there is a point where everything comes to an end

& if we're to have any hope, that's where we need a king to reign

 

TheGospel of The Lord!

Today is our celebration of the reign of Christ; today is Christ the King Saturday/Sunday!

Today is not merely a celebration of the fact that Christ is king, though. No, today is much more important than celebrating any old king; today is a celebration of the kind of king Jesus is.



And so it is on this auspicious occasion, celebrating the kind of king Jesus is, that we also celebrate the end of the church-year...

Next week we will begin Advent and start the church-year all over again.



So as we celebrate the end of the church-year, Christ the King Saturday/Sunday, we should pause...

We should pause because the church-year is not an arbitrary thing.

The church year is a way of keeping time to invite each one of us into the divine drama of salvation history, a way to see our story in light of God's.

The church-year is a way to infuse all of our days with meaning, with a sense of the holy, with God...



So what happens on this last moment of the church-year, is that we are invited to step to the end of everything;

the end of life, the world, time and even history itself...

Today, Christ the King Saturday/Sunday we approach the apocalypse, the end of all things.



And the truth is, there is a lot of interest in this, the end of things.

That much is apparent by the many TV programs about catastrophe, aliens, zombies and the like.

But it isn't merely these television shows that betray our fascination with the end.

· There's the ever-present horoscope, measuring the heavenly bodies to determine the trajectory of history.

· There is also science. Psychology, astronomy, and the like; each of these practices peers toward ultimate meaning; the end of things...



Whichever approach you prefer, at some point or another, we all grapple with those big questions;

"What's life all about,"

"What is the meaning of all this,"

"What's our ultimate destiny."



So today, on this last moment of the church-year, we are granted the chance to step up to the precipice of all things, and step behind the curtain...



And, yes perhaps what we see is not what we're expecting;

but maybe it’s exactly what we need...



Let me tell you about the most vivid dream I ever had.

I still think of this dream from time to time...

In fact, the dream made such an impact that I even remember the evening I had this dream.



It was one of those cold, Iowa winter nights.

You know, those dark nights; where the sky is so black and deep you begin to get a glimpse of how insignificant the earth must be in the grandiosity of the cosmos.



As is so often the case, the reason I was staring into the dark, Iowa night-sky is that it was one of those melancholy evenings.

There wasn't a particular occasion for my disposition, it just came upon me; as these moods often do...



Anyway, after that quiet evening, I went to bed.

And I dreamt a scene I had been present to before...



The dreamscape was a moment I had been present to only once; but the moment haunted me in a way.

The scene was from one spring evening when I was walking along the coast in Florida during a vacation. As I was walking I tried to discern the skyline from the ocean.

At the end of the horizon, I noticed a boat.

The boat was small against the vast ocean and sky that merged together, and that boat was all too easily tossed by the waves.

As I continued to walk along the coast, I kept watching this boat; expecting that eventually the boat would grow larger against the horizon as it neared the coast, revealing that all the while the boat had mastery over the elements...

But for that entire evening; it didn't.

I was only able to make out the insignificant boat because of its light. For my entire walk along the beach, that poor ship was merely a little blip, a blip that seemed at the mercy of the elements.



That was the scene I dreamt that evening;

but then, suddenly, something happened in the dream.

I noticed the sand under my feet began to give way.

Grain by grain, the sand under my feet fell to an abyss.



Panicking I looked up to see something even more terrible happening;

grain by grain the sky above me also broke apart and fell into an abyss, the stars fell and even the sky itself.



Turning, I noticed the same thing was happening to the horizon too.

The ocean and the hotels on the other end of the beach; all of it fell away into some abyss...



Finally I was falling too; falling up, falling down, falling left and right.

Everything dissolved and there I hung in some never-ending vertigo.



Needless to say, I woke up in a cold-sweat.

It was a terrible and vivid dream; and I find that in these days that are darker and the nights longer, the memory of that dream visits more often...



