What King do you see?

Today is the feast day of Christ the King. I wonder what kind of picture comes into our heads when we hear the word, “King”. I wonder how we react to the idea of someone being King over us? What does it mean to have a King? These questions are difficult enough when we’re thinking about a King here on earth, but I think that sometimes they seem even more difficult to answer when we are talking about Jesus as King. But that is what I’d like to do this morning. We’re going to have a look at the three readings, at the things that they show us about Jesus as King, and think about what that means for our lives now.

The first reading we heard is part of the book of Daniel. You probably know him best from the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den. Daniel was an Israelite, probably from one of the ruling families in Jerusalem, who had been carried off into exile in Babylon when Jerusalem had been defeated about 600 years before Jesus was born. He was a faithful worshipper of God, who, throughout his exile proved the practical wisdom of following God faithfully.

A few years before the incident with the lions, Daniel had a series of dreams or visions, in which he was shown things that were to come about in the future. The descriptions of the things that he was shown sound foreign and strange, even when they’ve been translated into English. What is it with all these beasts and horns, and wheels on a throne?

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How much is enough?

He ran up to Jesus.

He knelt. He must have thought a lot of Jesus. He knelt in the road. He must have heard and been impressed by Jesus’ teaching. He knelt in the road, in the dust. How highly must he have rated Jesus.

Have you ever run up to someone and knelt in front of them? Can you imagine doing so? How highly would you have to think of someone before you did that?

Have you ever been asked to do something that was just impossible? Have you ever felt like you couldn’t live up to the expectations of someone you loved? Has someone you respected said that all your hard work was OK, but wasn’t enough?

His face fell. He couldn’t do what was asked of him. He was heart broken. He couldn’t learn the thing that the teacher he rated so highly wanted to teach him. He was shocked. He’d been told that he lacked something, that he wasn’t perfect.

He went away.

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The Top of the Hill

During the summer Tabitha and I went on an expedition. We set out at around 9:30 in the morning and caught two buses from the place we were staying to reach the place where we would start walking. The cloud base was quite low and we started walking in the cloud, with grey all around, and droplets of water forming on our clothes. After about half an hour the cloud lifted a bit, and we could see the path, and some of the surrounding scenery, but we still couldn't see where we were going to end up. We continued to climb, back up into the cloud, and the visibility worsened again.

Finally we got onto the home straight, heading to our destination. We still couldn't see where we wanted to get to, but we had met the railway track and knew that that would lead us there. We didn't actually see where we had been heading all that time until we were about 50 yards away, and there it was, the top of .... any guesses.....Snowdon. Even at the top, we couldn't see much, so we sat down and had our lunch and headed home again. Even though we hadn't been able to see it, reaching the peak of Snowdon had been the reason for everything that we had done since we left home, it had overshadowed our climbing, even though it wasn't visible to us.

Jesus and his disciples had been on a three year expedition around Judea. Throughout that expedition, there was also a destination, one thing that overshadowed all that Jesus did, and said. He was also going to the top of a hill, but he was going to the cross on the top of the hill. For most of the journey the disciples didn't know that this was where Jesus was headed, but lately he had begun to tell them, to let them know. Clear glimpses of the destination were breaking through the cloud. In this passage, for the first time, Jesus tells his disciples that he is to be crucified. For the first time on the journey the exact destination is made crystal clear to the disciples. The cross on the top of the hill.

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Fasting

Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days.

Jesus is right at the beginning of his public ministry. He had just had one of the most awesome spiritual experiences that anybody could ever have: he had been baptised, the Holy Spirit had descended into him to empower and equip him for the work ahead, and his Father had reaffirmed, in front of everybody, how much he was loved. Surely it's time to crack on, to get out there, he's on a high, time to start flying.

No. Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days.

There were a few things that happened in the desert. We know that Jesus was tempted, that he experienced attacks by Satan that aimed to stop him starting his ministry. Now I'm not planning to talk about these temptations particularly this morning, but I want to ask where Jesus got his strength from whilst he was going through this difficult time? Now, it's a bit of a puzzle because we're not told by Mark directly, and neither are we told by the other writers of the accounts of Jesus' life.

Well, it might help if we think about the places where we might look for strength. We might look to friends or family. But Jesus was in a desert, so he didn't get his strength from there. We might look for strength in favourite books or pieces of music – like the castaways on Desert Island discs. But Jesus didn't have those things either, so he didn't get his strength from there. On a physical level we might think that the best way to keep our strength up is by eating healthy food. But Jesus didn't eat, he fasted. So he didn't get his strength from food.

In fact, we could go on like this all morning, but we would run out of ideas before we hit the truth if we stick to looking for physical answers. In one of the toughest times of his life, Jesus strength came direct from God by the Holy Spirit. And it seems to me that it is no coincidence that Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for these forty days. It seems to me that it is when we are in the place where the worldly things we sometimes look to for strength aren't there, that we can experience the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit most.

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What's the choice?

I don't have any choice. You don't have a choice. He doesn't have a choice. These are some of the hardest words that can be spoken or heard in today's culture. In our country it's all about choice. Having the right to choose. The right to choose where our kids go to school, the ability to choose where we live, were we work, who we are friends with, who are doctor is, which hospital to go to. The power of people choosing to buy some things and not others is what drives free market economies around the world.

