Sermon Illustrations for Christ the King Sunday (Proper 29) (2021)
Illustration
2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalms 132:1-12 (13-18)
This poem, according to the notes that accompany Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew scriptures, is written in archaic Hebrew. It’s not prettified, nor does it use words or terms that represent the way Hebrew was used centuries later. This is tenth century BC Hebrew, which means it comes from David’s time, and may well have been written by David.
This poem also represents the best of what David wanted to say at the end. His story is winding down and he knows it. It’s been rocky in many places, and triumphant in others. He’s the king, and somehow, we want him to act like the king at the end. These words represent the better part of David. It’s a psalm about God’s blessings for the wise versus the fate of the foolish.
Sadly, thought this passage starts with the words “And these are the last words of David” the fact is, these are not the last words of David. The aging king, bitterly cold, unable to get warm, will use his actual last words to his son Solomon to list the people who he promised he wouldn’t kill, then tells Solomon once he’s dead, kill them. So that’s what he really said.
None of us knows what our last words might be until we’re living those last moments. Some of us may die so quickly that there is nothing to say. Others of us may have sunk into dementia so our last words do not represent what we would have said. If we are not ourselves, we may say something not worthy of who we really are. I think we, like David, are within our rights, while we still can, to write our “last words,” even if they’re not really our last words. What would you say, what wisdom, what insight, what poem, do you want to leave your loved ones with?
Frank R.
* * *
2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-12 (13-18)
Two little girls were sitting together and counting their pennies. The first said, “I have five pennies.” The other replied, “I have ten.” Looking at the five coins in her hand, her friend answered, "No, you have just five cents, the same as I do.” The second child quickly replied, “But my dad said that when he came home tonight, he would give me five cents, and so I have ten cents.” The child’s faith was proof of that which she did not yet see, and she counted it as being already hers, because it had been promised by her father.
God’s promises can be depended upon. David knew that. These passages speak of God’s covenant promise to him. Psalm 132:11-12 address it. “The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: ‘One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.” Just as David did, we can take God at his word.
Bill T.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
How can Christ be said to reign as king in view of the pandemic we experienced and in view of all of America’s and the world’s other existing problems? Famed French Catholic theologian of the last century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, offered a helpful insight:
To read the gospel with an open mind is to see beyond all possibility of doubt that Jesus came to bring new truths concerning our destiny: not only a new life superior to what we are conscious of, but also in a very real sense a new physical power of acting upon our temporal world. (Hymn of the Universe, p.143)
Jesus is king in the sense that he provides new power, a new direction to the universe. Covid may have disrupted us, war may continue, and our loved ones depart, but Christ reigns in the sense that a new power is in the world which will ultimately conquer these ills. Another famous modern theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg has said something similar:
.... faith in the royal Lordship of Christ himself already present rests on an anticipation of the eschaton [realization of God’s Kingdom], similar to the presence of the divine lordship in Jesus’ own activity. It is reality for the time being only in heaven... (Jesus — God and Man, p.367)
Christ’s kingship, the events described in our lesson, are accounts of what is going to happen, of where the world and the universe are headed!
The lesson also promises that Christ the King will create a kingdom of priests. On that matter, Martin Luther famously writes:
Here no one can deny at this point he [Paul] is describing the priestly office, which is nothing else than a rational sacrifice... the sacrificing of oneself to God. This, however, is supposed to be common to all Christians; therefore, all Christians must be priests. (Luther’s Works, Vol.36, p.145)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
The book of Revelation begins with the proclamations of who God was, will be and is; how Jesus is the first-born. This passage ends with the same reminder, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. No matter when we are, how we are, where we are, God is there. God is present at the beginning of all things and will be at the end of all things. There is grace in that knowledge. There is hope in that knowledge. No matter what happens in my life, that is the foundation on which I rest, on which I stand. I am hope-filled as I live my life because I know God is present with me, now and always. That I count on, have counted on, in my good times and my bad, in my happy days and my sad days. God embraces me and I embrace my faith. Is that how you feel, how you walk through the sunny and the rainy days? I hope so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 18:33-37
In his book A Brief History of Everyone Who Has Ever Lived geneticist Adam Rutherford writes that instead of thinking we have family trees in which we can trace our roots backwards in a straight line, what we ought to envision is nettings instead because we’re all woven together. The family tree is based on the idea that we have two parents and they had two parents and so on, but if you go back a thousand years that tree yields 137,438,953,472 ancestors, more people than have ever lived.
In his chapter titled “We Are All Descended From Kings” Rutherford points out that most genealogies end with the discovery of a king in our background. He uses Charlemagne as an example. If you have some European ancestry, the odds are good that you are descended from him. But you’re also likely to have descended in some way from eighty percent of the people who were alive during Charlemagne’s lifetime.
