The Last Sunday After
Pentecost: Christ the King
John 18:33-37
Listening to The Voice
“Everyone
who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
So, in case you don't really know me all that well, I will go ahead
and openly confess that I am a stubborn man. Recently I had a pretty
important learning as a result of my being stubborn, that I'd like to
share with you today. You see, many ordained people, priests and
deacons, even before they are ordained, usually in seminary, are
typically encouraged ( and of course that really means they are told
and expected ) to find and meet regularly with a spiritual director.
A person who is trained to be kind of a spirituality coach. A person
who can provide some sort of spiritual accountability, and who can
function as a kind of advisor for all things spiritual. So, a few
years ago, I, just like all of my colleagues in seminary heard this
message, received this command, and because at the time I really
didn't like being told what to do much, well, I ended up just never
doing it. I never sought a spiritual director. For years, I was
certain that that was ok, and that I truly did not need any direction
or help in this matter. I knew how to pray, I actually had a good
prayer life, and I felt in relationship with God. There was no need
for help in my spiritual life, that is, until I actually became a
priest. Go figure!
So, about 3 or 4 years after becoming a priest, in a very wonderful,
but very very busy church, I began to feel as if something was wrong.
As if something was missing from my life. As if God was far away,
even though God was indeed the very subject of virtually all that I
did every single day. It was then that I understood why I was
encouraged to seek out a spiritual director all those years back. So
I did, and what that process showed me, in the midst of the spiritual
darkness that I perceived at the time, was that the only thing that
had really changed was that I had stopped doing my part in my
relationship with God. I knew God, I truly loved God, but I had
stopped doing the work of seeking for, and stopped doing the work of
listening to God's constantly present voice in my life.
Now, if I hadn't been so stubborn, would I have still had this
experience? Maybe not. But that isn't my point. My point, and the
reason I share this experience with you all this morning is because,
as I read over our Gospel lesson this past week, to be honest, I
couldn't help but to see a little bit of myself and maybe all of us
in Pilate. I couldn't help but to see a little bit of myself and
maybe all of us in the disciples. I couldn't help but to think about
the fact that I, and maybe we, still might not get it, the very
reason we gather to celebrate on this special day, Christ the King.
That, even though we know Christ, even though we grasp and understand
who we are as Christians and what our relationship is with God as a
result of Christ the King, we somehow have still not quite managed to
truly live into our call to listen to His voice.
We encounter Jesus this morning on the brink of judgment. In the
final moments before His destiny is realized and put into motion, and
in a unique interaction with Pontius Pilate, where Pilate is given
the chance to hear Christ's voice, to see Jesus for who He really is.
Pilot, of course misses this opportunity, but not before he
ironically proclaims Christ as King in the very sign that he has
attached to Jesus' cross. This Scripture is unique for us today as
well in a liturgical sense, not only because it is a break from the
Gospel of Mark which we have been working our way through for some
time now, but because this Sunday also marks for us the end of the
church year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent and therefore
the first Sunday of the Church calendar, and so essentially this
morning we find ourselves in what could liturgically be called the
Church's New Year's Eve. Though I am quite positive that my liturgy
professor would not have signed off on my calling Christ the King
Sunday by such a name, for me, the analogy still holds.
You see, today, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have the chance
to reevaluate our relationship with Christ Jesus. Just like on New
Year's Eve when we look into the year to come, thinking of all that
we hope to accomplish and hope it to be, and look back on the year
that has passed thinking of what could have been done differently,
today, we have the chance, as we stand on the brink of Advent, to ask
ourselves what we will do differently as Christians. We have a an
opportunity to reevaluate the reality of our own personal
relationship with Christ the King. Who is it really that we will
begin to await? Who is it really that we will begin to prepare for?
For me, that's where the rub comes, and that's the hard part of this
message. For me, at the same time, that is also the take home for
today. You see, we're Easter people. We're post-resurrection
people. Whereas Pilate stood in front of Jesus having the
opportunity to see the Christ before him and didn't, and the
disciples walked with Jesus and had the opportunity to hear the voice
of God but didn't, in all fairness we have to admit that they really
didn't know the whole story yet, did they?
They couldn't have really known yet regardless of how hard Jesus
tried to tell them. Because, after all, why in the world would they
even imagine for a moment that the Messiah, the King, the one they
had all been waiting for ages for finally arrived in all His glory
only to humble Himself, bow His head, and be sacrificed? What's
probably even a little harder to swallow than that, is the fact that,
unlike them, we do know. We do already know Him. We do already know
what happened in the resurrection, that Jesus is the Christ, the
King, and just as we shall witness and participate in through a Holy
Baptism in just a few moments, we even go so far as professing our
faith and belief in this King. Yet, just like with the story I have
shared with you this morning, I suspect that we can all question
whether or not we actually listen to His voice. So for me, that is
our question today, are we of the Truth, as Jesus says? Even if our
lives are so filled with speaking about and thinking about God,
church activities and social service, are we listening to His voice?
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, traditionally today is the Sunday on
which we boldly proclaim what it is that we believe as Christians,
that Christ Jesus is King of all, and that our faith in and
proclamation of the Truth through Him can and will radically change
this world. Yet today I wish to make us aware also of the very real
possibility of our doing so in our daily lives, from Sunday to
Sunday, with empty words and empty hearts. Because just as I
experienced in the story I shared today, I believe we are all
vulnerable to the very real temptation of walking through our day to
day lives wearing our cross maybe, but perhaps never truly bearing
it. So, on this Liturgical New Year's Eve, as we gaze out and hover
on the edge of a season of expectation in Advent, I want to challenge
us to take advantage of this moment, of this day, of this sanctified
space, and to use it to truly reevaluate what and who it is we
believe in, and what and who those beliefs make each of us, so that
we might openly and honestly prepare ourselves in this coming season
for a new incarnation of Christ in each of our hearts. So, let us
stand together today around this font in this service of Holy
Baptism, earnestly proclaiming the core of our faith. Let us gather
together around this altar table in this and every service of Holy
Eucharist, whole heartedly handing over our selves and truly
submitting our souls and bodies to the One in whom we live and move
and have our being, Jesus Christ our Lord, Christ the King, so that
all here present today and all of Creation might ever be desirous of
and truly able to listen to His voice.
“Everyone
who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment