SETTING THE CONTEXT

Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet because his writings are full of so much pain. His life spanned one of the most difficult times in Hebrew history. For generations the kings of Israel had been turning their backs on the God of Israel. They had been leading their people to worship other gods and idols. They practiced injustice and were complacent toward the most vulnerable. Josiah, the king during the early part of Jeremiah’s time, tried to make changes, but it was too late. The leadership was playing a very dangerous political game, too. Israel and Judah were located right between two huge and powerful empires, the Egyptian and Babylonian empires. Jeremiah tried to warn the leaders to be wary of making alliances with either one of them. In their arrogance they did exactly that, thinking that God would not allow Jerusalem to be taken by foreigners or let the Temple be destroyed. Both things happened during Jeremiah’s lifetime.

Read Jeremiah 23:1-6

In our next reading the Romans crucified Jesus at the insistence of the Jewish leaders. Notice that there are very few details of the actual crucifixion itself; what kind of cross it was, etc. There are many allusions to the Old Testament and many names of Jesus used in this passage.

Read Luke 23:33-43

THE SERMON

There is a great deal of power in a name. My friend Deborah Lerner shared this story in a sermon years ago and I still remember it. “A young preacher was part of a study group in the church next to our seminary. One day he came to the group with a heavy heart. He had tried to keep his covenant with the others in his group by reading the assigned Scripture in advance and deciding what new name God was calling him to be in that text, but he hadn’t been able to do it. When it was his turn, he said, “I’m sorry. I tried over and over to prepare for this meeting, but each time I tried to hear what new name God was calling me to be, all I could hear was the name my father gave me when I was little. He would teach me something new, like tying my shoes, and I would work and work to get it right. When I finally got both shoes tied, I would go down proudly to show them to him. He would bend over, shaking his head, and retie them, saying “not good enough.” “Not good enough” that’s the only name I can hear. Not good enough.”         I had a couple in my last church, who were natives of Nigeria. According to Nigerian custom children are not named until eight days after their birth. The names are carefully chosen for each child with input from both sets of grandparents. The couple named their oldest son, Oluwatosin, which means “God is worthy of service.” His younger brother is named Oluwaseun which means “Thank God.” Seun’s mother shared her personal witness one Sunday about her infertility and how they prayed for Seun for a long time. His name reflects their answered prayers. Imagine how it would feel to go through life hearing your name and being reminded every time that your parents thanked God for you or that God is worthy of serving. Tosin was already good at praying at the end of the Children’s Moment at the age of 3 or 4; one can only imagine how he will serve God in the future.

Names have a great deal of power over us, but we also can have power over names. People may try to give us a name to ridicule us, but the wise and strong can turn it around on them. For example, when the founder of our denomination John Wesley was a college student some of the other students teased him about his spiritual routines and practices; they called him and his small group of like-minded friends, Methodists. He just said fine we’re Methodists and isn’t that great! And we’re still Methodists and proud of it!

One of the defining characteristics of Christianity is that we find the revelation of God primarily in a person as Marcus Borg states and that is unique among major religions of the world. Moses and Muhammad received revelations of God in the forms of the Torah and the Qur’an, but God was not revealed to them as persons.^[i] For us Jesus is the incarnation of God, the human expression of God so if we understand who Jesus is we gain insights into the character and passion of God. Many names have been used in Scripture to describe Jesus. Like a kaleidoscope they help us see different aspects of Jesus and hence different aspects of God. Over the course of Advent culminating at Christmas Eve we are going to reflect on some of these different names for Jesus.

Today is Christ the King Sabbath in the church calendar and so I would like to take a few moments to reflect on the name “king” for Jesus. “King” is not a concept I think about much as an American, but from history and stories my impressions of kings are that they have absolute power. The Roman emperors or kings could order people to be put to death as Nero did in the Roman games. They could take land and demand tribute or payment from conquered states. As we heard in the passage from Jeremiah, they could use their power in ways that led their people to suffer especially if they were self-centered and unjust. God though had a different vision of kingship. ”The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5-6) The characteristics of this king are wisdom, carrying out justice and righteousness. Righteousness in the Old Testament “is that all-encompassing notion of a right relationship among God and people and king.”^[ii] The righteous preserved the peace and wholeness of the community, showed mercy to the poor, fatherless, and widowed. He/she was a generous giver providing for the wanderer and the guest and treated his/her servants humanely. In other words, the righteous are people of goodness and compassion. ^[iii] This vision of kingship is very different from the kings Israel had seen in the day of Jeremiah and very different from the kings they saw in the day of Jesus, but this was God’s vision of kingship.

Fast forward six centuries to the time of Jesus. There is another king or emperor in power who uses military might to control the masses. God in Jesus incarnates God’s idea of kingship. We know from the very beginning of the Gospel even before Jesus is born that he will be a king. The angel declared that Jesus would be king to Mary when he told her that she would have Jesus. (See Luke 1:32-33) We see crowds acknowledge Jesus’ kingship at his final entry into Jerusalem. Remember they said in Luke 19:38, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!” Then it all turns menacing. Jesus is accused of treason for claiming to be the king (Luke 23:2-3) and then in our reading today he is ridiculed and given the title as an insult. Let’s look though at what Jesus does in the midst of his suffering and in the midst of this ridicule. He forgives those who have persecuted him. He dies side by side with the wretched. People are given a choice whether to trust in him or reject him. As scholar Alan Culpepper states, This final scene with the two criminals “is a Gospel in miniature: Jesus, the dying Savior among the wretched; one who taunts him cynically and thereby rejects his mercy; and one who receives salvation because he looks forward to the kingdom of God.”^[iv] During his life and his death Jesus refuses to use his power as a traditional king; he stays true to God’s vision of kingship.

As we see this vision of power what does it say to us about our use of power and authority? Ah yes, we most certainly have power; we have relational power, we have economic power, we have civic power. We have the relational power to tear down the lives of others, like the father who probably unknowingly named his son “not good enough” or to build up the lives of like my Nigerian friends with the simple act of naming their children. We can use our economic power to give the most vulnerable a hand up. We see the use of relational and economic power with the opening of the Prescott Area Winter Shelter. A group of folks some from this church saw a need and they used their power so that women and children will be safe and warm over the next three months.  In Kenya when we gave a generator, a small purchase in the greater scheme of things for the Bumula Methodist Church. They are able to not only power their church but they are making a small amount of income for the church with it. When we send money for cows for the women’s group they will be able to feed the children in Sunday School and make a little more income. We used our economic power to improve their lives. We have civic power. In the coming year we will be deciding the leaders of our nation. It is very important that we carefully research the candidates and their stands. And it is imperative that every one of us vote at election time.  We have power in how we treat the most vulnerable, the wanderer and the guest, those who work for us, those we impact by what we consume. Are we using our power to carry out justice and righteousness? Whose vision of kingship are we following individually and as a nation? There is power in a name as we will see in the coming weeks. This week we are challenged by this new kind of king. In our use of power individually and nationally is Christ our king? Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on November 25, 2007.