Proper 29 C + Christ the King + Press Play + 11.24.13

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M. Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
ibotube.com
(Jer. 23:1–6;  Canticle 16 BCP; Col. 1:11–20; Luke 23:33–43)

“Press play, don’t press pause” goes a popular song you may have heard.  It is called “One Love,” by Macklemore.  And it’s about sharing love with others.  It is, if you will, a statement of inclusive hip hop theology. 
Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, and a very important feast of the church.  Today we recognize and honor Christ as the King of all of our hearts.  But in today’s gospel we are also reminded that Jesus was not an ordinary king.
Because, faced with his death, we know that Jesus had the opportunity to press pause, to avoid all that was coming down the pike.  To shirk his passion and death.  In the garden of Gethsemane, we can see he is sorely tempted to do just that.  Let this cup pass.  But then it switches.  Not my will, but thine.
Jesus presses play and he dies for us.  Because that is the type of king he is.  We know that he is not an ordinary king; that in fact God never did hold well with ordinary kings and typical power-players.  My seminary Old Testament (or Jewish Scriptures) Prof used to say that God frequently told the people, “You don’t want kings” and they said “yes, we do!” and so God capitulated. 
And then what happens, but the results we see in Jeremiah here?  The leaders (shepherd is just a general term for leaders here) have scattered the flock.  And God, through Jeremiah is telling them off!  These are God’s people and they have been bad shepherds of the flock.
But let’s ask ourselves: how are we doing with religious leadership today?  Not many of us here are ordained leaders, but any person of faith can be a leader in today’s world, can share his or her opinion about God.  In this world, there are so many lies about God and about God’s judgment. 
This week I was reminded of this when I saw a short video on YouTube featuring some young adults who participated in a Poetry Slam, a kind of poetry that is performed rhythmically and with passion.  The video was called “Tell Your God” and it was powerful.  Three young adults, speaking rhythmically, sometimes in unison, share all of the lies they have heard about God. They mention that they have heard that God wrote DOMA, that God pickets funerals.  That the walls of heaven were built to keep them out.  They say they feel abandoned, that God has no time to listen to their prayers unless they are a white Christian girl in America.  That they feel that God’s forgiveness is used as permission for vengeance.  They say to “tell your God I mention him in my prayers.”  To tell God that they are beautiful and loving also.  They close by saying “Tell your God I don’t believe the lies… tell your God I forgive him.”[1]  I started to cry, hearing that.
Which brings me to Jesus on the cross.  Don’t their words kind of remind you of him, hanging there in this gospel, humiliated to the extreme, in pain?  Being told that if he is king, he should save himself.  Except that’s not the kind of king he is.  He came to save us, not to save himself.  He presses play though he is abused and tortured.  And what does he do next?  He shows forgiveness.  In the middle of his passion and death, in this most unforgiveable of moments, he forgives his enemies, prays for them.  Just as he mentioned earlier in the gospel to “pray for those who abuse you,” that’s what he does. [2]    He, like these young adults I mentioned, shows love and forgiveness despite the pain.  He even offers salvation to the thief who repents at the end.  “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
And what is Paradise?  Originally that term was used to describe the hunting grounds used by Persian kings, an area just for the benefit and sport of the royals.  But in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and here in Jesus’ usage, Paradise begins to describe the heavenly Eden.[3] Because that’s the kind of king Jesus is.  Nothing is just to serve him, everything is about us all getting forgiven, saved, and healed.  He doesn’t hold power for himself, live for himself, or die for himself.  But everything he does is for our forgiveness and salvation.
By contrast, what image of God do we share with the world?  Do we press play, or do we press pause in sharing God’s love with others? 
Do we share about a God who shows love, forgiveness and compassion?  Or is the God we share one that just seems angry and judgmental?  Sometimes, we have to remember what king we follow.  Because as theologian Eberhard Busch says it:
“This man is our king in the lowlands, because he does not want us to die and suffer in that dark and sad region.  Maybe you are “today” in a sort of darkness, but because the Holy One is with you today and for you today in that darkness, you will be with him today in paradise.”[4]
Here, Busch re-imagines paradise.  Because Christ is with you, even darkness itself can become a paradise, a place of love and forgiveness.
Thanks be to God!


[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBAtdqiF0kE&feature=youtu.be  “BNV 2013 Finals Round 4 – Denver” (accessed 11/22/13).
[2] Vernon K. Robbins, “Exegetical Perspective: Luke 23:33-43,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 4, 335.
[3] Ibid, 337.
[4] Eberhard Busch, “Theological Perspective: Luke 23:33-43,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 4, p. 336

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