Christ the King Holds Us Together

This is the message I preached this morning at Zion Lutheran Church, Baker, WV.

Text: Col 1:11-20

Being a part of our household can be quite an adventure and you just never know where it may lead. Those who know me well know I am not the most graceful or coordinated person. Inanimate objects in our home also suffer the consequences of getting bumped, knocked over, dropped, and sometimes broken. We keep a good supply of duct tape, glue, and other adhesives in stock. Things can be repaired or replaced. Super Glue is a wonderful invention.

But what about our hearts, our emotions, our families, our church? It is not so easy to fix them. Super Glue is fine for things, but what about OUR brokenness?

We all have circumstances we encounter in life. Sometimes it just becomes too much and we feel hopeless. And we wonder where God is in all of it. It just isn’t supposed to happen like that. Parents lose a child. A long marriage dissolves in the pain of divorce. The poet William Butler Yeats expressed this feeling in these words, “…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…” (William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming).

            Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the church year. As Americans, we may find it difficult to relate to the idea of a king. Kings aren’t part of our culture like they are in some countries. I would like to focus on the reading from Colossians.

            It begins as a prayer for the Colossians and I believe it is one we can claim for ourselves as well. We may feel weak as individuals, as a church. We may wonder where all this will end? Hear this good news:

 ¹¹ May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

            This strength comes from God’s glorious power, which never refers to simply human power in the New Testament. It is God’s power that strengthens us, not our own. God has prepared us to endure.

            This life can be a struggle for us. But in Christ, we have an inheritance. We are children of God and our God has given us a great heritage.

Following the prayer, we are shown just who this Jesus is that we follow. He is our redeemer, the one who has delivered us from “sin, death, and the power of the devil” as Luther wrote in the Small Catechism. He has set us free.

            Jesus is also creator of all things in heaven and earth, seen and unseen. The emphasis throughout the passage is on what God has done, not on what we have to do.

            Jesus is first—the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead, first place in everything. As one theologian says, “He is first in priority, before all things…first in importance, beyond all things…first in rank, above all things… first in origin, source of all things…first in order, ahead of all things…”  (Audrey L. S. West, New Proclamation). This isn’t saying, “My Savior’s better than yours,” but rather nothing exists anywhere outside of Christ’s domain.

            Now as wonderful as all this is it gets better. Do any of you remember hearing in science class about “cosmic glue”? It is that invisible substance that holds the worlds together. According to an article I read, now there is even a race among scientists to detect traces of this invisible cosmic glue. As Christians, we already know what this cosmic glue is. It is Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe. Jesus not only creates and redeems us, but holds all of creation and us together.

Have you ever seen old photo albums where the pictures were glued onto the pages? What happens over time? The glue dries, the pictures drop off, and everything is all mixed up. It’s a mess. Thankfully, Jesus isn’t like that. Jesus, the cosmic super glue does not dry up, die, or fail. He continues forever to hold all things together. Christ brings creation and us to be in a “condition of [unity to] continue, [to] endure, [to] exist, and hold together" (BDAG).

There have been times in my life when I was desperate--when my family was having financial difficulties, when I had a knee injury and was out of work for a year. I didn’t know how I would cope, how I would go on. Jesus held me together. He held my family together. It’s like the old song says, “He’s got the whole world in his hands…”

            That’s nice, but what is God’s objective in all of this? The heart of everything is summed up in the final verse, “through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

            There is hope for us because of who Jesus is and what he has done. This is just the time we need to celebrate Christ the King and his reign in our lives.

            Listen to the way The Message  translation expresses our hope:

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

            Let us pray:

            Christ our King, we bring our brokenness to you. As the glue that holds everything together, we ask you to fix and heal us. Fit us together in vibrant harmonies of your love and use us to your glory. Amen.

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John the Pointer

The semester is nearly done. I have two finals, then we're off to be with family for Christmas in Rochester, NY and New Years in RI. When we return in Jan., then I will be spending 2 1/2 weeks (3 Sundays) in Western MD/WV for my Jan. term.



Today I supplied at Bender's Lutheran Church in Biglerville, PA, where I have spent the fall semester. The text was Luke 3:7-18 http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=127729731.

Most of you know Amity, my husband, Ray’s Seeing Eye dog. She is half-black lab and half-golden retriever. Some of her physical and emotional traits are those of a lab, while others are those of a golden. Now we know she is a cross of only these two breeds, but she often acts as though she has a third breed in her, a pointer.