Being descended from royalty seems to please us, however, and make us feel we’re better than other people, much like the claim of the Judeans in John 8:38, “…we are descendants of Abraham…”. But the history of a people that had sojourned in Egypt and Palestine and Babylon and throughout the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean world was a jumble of DNA.
Jesus was reforming our whole idea of ancestry and entitlement by telling us we are all members of the family of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all are saved through the grace of God.
When Pilate asked the crucial question — “Are you the king of the Jews?” he had in custody a man named Barabbas, a wild revolutionary, a guerrilla who sought to supplant the almighty emperor in Rome with a Messiah King. Now Jesus stands before him, accused by the religious authorities of being that Messiah King. Pilate was trying Jesus on a charge of sedition. But is it true? Pilate needs to know.
As often happens in the gospels, Jesus responds to a question with a question of his own. It is almost as if Jesus is questioning Pilate’s authority! Jesus turned the tables on the governor, reversing their roles. Are you asking me this, he seems to say, or are you someone else’s pawn, who put you up to this?
Pilate reveals his contempt for the people he governs with his answer which is another question. He asks, “Am I a Jew?” he asks, as if Jesus had suggested something absurd, impossible, and insulting. Aha. Guess what? The DNA makes one thing clear. We’re all kings. We’re all slaves. We’re all Jews. We’re all African. We’re all Muslims. We’re all Poles, Irish, Italian, Hispanic, Asian. We’re all of it. We’re all everything.
Frank R.
* * *
John 18:33-37
N.T. Wright wrote in Simply Jesus, “He [Jesus] was not the king they expected. He wasn’t like the monarchs of old who sat on their jeweled and ivory thrones, dispensing their justice and wisdom. Nor was he the great warrior-king some had wanted. He didn’t raise an army and ride into battle at its head. He was riding on a donkey. And he was weeping, weeping for the dream that had to die, weeping for the sword that would pierce his supporters to the soul. Weeping for the kingdom that wasn’t coming as well as for the kingdom that was… He was the king, all right, but he had come to redefine kingship itself around his own work, his own mission, his own fate.”
Though different than what the Jews expected or what Pilate could understand, Jesus’ kingship and kingdom stands at the center of all human experience. Two boys were bored on a rainy summer’s day, so they began to do a jigsaw puzzle. They made no progress until one of them turned the box lid over to see the picture they were trying to create. It was of a medieval court scene with a king surrounded by his court. One of the boys called out, ‘Now I see it — the king is in the middle!’ Once they recognized that, the puzzle was easy, and they were soon able to finish it.
Let’s keep the king at the center of our lives.
Bill T.
This poem, according to the notes that accompany Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew scriptures, is written in archaic Hebrew. It’s not prettified, nor does it use words or terms that represent the way Hebrew was used centuries later. This is tenth century BC Hebrew, which means it comes from David’s time, and may well have been written by David.
This poem also represents the best of what David wanted to say at the end. His story is winding down and he knows it. It’s been rocky in many places, and triumphant in others. He’s the king, and somehow, we want him to act like the king at the end. These words represent the better part of David. It’s a psalm about God’s blessings for the wise versus the fate of the foolish.
Sadly, thought this passage starts with the words “And these are the last words of David” the fact is, these are not the last words of David. The aging king, bitterly cold, unable to get warm, will use his actual last words to his son Solomon to list the people who he promised he wouldn’t kill, then tells Solomon once he’s dead, kill them. So that’s what he really said.
None of us knows what our last words might be until we’re living those last moments. Some of us may die so quickly that there is nothing to say. Others of us may have sunk into dementia so our last words do not represent what we would have said. If we are not ourselves, we may say something not worthy of who we really are. I think we, like David, are within our rights, while we still can, to write our “last words,” even if they’re not really our last words. What would you say, what wisdom, what insight, what poem, do you want to leave your loved ones with?
Frank R.
* * *
2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-12 (13-18)
Two little girls were sitting together and counting their pennies. The first said, “I have five pennies.” The other replied, “I have ten.” Looking at the five coins in her hand, her friend answered, "No, you have just five cents, the same as I do.” The second child quickly replied, “But my dad said that when he came home tonight, he would give me five cents, and so I have ten cents.” The child’s faith was proof of that which she did not yet see, and she counted it as being already hers, because it had been promised by her father.
God’s promises can be depended upon. David knew that. These passages speak of God’s covenant promise to him. Psalm 132:11-12 address it. “The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: ‘One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my decrees that I shall teach them, their sons also, forevermore, shall sit on your throne.” Just as David did, we can take God at his word.
