Christ the King 2013
Father Adam Trambley
November 24, 2013,
St. John’s Sharon
Is Jesus the Boss of Me?
This is the King of
the Jews.
So reads
the inscription by Pilate.
In Latin,
Greek and Hebrew.
The criminal, condemned beside him, reads it.
Jesus, remember me when you come into your
Kingdom.
His final
request:
Jesus
be my King.
Jesus,
accepts –
A
noble liege granting the petition of his supplicant—
Today you will be with me in paradise.
Others are coming into his Kingdom also,
For all
things were made through him,
Heavenly
things,
Earthly
things,
Invisible
things,
Visible
things.
Things that can’t help eventually being subject
To the King
of Kings
Because
they were made for him,
And will
someday be at his feet.
All creation is ordered by his laws, his statutes and his
ordinances:
The gravity
and momentum
that keeps planets
circling suns;
The speed that light shines
through the vast
expanse of interstellar space;
The
temperatures when snow melts
and steam streams
upwards.
The
instinct that sends sloths up trees,
Makes
monarchs migrate,
And
bears hibernate,
The plans
and purposes prepared for people
And
the power of prayer.
All act according to the will of the everlasting Word
Who is the
firstborn of all creation
And who
sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
Jesus is King and Lord over all things,
Except in
those times and places
Where he
has permitted us to be the kingmakers.
He offers us the throne of our own hearts
To place
upon it who or what we will.
What do we decide to do?
Our experience with Kings is limited, today.
Modern Americans don’t have Lords, either,
Except
those that collect rent.
Better for us, perhaps, is the colloquial question,
Is Jesus the boss of
me?
Is Jesus the boss of
me?
Our default, of course is “no”,
You’re not the boss of me
That’s what
we say,
Whether
speaking pertly to our parents
Sassing
our siblings
Or
even answering the Almighty.
No one’s the boss of
me, we decide.
I’m in
control.
The captain
of my fate.
The maker
of my own destiny.
The buck
stops right here.
Or does it?
Who is the
boss of me, really,
if I send
Jesus away,
or even
keep him around with a demotion,
making him
Undersecretary for Sunday mornings.
Somebody sneaks into that throne of our hearts,
but often it
isn’t who we think.
We believe that when Jesus isn’t in charge,
Our brightest
and best selves are.
The part of
us that will make us happy.
The part of
us that will make us successful.
The part of
us that will make us more
like the god we
want to be
then
the God that tells us what to do.
But we believe lies
Because our
best selves listen to Jesus.
When he’s
not in charge,
Our best
selves take a back seat, too.
Instead, the rogues’ gallery steps in,
People we
wouldn’t want,
Emotions
we’d rather suppress,
Appetites
we’d prefer to ignore.
Let’s look closely.
Sometimes sitting on the thrones of our souls
We find our
own appetites.
Our need
for comfort and convenience,
Our thirst
for physical pleasures
Our lust
for power and control.
All of us know those whose lives are ordered around
Such lesser
lights.
All passing
All
unfulfilled
All
eventually joyless.
We can never satisfy our appetites.
They are
cruel masters.
Always one more
One more needed,
one more
available,
one more
held by someone else
and
we need to get it.
Resentments racking up out of
The
occasional inconveniences of live.
Black holes of desire,
Eating us
alive.
Anger at anyone
Ignoring us
to follow their own lives.
We make excuses of course.
Good reasons
Why we need
another cookie
Why we deserve
whatever we want
Why it should be
done our way
Why the world
should work tirelessly
for our happiness.
Never recognizing that the one who really wants our
happiness
And knows
how to help us
Has been
standing aside helpless
While
we indulge our immature inanities.
Is Jesus the boss of
me?
Of course sometimes Jesus is pushed off by someone else,
Usually
with our tacit consent.
We don’t always acknowledge
Just how much control we give away
To those worth so much less than
Than one who lived
and died for us.
But we do.
For some of us,
It’s the
cool kids (of whatever age).
If they
want it,
We
do it.
If they
wear it,
We
buy it.
If they
drive it,
We
get it with heated seats.
If they
disapprove,
We
scorn it, regardless of value.
No “blessed
are the poor”,
But
blessed are the popular.
For some of us,
It’s
whoever will give us the approval we want.
Our lives
turned inside out to make someone else happy,
So
they tell us how good we are.
Maybe the
beautiful girl,
Maybe the
wealthy guy,
Maybe the
over-demanding boss
Maybe the
neighborhood busybody
Maybe the guy who reminds us of our
father
But
certainly isn’t our Father who art in heaven.
How quickly we kick out Jesus
who loves us just
the way we are
To install a capricious tyrant
Who
doesn’t even want
To
be responsible for us.
For some of us
Terrorists
take over.
Rarely the
kind with guns and bombs,
Although
it can happen.
Usually our
terrorists seem so much more
Socially
acceptable.
The
alcoholic family member
Who
drinks too much and
Demands
damage control constantly.
The controlling
spouse
Who
threatens injury,
Physical
or emotional,
If
someone steps out of line.
The
oversized two-year olds who tantrum
Whenever they don’t get their way.
They aren’t
coming quietly off the throne once on,
Although
Jesus can handle them
If
we decide to put him in charge again.
