Monday, November 26, 2012

Following the Leader: Who We Follow

Sermon from 11/25. I'm preaching in the traditional service next week. I'm a little intimidated.
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Today we’re going to wrap up a series of sermons about following the leader. We started a few weeks ago by looking at the story of Bartimaeus. In that story we see a parallel to our own salvation journey and we see that we are all called to follow Jesus. God’s grace pursues us, calls out to us, and we respond. Like Bartimaeus we are healed, we’re made whole. And we follow as we continue our spiritual pilgrimage of salvation.
The following week, we looked at how we follow. We follow by responding to God’s grace. God’s grace is “the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit.” We follow Jesus by responding to that grace in what we call discipleship. Being a disciple means learning to be like Jesus. We do the things Jesus did and the things Jesus taught. Participating in what John Wesley called the means of grace. Ordinary activities in which we experience God’s grace. Prayer, fasting, searching the scriptures, the Lord’s Supper. As well as feeding the hungry, helping the poor, caring for the sick, welcoming the stranger. And we do it all together, as the Body of Christ.
Last week we looked at the question of why we follow. First we follow because of God’s grace, because without the Grace of God, we can do nothing. And we follow because we are commissioned, we are commanded, and to be transformed and because we are transformed. We follow Jesus because as we do we experience the power of the Holy Spirit who renews our hearts and restores us from the distorted human image we are into the perfect image of Christ we are created to be.
So we’ve answered the what, how & why. Now we need to answer the who question. “Who do we follow?” That’s an easy one. We follow Jesus. Sermon over. Let’s sing.
OK, that’s the easy answer, but we’re going to delve a little deeper into the question than that. Let’s start with our scripture for this morning.
John 18:33-37
New Living Translation (NLT)
33 Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him.
34 Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?”
Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”
This question of “Who do we follow” is an interesting one for today. Today is “Christ the King” Sunday or “Reign of Christ” Sunday. It’s the last day of the liturgical calendar. In terms of the Christian calendar. We’re getting ready for a New Year’s celebration as we observe Advent starting next week.
Who do we follow? Well, we follow Jesus. So then, we have to ask, Who is Jesus? Which leads us to Pilate’s question. Are you the King of the Jews?
We read of Pontius Pilate questioning Jesus about the charges against him. He is charged with claiming to be King of the Jews. Pilate’s job is maintaining order in Judea. It is his job to make sure that Rome stays in control. In other words, his concern is politics. When he asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, he’s not concerned about any religious implications to the question. He just wants to know if Jesus sees himself as a political leader.
As I read the passage, I imagine Pilate’s question to have a kind of scoff behind it. “Are you the king of the Jews?” As if it is ridiculous that this man – this poor, itinerant preacher – could be a king. He’s not dressed like a king, probably isn’t as clean as a king should be. Pilate has a certain idea of what power should look like. And a king should exude power.
Christ the King Sunday was instituted in the mid-1920s. It was a time when dictators were coming to power all over Europe. The celebration is meant to remind all Christians that our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and not to any earthly power. After all, Jesus is the King of Kings. The ruler of rulers.
I think we all have a certain idea of what a king is as well. Just like Pilate, we have preconceived notions of a king.
When you think of a king is it a king who looks like this….





 Or this?


