The Crucified King
Can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Year C 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Reign
of Christ Sunday
Readings:
Psalm The Song of
Zechariah (Luke
1:68-79)
First Reading: Jer
23:1-6
Second Reading: Col
1:11-20
Gospel: Luke
23:33-43
What I want to say:
explore what Luke suggests
are the marks of Jesus Kingship
what does this tell us about the nature of God
what does this mean for how we exercise leadership, and
what we look for in leaders
offer Elisabeth of Hugary as
an example of leadership
What I want to happen:
people to reflect on what images of God shape their response to God's aroha
The Sermon
1. Introduction: (ppt)
today is a big day
last
Sunday in Ordinary Time – next Sunday Advent starts
countdown
for Christmas begins
last
Sunday we have with Luke
Stir
up Sunday – stir up Christmas pudding
Christ
in all Creation Sunday
Aotearoa
Sunday
Christ
the King or Reign of Christ Sunday
where to begin with all that
2. Christ the King
really important phrase
used
a lot
potential
to deeply mislead us.
what words or images come to mind when you
hear the word “king”?
what words come out of your experience of
“kingship?”
plenary
(my
list includes despot, distant, powerless, scandal, irrelevant)
not an easy concept
trouble with term “Christ the King” is that we
tend to apply our experience and these words.
seen in kind images that Christ the King
elicit from internet – (ppt show the
images)
we understand Jesus Christ and his ministry
using these ideas
miss the really radical thing gospel writers
thought that Jesus was on about.
miss that Jesus came among us to remind us
who
God is – shows through life, teaching, actions, and his death
all
of which is affirmed in resurrection
in
light of all that – reminded about who we are
put this another way
instead
of letting gospel portrayal of Jesus to shape and inform our understanding of
who God is
which
is why gospels were written
written
so that we might know who God is
use
our ideas about who God is to understand Jesus
really
good example of that going wrong Brian Tamaki’s disgusting and heretical words
this week
3. Year of Luke
We have spent a year hearing Luke’s portrayal
of Jesus
a
year of hearing Luke using story Jesus to describe the nature of God
how then would you say Luke describes Jesus
kingship?
discussion
4. Crucifixion
it is no accident that on Christ the King
Sunday we have the story of the crucifixion
but it makes no sense to us
We would never picture a king like this
as
images on internet show
despite the fact that this is exactly the
moment in gospels that Christ is lifted in glory
that
his kingship is announced
what then can we take out of today’s reading
that might help us understand the kingship or reign of Christ
-
does
not fight back
-
crucified
– death by which Roman king (Caesar) declares him and his message as powerless
and meaningless – best forgotten by everyone
o by their standards a failure
o why is it we keep depicting Christ the king
using imperial Rome as template
§ Jesus was not usurping Caesar -
§ cf Jesus offering whole new way of
understanding kingship
§ servanthood rather than power
-
forgives
– everyone.
o not just those who confess
o everyone, even those showing no remorse in
their actions at all
o heart of this kingship is God’s love for all
and offer forgiveness to all.
§ even that is misleading
·
we
are forgiven whether we want it or not
-
offers
to bring one who is condemned with him into paradise – so that he no longer
faces condemnation
o in moment he is declared an outcast
§ he becomes the one who breaks down boundaries
that exclude so many people
There is a word missing in this title Christ
the king
word crucified
and that world changes everything
what then is the kingship portrayed in this
story?
what does it teach us about God?
what does it teach us about us?
5. Us
today we affirm our desire to be shaped by
crucified King
our lives are supposed to be based on this
kingship
they
are to demonstrate this kingship
how we lead is to demonstrate this kingship
our expectations of our leaders is to
demonstrate this
fair to say that too often our models
leadership had very little to do model Jesus offers us
much more to do with how rest society operate
models
based on imperial rule
or
ruling class at best
more about obtaining and keeping of power and
control
maintaining status quo
-
rather
radical vision of society offered in gospels and Paul
-
led
to church becoming bastions of sexual abuse
§ mysongey
§ homophobia
§ implicit in destruction indigenous cultures
around the world
continue to see that in conservative
evangelicals continuing support Donal Trump and his list appalling policies
policies
which are at odds with what crucified kingship Christ is about
only
fit with an imperial model of kingship
also been many through last 2,000 years who
have modelled life following Christ the crucified king
people
like St Francis
Elizabeth
of Hungary
Hilda
of Whitby
today
as we finish our year with Luke
we are invite to join them
as we enter new liturgical year
let go of our old ways understanding kingship
instead to be people of crucified king
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