Bill T.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
How can Christ be said to reign as king in view of the pandemic we experienced and in view of all of America’s and the world’s other existing problems? Famed French Catholic theologian of the last century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, offered a helpful insight:
To read the gospel with an open mind is to see beyond all possibility of doubt that Jesus came to bring new truths concerning our destiny: not only a new life superior to what we are conscious of, but also in a very real sense a new physical power of acting upon our temporal world. (Hymn of the Universe, p.143)
Jesus is king in the sense that he provides new power, a new direction to the universe. Covid may have disrupted us, war may continue, and our loved ones depart, but Christ reigns in the sense that a new power is in the world which will ultimately conquer these ills. Another famous modern theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg has said something similar:
.... faith in the royal Lordship of Christ himself already present rests on an anticipation of the eschaton [realization of God’s Kingdom], similar to the presence of the divine lordship in Jesus’ own activity. It is reality for the time being only in heaven... (Jesus — God and Man, p.367)
Christ’s kingship, the events described in our lesson, are accounts of what is going to happen, of where the world and the universe are headed!
The lesson also promises that Christ the King will create a kingdom of priests. On that matter, Martin Luther famously writes:
Here no one can deny at this point he [Paul] is describing the priestly office, which is nothing else than a rational sacrifice... the sacrificing of oneself to God. This, however, is supposed to be common to all Christians; therefore, all Christians must be priests. (Luther’s Works, Vol.36, p.145)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
The book of Revelation begins with the proclamations of who God was, will be and is; how Jesus is the first-born. This passage ends with the same reminder, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. No matter when we are, how we are, where we are, God is there. God is present at the beginning of all things and will be at the end of all things. There is grace in that knowledge. There is hope in that knowledge. No matter what happens in my life, that is the foundation on which I rest, on which I stand. I am hope-filled as I live my life because I know God is present with me, now and always. That I count on, have counted on, in my good times and my bad, in my happy days and my sad days. God embraces me and I embrace my faith. Is that how you feel, how you walk through the sunny and the rainy days? I hope so.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 18:33-37
In his book A Brief History of Everyone Who Has Ever Lived geneticist Adam Rutherford writes that instead of thinking we have family trees in which we can trace our roots backwards in a straight line, what we ought to envision is nettings instead because we’re all woven together. The family tree is based on the idea that we have two parents and they had two parents and so on, but if you go back a thousand years that tree yields 137,438,953,472 ancestors, more people than have ever lived.
In his chapter titled “We Are All Descended From Kings” Rutherford points out that most genealogies end with the discovery of a king in our background. He uses Charlemagne as an example. If you have some European ancestry, the odds are good that you are descended from him. But you’re also likely to have descended in some way from eighty percent of the people who were alive during Charlemagne’s lifetime.
Being descended from royalty seems to please us, however, and make us feel we’re better than other people, much like the claim of the Judeans in John 8:38, “…we are descendants of Abraham…”. But the history of a people that had sojourned in Egypt and Palestine and Babylon and throughout the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean world was a jumble of DNA.
Jesus was reforming our whole idea of ancestry and entitlement by telling us we are all members of the family of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all are saved through the grace of God.
When Pilate asked the crucial question — “Are you the king of the Jews?” he had in custody a man named Barabbas, a wild revolutionary, a guerrilla who sought to supplant the almighty emperor in Rome with a Messiah King. Now Jesus stands before him, accused by the religious authorities of being that Messiah King. Pilate was trying Jesus on a charge of sedition. But is it true? Pilate needs to know.
As often happens in the gospels, Jesus responds to a question with a question of his own. It is almost as if Jesus is questioning Pilate’s authority! Jesus turned the tables on the governor, reversing their roles. Are you asking me this, he seems to say, or are you someone else’s pawn, who put you up to this?
Pilate reveals his contempt for the people he governs with his answer which is another question. He asks, “Am I a Jew?” he asks, as if Jesus had suggested something absurd, impossible, and insulting. Aha. Guess what? The DNA makes one thing clear. We’re all kings. We’re all slaves. We’re all Jews. We’re all African. We’re all Muslims. We’re all Poles, Irish, Italian, Hispanic, Asian. We’re all of it. We’re all everything.
Frank R.
* * *
John 18:33-37
N.T. Wright wrote in Simply Jesus, “He [Jesus] was not the king they expected. He wasn’t like the monarchs of old who sat on their jeweled and ivory thrones, dispensing their justice and wisdom. Nor was he the great warrior-king some had wanted. He didn’t raise an army and ride into battle at its head. He was riding on a donkey. And he was weeping, weeping for the dream that had to die, weeping for the sword that would pierce his supporters to the soul. Weeping for the kingdom that wasn’t coming as well as for the kingdom that was… He was the king, all right, but he had come to redefine kingship itself around his own work, his own mission, his own fate.”
Though different than what the Jews expected or what Pilate could understand, Jesus’ kingship and kingdom stands at the center of all human experience. Two boys were bored on a rainy summer’s day, so they began to do a jigsaw puzzle. They made no progress until one of them turned the box lid over to see the picture they were trying to create. It was of a medieval court scene with a king surrounded by his court. One of the boys called out, ‘Now I see it — the king is in the middle!’ Once they recognized that, the puzzle was easy, and they were soon able to finish it.
Let’s keep the king at the center of our lives.
Bill T.
