40 King Me

"KING ME!"

When I came to this community 33 years ago, Miami Beach was
on a downward spiral - which had a very negative effect on the church.
The congregation dwindled, the funds lessened. I realized that I would
have to be the glue to hold things together until the City itself turned around.
That came to my mind when I read this commentary on our
Scripture lesson from the first chapter of Colossians: "The historical
Jesus is here being proclaimed as that grand beginning point of a
whole new creation that will displace the old. In verse 17, the most
sweeping claim for this new king of creation is that "all things hold
together in him" Christ the King is the glue that keeps the cosmos
together."
I don't know about you, but I think we're hanging on by a thread
-as a result of the direction in which we're going ecologically and politically
- we could drown ourselves or blow ourselves up if we don't change.
The Apostle, Paul could pray the same prayer for us he prayed for the
Colossians: "This is what we pray - that you will know fully what
God wants; that with your knowledge you will also have great
wisdom and understanding in spiritual things; that this will help you live
in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every
way, that your life will produce good works of every kind and that
you will grow in your knowledge of God, that God will strengthen
you with his own great power, and that you will be patient and not
give up when troubles come."
The basis for "understanding spiritual things" is to
understand who Jesus is.
Not everyone within the sound of my voice will agree with me as
to my understanding of who Jesus is. Despite my liberal stance on social
issues and my belief that God Is Still Speaking, thus setting aside some
things we have heard or read before - even in the Scriptures - I have a
very high Christology.
I personally believe that Jesus was present at the right hand of the
Heavenly Father when all that is was created. "Without him was not
made anything that was made" as John the gospel writer put it. I
believe what the same gospel writer proclaimed that Jesus was the
"expression of God" the "Word" of God - that He was with God and was
God or as our text today Colossians 1:15 puts it, "He is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." I believe that when
Jesus was here on Earth, God was here on Earth - that to know what
Jesus is like is to know what God is like - that although He had the power
to wipe out and destroy any of His enemies or those of the Jews, or those
of mankind, - he chose to demonstrate the power of loving sacrifice -
the giving of Life rather than the taking of life.
If we as Christians were doing our job, our nation would be
spending as much on peace as they are on war. At a minimum, we
should be working as aggressively to bring peace as we are to bringwar.
Our Department of Peace should receive as much in finding as our
Department of War.
Our denomination, the United Church of Christ has the right idea
- currently collecting money to provide assistance to the over four million
people who have been displaced by the Iraq War - two million internally
and two million who have fled to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
On a personal level, you miss a world of peace and tranquility by
not living daily in the context of Who Jesus Is - King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
Who or what is Lord of your life? Constantine became a
"Christian" and made Christianity the official religion of the State and
Christianity has been going down hill ever since. Christianity was defined,
trimmed, smoothed and changed to fit imperial policy. It allowed
Constantine to continue to rob kill, burn, fight and execute. What is wrong
with that picture. What is wrong with our picture.
To bring "our picture" into focus and to take our first step on our
journey to "real" Christianity, we have to see that Jesus is the King of
Kings.
Knowing that Jesus is "King of Kings" means that YOU are "a
child of the King". As such you have some privileges. Because you're
"family" you are allowed into the Presence of the King of Kings. You live
in the mansion! A place in the Palace is yours!
When Jesus said, "In my Father's House are many
mansions", he wasn't talking about something that is going to be, but
already is. Once we set our foot on the discipleship trail, we are "in
eternal life." And here is precisely where we go wrong, because most
modern disciples give 99 % of their thought into the physical world and
hopefully, at least 1% on the realm of the Spirit in which they now live.
Most of us nod to God in the morning and hurry our devotions in
the evening, more to say we have done them than to get something from
them. I don't advocate giving up set times at the beginning and ending of
your day for giving attention to godly things - but additionally, I advocate
PRACTICING THE PRESENCE.
If we are indeed the King's Kid - and we do live in the palace, in
the Presence of the King - then we should bask in the Nearness of the
divinity.
For some reason we don't expect Divinity in the daily doings of
our lives - but if not there, then where? It's time for "Andy" to make his
appearance. The hymn, In the Garden took some hits because of the
words, And He walked with me, And He talked with me.....which became
paraphrased as "Andy walked with me - Andy talked with me." But
visualizing Jesus walking and talking with you is as good a way to Practice
the Presence as you can find. And Jesus is joined by others.
I'm a big believer in not going anywhere without being "in the
company of the saints." At communion, the liturgy says- "With angels
and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify
Thy Glorious Name." Don't leave home without them.!"
Of course, you will be known by the company you keep! I
mentioned to a friend the other night that reincarnationists believe that to
develop our souls we have many sojourns on this earth - until we get it
right I would guess! AND that they believe we often interact with some of
the same people we have known in other incarnations, although the roles
often change - someone who is a good friend in one incarnation may be a
brother to you in the next. The husband may reincarnate as the wife and
the wife the husband - now THERE'S an interesting thought. Turn about
is fair play it would seem, but he thought I shouldn't mention such things as
reincarnation, lest the men in the little white coats come to get me... in
