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INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL LESSON

 

            This is Christ the King Sunday, and I know of no other text than our Gospel Lesson that better renders the true meaning of Christ’s kingship.

            As Jesus hangs on the cross, he’s taunted and mocked by the soldiers, religious leaders, and even a criminal who was being crucified next to him.  They not only question his being God’s chosen Messiah, but also his ability to save.  As a joke and for public ridicule, an inscription over him reads, “This is the King of the Jews.”  They scoff at him and say, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”

            As one criminal derides Jesus, the other recognizes Jesus for who he is and his power to save.  He defends Jesus against the other’s insults, and by his request, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” he actually expresses the Christian hope of Christ’s coming in power.  We see clearly Jesus’ power to save in his promise of salvation: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

            Indeed, Jesus died sure of his resurrection and with the power to promise salvation to another.  Above all, we learn that Jesus is King, and his reign is far above that of earthly kings, and he has the power to save humanity from its self-inflicted doom.

            Let us read our lesson from Luke’s gospel, and rejoice that Christ is King.

 

                ³³ When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  ³⁴ Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. ³⁵ And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” ³⁶ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, ³⁷ and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸ There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

            ³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰ But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”

 ⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³ He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

            Today we celebrate the Reign of Christ with our Scripture, hymns, and liturgy.  However, today’s sermon takes on a different theme.  In fact, the second lesson read today may sound rather familiar, and that’s because it was the second lesson for last Sunday.  Actually, the Assurance of Christ’s Reign from Colossians 1: 11-20, that we read responsively, is today’s epistolary reading from the lectionary.  As I studied the lessons for last Sunday, two sermons surfaced, so I decided to save one for today.

 

I.          I know many of you either presently or have had jobs that require long hours of you.

            A.            Instead of the standard 40 hours per week, you sometimes work 50 and even 60 hours a week.

                        1.            You’re dedicated to your work either

                                    a.            because you believe in what you’re doing and you want to give your best,

                                    b.            or you’re very competitive and want to rise to the top.

                                    c.            Whichever reason, as the song says,“You work hard for your money.”

            B.            On top of the long hours, you don’t even get a relaxing lunch break.

                        1.            In a recent survey of more than a thousand employees, some 63% of the respondents said that the lunch “hour” is the biggest myth in office life today.

                                    a.            More than half of workers take 30 minutes or less to eat, and some of them do so at their desks while they             continue working.

                                    b.            Others use the time to run errands.

                        2.            Another study revealed that in 2005 workers were spending 14% less time for lunch (an average of 31 minutes) than they were in 1996, when the average was 36 minutes.

            C.            Most of us subscribe to a work ethic that has high expectations of us and even moral implications.

                        1.            It’s commonly called the Protestant Work Ethic.

                        2.            We Presbyterians come by it honestly, since the details of this ethic were worked out by the “Father of Presbyterianism,” John Calvin.

II.         Paul talks about a work ethic in his second letter to the Thessalonians, and if we take his comments at face value, we might assume that the apostle would be right there with employers who encourage us to work through the lunch hour.

            A.            Paul writes, “Now we command you, beloved, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness….” and                              further on he adds, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.”  And still he chides those “living in idleness as “mere busybodies,” and he tells them to get cracking.

                        1.            Though he might have some problems with the labor unions, with a work ethic like that, Paul would be a highly valued shop manager at any corporation today, or so it would seem.

                        2.            But when we read Paul’s advice in the context of the full letter, we see the apostle was talking about life in the Christian fellowship, and in that setting, his words take on a completely different tone.

                        3.            You’ve got to remember that some of those early Christians expected Jesus to return to earth in their very near future.

                                    a.            You can understand why some would’ve concluded that working hard at making a living was pointless because the kingdom of God was at hand.

                                    b.            What’s the use?!

                        4.            Still yet, it’s possible that some in the fellowship were poor and expected that their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ should take care of their needs indefinitely.

            B.            It seems that Paul doesn’t have much patience with any hint at slothfulness.

                        1.            He says, “Keep away from believers who are living in idleness”—so our NRSV translates it.

                        2.            But the underlying Greek means not so much “living in idleness” as “living in disorder” or “being disruptive,” and even carries a sense of insubordination.

                                    a.            In fact, in this case, the old KJV is closer to the actual meaning when it translates Paul’s words as “withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly….”

                                    b.            J.B. Phillips’ translation also gives us a better sense of what Paul means: “don’t associate with the brother whose life is undisciplined.”

                                    c.            Clarence Jordan really brings it home in his Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles: “Part company with every brother who bucks out of the harness….”

            C.            Paul’s not talking about the work-place, he’s talking about the worship-place.

                        1.            He’s warning against believers who are disorderly in that they don’t pull a share of the church load.

                        2.            That means that what we place on the shoulders of others within our church matters.

                                    a.            If I’m unwilling to give generously to support the church, I’m in effect asking other members to carry my share of the financial load.

                                    b.            If I have the ability to teach, but never step forward when a teacher is needed for one of the Sunday school classes or to lead a small group, I’m implicitly asking someone else in the church to take care of it instead.

                                    c.            If I want the church to grow, but never see it as my privilege to invite my neighbor to worship with me, then I’m making other members responsible for what I want to see happen.

                        3.            Do you see what I’m getting at, what Paul’s talking about?

                                    a.            Sometimes we lose good, talented, hardworking people because they feel taken advantage of, that others aren’t pulling their fair share.

                                    b.            And they burn out.

                                    c.            When they’re gone, there’s a great, big void left and the church suffers—

                                                i.            it suffers the loss of wonderful people whose fellowship is missed by all,

                                                ii.            and it suffers the loss of their gifts, their talents, because they either take them somewhere else where they don’t feel abused or they drop out all together, which is a loss for them and us.

