November 21, 2021 – Revelation 1:4b-8
Revelation 1:4b-8
Making us The Best
Christ the King/Reign of Christ – November 21, 2021
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
As we have had a couple of weddings lately here is a story about a wedding.
A young woman had two suitors for her affections.
Each had asked her to marry him.
So she talked it over with her friends.
“When I’m with Bill,” she said, “I feel like he’s the best person in the world.”
“So you’re going to marry Bill?” her friends asked.
“No,” she answered. “I’m going to marry Ted.
Because when I’m with him, I feel like I’m the best person in the whole world.”
She loves the person who makes her the best person in the whole world.
This is what we are saying about Jesus on Christ the King Sunday.
On Christ the King Sunday, we speak the language of love about Jesus.
We call Jesus “King” for one thing and we worship and praise Jesus.
We obviously don’t call Jesus “king” because he’s the head of state of a geographical place –
we don’t really call Jesus “king” because of who he is.
We call Jesus “king” with the language of love because of what he does for us,
because of what he makes of us.
And what does he do for us? What does he make of us?
He makes of us the best people we can be.
The Book of Revelation is not a series of visions about the future.
It is a word of comfort and hope to seven church congregations located in the Roman Empire
that were really struggling.
Some of them were suffering because they were resisting the ways of the Roman Empire.
They refused to worship Caesar as king and all that implied:
the worship of wealth, and violence, and intimidation, and status.
Instead, they worshipped Jesus as king and all that implied:
compassion for all, justice for all, and peace for all, especially the vulnerable.
These Christians paid the price –
but John in Revelation assures them Jesus is in fact “the ruler of the kings of the earth,”
and that while it may seem that Caesars, and violence, and greed rule the world,
in fact the battle for power has already been won:
the lamb power of love has already won.
Jesus, as the first person to be resurrected, has inaugurated God’s reign of peace and blessing and healing.
The future is not in doubt.
This is a word of comfort and an encouragement to persevere to those who were suffering.
Others in the churches, though, were willing to accommodate themselves to the empire, to Caesar, and to his ways.
They tried to have it both ways, and worship both Caesar and Jesus.
John in Revelation tries to show them how evil, how destructive, how ungodly the Roman Empire truly is.
These he encourages in Revelation to be faithful and true, even if it is costly.
In the opening words today, John reminds all these people of just what Jesus has done for them.
And it is because of what Jesus has done for them that John praises Jesus as king, as a soveriegn.
Jesus is not literally a king.
But in searching for language to praise Jesus, “king” is one term among many John uses.
And it is all because of what Jesus has done for us, because of how Jesus has touched us,
because of what Jesus has made of us.
Listen:
To Christ who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,
priests serving his God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
The praise is all about what Jesus does for us, of what Jesus makes us.
He finds our weakest spot, and heals it.
He looks us squarely in the eye and shows us how unkind and unfair and uncaring we can be
and he loves us nonetheless.
That is how he heals us, that is how he makes us better – by loving us as we are.
He loves us so much he dies for love of us – he loves us to the very end, and beyond.
He sees in us that which we cannot even see ourselves:
that we are so much more than we think.
That we are capable of so much more love than we think.
That our world is made for something so much more magical and lovely than we can imagine.
And by his love for us he makes us into something grand: a “kingdom,” that is,
a “sovereign realm,” where his love – and his love alone – reigns:
a realm where the hungry are fed, where immigrants are welcomed,
where all children are valued for the gifts they bring, where refugees are sponsored,
where every single person is esteemed because they are created in the image of God.
That is what Jesus makes of us. That is pretty friggin’ amazing!
Jesus finds us at our worst and forgives us.
Jesus finds us at our weakest and strengthens us.
Jesus finds us at our lowest and lifts us up.
Jesus finds us at our despairingest and gives us hope.
Jesus finds us awash in meaninglessness, and gives us a grand purpose.
Jesus finds us, and makes us into the best people we can be.
Jesus finds us and empowers us to treat others royally.
Jesus makes us feel like we are the best people in the world –
so that we can make others feel like they are the best people in the world.
Friends, I know this has been a very hard year.
But John’s words mean to inspire us with hope and encourage us to persevere.
Kingdoms of tyranny and violence do not have the last word.
Chaos and despair do not have the last word.
COVID and racism certainly do not have the last word.
God in Jesus has the last word.
And it is a word of healing, and harmony, and equity – it is a word of love.
Let us look to the end of all things on this day –
and in doing that let us be strengthened for the present hour with all its challenges.
And together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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