which case I'll be in good company - Jesus said that John the Baptist was
Elijah who had lived centuries before - and as you recall - they dressed
the same - and had the same mission in life - preaching - and lived on the
same foods. Coincidence? In the realm of the Spirit, there are no
coincidences!
In the realm of the Spirit, there are always interesting concepts to
discuss and consider. I DO believe that some people reincarnate. I
remember one of mine - I was a priest - and I remember only walking and
reading as I made my way around a cloister - which is an area within a
monastery or convent, a covered passage, having one side walled and the
other an open arcade often with a series of columns set at regular intervals
- a colonnade. On my vacation I saw a cloister something like the one of
my past.
Yes, I'm suspicious that so many people claim to have been
Cleopatra or Julius Caesar - or are told that they were by unscrupulous
money makers, but it cannot be dismissed out of hand - if it's good enough
for Jesus - it's good enough for me!
Another advantage in living in the Palace - in the realm of the King
of Kings is learning how God interacts with mankind. Beware, this will
cause you to put away any "Errand boy in the Sky" practice you may have
had. You can no longer have the "Gimme God Blues" - that's when God
won't gimmie what I want him to gimme - and I get the Gimmie God
Blues. ( I try not to go there!)
It is so much more fun to see what I can give because that's the
way people in God's Kingdom get turned on - by doing something for
someone else, by being of service - by being in ministry.
As Palace People we are in full time Christian service, although
the devil tries to get us to believe only paid employees of the church are in
full time Christian service - and that's the way the devil would like it - far
be it from us to please the devil - much nicer to give him a hard time by
taking our ministries seriously.
At the Thanksgiving Eve ecumenical service I told a story told by
The Rev. James Howell, pastor of the Myers Park United Methodist
Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was his own story of wondering
if he should even BE in the ministry: The reason I am still in the ministry
is because of the night I decided to leave the ministry. It was my
day off. The phone rang, and it was the chaplain at a nearby hospital.
Usually we would exchange pleasantries, but all she said was,
"Come to the hospital - now!" I trusted the urgency in her voice
and arrived in about ten minutes.
I found her with a young couple I knew and loved from our
church. I sensed shrieks and sobs lingering in the room, which was
eerily silent: the wife and the husband fell onto my shoulders. I
could hardly bear their weight as they gasped for words. Their
child, Caroline, whom I had baptized a couple of weeks earlier had
just been diagnosed with a malignant tumor intertwined with her
spinal cord at the base of the brain."
Another minister who knew the family materialized. His
demeanor startled me: smiling, confident, speaking many words,
assuring the parents with an utterly confident grin that "God will
save your child if you just pray."
I'm ordained, he's ordained, but I felt no kinship with him.
I oscillated between wanting to strangle him and wanting to be more
like him. Why have I never been able to be pious? When did I
become the grim pastor who expects the worst? Sure, his style of
pastoring seemed trite, absurd - and yet, what good was I doing?
About that time, the pediatric oncologist came in - calm,
intelligent, well-trained, impressive. I remember him as being very
tall. He had a plan. As he unfolded his strategy, I remember those
smart grown-ups who had advised me to go to medical school, and
I wish I had, because as a minister, I had nothing - literally nothing
to offer to these people I loved so much. Had I gone to medical
school, I could do something...."
Then her parents asked me for a favor. "We are exhausted.
Caroline won't stop crying. Could you hold her for a little while so
we can step out and take a little break?" And so I took this child
in my arms and rocked her. She cried and I cried, and then having
expended all her energy, she drifted off to sleep. I kept rocking
her until her parents came back, a little bit rested, relieved to see
her more peaceful. We placed her gently in the crib, and then I left
them, took the elevator downstairs and stepped through the door
into the night.
As I felt the chill against my face, I knew I would not quit
the ministry. It was as if my whole life had been a preparation for
this dark evening. All the wrestling with what career to pursue,
counsel from professors, the books, papers, degrees, hurdles of
ordination: I had been in training for this day, so that on this day I
could drive to Durham and give two parents a little bit of rest - and
to rock a very sick child to sleep, just to hold this little one who
seemed to have as little hope as I did.
It was around midnight that I had to answer a question:
Why did I go into the ministry? To do something grand and
impressive? Or because I thought I might love somebody, some
family, some child, in God's name. Holding Caroline, I wondered:
isn't this what Mary did with Jesus when he was sick during the
night? Didn't she embrace him when he was taken down from the
cross? Isn't this what God Almighty had been doing we me all
these years? And on one night, I was able to help. I held a child.
I fulfilled my vocation, the small impotence of it all turning out to
be the beauty."
Your ministry is simply to be doing what God does with you
- to hold the hurting, to encourage the depressed, to support those
weakened by what life can do to the weary. In fact, if you didn't do
it, God couldn't get anything done, for you're the way He gets his
mission accomplished - as we emulate and follow the King of Kings.
When I was a kid, we played checkers, and I recall that if you got
your single checker across to the other side of the Board, you could yell
out KING ME! And another checker would be added to yours, which
deferred princely powers to the unit - you could do things now, you never
good before! That's the way God does things, as our mission makes a
difference - my mission makes a difference. " KING ME!"

Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)November 25, 2007 10:30 a, m. Colossians 1:11-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.