the power that was his birthright. But, in this story, as a refugee, he encounters the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. After seeing the Christ child, his perspective was forever changed.

Someone asked Prince Taor, “What did Bethlehem teach you about power?” The prince answered, “The example of the crib... taught me the strength of humility, the irresistible truth of being non-violent, the law of forgiveness... In view of all this, my past is obsolete. All of my future at the feet of this child.”

This is the lesson that all of us need to re-learn today: If Jesus is our King, our lives should be about seeking God’s kingdom. All other kingdoms are obsolete.

Let us follow King Jesus who calls us to love mercy, seek justice, and walk humbly with God.

To be people of this odd King Jesus, I believe we need to be different from the status quo. Nothing else will satisfy us if we are seeking the truth of God found in the kingdom of God.

Of course, being different is not always easy. And I realize that there is no virtue in being different just for different’s sake. Rather, we are called to be different for Christ’s sake. We are called to be different for the sake of the Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

If Jesus is our King, if we are loyal to his reign, then our response to the world will be different. If we are in step with the God revealed in Jesus Christ, then we are bound to be out of step with those who follow a worldly kingdom, who live only for love of self, love of money, love of only their nation, or their race, or their position in life. We are called to be different in showing the love of Jesus to others.

We are to have the values of Jesus: justice, peace, forgiveness, redemption.

Perhaps the majority who live their own way will scoff at us and consider us to be “cranks.” But if so, then I’ll say what the writer E.F. Schumacher once said: “I would rather be known as a crank, because a crank is a part of a small personally-operated machine which gets something done.” If we are faithful to Christ the King, our lives will show a faithfulness that will cause something being done for God’s kingdom.

Pilot asked Jesus “What is truth?” Here is the answer: The truth, God’s truth, is the Kingdom of God. A kingdom that is known in the self-giving love of Jesus, a kingdom that is known in the self-giving love of you and me.

Is Jesus your king? Are you living a NEW LIFE following the commandments of God? Are you living in Jesus’ Kingdom… Remember: All other kingdoms are obsolete.

Kevin Higgs

Sermon: Mark 10

Mark 10:35-45

James & John just did not understand. They just didn’t get it. One can just imagine the expression on Jesus’ face when James & John came up to him and asked him if they could have these seats of glory. Had they not listened? Did they not yet know? Over and again, Jesus had taught them. Time after time, Jesus had demonstrated by action and by word what true greatness, what true glory was about, but James and John did not understand.

They had just seen the rich young man come up to Jesus, trying to prove his greatness to the Lord, only to have been redirected to the true spiritual journey of humility. Only days before, Jesus had interrupted an argument among the disciples about who was the greatest. The greatest among you is the one who puts others first, and themselves last.

How clear could you get? Has not Jesus’ teachings been crystal clear. Yet, hear we are again. James and John just did not understand.

This time, the argument was about personal glory and positions of power. Whatever happened, James and John wanted to be in charge. James & John begin to see visions of their own glory, expectations of how good it will be for them, forgetting their life of discipleship, forgetting the spiritual journey to which they have been called. James and John forgot Jesus’ teachings.

It is easy for us to forget. It is easy for us to think about our own glory, our own interests, our own desires, and to forget about the needs of others, forget about the true meaning of being a disciple of Christ.

To have any glory in our own life, we must set aside the tempting vision of finding Personal Privilege, but by the grace of God, put on the likeness of Christ, who chose not to be served, but to find glory in serving others.

St. Francis of Assisi is a figure familiar to us all. He was the man who began the Franciscan order, a revival monastic movement in the early 13th century that has continued into our own time. St. Francis is a well known figure in the life of the church.

The simplicity and poverty, the humility and life of service that characterize him and those who have joined his movement, is known all over the world. Yet, there was a time in Francis’ life, when he did not understand. There was a time when he saw only his own glory, and did not know the way of Jesus.

Francis was born to a wealthy family in the city of Assisi. His father was a merchant who was always away on business. Francis was brought up to take his father’s place, to run the business. He was well educated, and lived the fashionable life of a young aristocrat among the wealthy Italian elite.

Francis was a warrior, he fought in the major battles of that day, leading men waging war, seeking their glory in battle. Yet he felt the emptiness of this type of so called glory. Francis had a deeper yearning in his heart. There was in his soul a calling to a life more fulfilling. There was a calling to the richness found in a life following the glory of God, not in seeking glory for oneself.

Francis went on a pilgrimage to Rome, which was common in that day. He went more out of sense of duty than out of desire; but something happened while he was on that journey.
Francis saw beggars sitting outside the great church in Rome. In the midst of all of the grandeur of the church, its wealth and it so-called earthly glory, here were beggars. The poor and the destitute filled the streets of Rome, the richest city in the world.

The contradiction deeply disturbed him. How could the church of Christ, surrounded by all this wealth, reconcile having beggars sit outside its doors? Francis saw how people treated them. With disregard and abuse, the beggars suffered to make it through the day.

In response to a deep yearning in his soul, Francis was touched by the grace of God. Francis decided that he would sit with the beggars. He decided that, instead of judging the beggars, he would sit with them, get to know them, and come to understand who they were.

Why would such a wealthy man, with such a bright future risk it all and do such a thing? Deep in his soul, Francis was touched by the Grace of God. He began to understand that it is not in judging others that we are made right with God and our neighbor; It is not is glorifying ourselves that we are made right with God and our neighbor; Rather, it is in serving God by serving our neighbor that do the will of God.

This experience led Francis to take other risks of service. He began caring for the lepers in his community. He began praying, fasting, and reading scripture. One day, in the ruins of an old church on the outskirts of his town, Francis felt he hear the voice of Christ, tell him to rebuild this church and make it a house that cared for the poor.

Francis took his money and, to the dismay of his father, gave to the priest. In the next few years, Francis rebuilt four old churches in his city, by tirelessly seeking money and support from everyone he encountered.

In the year 1209 while assisting at Holy Communion in a church near Assisi, Francis came to understand the words of Christ as a personal admonition to a life of peace, simplicity and poverty, and thereafter resolved to live a life preaching repentance, brotherly love and a life of peace with all of God’s creatures.

Instead of searching for glory for oneself, Francis chose to live a life of humility. When he was a young man, Francis did not understand. He thought that life as about finding glory for himself.
But God stirred up a deep yearning in his soul, that was brought to the surface when he encountered brothers and sisters in need. Francis looked upon those people in need with the eyes of Christ, given by the grace of God, and Francis could never again turn away.

When we open our eyes to the need around us, when we stop just looking our for our own glory, then the eyes of Christ can be seen in us.

Author Schiendler was a business man. He was a business man in Poland in the late 1930’s. Mr. Schiendler knew how to make a fast buck. The Nazi’s had come rolling in with little opposition, and Mr. Schiendler began thinking how he might profit from the political and social changes that were underway.

It soon became obvious what the Germans were going to do with the Jewish community.
Seizing their property and forcing over a million people into only 16 square blocks, the Germans created the Krakow Ghetto, and required all Jews to live their under guard.

Mr. Schiendler saw this as an opportunity to make alot of money. First, Mr. Schiendler took the money of the Jewish people and invested it in his own name in a business venture that would profit from the war. Then, by bribing Nazi officials, Mr. Schiendler gained permission to allow hundreds of Jews to work as slave labor.

Mr. Schiendler was a despicable man. He compromised what few honorable qualities he had by joining in with the evil of the Nazi movement for his own profit. Some might call this Worldly Glory, worldly wealth, made at the expense of other people… That’s a very popular thing ya know…

But something changed Mr. Scheindler. It didn’t happen quickly, there was no immediate conversion. But over the months that he working along side these Jewish people, he started to became friends with them. He began to respect some of them, not as just objects that he could exploit for money, but began to know them as people. In particular was an accountant that he allowed to keep his books. Mr. Schienddler came to know this man as a valuable friend.

As the years pasted, the war began to turn. The Nazis, feeling the pressure of the war on their resources, began what was known as the Final Solution: The final solution to their hatred of the Jews. They took the Jews out of the Ghetto into concentration camps, and began to exterminate them.

It was here that Mr. Schiendler’s transformation became complete. The more he saw the brutality and horror of what was done, the more he began to see who he really was, the more he became ashamed of what he had done. He had become a millionaire off the abuse of other people. Mr. Schiendler began to help the Jewish people. He could only do so much in the midst of the horror of the Holocaust, but he did what he could. He began to defend those who had been working for him. He hid his concerns behind a veil of claiming to need trained workers. He made lists of his workers, trying to keep them out of the concentration camps, trying to keep them alive.

Finally, near the end in 1945, the order came to kill them all, even those who Mr. Schiendler had defended as necessary for production. At great risk to himself, Mr. Schiendler made his final bribe.

He paid the millions of dollars he had made during the war to the Commandant of the Concentration camp for the lives of these Jewish workers. He was able to board them on a train and send them to Chekosylvakia, where he hid them until the end of the war.

Mr. Schiendler was able to save hundreds of people from the gas chamber because he finally stopped just thinking about himself and his own glory, and began thinking about the lives of others. Mr. Schiendler was a despicable man, until he overcame his prejudice, until he overcame his greed, overcame his callous disregard for humanity. And this happened because he looked into the eyes of another human being and saw them as he brother and sister. He looked into the eyes of someone and saw the image of God. He finally understood that all of us are created in the image of God, all of us are valuable in the eyes of God, and all of us should be valuable to one another.

