Albert D. Mosley - "A Paradoxical Kingdom" (November 25, 2001)
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| - | Jesus answered, "My kingship is not of this world, | 0:11 |
| if my kingship were of this world, my | 0:18 | |
| servants would fight | 0:21 | |
| that I might not be handed over to the Jews | 0:23 | |
| but my kingship is not from this world". | 0:28 | |
| Let us pray. | 0:32 | |
| Oh, Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the | 0:39 | |
| calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, | 0:47 | |
| by the words of my lips and the meditations | 0:52 | |
| of our hearts. | 0:56 | |
| Speak, Oh Lord, | 0:59 | |
| for your servants listen, amen. | 1:01 | |
| Fredrick Buettner, and his succumbody at the gospel | 1:08 | |
| wescumbody tragedy and fairytale, | 1:12 | |
| retells the story of Jesus before Pontius Pilate | 1:16 | |
| the following way, | 1:20 | |
| "the man stands in front of the desk, | 1:23 | |
| with his hands tied behind his back, | 1:27 | |
| you can see that he has been roughed up a little. | 1:31 | |
| His upper lip is puffed out and one eye | 1:35 | |
| is swollen shut. | 1:39 | |
| He looks unwashed, and smells unwashed. | 1:41 | |
| His feet are bare, big, flat, peasant feet, | 1:47 | |
| although the man himself is not big. | 1:53 | |
| There's something almost comic about the way he | 1:58 | |
| stands there, slightly bent forward because of | 2:00 | |
| the way his hands are tied, | 2:05 | |
| and goggling down at the floor through his | 2:07 | |
| one good eye, as if he's looking for something | 2:09 | |
| he has lost. | 2:13 | |
| A button off his shirt, or a dime somebody slipped | 2:15 | |
| him for a cup of coffee. | 2:18 | |
| If there were just the two of them, Pilate | 2:22 | |
| thinks he would give him car fare and send | 2:25 | |
| him back to the sticks where he came from, | 2:29 | |
| but the guards are watching and on the wall the | 2:32 | |
| official portrait of Tiberius Caeser is watching, | 2:36 | |
| the fat, powdered face, | 2:39 | |
| the toothy imperial smell, | 2:42 | |
| so Pilate goes through the formalities, | 2:45 | |
| 'so you're the king of the Jews?' he says. | 2:48 | |
| 'The head Jew?' | 2:52 | |
| The man says 'is not this world | 2:55 | |
| that I'm king of?' | 3:00 | |
| But his accent is so thick that Pilate | 3:02 | |
| hardly gets it. | 3:04 | |
| The accent together with what they've done to his lip, | 3:07 | |
| as if he has a mouth of stones. | 3:11 | |
| Jesus says, 'I've come to bear witness to the truth'. | 3:14 | |
| And at that, the procreator of Judea takes such a, | 3:21 | |
| such a deep drag on his filtered tip that his | 3:24 | |
| head swims and for a moment | 3:27 | |
| he's afraid he may faint. | 3:30 | |
| He pushes back from the desk and crosses his legs. | 3:32 | |
| There's a papery rustle of wings as a pigeon | 3:38 | |
| flutters off the sill and floats down toward the cabals, | 3:41 | |
| standing by the door | 3:46 | |
| the guards are not paying much attention | 3:49 | |
| cigarette smokes drifts over the surface of the desk, | 3:52 | |
| the picture of his wife when she still had her looks, | 3:56 | |
| the onyx box from Caesar, | 4:00 | |
| the clay plaque with the imprint of his first | 4:02 | |
| son's hand on it, | 4:04 | |
| Pilate squints at the man through the smoke." | 4:07 | |
| Buettner's portrayal of this episode of Jesus | 4:13 | |
| before Pilate captures elements of this story that | 4:15 | |
| are lost in the disciples surrendering of it | 4:20 | |
| in each of the gospels. | 4:22 | |
| Buettner offers us a glimpse into the courtroom drama, | 4:25 | |
