postID: 6995; title: The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
no collect_text found
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
Array
(
[date] => 2013-11-24 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1073
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2013-11-24 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2013-11-24postID: 6963 (The Twenty-Seventh Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6963; date_type: variable; year: 2013
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6963
displayDates for postID: 6963/year: 2013
Array
(
[0] => 2013-11-24
)
postPriority: 3postID: 6995 (The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6995; date_type: variable; year: 2013
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6995
displayDates for postID: 6995/year: 2013
Array
(
[0] => 2013-11-24
)
postPriority: 1primaryPost found for date: 2013-11-24 with ID: 6995 (The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King)
The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
Array
(
[date] => 2013-11-24 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1073
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2013-11-24 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2013-11-24postID: 6963 (The Twenty-Seventh Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6963; date_type: variable; year: 2013
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6963
displayDates for postID: 6963/year: 2013
Array
(
[0] => 2013-11-24
)
postPriority: 3postID: 6995 (The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6995; date_type: variable; year: 2013
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6995
displayDates for postID: 6995/year: 2013
Array
(
[0] => 2013-11-24
)
postPriority: 1primaryPost found for date: 2013-11-24 with ID: 6995 (The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King)
The reading_id [73158] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'Luke 23:33-43' with ID: 156191
The reading_id [156191] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
✛
The Once, Future and Present King
Array
(
[0] => 60766
[1] => 60757
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60766
)
] (reading_id: 73158)bbook_id: 60766
The bbook_id [60766] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60757 ) ] (reading_id: 156191)
bbook_id: 60757
The bbook_id [60757] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today, the Last Sunday of the Christian Year, is called the Feast of Christ the King. The Epistle and Gospel present descriptions of Christ which I want to juxtapose, because they show what sort of king he is and the extent of his kingdom.
In St. Luke’s Gospel, we have the scene of Jesus crucified between two malefactors. The Roman soldiers divide his garments by casting lots. The religious rulers deride him with an insult striking at the very heart of Jesus’ life: “He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.” Joining in, the soldiers offer him vinegar and mock, “If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.” As this unfolds, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Some years after Jesus’s crucifixion, a former persecutor of Jesus’ disciples, Saul of Tarsus, now Saint Paul the Apostle, wrote the words in today’s Epistle to the Colossians. Christ, he said, is “the image (literally the icon) of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for by him all things were created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible…all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist [that is, hold together]. And he is the head of the church…the firstborn from the dead…. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.”
In other words, the man on the cross, Jesus, the one suffering such indignities, is none other than Almighty God in the flesh. And by suffering such things, God in Christ is reconciling the world, the universe, to himself.
The Gospel, the Good News, is that Almighty and Everlasting God is the Lord on the cross. Or put the other way round, the Good News is that the Lord on the cross is Almighty and Everlasting God. This is what we profess in the Nicene Creed, that the Son is very God of very God, begotten not created, of one substance with the Father, the maker of all things, who for us men and for salvation, came down from heaven and was made Man.
The Gospel shows us the nature of God from all eternity – namely that God is self-giving Love and that crowning his creation are free creatures – angels and spirits and powers and men; maybe even hobbits, elves and wizards; maybe inhabitants in galaxies far far away – creatures who are endowed with freedom, having the capacity to love God and their fellow creatures in response. This is why there is evil in the world – because God is Love, and there can be no love without freedom. Freedom includes the risk and possibility of not loving in return.
Sin does not surprise God. God has always known the risk of his creation’s freedom and the cost of saving and redeeming it. For the only one capable of saving creation is God himself. So it is that the apostles speak of the Lamb of God prepared before the foundation of the world.[1] They are speaking of creation’s redemption by God the Son.
At the cross, physically and personally, God in Christ reaches out to his fallen creatures. One of the malefactors hanging beside Jesus joins the chorus mocking him: “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” But the other criminal rebuked this, saying, “Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss.” Then he said, “Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” One person at least, the penitent criminal hanging next to the Lord, took hold of the redemption.
Not only does the eternal Son manifest the nature of God; Jesus the Son of Man manifests authentic sinless human nature, exercising perfect freedom, fulfilling his mission, dying in a sinner’s place. His crucifixion is at once the lowest and highest point of Christ’s kingship. His “self-subjection to our most agonizing infirmities” constitutes his ability to rescue anyone. Paradoxically it shows Jesus’ freedom and strength over-against our sin.[2]
It isn’t just that Jesus died for our sins; that our sins killed him and by his death and resurrection he overcame sin and death. Jesus reveals free human life, life without the coercion and bondage and consequences of one’s sins. To sin is to depart from the grace and life of God – this Jesus never did. Sin is the misuse of our freedom which leads to captivity; for sin is the choice to obey powers other than God. The sinner is a slave. The Son is free.
If the Son makes us free, if we – by baby steps – learn to follow Jesus, to imitate Christ; then we are growing up into free children. Former slaves, we are learning the life of emancipation. Christ’s rule and service are perfect freedom. Growing up is a life’s work. But in the end, on the other side of death (for death is sin’s wages paid in full), having died with Christ the firstborn, we will be with him in paradise.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
_______________
[1] Revelation 13:8; I Peter 1:19-20; Acts 2:23.
[2] Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to New Testament Christology, pp. 149-151.
