Proper 29C

Today.

We don't have a king.

We threw off the monarchy in 1776 here in the United States.

There have been jokes over the years about some of our presidents acting like kings.

But we don't have one.

There are countries who do have monarchs, kings or queens.

But our understanding of what makes a kingdom

has changed over the centuries.

Today.

we have come to the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar.

We have come to what is known as Christ the King Sunday.

Where the focus of the gospel passages is always

Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection in some way.

Why do we get the end of the story on the last Sunday of the church year? 

Why do we go from Christ the King to Advent where we are waiting for Christ? 

We know the story and we have to remember where it is going,

we have to remember what will be at the end

why the story of the baby in the manger is important

because Jesus is the one who dies for us,

the eternal king of kings and prince of peace.

Today

Because it has been year C in the rotation, we have been hearing from Luke's Gospel.

In Luke, we see Jesus on the cross

with the criminals, one on his left and one on his right. 

Luke is so very literary in his telling of the Jesus story,

he sets the scene so well. 

The place that is called The Skull, Golgotha

we get the name in Aramaic, the vernacular language Jesus and his followers and neighbors would have used at the time.

It was a hill outside of Jerusalem, 

which because of the way it has worn down through the ages

looked kind of like a skull

there was a road near the hill

There are two proposed sites for this hill today, one under the Church of the Holy 

and the other further outside the Damascus Gate, called Calvary or the Garden Tomb now.

Jesus' death happens in a places of death.

Luke then sets Jesus up.

Normally, Kings were pictured in ancient times with people on their right and left,

They had people,

usually people giving adoration, 

but they were in the forefront, while the others were in the background,

the kings were depicted taller or larger than the others,

which we see happen in artistic portrayals of the Passion throughout the centuries

Jesus in the middle, set ahead of the criminals,

larger and more prominent than the others.

Kings were also depicted with their royal insignia or their title above their heads in pictures

on the cross, above Jesus' head is his title

Jesus of Nazareth,

King of the Jews

the soldiers put his title there out of irony,

how often our irony and sarcasm is the real truth.

Just by how Luke sets up the scene, we know he believes

Jesus is the King of Kings.

Today.

The one criminal, "evildoer" in the Greek,

recognizes that he did something wrong,

he deserves what he is getting, even if Jesus is not

which is part of the reason I think Jesus forgives him

he recognizes his own sin and shows faith in Jesus

even though there isn't much hope for either of them

they are both dying as they speak.

Yet, he doesn't say,

you will eventually be able to enter Paradise,

he says, today.

Today.

The gates are wide open. 

You are able to enter the kingdom of God today.

Today.

what makes a king?

You can watch any number of movies or television shows

about people struggling with just this question.

How to be King or Queen, or what it means to be in authority,

or relearning how to do so after having made serious mistakes.

But after all the wealth and pomp and circumstance and power and lands have been stripped away, 

it is the power to pardon, 

even those who are guilty of doing wrong

which makes a king a king.

Everything else has been taken away from Jesus, 

yet, he is still able to do that.

Jesus offers more than that criminal could ever hope for.

Today,

Today you will be with me in Paradise.

that would be a shock, not only for the criminal

but also for anyone who heard it

today?

Jesus you are going to be dead today.

what do you mean, you're going to be in Paradise today?

If you remember my sermon on resurrection two weeks ago,

you'll remember I said they didn't have a fully formed sense of what resurrection is.

at the time people only understood resurrection in a delayed sense

Resurrected life would happen at the end of time

until then you were going to hang out in the land of the dead

so the idea that Jesus would be in paradise

that the criminal would be in paradise

today,

is crazy.

And so exciting

so hopeful.

Today.

No waiting around

which is why, of course, this passage comes right before the season of Advent,

where we wait around...

But with Jesus there is never any waiting around

he sees people, he has compassion for them.

He knows people are hungry, he feeds them

He sees people being afraid and he comforts them.

He sees the sins of the world and he dies for them

and Today,

Today,

we can be with Jesus in Paradise. 

I hope you are starting to get the point.

When can we be with Jesus in the kingdom of God?

(Today!)

God, this Jesus is amazing!

Just as a church is not about the building

a kingdom isn't about the land or the castle

a church is about the people

a kingdom is about the people

the kingdom of God is the people who live into the kingdom on a daily basis

the disciples, the apostles, all Jesus' followers throughout the centuries

you and me 

the people next door and at the other churches in the nation

we are the people of the kingdom of God

we are given the same promise and hope

Today. 

Today you can be in the kingdom of God.

I don't know about you.

I think of all the places in the world I could be today.

Here in church, home, in jail, at Disney World, at the grocery store

at the Hershey chocolate factory tour where they hand out free chocolate

I mean, there are a lot of places I could and may end up being today.

But of all of them,

of all the places in this world,

the best place to be out of all of them

is in God's kingdom

being one of God's beloved children. 

Today. 

What better promise or hope could we possibly have?

Dead or alive,

I can participate and live into the kingdom of Heaven.

Right here, right now.

Today.

Amen.