| and it's not just any ordinary glimpse, | 4:29 | |
| it's a glimpse that allows us to use all of our senses. | 4:32 | |
| If you use your imagination, you can see the guards | 4:37 | |
| standing there holding their weapons, | 4:41 | |
| you can hear the taps on Pilate's shoes | 4:44 | |
| as he walks back and forth in front of Jesus. | 4:47 | |
| You can smell the smoke that fills the judgment hall | 4:52 | |
| from Pilate's cigarette. | 4:56 | |
| You can taste the dryness and staleness of the air, | 4:59 | |
| almost like the taste you get | 5:04 | |
| when you enter a room that has been shut | 5:07 | |
| for a very long time. | 5:08 | |
| You can feel the pain of Jesus from His puffed lip | 5:11 | |
| and eye that is almost swollen shut. | 5:15 | |
| This story is real, very real. | 5:19 | |
| This story also seems strangely out of place | 5:24 | |
| just a week before Advent. | 5:27 | |
| Here we are, the last Sunday of the church, here, | 5:30 | |
| Christ, the King's Sunday. | 5:34 | |
| We are a half year away from the events of Holy weekend | 5:37 | |
| Easter, but today they come back to us with lessons | 5:40 | |
| that remind us of the condemnation of Jesus' earthly | 5:43 | |
| ministry and the completion of His earthly ministry | 5:46 | |
| and the inauguration of His universal kingdom. | 5:51 | |
| The far majority of people living in this country | 5:55 | |
| at this time are not accustomed to the ideal | 5:57 | |
| of a King or a Lord. | 6:01 | |
| Most of us simply have no experience of persons | 6:04 | |
| embodying these social roles, | 6:07 | |
| much less of the social system that support such roles. | 6:09 | |
| Pope Pius 11 instituted Christ to King Sunday in 1925 | 6:15 | |
| as a way of combating the destructive forces of this age. | 6:19 | |
| It was eventually moved to the last Sunday of the | 6:24 | |
| Pentecost season this Sunday, | 6:26 | |
| the last Sunday of the church year. | 6:28 | |
| As a climax toward which to celebration of the Christian | 6:31 | |
| year moves and toward which the Chris- | 6:34 | |
| the individual Christians orient their own lives. | 6:37 | |
| This Sunday is meant to help Christians replace | 6:42 | |
| other kings in their lives | 6:44 | |
| with Christ, the one and true King. | 6:46 | |
| Here in John's gospel, | 6:52 | |
| we have an account of Christ arraignment before Pilate, | 6:55 | |
| the Roman governor, | 6:58 | |
| and the hall of judgment. | 7:00 | |
| The chief priest and elders, those who brought | 7:03 | |
| charges against Jesus were not in the Praetorian, | 7:06 | |
| they were not in the judgment hall, | 7:09 | |
| they refused to enter Pilate's headquarters so | 7:12 | |
| as to avoid ritual defilement | 7:14 | |
| since the passover was so near. | 7:17 | |
| The irony here is almost comical. | 7:21 | |
| So religious, and so Pius for these leaders who | 7:23 | |
| were scheming to do away with Jesus. | 7:28 | |
| They made a big deal out of entering the house | 7:32 | |
| of an uncircumcised gentile | 7:34 | |
| but made no scruple of breaking through all the | 7:36 | |
| laws of equity to persecute Jesus. | 7:39 | |
| In the mean time, Pilate | 7:44 | |
| this tragedy comical figure, | 7:47 | |
| shuttles back and forth between the Jews outside | 7:49 | |
| and Jesus inside. | 7:54 | |
| Pilate typifies that person or institution confronted | 7:57 | |
| with a critical decision | 8:01 | |
| and in the process, he is torn between what he feels | 8:03 | |
| and what the circumstances present. | 8:07 | |
| In the exchange between Jesus and Pilate | 8:11 | |
| you can feel the agony that Pilate endures. | 8:14 | |
| Pilate asks Jesus, "are you the king of the Jews?" | 8:18 | |
