Last Pentecost 07 Proper 29

I’ve talked to many different people during my time of ministry and I am always amazed at how people describe God and Jesus Christ. I’ve heard God described as an old man with a white beard up on a throne in the clouds of heaven. I’ve heard Jesus described anywhere from a good moral teacher to someone who is sadistically cruel. There are a lot of different ideas about God roaming around out there. I met with someone this last week who talked about God being in everyone no matter who they are or what they’ve done.

I remember a television show many years ago called Welcome Back Kotter. Do any of you remember that show?

There was an episode in which Kotter’s class was discussing what God is like. It went something like this:

-Hey Mister Kotter, do you ever think about what God is like?

Horshack interrupts, “Oh yeah, I think he’s short, and he has a marvelous sense humor, and a great laugh.”

Another student says, “Hey God can do anything!” “He can?” asks a student. A female student then adds, “She can. She sings just like Aretha Franklin.”

Another student then interjects, “I think God is tough, but he’s fair, sort of like John Wayne in a white beard, “All right pilgrims, move those clouds in a circle.”

Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta, says, “I have my own ideas of what God is like. I know he’s a sharp dresser. He’s good lookin’ and, of course, he’s Italian.”

One of the African American students says, “Well, if you ask me, all that stuff about harps is a lot of jive. God is backed up by a jazz rhythm section. He’s got a piano, bass guitar player and a drummer with a good right foot.”

A female student interjects, “I think God is love. And if he were here he would love my tuna casserole.

“Hey Mister Kotter,” a student asks, “What are your feelings on this subject?” Kotter then begins “ I think that God is everywhere. He’s in Times Square. He used to be at Ebbits Field. He spent a lot of time in Ebbits field. He’s moonlight in Vermont, autumn in New York, all the standards. He’s everywhere...with the possible exception of Epstein’s gym locker.”

This show illustrates what we see in society. There are a lot of views of what God is like out there. Is it just a matter of opinion about what God is like? Or is there somewhere we can go to find out what God is like? It is important to know as much about who God is so that we don’t end up worshipping a false image of God or the wrong God all together. The bottom line is this- Who you think God is and what you think God is like, determines how you live your life. If you think God is always angry at you, you will live your life in a certain way. If you think God doesn’t much care what you do, that will affect the way you live.

So, how do we find out what God is like? The only way we can know what God is like is for God to somehow reveal information describing God or to reveal himself in some way that we would be able to know as much about God as we need to know.

Christianity maintains that God has revealed himself to us in three ways. He has revealed himself to us through his creation. He has revealed himself to us through the Bible and lastly he has revealed himself to us through His Son Jesus. If we want to know what God is like, we can look at Jesus. If we want to know what Jesus is like we have to look at the Bible. Our lesson from Colossians today tells us a lot about Jesus.

Today we are celebrating Christ the King Sunday. It is a Sunday in which we honor and recognize Christ as our King. Who is this King of Glory? Psalm 24 asks. Most of us cannot relate to the idea of a king because we don’t have that form of government. A king in Bible times had absolute authority, control and power over his subjects. Their lives were in his hands. A king could be benevolent or dictatorial. If Jesus is our king then we need to ask what kind of ruler he is. When we find this out we will find out what kind of ruler God is.

So, who is this king of glory?

Colossians tells us that God delivered those who put their trust in his Son from the dominion of darkness. This means the lives of true Christians are no longer ruled by Satan, and his minions. Jesus has conquered spiritual and physical death. St. Paul says in our lesson today that true believers have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. It was the custom of the Romans to give a piece of land to soldiers whose fighting was done. The soldier’s inheritance is in recognition for warfare accomplished. Our inheritance is eternal life with God in the Promised Land with all the other saints. This is received in recognition of us winning the spiritual warfare we are in. It is fighting the good fight; it is keeping the faith to the end.

So, again I ask, who is this King of glory?

We have just seen that this king is a savior; saving us from sin, death and the dominion of darkness. St. Paul then launches into the main theme of his letter, the supremacy of Jesus Christ. There was a heresy or false teaching which was popular back St. Paul’s day.. It was the Gnostic heresy and it had infected the Colossian church. There are many in the modern Church today who have been infected with this Gnostic heresy. The main error of this heresy was the depreciation of the person, power, and place of Jesus Christ. I have actually heard bishops and priests say that they did not believe that Jesus is God, that he was merely a great human being. I wonder how in the world they can in good conscience say the Creed Sunday after Sunday.

