Saturday, October 17, 2015
Sermon for Pentecost 21
Proper 243 B ~ October 18, 2015
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
Many who are first will be last, and the last
will be first.
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
It seems to
me that this pronouncement, which ended last week‘s Gospel, may really belong
to today’s, introducing the status-reversal of the Kingdom of God. Long ago it
was observed that the Apostles’ request was to occupy the places of the bandits
crucified with Jesus. We interpret this
to mean that they had no idea what they were asking. They were just young and
ambitious and concerned about status. Well, thank God we are smarter and more
mature than they were!
On the other hand, don’t I often say to myself that I want to
be close to Jesus? Do I really mean
it? This is Bonhoeffer’s point about the cost
of discipleship. I usually think of being close to Jesus as pleasant and desirable
in every way, but in the world, to be close to Jesus means to share His
suffering. Being close to Jesus is no picnic! And when I think it is, I am like
James and John.
Jesus asks them whether they could really want what they
asked for: to be right next to Him where
He was going to be, to be baptized with the baptism wherewithal He would be
baptized. Maybe they did just want glory
in the sense of worldly status. Jesus’s point was that status in the Kingdom is
just the opposite of what the world thinks of status. Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Moreover, even this status of last who will be first,
Jesus says, is not His to determine, but belongs to those prepared for it. This
is impenetrably mysterious, since all power in heaven and earth is given to Him,
Maybe this is a way of telling James and John to stop thinking in these terms
at all, since they cannot possibly understand it. At their stage of
preparation, they can’t transcend the paradox: even seeking the last place
would be an attempt to secure the first, which puts them back where they
started: looking for glory in the world’s terms.
In the Roman Empire, no one was more last than those who were crucified. No lower status could be
imagined. But in this world the Roman Cross is the glory of God. Pilate’s inscription identifying Jesus of
Nazareth as King of the Jews
unwittingly confirmed His glory. The Cross is His glory, That is what He has “revealed
among the nations,” that is the Name – the reputation, the story – that in today’s Collect
we pray the Church may persevere in confessing, Jesus Christ the King, in Glory on the Cross.
Another Collect refers to Jesus Who entered not into glory
before He was crucified. The Cross is what Divine Glory looks like, in this
world. The Cross is not a barrier or gate to glory; it is itself the beginning of Glory in eternity. The
Cross is the throne of God, as seen from this world. Jesus entered not into
Glory before He was crucified, but
He did enter into Glory the very moment
He was crucified – not three days later. When He was lifted up on the Cross, as
He foretold, He drew all to Himself.
Fulfilled is all that David told
In true,
prophetic song of old:
How God the nations’ King should
be,
for God is
reigning from the Tree.
AMEN
MARANATHA
COME, LORD JESUS!