| (echoes) | 8:22 | |
| "Is that your own idea?" | 8:24 | |
| Jesus responded. | 8:26 | |
| "Or did others talk to you about me?" | 8:29 | |
| "Am I a Jew?" | 8:32 | |
| (echoes) | 8:35 | |
| Clearly, Pilate who purports to be in charge | 8:37 | |
| is definitely not in charge. | 8:42 | |
| He began these proceedings as to judge, | 8:45 | |
| the figure with all the authority but as | 8:48 | |
| the drama unfolds the reader becomes | 8:50 | |
| increasingly aware that the real judge, | 8:53 | |
| the one with ultimate power is Jesus Himself, the prisoner. | 8:56 | |
| Thomas Long notes the irony here by writing that | 9:02 | |
| it is Jesus who is to be crucified, | 9:05 | |
| but it is Pilate and all like him who are defeated. | 9:08 | |
| It is Jesus who will suffer death, | 9:12 | |
| but it is the ways of the world that are perishing. | 9:15 | |
| The stage is set. | 9:21 | |
| Jesus, this itinerant Jewish preacher | 9:24 | |
| has been attracting larger and larger crowds. | 9:28 | |
| People travel from miles around just to see Him | 9:32 | |
| and to hear His message. | 9:35 | |
| He seems to have some awesome magical powers to | 9:38 | |
| heal those who are sick, | 9:41 | |
| to give sight to those who are blind, | 9:43 | |
| and to make the lame walk again. | 9:45 | |
| Rumor has it that He has recently brought a dead | 9:49 | |
| man back to life. | 9:51 | |
| Clearly, this Jesus must be reckoned with. | 9:54 | |
| He is becoming a threat to the religious authorities, | 9:59 | |
| and the same religious authorities want to portray Him | 10:02 | |
| as a threat to the Roman Empire. | 10:06 | |
| Up until this point | 10:10 | |
| no real charge has been brought against Jesus, | 10:12 | |
| other than that of evil doer. | 10:15 | |
| His accusers are not able to say that Jesus is a trader, | 10:18 | |
| they are not able to say that Jesus is a felon, | 10:22 | |
| they're not able to say that Jesus is breaker of the peace. | 10:25 | |
| All they can say is that He is an evil doer. | 10:29 | |
| He is seen as a trouble maker | 10:34 | |
| then suddenly the stakes get higher. | 10:38 | |
| The charges against Him make Pilate and others | 10:42 | |
| sit up and take notice. | 10:44 | |
| Some are now calling Him 'King of The Jews' | 10:47 | |
| or 'King of Judea'. | 10:50 | |
| To the Roman Empire, this claim of being king of the Jews | 10:53 | |
| or king of Judea is a treasonable offense | 10:57 | |
| punishable by death. | 11:00 | |
| But why? | 11:03 | |
| What prompted the religious authorities to hand over | 11:06 | |
| one of their very own to Pilate and the Roman Empire? | 11:08 | |
| Part of it, was that they were disappointed that | 11:13 | |
| this Jesus, who claimed He was sent from God, | 11:17 | |
| was not an epic hero. | 11:21 | |
| He was not a military figure, | 11:23 | |
| and he was not a strong political leader. | 11:26 | |
| The religious- the religious authorities were | 11:30 | |
| expecting and waiting for someone to come and | 11:32 | |
| wage the great apocalyptic fight against the | 11:34 | |
| evil Roman Empire. | 11:37 | |
| They were wishing and hoping for a decisive military | 11:40 | |
| victory once and for all. | 11:43 | |
| The kind of victory that would rid God's people | 11:45 | |
| of their enemies. | 11:48 | |
| Instead, the religious leaders got Jesus. | 11:51 | |
| Instead, they got someone who urged them to | 11:55 | |
| love their enemies. | 11:57 | |
| They got someone who urged them to not take | 11:59 | |
| up arms and fight. | 12:01 | |
| They got someone who urged them to mingle with those | 12:04 | |
| who were considered unclean. | 12:06 | |
