Covenant
United Methodist Church
Pentecost 20 Christ the King Sunday- Luke 23-33-43
On the far-away Island of Sala-ma-Sond,
Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.
A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.
The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.
The turtles had everything turtles might need.
And they were all happy. Quite happy indeed.
They were until Yertle, the king of them all,
Decided the kingdom he ruled was too small.
So Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand.
And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command.
He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone.
And, using these turtles, he built a new throne.
He made each turtle stand on another one's back
And he piled them all up in a nine-turtle stack.
And then Yertle climbed up. He sat down on the pile.
What a wonderful view! He could see 'most a mile!
"All mine!" Yertle cried. "Oh, the things I now rule!
I'm king of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!
I'm king of a house! And, what's more, beyond that,
I'm king of a blueberry bush and a cat!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"
For the 19 of you in the world who have never read Dr. Seuss' masterpiece, Yertle decides that his perch is not high enough. So, he orders more turtles, at least 200 more. And, now his throne allows him to see for 40 miles. Still not enough. More turtles. He needs 5,607, he says, stacked all the way up to heaven. Because even kids know that's what a king does. A king orders people around and sits on a throne and rules. A king is high and exalted. The king is the most important person. And everybody serves the king, does what the king wants, tries to make the king happy. If the king's not happy, nobody's happy. Because the king is powerful and mighty. A king, the dictionary says, is one that is supreme or preeminent. If you're not the king, you're subservient to the king. The king serves no one. The king is served. Even kids know that.
On this Sunday, Christ the King Sunday we celebrate that Christ is our king! We recognize on this Sunday Christ’s reign over all of creation. For he was in the beginning and all things were made through him! That’s the gospel of John for those of you who don’t know.
For years lots of years the Jewish people had prayed for that kind of king… a mighty ruler over people, a warrior king who would fight and win his countries battles. And the Jewish people would serve his every whim. The Old Testament lesson for today lets us in on that ancient hope. "The days are surely coming," Jeremiah hears the Lord say, "when I will raise up a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and execute justice and righteousness in the land" (Jeremiah 23:5).
Yes, we know about kings. From Yertle to Solomon, the king is the one in charge, and the king is the one who lives in a palace where he enjoys all the benefits of royalty.
Today, the church confesses Jesus Christ to be king. And on this day, we are given the remarkable opportunity to enter his palace, to see him high and lifted up, seated on his throne.
It is a palace called The Skull. And as we approach this palace, we see three men. They have been nailed to crosses. And on those crosses, they will suffer and die. Two of those men are criminals. They hang on either side of the other man. And as the man in the middle hangs there, he asks his God, whom he calls "Daddy," to forgive the people who have done this to him. Because he's not a criminal, though he is being treated like one. And he is not resisting. He does not return the evil that is being done to him, because he knows that evil begets evil, that violence begets violence. And you'll notice above the cross on which he hangs is his title, inscribed there: "This is the King of the Jews."
Look at his loyal subjects. Some are gambling for his clothing. "I hope to get his cloak. As much hell as this man has raised, I can probably fetch a pretty penny for that." The religious people, the leaders of the faith, who had conspired to put him on that cross, scoff at him. "He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God!" The Roman soldiers mocked him. "Some king. What a joke. You pathetic, ridiculous, fool. Here, have some sour wine to drink."
And, so, when he hung there that day and forgave those whom he would have been justified in never forgiving, when he hung there that day and extended love to a common criminal, a lost man, dying with him, when he hung there that day and dared to believe that the path he was following, hanging there to die, was the path to paradise, he was doing the same thing in the same way he had all along. He was confounding the world's notions of what it means to be a king, of what it means to have power, of what it means to be a human being, of what religion is really supposed to be about.
This king rules by suffering, vulnerable love, not by domination. This king teaches us to the very end that God's power is made perfect in weakness. This king teaches us that God chooses what is foolish to shame what the world thinks is wise. This king teaches us that God chooses what is weak to shame what the world thinks is strong. You and I are pointed today to the truth that, as far as God is concerned, what happened that day at the place called The Skull is what is really powerful, what is really wise, what is really strong. Jesus had tried to let his disciples in on that the first time he told them about his death. "If you want to save your life, you will lose it. If you lose your life for my sake, you will save it."
Christ reminds us that day that true power lies in God’s sacrificial love. Love that sacrifices for you and for me. Love that loves so deeply that our smallest problems and cares are his concern…
Nell Mohney a wife of a United Methodist minister tells the heart wrenching story of losing her 20 year old son in a terrible car wreck. They sat for months at the hospital, one day with hope and the next day wondering if their son would die. Finally, when their son died she was so worn out emotionally, she didn’t know if she could make it through the worship service. She came to worship service that Sunday alone for the first time in many years… her son had always gone with her. So before she entered the sanctuary she prayed, “Oh Lord, please be with me, I can’t so this without you!” as the service was about to begin she entered the sanctuary and sat at the seat that she and her son would sit at as they listened to her husband. She scooted over in the seat as she always had instinctively to let her son have a spot, only to realize she was all alone. As the service began a little girl from the church came and sat down in the spot usually reserved for her son. The little girl took her hand and squeezed it, and said “I love you Mrs’ Mohney!” and continued to do the same thing at various times during the service. Mrs’ Mohney said she had felt God’s presence with her many times in her life, but this was the first time she had felt God’s presence in the form of a 9 year old girl…
Christ the King comes to us in many forms, and at many times, but one thing we know for sure is that he comes to us as a king who’s throne is filled with redemptive love for you and me….