Of course, usually fear is pulling the strings
Regardless
of the puppet play-acting as the king.
Fear of
being hurt.
Fear of
financial insecurity.
Fear of
other people’s opinions.
Fear of
death.
Doesn’t
much matter the form fear takes,
It
will control us if we let it.
One thing overcomes fear—perfect love.
Perfect
love comes into our lives
When
we put Jesus in charge.
Is Jesus the boss of
me?
If Jesus is the boss of me
What does
it mean?
When Jesus is the boss,
He is the
big boss.
Everything
is his,
And by
everything, I mean everything.
Jesus is in charge of our stuff.
We tithe to
the church
We give
generously to the needy
We are
prudent with debt and savings.
We care for
what we have,
And
we don’t have so much
That
it requires all our energy to manage it.
We aren’t
wasteful,
And
we don’t take more than we need.
We remember
there are those coming after us,
And
we care for the environment.
We value
those who have made what we have,
And
we pay them justly.
Jesus is the boss of our stuff.
Jesus is in charge of our time
Our lives
have a balance and a rhythm.
We work
We pray
We spend
time caring for others.
We develop
our gifts.
We rest.
We play.
We sleep.
Jesus is the boss of our time.
Jesus is in charge of our bodies.
We take
care of ourselves.
We eat
right
We exercise
We avoid
things that damage our health
We get
check-ups and visit doctors
We remember
That
our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit
And
that we are wondrously and marvelously made.
Jesus is the boss of our bodies.
Jesus is in charge of our relationships.
Love our
neighbor as ourselves.
Make
disciples.
Encourage
each other to good works.
Use our
sexuality to build Godly marriages and families.
Know that
everyone you meet is a child of God.
Jesus is the boss of our relationships.
Jesus is in charge of our minds.
A prayer of
self-dedication from the Prayer Book begins
Eternal God, so draw our hearts to you,
So guide our minds,
So fill our imaginations,
So control our wills
That we may be wholly yours.
A Jesuit
prayers says,
Take, Lord, receive
My memory, my understanding,
My entire will.
We think on things
Excellent
and admirable,
True
and holy
Just
and pure,
Lovely
and worthy of praise.
We train
our minds
To
focus on Jesus and his love.
Jesus is the boss of our minds.
If Jesus is the boss of me
I am always
listening for instructions.
Sometimes in prayer.
Sometimes by reading scripture.
Sometimes through the instruction of the church.
Sometimes Jesus speaks
Through
those in legitimate authority over us.
We have parents when we are young,
Many of us
have spouses,
We have a
civic community,
We have a
church community.
We listen to what they tell us to do.
Part of our training in obedience to God,
Is to
follow their instructions
whenever
there is no pressing reason not to.
We can empty the dishwasher,
We can rake
the leaves,
We can
spend some time at home
We can
visit in-laws or
See
the movie
That is not our first choice.
We can
listen.
We can
drive at a safe speed
We can pay
our taxes.
We can
worship God,
Care
for people
And
grow as Christians.
And we can make time everyday
To ask
Jesus what he wants us to do
And listen
to what he might have to say.
But just because
Jesus is
our boss at this moment,
Doesn’t
mean he stays there.
Our lives are like a nightmarish game
Of King of
the Hill.
Everything is jostling to be on top.
The good
things in life becoming idols
The bad
things in life becoming worse.
And Jesus
waiting for our response.
He is more than a match for all the demons,
All the
fears,
All the
temptations
All the
people
All the
things
that try to take
over.
But he doesn’t seem to act unless we want him to.
And we don’t always want him to.
We put Jesus in charge,
Then we
mess up and follow something else.
That is
being human.
The secret, though,
Is to set
up our schedules
Such that
we regularly remember to request his return.
Spiritual
disciplines are the ways
We continually
call
Jesus back to the
throne in our lives
And us back to
ourselves.
We want to
be on auto-pilot,
With
good habits
That
convince Jesus that
We
want him in charge.
We set the alarm every week for church
Not caring
whether we feel like coming or not,
Not caring
whether it is raining or not,
Not caring
whether it is cold or not.
We take the first ten percent of our income
Whenever we
get a paycheck
And give it
to the church
Before we
think about what else
we might want to
buy.
We sit down at specific times
Every day
And open
our Bibles and say our prayers,
Whether we
are busy or not,
Whether
other people are around or not,
Whether we
are at home or not.
We take time every day in the shower
Or over
breakfast,
To think of
one nice thing
We can do
for a family member and
We
plan how to do it.
We schedule a time every week to talk with someone
Openly and
honestly
About the
struggles we have
To keep
Jesus as our boss
So we can always
put him
Where
we need him to be.
What will it take to make Jesus the boss of me
Every day
In every way?
Many people, motivations and things
Control us if we let them.
But only one made us
Only one totally loves us.
Only one knows what is good for us
And wants
that good for us.
Only one is King of Kings
And Lord of
Lords
And will
have everything put under his feet.
That one longs to be our personal Lord and Savior,
And to
remember us in his kingdom.
How will we remember him
answering in word and deed,
The simple
questions,
Is Jesus the boss of
me?
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