| "What a disappointment", | 12:09 | |
| thought the chief priest and elders. | 12:12 | |
| They've failed to understand that Jesus' lordship | 12:16 | |
| that His kingship, | 12:20 | |
| is of a different and new nature. | 12:22 | |
| Jesus, by way of His ministry, | 12:26 | |
| and by way of his life, | 12:28 | |
| turned the expectations of kingship upside down. | 12:31 | |
| When Jesus says to Pilate, "my kingdom is not of | 12:37 | |
| this world", He does not mean to imply | 12:39 | |
| that He and His followers have no role to play | 12:41 | |
| in human affairs and the struggle for | 12:44 | |
| justice and peace. | 12:46 | |
| This claim of Jesus distinguishes His kingdom from | 12:49 | |
| other kingdoms. | 12:51 | |
| Other kingdoms were domination, where violence and | 12:53 | |
| economic exploitation are common. | 12:58 | |
| The values of this kingdom, | 13:02 | |
| the values of Jesus' kingdom are not | 13:04 | |
| and should not be the same as the values | 13:08 | |
| of earthly kingdoms. | 13:10 | |
| The Jewish people living during the time of Jesus | 13:14 | |
| were hoping for a king like the one they heard | 13:16 | |
| their ancestors speak of. | 13:18 | |
| They were hoping for another King David, | 13:21 | |
| an ideal king, beloved of God. | 13:23 | |
| They were longing for king described in today's | 13:28 | |
| old testament lesson and in so many ways | 13:30 | |
| that's just what they got. | 13:35 | |
| Like David, Jesus' God's anointed one, | 13:37 | |
| the lesson from Samuel iterates God's resolve to | 13:41 | |
| use the anointed one to bring well being and | 13:44 | |
| God's power to raise up One suited to God's purposes. | 13:47 | |
| The message and the lesson from Samuel, | 13:54 | |
| and of the lesson from John is the same. | 13:56 | |
| Both messages challenge us to look at our leaders. | 14:00 | |
| From whom do they derive their authority? | 14:06 | |
| And for what do they stand? | 14:09 | |
| Are they like Pilate? | 14:11 | |
| Mere pawns in a political machine | 14:14 | |
| or do they stand for peace and equality? | 14:17 | |
| And do they take up the calls of the marginalized | 14:20 | |
| and powerless of our society today? | 14:22 | |
| Are their political actions and moves designed | 14:27 | |
| to get high approval ratings? | 14:29 | |
| Or are their political actions based upon wise counsel | 14:32 | |
| and discernment from God? | 14:36 | |
| Beyond examining our leaders, | 14:39 | |
| these lessons also present a personal challenge | 14:41 | |
| to each of us. | 14:44 | |
| To whom do we owe our ultimate allegiance? | 14:46 | |
| When the chips are down, | 14:49 | |
| what really counts for you? | 14:51 | |
| Do we understand any better than Pilate did? | 14:54 | |
| The higher authority to which Jesus referred? | 14:58 | |
| Have we given God ultimate authority in our lives? | 15:01 | |
| Do we really allow God to be sovereign | 15:05 | |
| in our lives? | 15:08 | |
| Or would we have stood in the crown in Jerusalem | 15:10 | |
| and shouted "crucify Him! Crucify Him!" | 15:14 | |
| As I said earlier, it seems a bit strange | 15:21 | |
| to focus on a scripture lesson about Jesus' | 15:24 | |
| condemnation and death as we prepare to enter | 15:26 | |
| the season of Advent, | 15:30 | |
| but it is essential that each of us remembers that | 15:32 | |
| Jesus' birth is only the beginning of the story, | 15:36 | |
| or better yet, the middle of the story. | 15:39 | |
| Jesus came to be part of a long term solution, | 15:42 | |
| by His life and death, He set new standards | 15:47 | |
| for moral and ethical behavior. | 15:50 | |
