Sermon, Reign of Christ

Jeremiah 23.1-6

Psalm 46 or Canticle 19

Colossians 1.11-20

Luke 23.33-43

Today the Prophet Jeremiah is delivering a promise – a promise of salvation, of leadership, of true health for all of God’s people- and a message of woe to those who would scatter the Lord’s flock. We’re promised in verse 5 that the days are coming when we will see David’s righteous Branch reign as king and deal wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.

It sounds wonderful, and peaceful, and just, and healthy. So our challenge is to examine the world around us, our communities, our families, our selves, and ask: have we moved in that direction? Do we live in a land where justice and righteousness are even hinted at, let alone celebrated?

One would hope that we would say yes: that we would seek out those moments of grace, of justice, and hold them up. Aspire to them. Emulate them. And we would do this, of course, as a demonstration of our faith, of our commitment to serve the righteous ruler we know in the person of Jesus Christ.

          Jesus, we know, is this branch of David. Jesus is the bringer of peace, of justice, of righteousness. It’s what we celebrate today in the Reign of Christ, it’s what we uphold as we gather in this sacred space, it’s what we want to see continue as we look at the church of today in all it’s generations, in all it’s manifestations, in all its beauty.

Our challenge, of course, comes to us as we are called to celebrate the Reign of Christ, the bringer of justice, in a world where justice is not always known. Our challenge comes to us as we leave this building, this service: We have come to God’s table today as family, receiving our fill of spiritual food; We go into the world, inspired to seek out justice. In our thoughts, words, and actions, we are called to recognize the injustices in our world and to dedicate our prayers, actions, and gifts to overcome them – for the love of God, for the reign of Christ.

            We are called to know that there are people around us who are hungry. We are called to respond to the 1 in 8 people around the world who do not have enough to eat; we are called to respond to the 1 in 8 Canadian families who have known food insecurity (not knowing where their next meal would come from) in their lives this past year.

We are called to see that this problem exists in our lives, in our communities. We are called to see that this is not the promise of Paradise that Jesus promised.

            The good news, however, is that things CAN be different. The good news is that these sad situations can be changed. The good news is that we are committing to change them. We witnessed Jesus showing us a glimpse of the kingdom in the feeding of the hungry. By this, he has shown us what paradise will look like: not only will we know where we are asking to join him, but we are learning how this earthly realm might also look: a place where Christ truly reigns, a place where no one is hungry.

We want to go there. We want to be like the criminal in the Gospel today, begging to be remembered when Jesus comes into His Kingdom. What we need to do, however, before we can ask that question, is that we need to have a change in our own hearts. The criminal, nameless but remembered, seeks forgiveness. He has recognized his errors and sins; he has recognized Jesus’ righteousness and true power. With this recognition, this man had the humility to come to Jesus just as he was – not trying to explain away his crimes, just wishing to be known by the Son of God.

We should all come to Christ in such a manner. Whether our names are remembered in history or not should not matter so much as whether our hearts are known by God. We should all come to Christ, prepared to confess and submit to Christ, asking to be remembered.

Our confession matters: we ask to be forgiven for our sins, known and unknown, intentional and unintentional. Our confession acknowledges not just sins against our beloved God, but also against other beloved humans in God’s great creation. Our confession is not an ignorant one; it states that we can identify the sins we know and intended; it also suggests that we are willing to learn more about the sins we have committed unaware, unintentionally – so that we might not repeat those sins in future.

Our sins addressing issues of food provide us a means to examine this. We confess that we know people are hungry in the world. And we know that we can no longer claim ignorance; the issue of food security and widespread hunger is not hidden or secretive. And the more we learn about the complex realities of food systems, and all that threatens food security, the more we become aware of our own roles within those systems.

The reality of hunger is difficult to understand; it affects so many people and is impacted by so many things. One way that we – the church – can respond to this is by educating ourselves and taking action. A great place to start is the new “Fred Says” campaign on food security, launched this month by the PWRDF. Over the coming years we will be hearing more and more about the issues affecting our world’s food, the realities that are threatening to increase hunger, and the brave actions that are already underway as we – through PWRDF partners – are already working to feed the hungry. There will be many ways to get involved with this campaign and the challenges it addresses; we can start by prayer. Prayer together as we gather; prayer individually through PWRDF’s Advent Resource, prayer through good news brought to us by Fred Says. And prayer through our own confession.

            If we are truthful in our confession we know that we can no longer claim ignorance – “Forgive us for we know not what we are doing.” We know that part of our responsibility will be to learn more about what it is that we are doing, and what the implications of our actions are, for all of God’s people. We then are called, as a result of this knowledge, to humbly ask for God’s forgiveness, and to amend our ways for the future.

Part of our asking for this forgiveness will mean we truly want to make a change in our hearts and thereby in our actions. We want to make a change NOW, not at the last minute like the criminal beside Jesus. We want to see the reign of Christ expanding throughout this world to demonstrate more fully the promise of that paradise, that land of righteousness and justice. And so we pray that God will forgive us our past, and help us to walk with Christ in the present. We pray that we can be given the strength to live out the commission of loving God and neighbor by the actions of feeding the hungry. Help us to have the courage to know more about food systems, to be inspired to change our ways, to celebrate the Reign of Christ in our own lives by the decisions we make on our own forks.

Amen.