So, how do we feel when we are told that we can't choose. That we have to continue to live in that house because we can't sell it. That our kids can't go to that school because it is full. It seems to me that more and more people are coming to believe that they have a right to choose in every aspect of their lives, and that if they can't choose then something is badly wrong.

And they'd be right. There is something badly wrong. Actually I think that there are three things that restrict our choice: Illusions, Barriers, and Compulsions.

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Glory to the New Born King

Hark the Herald Angels sing.

While mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

The Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell.

The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around.

A shining throng of angels praising God.

A few weeks ago I spent a Friday night in Hanley at Nightchurch. At about 1'o clock on the Saturday morning I was sat chatting with a couple of clubbers who had come in to get out of the cold, have a cup of tea and a chat. They started talking about angels. One of them had been advising the others about asking their angels to help them out when they were going through tough times. These girls were absolutely convinced that they have guardian angels watching over them, who answer their prayers and who leave white feathers as signs of encouragement and hope.

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The Lord's Prayer

I'm really glad this morning to be talking about this prayer. Over my life I've had a bit of a strange relationship with it. I remember an assembly I sat in when I was ten. The headmaster was defending the fact that we didn't have much in the way of prayers in our school assemblies. He asked those of us who knew the Lord's prayer to put up our hands. I have to say that I didn't know it off by heart then, but there were a few who did. The Head went on to argue that this was the reason we didn't pray it in school assemblies. Looking back, I wonder if he was even aware of the irony that he was arguing that a school shouldn't do something because it would involve children having to learn something.

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Tabernacles

I don't know if this ever happens to you, sometimes I get home from an evening meeting and my wife will be sat watching the TV. Now, if it's Casualty, then it's fairly straightforward. I know basically who everybody is, the plot is fairly predictable and so, if I wanted to, I could pick up what's happening and sit and watch it. If, however, it's an adaptation of a Jane Austin novel that I haven't read then it might take me a bit longer, and a few questions, to work out what's going on and who everybody is.

Sitting down to read this passage made me feel a bit like I was walking into the middle of a story, and quite a complex one at that. There's lots of characters, there's a whole cultural, historical, and religious context that I'm not that familiar with, and there's obviously some more immediate stuff that's been going on that I'm not aware of.

So, what I'd like to do tonight is to go through this passage and fill in some of the background, identify the actors and work out what's going on and what themes we can take and use to shed light on our own lives.

The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is a major, 8 day, festival in the Jewish calendar when the people remembered the tabernacles, or tents, that they lived in the desert following the flight from Israel. What is important for us is that this was a feast of pilgrimage. Lots of Jews from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival.

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Community in Kindness

This week we continue our series of services on the theme of building community. Each week we have been looking at the ways in which the work of God, the Holy Spirit, can be seen in the building up of our community. We have looked at love, joy, peace, and now we come to kindness.

When I was preparing for this morning, I did what all good sermon writers do when preparing sermons and went on the Internet. I can tell you now that if you Google, “kindness” you get lots of stuff, especially quoteable quotes from famous writers. I am also pleased to report that kindness is widely seen as a good thing.

This, however, is not the most important thing that I want to say today. The most important thing that I think that we need to get hold of this morning is that God is kind. Everything else that I say this morning flows out of that one, key, fact. God is kind.

Is it just me, or does that sound like a bit of an odd thing to say? I was thinking about what I was going to say this morning, and why it was that this sounds like a bit of an odd thing to say.

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Unchanging:Prayer:Mouths:Jesus

Unchanging

Daniel's enemies thought that they knew what couldn't be changed. They thought that they knew what was permanent. They thought that rules and regulations and laws couldn't be changed.

They wanted to destroy Daniel, so they watched him. They couldn't find anything wrong with the way he went about his business or how he did his work. There were no brown envelopes stuffed with cash, no dodgy expenses claims, no shoddy materials used in the buildings he managed, no hidden affairs, he was as clean as a whistle.

But they did see something. They saw him go three times a day and kneel down at a window and pray. They saw this, but they did not understand it. They thought that this must be some kind of law of Daniel's God, some kind of religious rule that Daniel had to keep.

So, they came up with a plan. They would set up a new law, an unchangeable law, a law of the Medes and Persians. They would persuade the King to make a law that would outlaw Daniel.

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It's Just so Rich

There is something fantastic about fudge shops. When you go to your local Tesco's you know that you can buy fudge, but it's likely to be own brand, mass produced, only one or two flavours available. We went to the Lake District for our holidays and we stayed in Ambleside. In that town there are a couple of fudge shops. All they sell is fudge. You go in and there are wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling shelves, all stacked with locally produced fudge. Every flavour you can imagine. The choice and the richness of the food is paralysing. You know that you can't try every flavour quickly, it would be self-defeating, you'll be sick. You have to have a little at a time, trying different types on different days.

As we come to this next chunk of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, I think that this is a good image to have in our minds. This poem is scripture at its richest, with layers of meaning and depth. All I can hope to do tonight is invite you to taste some of the flavours that have struck me as I have chewed over it during the last week, and encourage you to keep on soaking in it over the coming week.

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