Rev Sue's sermon for Christ the King, 22nd Nov 2020
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These are the words of Jesus at the start of his ministry The Spirit of the Lord is on me, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
Jesus is setting out his agenda for his kingdom. The beatitudes are his values and he says more than once that he expects us to take these values on board….
3 “Great blessings belong to those who know they are spiritually in need.[a]
Jesus has come down to earth to save us to establish the kingdom of God and he is setting out his values very clearly.
These are things that are to be important in my kingdom. These are my priorities He expects His followers to help him and remember
Jesus who said ‘I am the light of the world’ I am the incarnation of God’s presence on earth Later he hands this role on to his disciples saying to his followers then and us now
you are the light of the world a city on a hill you are the incarnation of god’s presence on earth
wow!! and here at the end of his earthly ministry he is saying that we will be judged on how have lived these values out the quality of our love
Then the King will say to those on His right. Come you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me
Just like the master in last week’s parable returning to see how his servants have handled his money… Jesus returns at the end of time to ask us how have we used the love that he has lavished on us.
He will want to know have we spread it around and increased it?
This might seem impossibly hard but for this one thing which is that gradually as we spend more time with him, as we try to follow him and put his teaching into practice we become more like him. The posh word for this is sanctification, becoming more holy. What it really means is we take on the character and values of Christ, so it becomes easier to live the way Jesus want us to live
Does it really happen? Do we gradually become more like Jesus? yes! yes! yes!! One of the privileges about being a priest is that I get to see this actually happening week by week, year by year. You don’t realise that it is happening, but I see it in all of you. As I look at you all as you come to receive communion this passage often springs to mind. It’s from Morte D’Arthur by Tennyson
Arthur sat Crown’d on a dais, and his warriors cried, “Be thou the king and we will work thy will Who love thee” Then the King in low deep tones, And simple words of great authority, Bound them by so strait vows to his own self, That when they rose, knighted from kneeling, some Were pale as at the passing of a ghost Some flushed, and others dazed, as one who wakes Half-blinded at the coming of light.
You are like Arthurs knights kneeling before him as a he knights them. There is often a tangible presence of God amongst us at the Eucharist
I will continue But when he spake and cheer’d his Table Round with large, divine, and comfortable words, Beyond my tongue to tell thee – I beheld from eye to eye thro all their order flash a momentary likeness of the King……
a momentary likeness of the King…… This is what I see Sunday by Sunday as you come for communion This likeness is growing and growing in each one of you it’s what Christ our King sees too as he looks at you.
a momentary likeness of the King…… |
