Re-Membering - Sermon for Christ the King Sunday Year C

Re-Membering

Christ the King C

November 20, 2022

Christ, Preston, MN

Luke 23.33-43

In addition to being the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, today is also Christ the King Sunday. That means (among other things) this is the end of the Church Year. We are an odd bunch, we Lutheran Christians, who end a year in late November or early December. We are even odder for ending with a story about Jesus’ crucifixion, that leaves us literally “hanging.” There is No resurrection, no sitting on a throne from the book of Revelation, just Jesus being brutalized, tormented, and derided by the powers that be. It gets weirder next week as we begin Advent, the time of preparation of the celebration of Jesus’ birth. That’s a decent enough beginning to a new year if we didn’t begin the season with a story about the end times, but more on that next week.

This commemoration is especially jarring as we have come off a rare celebration of King Charles’ ascension to the throne of Great Britain. Many of us sat enthralled as we said goodbye to the longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth. And then were further treated to Charles’ long-awaited and anticipated enthronement. Even though the monarchy in England is questionable, and Charles is head of state, not government, we are still captivated by the pomp, circumstance, pageantry, and glamor of it all. Though Americans rejected the monarchy over 250 years ago, it seems some bathwater stayed behind as we somewhat kept the baby.

Of course, that’s rather the point, is it not, that Jesus is a different kind of king who has a very different kind of kingdom. While most of those who were at the cross were either disdainful or silent, perhaps the most unlikely one of them, a criminal who was admittedly justly accused, acknowledges Jesus’ kingship. “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom,” he says, and with that makes an incredible statement of faith. All evidence to the contrary, and contrary to traditional notions of kingship, the thief recognizes Jesus’ sovereignty over the things that really matter, both in this world and whatever world to come.

I’m struck by the thief’s request to be remembered. Why does he not make a plea for salvation or deliverance? Maybe he does. Though it doesn’t appear so, the word for “remember” is a theologically loaded one. To remember something is not a mere mental act as you call to mind one thing or other. Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh, yes, I recall that guy who was crucified with; he was the only decent one there. Too bad.” No, to remember is to actually make present the thing being remembered in a real and profound way. It is the same kind of remembering as when Jesus tells his disciples (and us) at the Last Supper instituting Holy Communion: “Do this in remembrance of me.” When we celebrate Holy Communion and remember, Jesus is fully present, body and blood in, with, and under the elements of bread and wine.

As my sermon title suggests, I like to split the word ``remember” into its component parts, to “re-member.” As sovereign king and lord, and through his willingness to die so that we may live, Jesus literally “re-members us,” putting us who are broken and estranged from God back together again, with God and with each other. Forgetting and being forgotten are awful feelings, because it is as if we don’t exist anymore. We who have walked with loved ones suffering from dementia know this feeling all too well. Yet, into this reality, where we might question our worth, where we might think God forgets us, a lowly thief from 2,000 years ago reminds us that God doesn’t forget anyone, no matter what we have done or left undone. My siblings in Christ, you are beloved of God, the one who remembers and re-members. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.