It was Christ the King Sunday, and the sermon was sort of a Christ the King sermon. The Associate pastor told me she thought from the chosen texts I was going to compare the reign of King Saul and the reign of Christ. That sermon would have been much more connected to Christ the King Sunday!
In fact, I knew I was going to be out of town for a funeral and then Thanksgiving, so I went with a story I had used a few years ago and preached what I think is an important topic, but also one that I could do without having a lot of study time in the week.
If I did the sermon again with these texts (and it was not Christ the King Sunday), I would probably focus on the image of Jonathon and David's souls being "bound" together. In fact, it occurred to me after the fact that it would have been fun for the Time with Young Disciples to have brought rope and tied them together in pairs to exemplify their souls being bound. Maybe next time!
“Loved and Freed” November 20, 2011; Christ the King; St. Andrew; Revelation 1: 1-8; I Samuel 18: 1-5
Revelation 1: 1-8 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants[a] what must soon take place; he made[b] it known by sending his angel to his servant[c]John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed[d] us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made[e] us to be a kingdom, priests serving[f] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Introduction: Ten years or so ago, my wife gave me a birthday present which consisted of an airline ticket to come back to TX and arrangements with one of my college roommates to join me for a weekend of watching soccer back on campus at Trinity University where we had played soccer together and lived together.
The weekend renewed our sporadic friendship, and we have since maintained contact and probably talk every couple of weeks. We discovered we had a lot in common as adults: he is a Ruling Elder in a Presbyterian Church; I, of course, am a Presbyterian minister. He coached high school soccer; I referee high school soccer; he has two daughters; I have three daughters; he moved back to TX a few years ago after having been gone since college; I moved back to TX a few years ago after having been gone since college; He is in great shape and runs triathlons; I...well, we do not share everything in common.
we had a conversation five or six years ago when I was visiting him that has stuck with me. Long after his wife and kids had gone to bed, we were having one of those conversations where you can solve all the problems of the world.
At some point, we began talking about what it was like raising daughters. We talked about the importance of figuring out how to make your daughter feel loved so that she does not seek love from the wrong types of guys (two fathers talking late in the night, mind you).
My friend began to make the point quite forcefully that a father must not only love his daughter but actually show it in front of the boyfriend. He tells me, “you have to hug your daughter in front of the boyfriend.”
At this point, I'm thinking how I do in that regard. When's the last time I hugged my daughter in front of a boyfriend? I see the wisdom of his comment and begin to nod my head.
As I begin to file the comment away under the category of modeling your love for your daughter so that she can gain confidence, he asks, "You know why it is so important for the boyfriend to see that you love your daughter?"
I reply, “to build her confidence, to make her feel good about herself…”
“No,” he exclaims, "Because the boyfriend has to know you love her so much that you'll come after him if he does anything to hurt her!" Thus the late night conversation turns to plotting like vigilantes against the boys who will date our daughters.
We gather here on Christ the King Sunday – the day we celebrate Christ the king, the king who lives his life very differently than secular kings we observe.
On this Christ the King Sunday, know this truth: God loves us and shows that love not by coming as a vigilante, but by sending Christ the king to live with us, to die for us, to love us.
Move 1: We need to know that God loves us.
Move 1: We need to know that God loves us.
a. Let me move that from the general to the particular. You need to know that God loves you.
1. Do not hear it and shrug it off or dismiss it or think it's for someone else.
2. God loves you.
3. God loves you and that ought to be life-giving and life-changing.
b. what is the greatest love described in the biblical texts, outside of God's love for us?
- Many would argue the love between Jonathan and David.
- Jonathan, King Saul's son, and David, the shepherd boy brought in to be part of King Saul's court.
- They define their love for each other in the covenant they make that binds them to each other.
- The covenant goes like this: when Jonathan is in a position of power as King Saul's son, he will love, protect, look after David; in return, when David rises to power, he will love, protect, look after Jonathan.
5.The one in power commits to loving the one who is not in power and then one day the roles are reversed.
b. The Hebrew word for that covenant is also used to describe God's love for us.
- But here's a major difference.
- God knows that God will always be in a position of power relative to humanity. God will always be called on to love, protect, look after us.
- we will never be in a position of power relative to God.
- It's a one-sided covenant from the get-go.
- And still, God chooses to love us. To send Christ to live among us. To send Christ to die for us.
d. If you want to know how much you are worth, do not look at your bank account, or your report card, or your job evaluation. Look to the cross to see how much value God has placed on you.
Move 2: We respond to God's love in how we live our own lives.
a. Back to the covenant between David and Jonathan.
1. David is a shepherd boy from the country who finds himself in the king's court.
2. Admittedly, David had courage and some ability as evidenced by his killing of Goliath.
3. But, now he finds himself in the shadow of King Saul
4. David ought to be afraid of what King Saul can do to him.
5. The logical thing for David to do is run back to the fields and look after the sheep.
6. Instead, David sticks around Saul's court; becomes a warrior; continually avoids King Saul's wrath; David even chooses not to kill Saul when threatened and has the
c. How can David do this?
1.because of his covenant with Jonathan.
2. First of all, he knows Jonathan will protect him.
3. But more than that, just knowing that Jonathan has his back, that Jonathan is looking after him, gives David the freedom and courage to act and grow into the leader God desires him to be.
d. When we lay claim to God's love for us, it frees us to act with confidence and grow into the person God calls us to be.
1. In the dream described in Revelation, we have the glorious vision of Jesus, who is described as the one who “loves us and freed us from our sins…”
1. We are loved by God so much we are no longer bound by our sins;
We no longer need to act out of our uncertainties.
We no longer need to act in ways to overcome or hide our failing.
We no longer need to prove ourselves so that we can be loved.
2. how differently might we live our lives if we were not desperately trying to prove ourselves.
3. Or if we acted out of self-confidence that did not need power, or prestige or control to make us feel good about ourselves?
4. Many of the issues in our world today – both big and small – would become non-issues if people were not trying to prove themselves at the expense of others.
Not only does God love you, but you do not have to prove your worth, God has already done that for you.
Move 3: We also respond in how we love others.
a. Revelation, from which we read this morning, is attributed to a writer named John. A different John, perhaps the John who was one of the twelve disciples, wrote letters to the early church, three of which are in the New Testament.
1. Most letters of the early church have a common theme that the author is trying to get across.
2. Peter's letters – ethical living; those who follow Christ should live ethically.
3. Paul's letter – lots of doctrine stuff, but I think we could even say that Paul's generally is writing about how the followers of Christ work out living in community.
b. In John's letters, John summarizes what it means to follow Christ in one word – love.
1. not the noun “love,” as in something we have.
2. but the verb love, as in what we ought to love others.
3. As in, “Since God loved us so much, we ought to love others.”
b. Christ models for us what it means to love.
1. If we want to know how to love best, we need only look to the how Christ lived.
2. On Christ the King Sunday when we acknowledge Christ sovereign reign over all the world, we recognize that Christ's royal manner defies the way most kings we know live.
3. A king at his best may feel some minor sense of obligation to the people in his kingdom;
4. Christ the king loves his the people of his kingdom so much, he dies for us.
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Rings and jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of yourself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson; quoted in Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, John Wooden with Steve Jamison (11)
6. Jesus gives us more than a portion of himself, he gives all of himself on the cross.
conclusion: What is the best gift a parent can offer his daughter or her son? to love her or to love him.
God has given that gift to you.
