Last Pentecost/Christ the King
Psalm 46
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
The Rev. Dr. Kathy Kelly
Forgiveness - Christ the King - Be Still - Hope
The Gospel reading this morning seems an odd one. Why would the lectionary committee (actually consultation) choose the story of the crucifixion to be read and preached on during a time when everyone is busy decorating for Christmas? This is a time to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus - not the death of Jesus. And this passage doesn’t even get into the Easter part of the story with the resurrection of Jesus.
I had you use your prayer books to read with Mark (the lector) my favorite Psalm. Now, the lectionary has two tracks and we usually follow Track 1 and I borrowed this psalm from Track 2 instead of having you read one of these canticles in Track 1. So, Psalm 46 is indicated as a reading for today. I didn’t do anything illegal!
The reason for today’s Gospel reading about the crucifixion is that today is the last day of the liturgical calendar. Next week with Advent 1 we begin a new year and anew three year cycle. So speaking of last things fits, but more importantly today we celebrate a feast day to honor the kingship of Jesus. Today is Christ the King Sunday. And in this reading we are faced with a very clear image of our King being crucified.
But our King is our King precisely because of his sacrifice for us on the cross. Jesus did not come into the world as a warrior king to win a battle against the Roman occupation and free the Israelites through bloodshed. Jesus came to shed only his own blood in order for us to experience true redemption. In order for us to learn to practice true gratitude and for us to learn to practice true forgiveness.
So, as we enter into this week of Thanksgiving, we have the chance to practice some gratitude about big picture events like Jesus’ sacrificial gift to us on the cross as well as all those many blessings we take special time this week to name and give thanks for.
With all that in mind, I want to say a bit more about gratitude and a lot more about stillness.
This time of year we are inundated with pleas for our charitable giving. This comes from the financial tradition of “year end giving” which was, at least in the past, created by the practice of earning ultimate interest on your money until the end of the year and then getting tax benefits for giving prior to December 31st. If you’re like me, all this really becomes overwhelming. Every ministry and charity swamps us with clever and moving pleas for supporting their cause and every cause is a really good cause. I find myself wanting to support all of them and I end up feeling sad and guilty that I can’t. Then I can easily go into a tail spin trying to choose where to send my charitable dollars. And then I’m so stressed out I can’t even pray.
What a mess! And what a travesty of the Christian value of gratitude and giving from a grateful heart.
Gratitude is not at all what this mess indicates - some sort of chaotic battle for charitable dollars, in the mix of which is a great deal of distrust that these dollars are spent appropriately.
Gratitude is supposed to be something that happens when we are able to Be Still and Know that God is God. Gratitude comes from the deep place within our souls where we meet God and then turn to take the love of God to others in our lives.
Here is a little poem by Meister Eckhart which illustrates this point:
Becoming Empty
So you want to find God?
Empty yourself of everything -
Your worries and your hopes,
Your wishes and your fears.
For when you are finally empty, God will find you,
Because God cannot tolerate
Emptiness and will come
To fill you with himself.
“Be still then, and know that I am God,” says the psalmist on behalf of God and in an understanding of God as that great connecting spirit who longs for us to be one, longs for us to share with all people all the resources from God’s creation.
Be still then.
God is God, we are not.
If we are to follow Jesus, there will be many surprises along the way. But follow we must, because we can’t not follow because of our already-in-too-deep commitment to our Lord. And so we try, we fail, we try again, we learn, we get better at it, we fail again, we sin, we are forgiven, we rejoice, we sin again, we return, repent, and try again. Thus is the cycle of Christian discipleship. We can never really reach perfection, but we strive toward it anyway. And we rely on forgiveness. But we also rely on getting busy. We do, and we do, and we do.
Most of us say those magical three little words at least once a day, “I’m too busy.” We’re too busy for friends, too busy for family, too busy for church, too busy for meetings, too busy for paperwork, too busy even for work. There is always too much to be done, too much on our plate, too much stress, too much commitment. When we stop, and sometimes we do stop, and evaluate why we are too busy, we tend to remember that much of what we are doing is intended as “The Lord’s work.” We rationalize our doing as our answer to our commitment as Christians. We see ourselves as justified by our works. Often we think we are following Jesus when we are not and yet at times we look back and see where we were right on track when we didn’t think we were.
