CEC News & Father Riley's homily from Christ Episcopal, Bastrop November 24, 2019

CEC News!

… The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W.  Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8^th, 10am, to celebrate with us.  A luncheon is planned for all to attend.  Jim & Brenda Funderburg volunteered to organize our Luncheon with the Bishop.  A sign-up sheet for ‘what to bring’ is in the Parish House.  Or, you may contact Brenda or Jim directly at bfun@me.com.
… Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist December 1, 15; 24 !!!
…The crèches will go up the first Sunday in Advent, December 1^st.  If you want to help put the outside crèche together, see or contact Sam (318-766-0998) or corsonsam@gmail.com .  The outside crèche was planned and given by Mrs. Allein Watson.
… It is time for our annual giving campaign.  Pledge letters and cards have been mailed.  If you did not receive a letter and pledge form and wish to donate for 2020, please contact Mrs. Brenda Funderburg at bfun@me.com   All donations help us continue our mission in Tensas Parish and are greatly appreciated. Thank You.


(Father Riley's homily from Christ Episcopal, Bastrop, November 24, 2019)

LAST PENTECOST, PROPER XXIX - C - 19   LUKE 23. 33-43

“When they came to the place that is called the skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.”

This is not the scene one would expect to hear of this time of the year. Nor is it the last scene in the gospel that belongs to Easter. Our thoughts and plans are elsewhere these days. Thanksgiving is next Thursday. We just finished Halloween. Don’t know about you, but I still have bowl full of milky ways left?

Black Friday is on the horizon and Christmas Eve is a mere 4 weeks away. However, on the Church’s calendar today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday and with it, we close out the church’s liturgical year and stand on the threshold of Advent.

All three of today’s lessons, as well as the collect, speak of kingship, but not the kind of kingship we normally think of or have seen depicted in the movies. In our first lesson, the prophet Jeremiah predicts that one day God will raise up for David’s righteous branch…a king who will execute justice and save Israel. His name will be called The Lord of Righteousness.

St. Paul writes to encourage the young Christians at Colossae by reminding them that they have been rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins…who has made peace through the blood of his cross.

Which brings us back to the scene St. Luke is presenting to us this morning, the crucifixion of Jesus. There was an inscription over the head of the dying Jesus that read, “This is the King of the Jews,” however it was only written in mockery.

Luke describes the crowd that gathered to watch Christ die as one made up of the religious leaders that scoffed at him, and the soldiers who mocked him. There were others present, Luke reports that merely stood by in silence. Then there were the two thieves that were crucified on either side of him. Even one of those railed against him. But the other thief rebuked him, admitted he deserved what he was getting, but that Jesus did not. He was the only one that day, according to Luke, who confessed that Christ was king when he asked to be remembered by Jesus when he came into his kingdom.

The latter way is the path to paradise. Jesus has stood on its head the meaning of kingship, the meaning of the kingdom itself. He has celebrated with the wrong people, offered peace and hope to the wrong people, and warned the wrong people of God’s coming judgment.

Now he is hailed as king at last, but in mockery. His true royalty shines out in his prayer and promise. Jesus prays for his tormentor’s forgiveness. Jesus promises a place of honor and bliss to the one who requests it. Forgiveness and reconciliation to God brings the life of the kingdom into the present.

Only in Luke do we find the story of the two thieves and their different behavior towards Jesus. Yet throughout the gospel of Luke, the author has reminded us of life’s two ways: the way of fearing God and the way of taking care of self.

The people of Bethlehem, for example, turned their backs on Mary and Joseph, but the shepherds rejoiced and believed. Ten lepers were healed of their terrible disease, but one returned to give thanks to Jesus. Two men went into the temple to pray; one paraded his achievements before God, while the other could only beg for mercy.

All the way through Luke, many ignore God and court disaster, but a few heed God and find mercy and blessing. Even at the cross this human pattern of choice, of alternative paths, continues. But there is another aspect of the scene Luke is holding up for us this morning.

That is, Satan’s continued temptation of Jesus that occurs even on Calvary. “If he is the messiah of God, his chosen one,” the leaders scoffed, “let him save himself.” To which the soldiers added their own mockery, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Satan speaks through their voices.

The “if” resonates, doesn’t it, with the scene from the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by Satan to surrender his humanity in favor of his divinity. Satan did his best in the beginning to derail Christ’ God-given mission to live and die as one of us in order to reconcile us to God. At the beginning and even now at the end of his earthly ministry Satan is still at work in an effort to keep Christ from fulfilling his divine mission.

Instead, Jesus chooses to continue to share in our humanity, to die as one of us on the cross between two thieves who share the same fate. One who rejects him and one who asks to be remembered by Him. Satan did not want Jesus to die on the cross for he knew that God would raise him from the dead.

Easter put an end to Satan’s tempting Jesus, but his temptation of each and every one of us who call ourselves Christian continues. “If you are a child of God, Satan whispers repeatedly, prove it.”

Prove it by the way you live your life in relationship to others. Prove it by forgiving as Christ forgives you. Prove it by loving one another as He loves you. Prove it, Satan whispers by giving to those in need, by putting others before self. The challenge each of us faces on a daily basis, is to put our faith into practice, to prove to the world and to ourselves that we are Christians.

Satan’s “if” is always an attempt to have us doubt ourselves as Christians, doubt whether or not we can live into the new life to which we have been called in Christ, to bring the life of the kingdom into the present. The challenge of life’s two ways is always before us: the way of fearing God and the way of taking care of self.

To choose the way of fearing God over taking care of self is to choose life over death. It is the path to paradise. To choose God’s way and to live our lives accordingly, is to be assured that the request of the penitent thief to be remembered by Jesus has been granted to all who confess him as their Lord and King. AMEN+