Text:
Colossians 1:9-20
Theme:
"And in Conclusion..."
Christ the King Sunday
November 24, 2013
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In the Name of Jesus+
9 For this reason,
since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We
continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the
wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so
that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being
strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may
have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks
to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the
inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.
15 The Son is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For
in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have
been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the
head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among
the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and
through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Rev. Dr. Nagel, a mentor of mine from
graduate school days, once said: "A
good beginning calls for a good ending, and a good ending requires a certain
done-ness." How about the church
year? Put a fork in it; it's just about
done! This is the last week in the
church year, Christ the King Sunday, and Thursday is Thanksgiving.
Have you noticed the countdown to
Thanksgiving? It has gone viral. Someone writes, for example: "Day 20:
I'm grateful for this", and "Day 19: I'm grateful for that", etc. Well, on this day, among other things, I'm grateful for our music director, organist,
and choir. Here's one reason why: the selection of hymns and anthems always
fits the Scriptures and theme of the day.
Today is Christ the King Sunday, and so we get the lovely arrangement of
"The King of Love My Shepherd Is".
If that weren't enough, our wonderful organist, Hyun-Kyung Lee's prelude
(as we prepared our hearts for worship) was "Wachet auf, ruft uns die
Stimme" -- "Awake, calls the Voice to Us" -- by Johann Sebastian
Bach. Bach wrote "Wachet auf" not for Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter.
He wrote it for this day, for the last Sunday of the church year with its
traditional Gospel of the wise and foolish virgins.
Whether we are wise or foolish, as the
church year and calendar year draw to a close, remains to be seen. As
Peter Steinke has remarked: "Be a
fool for Christ's sake, butnot a damn fool!" A symptom of foolishness would be for us to
uncritically follow the dictates of our American culture as it relates to the
holidays. What does this mean? It means that we rush frantically into the
countdown to Christmas. On Thursday, be
sure to have your Thanksgiving meal early so you can get to the stores when
they open at 6:00pm! For some,
Thanksgiving Day is little more than Black Friday Eve! Ramp it up! Amp it up!
You want "your Christmas" to be perfect, don't you? That perfectionist streak that, in varying
degrees, resides in each one of us, really gets put to the test this time of
year. Then we wonder why. We wonder why a season of such supreme
anticipation becomes a time of such high anxiety.
Foolishness would find us reaching for
the Xanax or for anything that will calm us down. Wisdom, on the other hand, would find us
loading up on Jesus. That's precisely
what Paul the apostle did for the Christians in Colossae: he gave them lots of
Jesus. His words cover the bases for the
last Sunday of the church year; they cover the bases for Thanksgiving, they
cover the bases and for all the days to come.
As the old church ends and a new one
begins, it is brought to our attention that we have been rescued. God, says the
blessed apostle, has "rescued us from the dominion of
darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have
the forgiveness of sins." To be
rescued like this it to be enlivened; it is to be animated; it is being
convinced that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me; it
is to treat every day as an adventure as hell itself is put to flight by the
holy laugh which comes from Christ's forgiveness; it is breathe easy and to
rest in the knowledge that Christ is King and Christ forgives!
Some time ago, I sat down for a
cheeseburger with some of my golfing buddies.
One is a criminal court judge; another is an economics professor; still
another is a retired school principal. We got to talking about government. One thought we lived in a democracy. Another replied, "No, we don't; we live
in a constitutional republic."
Still another had this to say:
"We are neither of the two.
We are a 'corporate-ocracy'," he said. "Corporations run everything!" Sipping on my mango tea, I decided to weigh
in. "We live in a monarchy," I
said. They looked at me like I had a hole in the head. "I don't mean to be a smarty-pants, but
we're all Christians here, right?"
They nodded. "Well, there
you go," I said. "Christ is the King! He's the monarch."
And He's way more than that! He is, as our text puts it, the "image
of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created... . All things have been created through him and
for him." Think about that when
you're at Wal-mart, or Target, or the Mall.
"All things have been created through Him and for Him." Puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?
What a year it has been! There were lots of things going on, but there
was also a lot of Jesus to see us through.
Among so much more, this church year drawing to a close included a
Russian meteor strike; the election of a new pope; the Boston Marathon bombing;
the explosion in West, Texas, and the Oklahoma tornado. Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida. There was the massacre in Egypt and the
Kenyan Mall attack. The Toronto mayor is
alleged to have smoked crack. Of course,
Prince William and Kate had a royal baby.
But here at FPC, in our lives lived in
the church year, we got a load of Jesus.
And that load of Jesus, that Spirit of Jesus, would not let us sit in
the pew. While the denomination
teetered, tottered, and toyed with schism, First Presbyterian Church put on its
boots and went to work. So some of our people went to tornado-ravaged Oklahoma;
others supported them. Gifts went to
West, Texas. Tangible support was given to war-torn veterans coming home. A trip to Haiti was undertaken. Dinners and garage sales and bake sales and
prayers sent them on their way. Numerous
service agencies were empowered and strengthened because there is a First
Presbyterian Church on West University Drive.
Needy children in Denton Christian Preschool learned that FPC was more,
far more, than just a place with classrooms.
There are people here who care and share.
All the while, we worshipped. We sang.
We made music. We heard the
life-giving Word; we were on the receiving end of the Sacraments; we responded
with our prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings. My friends, we made it!
Winter storm warning or not, we made it
to this day, to Christ the King Sunday!
What a King He is! He didn't reside in some facsimile of Buckingham
palace. He didn't take an oath of office
and then march down to the White House.
Instead, He told us "Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head." There was no
bomb-proof, bullet-proof limousine; there was only a donkey. There was no birthing room in a warm
maternity ward, but there was a manger.
There was a throne, but it was not a gilded chair. It was a cross. There
was a coronation, but it's crown was made of thorns. This is the King we get to live with and
serve under. This is the King, in a
culture with so much foolishness, who is more than ready to give us more and
more wisdom, more than enough oil for our lamps, more faith for the living of
these days.
Why?
It is because, as our text says, God "was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
his blood, shed on the cross."
So,
in conclusion, we are at peace. Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone the glory! Amen.
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