This is the message of Christ. This is the very foundation of the Kingdom of God, that we love God with our whole heart, and love our neighbor as ourself. To love God means that we will love one another. The Kingdom of God, on earth, as it is in heaven.

This kingdom, this glory is found in self-sacrifice and self-giving love. Not in personal Glory. This is the meaning of this table.

Kevin Higgs

Sermon: Jesus Cleansing the Temple

John 2:12-25

The “Cleansing of The Temple” is one of the most significant acts in the ministry of Jesus. It is attested to by every Gospel. In the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Luke the “Cleansing of the Temple” happens on Palm Sunday, immediately after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In the Gospel of St. John, this event is so important and symbolic that it is portrayed as one of the first things done by Jesus in his ministry.

I believe, this conflict related to the operation of the Temple is probably the one event that sealed Jesus fate in the minds of the religious and political authorities of Jerusalem. After this, the religious and political leaders knew they must kill Jesus. He was just too dangerous.

To understand the importance and the meaning of the “Cleansing of the Temple” we must understand what the Temple meant to the Jewish people.

The Temple in Jerusalem was the most important structure in the Jewish national identity. Physically, it was the largest group of buildings in the city, dominating the skyline of ancient Jerusalem. As the sun set upon ancient Jerusalem, the last structure in the city to catch the rays of the sun was the Pinnacle of the Temple set upon the Temple Mount. There, glowing in the golden light, the polished stone and gold laid wood would stand alone has the pride of the Jewish people.

Spiritually, the Temple was the center of the Hebrew faith. The Temple was where the Priests offered sacrifices to God following the precise instructions found in the Torah. The Temple contained in it the Holy of Holies, where no one could enter, except once a year, when the High Priest went in to pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation.

The Holy of Holies was were many Jews believed God actually resided. Nothing was more important to the Jewish people than the Temple.

The “Cleansing of the Temple” is one of the last and most extreme of a series of conflicts between Jesus and the religious and political leaders. That fateful year, probably 30 A.D., Jesus and his disciples came up to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus was at the height of his popularity. He had come from Galilee preaching the kingdom of God, healing, and feeding the people, with a message of God’s grace and righteousness.

Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by his followers as the Messiah with a parade that aroused popular curiosity and support. This entrance, of course, made the Roman Government that occupied Jerusalem very suspicious, for this was an act by Jesus’ followers that challenged the Roman occupation of Palestine. To hail someone as Messiah was a direct act of sedition and treason against Rome, a crime against Caesar, punishable by death. From that day forward, Jesus was a man marked for death by Pilate.

And then, Jesus’ first act in the city of Jerusalem was to go and start trouble in the Temple.
To the shock and surprise of Jesus’ followers and the Religious Authorities, Jesus challenges the operation of the Temple. He turns over the tables of the money changers, he chases out those who are overseeing the Temple sacrifices; he accuses the High Priests and Scribes to be thieves and robbers. It is hard for us to put this radical act into a modern context. Maybe it was as radical as MLK, Jr. marching into B’ham in Holy Week in 1963?

Why in the world would Jesus do such a thing? Why create such a scene? If Jesus had a little political savvy about him, he could have rubbed noses with the Religious Elite and gained influence. Right? Maybe he could have secured a position for himself; or at least found a few supporters among those with influence. If Jesus was a politician, that’s what he would have done.

But instead, Jesus cleans house. He objects to the way everything is done at the Temple.

A number of contemporary scholars, give us insights from the history, of the 1st century, and help us understand how the Temple worked; and, help us understand why Jesus did what he did: Here is how the Temple worked.

The Jewish people would come to Jerusalem during the Passover festival as religious pilgrims. They had saved up their money during the year, which was considerably difficult for the poor people of Palestine to do, and would use this money to pay their Temple dues or tax, everyone had to pay the Temple dues…even the poor widow, dropping in her “Widow’s Mite” had to pay the high tax. And, they would also use their money to buy animals such as doves or lambs to be sacrificed at the altar.

The Temple dues and sacrifices were essential to the Jewish religious system of that day. The Jewish people were taught by their religious Elders & traditions that the way they could be in a RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God, would be to pay the Temple dues, and participate in the Temple sacrifice.

To participate in this Temple sacrifice and tithing system, these pilgrims where required to go to the money changers in front of the Temple. Why the money changers? The money changers, for a large fee, changed their money from the Roman Coins. Roman Coins could not be used in the Temple, because they had the image of the Roman Emperor on them, into Temple Tokens that could be used to pay and purchase in the Temple.

This “Temple economy” of money changers, and buyers and sellers of sacrifices was central to the operation of the Temple.

However, the witness of history tells us that this “Temple economy” of the buying and selling and coin changing, was a thoroughly CORRUPT SYSTEM. The money changers and the Temple Priests, took a cut of the money. They became rich through the fees charged to the pilgrims when the pilgrims entered and participated in the Temple worship.

