Some of you may be wondering why half the lights are on and half the lights are off.
I will tell you, I don't know.
That's the short answer, pardon the pun.
We'll get somebody out to fix them, don't worry.
Indeed, on this Feast of Christ the King,
we experience our King in word and in sacrament.
The scriptures, the word of God, draw us to experience our King
wearing a crown not made of gold, but of thorns.
We experience a King who reigns not from a throne,
but from a cross.
A King who wears not the regal vestments,
but instead is stripped of his garments.
A King who is covered not in splendor, but in sores.
A King who is surrounded not by a royal court,
but by two criminals.
We experience,
we experience the King today,
the suffering servant,
the one who is despised by his contemporaries,
mocked by authorities,
betrayed by an apostle,
rejected by his own people,
crucified by the Roman soldiers, yes,
but surely he is crucified by my sins,
and yours.
He is crucified,
precisely because he claims to be God.
He was not crucified because he worked miracles.
He was not crucified because he taught wisely.
He is crucified because he made the claim to be God,
by forgiving sins,
Only God has the power to do that by claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath using the title, I am, a divine title.
He taught with his own authority and not like the scribes.
He was crucified because of his claim to be God.
The Father and I are one.
And such a claim is either utter blasphemy or it is true.
C.S. Lewis, who died 50 years ago last week, in fact he died on the same day as President Kennedy.
C.S. Lewis always scoffed at those.
He scoffed at those people who said that Jesus is a great teacher and I admire his words but he is surely not God.
C.S. Lewis says that is the one thing we may not say.
A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the devil.
He would be the son of hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool.
You can spit at him and kill him as a demon.
Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
But let us not do that.
Let us not do that.
Let us not do that.
Let us not do that.
Let us not do that.
Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us.
He did not intend to.
Our Lord on the cross presents us with two options.
Personified by the two criminals crucified with him.
One who mocks and jeers.
The other who cries out to him for divine mercy.
Remember me when you come into your kingdom.
This choice is ours.
To reject him or to accept the role of being the servant of so great a king.
A couple months ago several men and women of the church were in the church.
The men in our parish formed themselves as a group determined to learn more about the Lord through the study of scripture and other holy books by the practice of the sacraments and by fellowship.
They call themselves the king's men.
You might remember them from the red shirts they sometimes wear.
They are determined.
They are determined to be good servants of the king in their daily lives.
And so must we.
Putting into practice on a daily basis amidst the circumstances of our lives.
Putting into practice our faith.
Being men and women and children of the king.
We do this by daily.
Praying.
Daily opening our hearts to him and letting in his presence in our lives.
Daily turning to him in prayer.
Opening up to him.
We do this by daily looking out for the needs of others.
Especially those who live in our own house.
Daily looking for those opportunities to be positive.
To give a smile.
To give an encouraging word.
To extend a work of mercy.
We do this by daily striving to be generous in sharing the gifts that God has given to us.
Sharing our material gifts.
Something that we call stewardship.
And sharing our spiritual gifts.
Something that we call evangelization.
Something that we call evangelization.
Something that we call evangelization.
Something that we call evangelization.
it is by the daily practice of our faith
looking for those opportunities that he gives us
to express our loyalty as subjects of the king
to express our fidelity and our determination
to follow him wherever he leads
we do not do this in theory
we do it in practice
we don't do it in some other world
some place else
we do it in the context of the life
that our Lord gives us to live
this feast of Christ the king
gives each of us the opportunity
to renew our dedication
to follow him with all of our heart
and mind and soul
to follow him with all of our heart
to follow him with all of our heart
only one who is crucified for our sins
only one who gives his everything for us
can demand in return everything from us
and so on this feast of Christ the king
before we meet him
in the sacrament of the holy Eucharist
before we meet him
in the holy sacrifice of the mass
where Calvary
the sacrifice on Calvary
becomes present to us
where he gives once again
his body and blood
soul and divinity
before we meet him in the Eucharist
let us pray
a traditional prayer before the crucifix
I'd invite you to fix your gaze
upon yourself
upon your king
fix your gaze upon the crucified Lord
represented in the image of the crucifix
and let this prayer be your own
my divine savior
what did you become
when for love of souls
you did suffer yourself
to be bound to the pillar
ah how truly then
was fulfilled the word of the prophet
saying of you that from head to foot
you should be all one wound
so as to be no longer recognizable
what shame you did endure
when they stripped you of your garments
what torments you did undergo
in that tempest of countless blows
in what torrents
did your most precious blood
gush forth
from your bursting veins
I know well
it was not so much
the injustice of the Roman governor
and the cruelty of the soldiers
that scourged you
as my sins
oh accursed sins
that have cost you so many pains
alas
what hardness of heart
when notwithstanding your manifold suffering
for me
I have continued to offend you
but from this day forth
it shall be no longer
united to you
by bonds of loyalty forever
as long as I shall live
I shall seek to satisfy
your offended justice
by the pains you did suffer
when bound to the pillar
by the scourges which tore
your innocent flesh
by the blood which you did shed
in such abundance
have mercy
on this unhappy soul of mine
deliver me today
and always
from the snares of the tempter
and when I have come
to the end of my exile
bring me safely home
to heaven with you