We don’t think of a helpless infant as a king or a man beaten and bruised, dressed ironically in a robe and a crown of thorns. That is the image of powerlessness, not power. And yet, this is our king. This is the one about whom we say, “Jesus is Lord.” This is the king we follow.
To examine who we follow, I want to talk about two phrases we tend to use. One is the statement “Jesus is Lord.” The other is the phrase the “Kingdom of God.”
When we say Jesus is Lord, what does that mean? The easy answer is that Jesus is lord of all. To examine that, I want to start large scale and move inward. To proclaim Jesus as Lord we mean: Jesus is Lord of the heavens and earth. Jesus is Lord of the social order. Jesus is Lord of the church. Jesus is Lord of our personal lives.
Jesus is Lord of the natural realm. He is Lord of heaven and earth. Lord of all creation.
Jesus is Lord of the social order. In other words, Jesus rules as Lord over all dominions, thrones, rulers, and powers.
Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is Lord of the Church. The Bible calls the church the Body of Christ with Jesus as the head of that body. We are a community of faith doing the work of Christ in the world.
To say Jesus is Lord of our lives means that Jesus is our top priority. It means that we follow Jesus because we are commissioned and commanded. Most importantly, for Jesus to be Lord of our lives, nothing else can be. Not money, not our job, not our social status. Nothing else can come before Jesus.
To say Jesus is Lord, means that Jesus is Lord of all. Not just Lord of Sunday morning. Not just Lord inside these walls. Jesus is lord of all, always.
Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king and Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.” His kingdom is not from this world, and Jesus is not an earthly king. When we think of earthly kings, like those from the images before, they take control by force. To rule more, you have to conquer more. But that is not the nature of the king we follow. That is not the nature of the Kingdom of God.   
So what is this Kingdom of God? First of all, it’s not heaven. The word typically translated as kingdom is basileia (bä-sē-lī'-ä). It doesn’t refer to geographical boundaries of a kingdom, but to the reign and rule of a king or the sphere of influence of a king. So the Kingdom of God is the sphere of influence of God rather than a specific location. I like the phrase “reign of God” because it doesn’t imply a location as much as “Kingdom” does.
The website of the United Methodist church has this to say about the Kingdom of God:
· We believe that the kingdom or reign of God is both a present reality and future hope.
· We believe that wherever God's will is done, the kingdom or reign of God is present. It was present in Jesus' ministry, and it is also present in our world whenever persons and communities experience reconciliation, restoration, and healing.
· We believe that the fulfillment of God's kingdom--the complete restoration of creation--is still to come.
· We believe that the church is called to be both witness to the vision of what God's kingdom will be like and a participant in helping to bring it to completion.
· We believe that the reign of God is both personal and social. Personally, we display the kingdom of God as our hearts and minds are transformed and we become more Christ-like. Socially, God's vision for the kingdom includes the restoration and transformation of all of creation.
The reign of God, I think is best summed up by the phrase “already and not yet.” God’s reign has been inaugurated, but is not yet fulfilled. Jesus’ life and ministry on Earth signified the inauguration of God’s reign. Its fulfillment will come when Jesus returns. But it is as the statement earlier said, a future and a present reality. As the church, we work here and now to help bring God’s reign to completion.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that the Kingdom of God is not “food and drink, but it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The good news is that righteousness and peace and joy are available to all of us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Let me take a bit of a detour here.
We spend a lot of time talking about following Jesus and following God. We tend to forget the Holy Spirit. A lot of times the way we talk about God loses the essence of the trinity: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, & Sustainer. God is God. Eternal. Unchanging. Jesus is Immanuel. God with us. God made flesh. In Jesus we see the full revelation of God. God’s presence on earth. The Holy Spirit is God’s continuing and continuous presence on earth.
It is the Holy Spirit that works in us to transform us and works through us to transform the world.
It is the Holy Spirit that allows us to do the work of the Kingdom here and now. The Reign of Christ is righteousness, peace, and joy; and most of all Love. That means that we are called to turn from anything that is contrary to those things. On a personal level and a social level. We turn from sin. Personal sin, first. And we turn away from those things that divide society. Things that marginalize others. Hate. War. Inequality. And we trust Jesus as he leads us to reconciliation and equality. And we open ourselves tot eh transforming power of the Holy Spirit, because we can’t do it on our own.
And so we follow Christ the King. And we await the Reign of Christ. But it is not a passive waiting. Here’s another quote from the UMC website: “And what is our role—to sit back and simply wait for God's kingdom to arrive? By no means! We are to pray earnestly for the Kingdom to come on earth. We are to watch faithfully for any signs of its coming. We are to put away our old selves and clothe ourselves "with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness". As renewed people, we're to do "the work of ministry". As Easter people witness and serve, we take part in the Kingdom's dawning. Thy Kingdom come!”
©2012 - Scott Coats

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