The reason for this is, no matter what Amity is doing, when she’s outside she’s very curious. If she hears a car, sees another dog, or someone she knows, she freezes and stops and looks in the direction of whatever has caught her interest. She acts like a pointer.

In today’s gospel reading, John the Baptist is a pointer as well. The first way John is a pointer is that he points accusingly to the crowd coming to be baptized and rebukes them. I love images and word pictures. John paints a beauty here. “"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” By calling them vipers and then speaking of coming wrath, John compares the crowd to snakes trying to escape from a fire. John pointed to the crowd in rebuke.

Next John points to the crowd to repent. To repent is having remorse, turning around, changing your mind. The NET Bible puts it this way, “Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance” (Luk 3:8 NET). In other words, don’t just say it, show it! Prove your repentance. The Jewish people of the time wanted to rest on the laurels of family lineage. We’re Abraham’s children. They weren’t acting like it. Even the stones could do a better job.

John warns, “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luk 3:9 NRS) Here we have fire equated with judgment. If they did not show fruit of repentance, the crowd of Jews would be thrown into the fire of judgment. John continues to point to repentance.

Now the crowd responds, “What should we do?” John points to restoration--giving to people in need. Restore their dignity, restore their health, restore their warmth.

Tax collectors responded and they asked, “What should we do?”

The tax collectors would bid to collect taxes for the Roman government and then add a surcharge, which they kept. Since tax collectors worked for Rome, they were viewed as traitors to their own people and were not well liked. Yet even they were moved by John's call. (Bible Works notes)

John points to restoration again. They are to do their work with honesty and integrity in a business known for greed and dishonesty.

Next, soldiers responded and asked, “What should we do?” Soldiers of that day were known for using violence to get money from people. They would also bring false charges against people and get paid a part of the court fine. John points to restoration again. Soldiers are to restore dignity to their work by not taking advantage of others because of their positions of power. They also restore dignity to those who do not have to live in fear of having their money forcefully taken or being falsely accused.

John is talking to us today, right here and now. What would he rebuke us for or would he? Are our lives pleasing to God? Are we pushing and screaming and knocking over other shoppers to get the latest gadget that’s the hot item this year? Do we experience road rage when someone cuts us off on the highway? Have we made our desire for material things more important than our desire for relationship with the giver of life? When we do our job, whatever that may be, do we do the best that we can or enough to just get by? How do we deal with our neighbors or strangers? Do we have relatives that we haven’t spoken to in years?

John calls us to restore the dignity to all around us. Downstairs is the shop that provides clothes for those in need. That certainly restores one’s ability to look nice enough for a job interview. Last week, you shared your fellowship hall and time and food to support the Race for Life. What else is God calling us to do? It could be something simple. Do we stop to help stranded motorists? Do we babysit for the single mother? Do we give clothes we no longer wear to Adams Rescue Mission or the Salvation Army or the shop downstairs? Or do we just throw them away? Do we help our neighbor if there is a disaster, such as a fire? Do we do volunteer work for the community? I know many of you already do this.

Lastly, John proclaimed the good news by pointing away from himself and pointing to God, by pointing to the Redeemer. “…one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie … his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” In these last 2 weeks of Advent, we are preparing for the Christmas holiday; we are preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth. This is a time to prepare our hearts. The good news is Jesus is here in our midst today. He is present in Word and Sacrament and in this gathered community. These are the greatest gifts of all. John’s story did not end here, and neither does ours.

Yes, John rebuked the crowd, and challenged them to repent of their ways, and to restore the way they lived their lives in the community. But John knew who and what was coming. He knew that Jesus was coming as the gift of salvation. As we continue our Advent journey toward Christmas, let us remember that God has given us the greatest gift of all in the person of Jesus.

John in pointing to the Redeemer also challenges us to respond to this message. John wants us to respond by rejoicing, and retelling. Let us rejoice over the fact that we know that God loves us so much that he wants us to spend eternity with us. We should be so excited over this gift, that we can’t help but share the Good News with everyone.

In the same way that John pointed the crowd to Jesus, are we pointing others to Jesus? What should WE as the people of God gathered here today do? Are we willing to be the gutsy kind of prophetic voice John was if that’s what God requires?

It is this same Jesus who gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to do all that God asks of us. Together, let us, like John, point the way to Christ.

Google pictures.