| He testified to the power of God and to God's | 15:53 | |
| enduring faithfulness. | 15:55 | |
| He called us to accept God's rule in our lives | 15:57 | |
| and then to become part of the solution to today's problems | 16:00 | |
| by choosing not the easy, but the difficult path. | 16:04 | |
| Not the simple solution, but the high moral ground. | 16:09 | |
| The easy path, the simple solution is to behave like | 16:14 | |
| the kingly powers of this world. | 16:18 | |
| To not be to some political party, | 16:25 | |
| nor even to our country, | 16:29 | |
| but to Jesus Christ only. | 16:31 | |
| Certainly, we have an obligation of loyalty to | 16:35 | |
| our country, if it's principles are consistent | 16:37 | |
| with those of the gospel, | 16:40 | |
| as disciples of Jesus Christ, | 16:42 | |
| we have chosen God to be the highest authority in our lives. | 16:45 | |
| When we have a tough decision to make | 16:49 | |
| we should turn to God, | 16:52 | |
| not to our local senator. | 16:54 | |
| When we look for a motto of leadership | 16:57 | |
| we should turn to Christ, | 16:59 | |
| not to the mayor, not to the governor, | 17:01 | |
| not even to the president. | 17:05 | |
| Today in a sense, we come to a conclusion of the story. | 17:08 | |
| Jesus reigns as king over all forever more. | 17:13 | |
| We come to the conclusion only to turn around | 17:17 | |
| and begin again. | 17:20 | |
| We will hear once more from the beginning of the story of | 17:23 | |
| our Savior's earthly life among us | 17:25 | |
| starting with His conception and His birth, | 17:28 | |
| we will hear once again the stories and words we | 17:32 | |
| know so well. | 17:36 | |
| And we'll once again be surprised by what new insights, | 17:38 | |
| what new understandings they bring us. | 17:42 | |
| But before we start over, | 17:45 | |
| before we hear those old familiar stories again | 17:48 | |
| we have to face the reality of Christ's kingship. | 17:52 | |
| Today is Christ, the King's Sunday. | 17:58 | |
| Is Christ your king? | 18:01 | |
| Is He Lord of your life? | 18:04 | |
| Do you make your decisions based upon His life | 18:07 | |
| and His teachings? | 18:09 | |
| Is Jesus Christ your king? | 18:12 | |
| If not, then something else or someone else is. | 18:15 | |
| You may protest and say "I have no king", | 18:19 | |
| but we're all subjects to one thing or another. | 18:23 | |
| If Christ is not king in your life, than perhaps | 18:28 | |
| is some earthly philosophy or discipline? | 18:31 | |
| Perhaps it's greed or lust. | 18:35 | |
| Perhaps it's your career. | 18:37 | |
| The kings of this world exact a huge toll | 18:40 | |
| on people's lives. | 18:44 | |
| To call Jesus "King" is a major leap, | 18:46 | |
| it is to make Him the only One you will serve. | 18:49 | |
| To serve another is treason. | 18:53 | |
| In this world where every organization and | 18:56 | |
| every person wants our unwavering loyalty, | 18:58 | |
| to make Christ king is an enormous personal challenge. | 19:01 | |
| How will Christ as king effect your work? | 19:06 | |
| How will Christ as king in your life effect | 19:11 | |
| your business dealings? | 19:14 | |
| How will Christ as king in your life effect your marriage? | 19:16 | |
| How will Christ as king in your life effect | 19:22 | |
| your relationship with your children? | 19:26 | |
| To whom will you swear your allegiance? | 19:31 | |
| For whom will we give our lives? | 19:35 | |
| To whom have we sold our souls? | 19:38 | |
| It is my prayer that Jesus Christ is king of your life | 19:42 | |
| and that it is He and He only | 19:47 | |
| who reigns within your heart. | 19:50 | |
| Amen. | 19:53 |