Today is the last day in the season of Pentecost – We have spent 25 weeks in this season – which is designated by the color green – and the theme is the growing of God’s Kingdom and now we are about to launch into the season of Advent where we await the coming of Christ. But the church invites us on this pivotal day to consider Reign of Christ in our lives. Today is Christ the King Sunday or if you prefer today is “The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe”. It was designated as such back in 1925 by Pope Pius XI because of his concern about growing secularism across Europe – and as an attempt to bring people back to a faithful existence centered on Christ
In our Gospel reading this morning we hear about the way that God wants us to live – caring for others who are in various forms of need, and the judgment that will be issued forth at some unknown future time between those who served God, and their neighbor, and those who ignored that.
So what this Sunday invited us to do is to consider what it means to allow Christ to be the King of our lives. This was brought home to me this Fall when I was reading a book called Ordering your Private World by Gordon MacDonald, a retired clergyman. If it sounds familiar it is because I mentioned it a few weeks ago in another sermon.
He tells a story of when he was a boy of six or seven years old, and his grandmother took him to a train yard somewhere between NYC and Boston where they could watch the trainmen at work. He recalls how for several hours they watched the trainmen at work – sorting through the passenger cars and the freight cars – moving them track to track and then couple together.
At the end of one railyard there is a large mechanical device called a round table. It is also called a turntable. A round table’s purpose is to turn big locomotives around in different directions.
As Gordon and his grandmother were looking at the round table she said “I think God has a round table too. He uses it to change the pathway of people He’s calling to serve Him. He may put you on his round table someday. You’ll think you’re going in one way, but His round table will send you off in a different direction.”
And don’t we all know this experience where we think we are going in one direction and end out in a different place entirely. I remember thinking when I went to seminary in California that I was going to stay out there for the rest of my life. Within a year I was living in England where I remained for the next 11 years. I am sure you can think of similar examples from your own life.
As I was thinking of other examples I thought of St. Andrew whose Feast Day is this Thursday. In the Orthodox tradition he is referred to as the First Called, Πρωτόκλητος (pronounced: Prōtoklētos) because he was the first disciple to be called by Jesus to follow him and to do his work. And if you remember, at the beginning of the Gospels, Andrew is a fisherman who is working with Simon Peter, his brother, and James and John, son of Zebedee.
So one of the things that I used to believe, because that is what I was told, is that fishermen in the bible were a gormless lot – and it was often preached and taught from what I can remember, that if even a simple fisherman can follow Jesus so can we.
But the truth is fishermen were quite the opposite. They were businessmen. They were skilled in foreign languages so that they could trade widely, they had business acumen, they had skills of their trade, and they owned boats, and nets, and all the things necessary for their trade. They also had employees. Andrew had a whole lot going on for him.
And when Jesus called Andrew – Andrew knew that he needed to change direction and to become a follower of Christ. No one would blame him if Andrew said, “Thanks Jesus, but I have quotas to meet and payslips to hand out.” But he did not – he knew his life work was following Christ. St. Andrew experienced first-hand being on God’s turntable – he experienced being called. God placed Andrew on the round table so that Andrew would serve God and God’s kingdom in a way that Andrew could never have predicted with results that he could never have imagined. Can you imagine what Andrew would think if he knew that his name would be the 5th most popular name for Episcopal Churches in the United States, and that there would be a university in Scotland named after him, and the oldest and one of the prestigious golf courses, The Royal and Ancient Gold Club of St Andrews?
Andrew teaches us to be open to God’s call – a call that may derail our best laid plans.
So what does this mean for us? Of course it means to be open – but I would also like to add that for many of us, it’s not an unwilling heart that keeps us from following Christ, but rather, it’s not knowing what our call is or what God wants us to do. But I would like to leave you with a prayer that might help, and it is by Thomas Merton, and it may be a prayer that is familiar to you.
My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Amen.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
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