Undoubtedly this dream is about a lot of things, but a truth I think the dream illustrates is that for as much as we are fascinated with the end of things; we are even more terrified by it.

The truth is, we all, in some way or another, have had such a dream.

In all of us, there is a part that fears the end.



With that fear ever-present we couch our curiosity in psycho-bable, science-fiction, astrology and the like.

We prefer a method to bring us near the end of things, but also protect to us from the end;

we'd rather not step across the precipice;

we'd only like to glimpse behind the veil, not tear it down...



Because the truth is, we're afraid that behind the curtain, chaos and death are crouching, waiting to consume us.



So isn't it curious that today, Christ the King Saturday/Sunday, as we look to the end of all things we celebrate...

See, today the gospel brings us to the moment just before the end of everything;

today's Gospel brings us face to face with the apocalypse,

the end of life, history, the world, time...



The Gospel reading is the moment before Jesus, God in the flesh, dies;

the end of all things...



For those of you who want to peer behind the curtain, look here...

Today we read, "When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus;

and in those words history pivots,

time itself bends,

and we don't merely peel back the curtain to peer behind, but the very fabric of reality is shredded.



God, the human, hangs there on a cross;

flanked by criminals,

jeered by the leaders,

mocked by the soldiers,

and watched helplessly by the people,

God is crucified.



God dies,

God dies...



In these last moments of the church-year,

whether we like it or not, we are dragged to the end of things,

to the apocalypse.



And what we see is not what we expect;

it isn't nailed to a cross that we expect to see God,

and it isn't jeered by the powers that be that we expect to see our king hanging.



No, this isn't the kind of king, or God for that matter, that we expect;

but perhaps it is exactly the kind we need.



As we witness God hanging there,

dying,

we are brought face to face to the end of all things.



As we witness Jesus, our king,

dying on a cross,

we are brought face to face to the end of all things.



Here we see existence itself, languishing on the cross.



At the end of all things,

we see the cosmos dangles from the cross...



At the center of everything, the cross.





This is not where we expect God to show up,

this is not where we expect to see a king,

but the truth is that is the exact place where we need God to show up,

the truth is the cross is precisely where we need a king who still has the authority to reign.



The reason why we only edge near the end of all things and then always back away, is because we're afraid the ultimate destiny of everything is death, we're afraid death rules.

We're afraid that behind the curtain is more darkness, and behind the darkness; only death...



Finally there is a part of us that knows no amount of astrology, science or science-fiction for that that matter, that can save us.



There is a point where everything comes to an end,

and if we're to have any hope in this life,

that is the exact place where we need God.





At this intersection,

our inability and need,

God shows up;

that is why today, at the end, we celebrate.



Where death seems to reign supreme, we fine a God who forgives,

a God with the authority to open the gates of paradise,

even from the cross.



This is why we celebrate Christ the King at this very moment, at the end of all things.

This is why Luther said that if the world were to end the next day, he'd plant an apple tree;

because as people who live under the reign of Christ the king,

we have been taken through the end,

we have been taken through the end by a God who does go to the cross,

and does die,

but then on the third day is raised,

and raises you, raises us along with him.



See, today we don't just celebrate that Christ is a king, that's too simple. No, today we celebrate the kind of king Christ is,

Christ is the kind of king that we may not expect,

but the kind of king we need;

Christ is the kind of king who goes to the one place where we're finally helpless,

and from that very place

opens the gates of paradise and forgives.



So today let me issue a royal decree by divine fiat,

let me issue a royal decree from the only king with this kind of authority:

Death will not have the last word on you,

neither will the cross or regret;

nothing will make ultimate claims upon you, except God.

God the kind of king who, where death seems to reign,

forgives and opens the gates of paradise.

So, hear this,

death has been destroyed for you, most blessed of all people;

God insists that you are forgiven,

that your life is not under the shadow of death,

but under the promise of life.

Amen.