Perhaps St. Paul would say that they are in reality worshipping a different Jesus and a different God and as a result are walking in the kingdom of darkness. Those who worship and believe in the true God have been, according to St. Paul delivered from the dominion or kingdom of darkness, he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. We were ruled by one who had in mind our destruction, but now we are ruled by one who gives us true life eternal.

So, who is this King of glory? He is our savior, our deliverer, and thirdly he is described as the king who will deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness. Our first lesson from Jeremiah today calls him the righteous branch who will reign as king. This king of glory will deal fairly with each of us, but he will deal righteously.

This king of glory is also called the image of the invisible God. The book of Hebrews (1:3) says “the son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

He is not just like God, St. Paul is saying, He is God. He is the perfect expression, the personification of God. Or as we say it in the creeds, he is incarnate, God with us. Man may be said to be created in the image of God, but Christ was not created in the image of God. He is and has always been THE image of God.

We are born with a human spirit, we have a spiritual nature, and thus we can be said to be created in the image of God, because God is spirit. Apart from Christ, the Bible says, we are spiritually dead. Our human spirits come alive when we invite Christ into our lives. The Holy Spirit transform our human spirits into a new creation of God. We are now able to have a relationship with God because of this transformation. The Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the perfect likeness and revelation of God, because he is God.

In verse 19 of Colossians today, we read that all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. Colossians 2:9 says “For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity or godhead lives in bodily form. Jesus describes himself as being one with the Father. “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.” The Apostle John said, “While no one has seen God at any time, the only Son Jesus has revealed him.”

So, who is this King of glory? He is also described in Colossians as the firstborn of all creation. This does not mean he was the first one born. In the Old Testament characters like Seth, Isaac, Judah and David were called the firstborn even though they were not the first one born in their families. The idea of first born here is that Jesus is the preeminent one above all the creation. Why? Because St. Paul reminds us that in or through him all things were created. In other words, He is the creator. The Creed says, “By him all things were created or made. He is the creator of all creation. John 1:3 says, “All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

This King of glory also holds everything together. The verb used here is the perfect tense meaning that he continues to hold everything together. The unity and order of the universe, the laws of nature, are no accident, no random chance. They are an expression of the mind of God, and it is in Christ, the image of the invisible God and agent of creation, that they stick together and are logically connected.

Who is this King of glory?

He is the head of the body- the church. I want to remind you that I am not the head of this church. Jesus is. I am one of the ministers of this church. My job is to try to be lead by the head of the church. How does the head communicate with the Body? It sends signals out to the rest of the body instructing it on how to move and what to do. Jesus, the head of the body, sends out directions to us through His Word, the Bible, and through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The head would never give us directions or move us by the Holy Spirit to do anything contrary to the directions he has already given us. For example, Jesus has already given us a commandment not to steal. He would not then later on tell us that it is okay to steal. Jesus never calls us to do something that is against the Commandments of God, because he is God. If you ever feel like God is leading you to do something, ask the question, is this against one of God’s stated moral commandments in the Bible? If it is, then you know that Jesus is not leading you to do that thing.

Our minds can try to justify and rationalize all sorts of behaviors and actions. The question is, what does the mind of Christ think about those behaviors and actions? “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus,” St. Paul said in one of his letters. Jesus humbled himself in submission to God’s will and commandments as an example for us.

So, who is this King of Glory? What do we know about him and consequently, what do we know about God?

He is the savior and redeemer of all those who put their trust in him.

He is God in human flesh.

He is a king who rules lovingly, but fairly and with justice and righteousness.

He is the preeminent one over all of his creation, because he is the creator.

He is the one who holds everything together.

He is the head of the Body- the Church. He desires to lead and guide us as individuals by his Word, the Bible and by His Holy Spirit. He also desires that we submit ourselves to him as his loyal subjects.

Perhaps you think of God much like C.S. Lewis did before he became a Christian. He described his view in this way: “For many years I hated the thought of a God who literally barged into our world and our species, who interfered with our lives and our values and perhaps even our human nature. I hated it because I wanted to be on my own, to be my own boss, my own God. And I am convinced that many people reject Christianity, traditional, biblical, orthodox Christianity, with its active, loving, interfering, demanding God – for that reason.

Not because the evidence proves it’s untrue, but because they don’t want it to be true.”

So, as I have asked throughout this sermon, Who is this King of Glory? Now I ask you, who is this King of Glory to you?