Scripture is a witness to this: Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees in Mark 12:40 of “Devouring the widow’s houses” through their practices in the Temple. And here is the central issue for Jesus: Because of the fees and high cost of the sacrifices, the REALITY became that many, IF NOT MOST people could not participate in Temple worship. Most did not have enough money. If you were poor, you could not buy the proper sacrifice or pay the temple dues.

This “Temple economy” became a barrier TO the poor to enter the Temple: Thus, the poor could not bring themselves, through worship and sacrifice, following Jewish tradition, into a right relationship with God.

COMPOUNDED upon this barrier to the poor to the Temple were the PURITY LAWS of the Torah, strictly enforced by the Temple.

Purity: If you were a Gentile, you could not participate in the Temple. If you were a leper, or had any disease or condition that made you unclean you were prohibited from entering the Temple. The poor and the unclean could not bring themselves through sacrifice into a right relationship with God.

-THE RESULT OF ALL THESE THINGS, was that the Temple became the primary enforcer of a religious hierarchy of PURITY that defined most people as not redeemed in the sight of God.

-The Temple, that mighty and beautiful structure, with its pious religious practices, became a barrier between God and the people.

-The Temple justified before God barriers of segregation between different peoples – SOME AS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD AND MOST AS NOT.

-To top it all off, the Priests and scribes, who operated this Temple, being wealthy through these practices, were living a privileged life, in a cozy relationship with the brutal Roman army of occupation, while most every other Jew in Palestine lived in poverty and oppression.

AND ALL OF THIS MADE JESUS VERY ANGRY.

Because of this corruption, because of this separation AND SEGREGATION from God endorsed by the religious authorities, Jesus attacked the practices taking place in the Temple.

In the mind and heart of Jesus, this Temple no longer did what it was supposed to do… instead of connecting the people TO God, instead of being that place where people could find God, the Temple practices had become a Barrier to a relationship with God, and Jesus would not stand for it.

He overturned the tables, he ran the scribes and the priests out and said, “This Temple is supposed to be a house of prayer for ALL NATIONS, and you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there will be NO BARRIERS between God and the people; there will be no barriers of segregation within the people of God. The love of Jesus demands this: NO Barriers; our love of neighbor will accept nothing less.

God’s grace is present for all people, for all nations, given freely for you; given to you as bread from heaven, to feed you, to nourish you to be faithful in all things.

This is what the Communion Table, our Eucharist, is all about…God’s grace, in flesh and blood, given for all of us, to all of us. This is what baptism is about: God’s grace given to you, without price, without cost, available to you in Jesus Christ.

This radical act of Jesus in the Temple calls forth within us today a RADICAL RE-EVALUATION of our religious practices and institutions. And a radical re-evaluation of how we think of other people.

In what way do we, in the name of God and using the power of religious tradition, set up barriers between God and the people? (purity, guilt & shame, economic barriers, class-ism, elitism, racism?)

In what way do we, in the practice of PIOUS RELIGION, separate and define as unworthy our neighbor? (because they are poor, or different, of another nationality, because of their sexual orientation?) Jesus will have none of this sort of ”religious” behavior.

Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, is always at work breaking down these kinds of walls that we build. The kingdom of God is about opening the doors of the faith to all people.
Jesus smashes separations that we build; wipes out all division; God has willed this world to be One. Our God breaks down walls of separation! That’s what Jesus did in the Temple that day.

Here is the point of the Cleansing of the Temple: HeThe House of God shall be a house of prayer for all people, a house of equality and hospitality for every nation, every language, every person, every so-called level of status, and especially for the poor, the marginalized, and the outcast.

In the 21st century, as in the 1st century, the ministry, the passion, the cross of Jesus Christ demands nothing less.

And THIS is what the cross is about.

Brothers and sisters of Christ, the cleansing of the Temple is Jesus PICKING UP THE CROSS, and taking the truth of God’s love to the powers that be.

Regardless of the consequences, regardless of the pain of the cross, Jesus came to this earth to tell the truth, to open the doors of faith to all people, to all nations, the way of redemption and salvation.

And because Jesus did this for you and for me, the powers of this world, the religious authorities & the Roman Government put him on a cross to kill him.

And what’s happened on the cross: Golgotha had everything to do with the Temple: for when Jesus died on that cross for you and for me, the scriptures tell us that the tall curtain that hung in the Holy of Holies of that Great, beautiful, doomed Temple, that separated God from everything else, were cut in two.

By the power of the Spirit, and the cross of Jesus Christ, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD.

CONCLUSION:
There are no more barriers between us and God… God’s gift of HOSPITALITY. Opening the doors of the kingdom of God for you and for me. And Jesus lives today by the power of the Spirit, within us. And nothing in this world can separate God from You.

That is what Jesus is about. That is what this church is about. Amen.

Kevin Higgs