Be still then.
Discipleship is not what we do, it is what we are. We made a commitment at our baptism, “to follow and obey Jesus as our Lord” (BCP 303) and we “are sealed in the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever” in the waters of baptism. Why do we so often feel overwhelmed, discouraged or sadly long for the old times when church and the Christian life seemed to make more sense?
Our intention is good; it is to follow Jesus, by picking up our cross, by feeding His sheep, by going out into all the world. That’s what He said to do, isn’t it? So what is missing? Why do we find ourselves feeling exhausted and overwhelmed and left wondering what difference getting into heaven has to do with it anyway?
Well, there is a gem in today’s lessons that gives us a hint at the answer to all this. It is in the Psalm. Beautiful, wonderful, Psalms 46. “Be still, then, and Know that I Am God”. In context, it is the answer to the question of who God is and who we are in relation to God. “God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.” God is the powerful one. God is the authority. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble . . . God is in the midst of her . . . God shall help her at the break of day. ” All this seems to boil down to the fact that God loves us. Who are we in all this? We are the objects of that love. We are the recipients of God’s works. We are the ones all the doing was done for, and the doing is already done. “Come now and look upon the works of the Lord,” the Psalmist says, “what awesome things he has done on earth. It is he who makes war to cease in all the world; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.
Be still, then, and know that I am God.”
Our Way of Love: Finding God guidance team, from whom you will soon hear much more about what they are up to, strives to add a little extra silence to our meetings, a little extra silence to our doing, a little time to sit and ponder God’s word.
Silence is uncomfortable for most of us, it is difficult to sit in silence without running our to-do list through our thoughts, think about what we didn’t get done this past week, what we have to do this next week, what we’re going to do in the next moment. Just sitting, being silent, being in the present moment, is difficult.
But if you just set aside a few minutes each day and give a little intention to begin quiet before the Lord, the difference in how you feel and the clarity of your call will amaze you.
Be still then.
Do you remember the story of The Little Red Hen? In the tale, the little red hen finds some wheat and asks for help from the other farmyard animals her friends the pig, the cat, and the duck. She asked them to help her to plant the wheat, but they all refuse. At each later stage of the story, the harvest, the threshing, the milling of the wheat into flour, and baking the flour into bread, the little red hen again asks for help from the other animals, but again they refuse and she receives no help at all.
So she says at each of these refusals, “Then I’ll do it myself!”
Finally, the hen has completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time, all the previous non-participants eagerly volunteer to join her, but this time she refuses them. Since no one helped her with her work no one will help her with the eating part. So the hen eats the bread with her chicks, leaving none for anyone else.
When the hen finishes she decides to give her friends another chance. She says that next time she would be happy to make enough bread for herself, her chicks, and her friends if her friends help her do the work. The friends happily agree with that idea and say, "We will.” (Perhaps they might have said, “we will with God’s help.)
This story always bothered me, even as a child. It is supposed to have the moral of not being lazy, of being available to the community, to pitch in, to do your share of the work. But it seems to me that the Little Red Hen was too busy, and bossy and selfish in the end. Still, what if these friends actually shared the work and the meal instead of keeping to their corners and refusing to bend and to listen and to share? Maybe if they shared in this way and entered into community in this way they wouldn’t be either too busy or too selfish. And they would find time to pray and to thank God for all our many blessings.
Be still, then, and know that I am God.
I believe in my heart of hearts, that in these times of strife and division, the Holy Spirit is leading us to re-learn these ways: The Way of Jesus. The Way of Love. Jesus taught by example to always find time to go away to rest and pray. Jesus taught by example to live each step of the way in gratitude and faith. And this is why, when he was in that final hour on the cross, he was offering forgiveness to those around him.
When we can quiet ourselves and trust in the big picture of God’s call for our journey, Then we can slow down. Then we can truly practice gratitude. Then we can truly practice forgiveness.
“Be still, then, and know that I am God. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
Amen.