                        4.            Paul wasn’t urging Christians to work through their lunch hour; he was urging them to pull together in the ministry of the church.

II.         The Cotton Patch translation, “Part company with every brother who bucks out of the harness,” becomes vivid when we consider the 20-mule teams that hauled borax out of Death Valley to the nearest railroad at Mojave so it could be delivered to the marketplace.

            A.            The route to get there was a combination of desert, with temperatures as high as 130 degrees and pretty much waterless, and mountains with steep grades.

                        1.            They used a team of 20 mules pulling two wagons filled with borax and a third wagon containing a 500-gallon water tank.

                        2.            The specially built ore wagons weighed 7,800 pounds each and each would carry 10 tons of borax.

                        3.            When the two wagons were linked together with the water-tank wagon, filled to capacity, the total load was 36.5 tons.

                        4.            That’s why 10 pairs of mules were needed to put this train.

            B.            Going up the steep mountain terrain and navigating curves in the mountain passes was no easy task, especially with such heavy loads and long trains of mules and wagons.

            1.            The mules were all hitched to an 80-foot chain that ran back to the wagons, and as the team started around a sharp curve, the chain tended to be pulled into a straight line between the lead mules and the wagons.  If they were allowed to continue, the lead animals would pull the rest of the team and the cargo straight over the edge of the precipice.

            2.            In fact, it took specially trained teams of mules to accomplish the feat.

                        a.            The first two mules were called the leaders, and they were chosen for their intelligence and ability to pilot the others.

                        b.            The next ten mules were the “swing team.”

                                    i.            They had been trained to respond to commands such as “stop” and “pull,”

                                    ii.            and their main task was simply to put their muscles into moving the train forward.

                        c.            The swing team was followed by pairs called  “pointers,” “sixes,” and “eights,” which had been specially trained to help the train negotiate the curve.

                        d.            Finally, there was one more pair, the last in the train, which were called “wheeler,” the largest and strongest mules of the team.

            3.            When the train came to a curve, one of the two muleskinners moved out with the pointers, sixes, and eights, and ordered them to jump over the chain and pull at an angle to the rest of the team, while they also sidestepped forward, forcing the train to conform to the bend of the curve.

            4.            The whole procedure was a grand demonstration of training and teamwork.

                        a.            The lead mules kept the train on track,

                        b.            the swing team provided locomotion,

                        c.            the pointers, sixes, and eights maneuvered the chain around the bend, and the wheelers kept the wagons tracking behind the chain.

            5.            You can see where an undisciplined, unruly mule that decided to buck out of the harness could have devastating effects on the whole team.

                        a.            Amazingly, they never lost a single animal nor had a wagon break down.

                        b.            That’s because the muleskinners were committed to the all-important task of moving the loads of borax to a place where it could be purchased by consumers.

                        c.            They also understood how important it was to have well-trained, disciplined mules to get the job done without calamity.

III.        This is a good image of how our church should function.

            A.            Now, it’s possible you might not like the image of the Christian life as being in harness with others.

                        1.            Most of us like the idea of being free—I know I certainly do.

                        2.            Yet, the poet Robert Frost captured an important concept when he wrote: “Freedom is riding easy in harness.”

            B.            The life completely unfettered is a life of emptiness and meaninglessness.

                        1.            Freedom is only real within protective boundaries and with a worthwhile task at which we spend our time.

                        2.            The freedom of the gospel is not one of no harness.

                                    a.            Jesus himself talked about his followers taking on his yoke (Mt. 11:29-30), and a yoke is part of a harness system.

                                    b.            The yoke Jesus offers us isn’t a restriction like the harness of legalism, but a guiding rein that steers us into spiritually healthy lives.

            C.            This is what Paul is talking about when he speaks of those who “buck the harness.”

                        1.            Notice that he calls them “believers.”

                        2.            He doesn’t say “put them out of the church.”

                        3.            But he does say “keep away from them.”

                                    a.            Again, we have to look at the wording in order to understand Paul’s intentions here.

                                    b.            He’s not talking about shunning people, as the rest of the passage reveals.

                                    c.            Paul says that such out-of-harness people aren’t living according to the “tradition” that they had received, which, with the example of Paul and his co-workers, was to continually pull their part of the load.

                                    d.            Further he says that church members should “imitate” him and his co-workers, who used their gifts for the good of the congregation.

                        4.            So, what he means by “keep away” from those who buck the harness, who don’t pull their share of the load, is “don’t imitate them.”

                        5.            Instead, pattern yourself after those who work for the good of the whole church.

            D.            By calling those within the congregation who are out of the harness, who appear to be taking a huge lunch break—not giving as much as they can, not doing as much as they should—by calling them “believers,” Paul reminds us that it’s not up  to us to decide who is and who’s not part of the church.

                        1.            On the contrary, he’s calling us all to become a real part of the church—not just spectators and, worse yet, busybodies.

                        2.            He’s calling us, not to a new ethic in the work-place, but, as I said earlier, in the worship-place.

                                    a.            For, as the prophets teach us, true worship is more than words, it’s what we do with what God has given us—how we live our lives.

                                    b.            Those who are using their talents and gifts and substance for the health of our church and the effectiveness of its ministry are expressing their Christian faith in vital ways according to a spiritual work ethic demonstrated by the apostles themselves.

                        3.            When we’re in harness and have taken the yoke of Jesus upon us, pulling together, we’re moving the mission of our church forward.

                        4.            I pray that we will strive to always pull together, each doing our part, for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.

 

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