Christ the King Sunday: Mightier than the Raging Sea

Unedited Transcript Follows:

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy. Oh man. Sometimes I like to share on Christ looking Sunday, just how I I like to think about, um, all the choices that we make in our lives. And, and we make a lot of choices, don't we?

I mean, it's, it's fascinating to stop and think about all the things we choose. We're an era of History, we all find ourselves in where we make more choices than perhaps any people before us ever have. We make a lot of choices we make choices about whether we'll marry or who will marry Um, people didn't always do that in world history deciding whether they're married or who they'll marry, right?

We choose our governing authorities at least kinda and we, we choose where we, uh, spend our money. You know? We we choose where we're going to spend our money. And the internet and smartphones and their streaming platforms everywhere, and they increase Choice choices are all the time. Choices. Choices everywhere, right?

Think about it. Next, Netflix was always about choice and convenience, that's like why it existed. But it started as a service. Uh, you guys might remember. Uh, where you receive like two or depending on how much money you sent them every month, you sent you got like, two or three.

Uh, DVDs in the mail. That you would then put back in the mail when you were done watching them. You guys remember that? That was what Netflix was when it started, right? And like, have you ever tried to watch TV with like Someone under 10 or 15 like live TV.

Have you ever tried to do that? Uh, when they're like, what wait, what like Uh, they're they're just putting something on and everyone's just stuck with like what? What they've put on. So like, I mean, it's happened, really rapidly, if you think about it. But like I there were all, I mean, Ever, since I was probably in high school, there was 100 100 channels that you could choose but But even then you were still stuck with like, what was on TV at any given moment, right?

You were still stuck with that and not like now, that's not even what watching TV looks like. Watching TV. Looks like choosing between honestly, like more shows than you and I ever have time to watch, right? And and it's all every time you just pick what what you're gonna watch on TV.

You've made a choice between Thousands, and, and maybe millions of hours of content, uh, That you've chosen between by just making a choice of what you're going to put on. Tv. Down to the second. Every time you pull out your smartphone You're presented with 45 choices to spend the next 30 seconds of your life.

Right, how many times I it just happened to me today where I pulled out my smartphone for one reason and then I ended up like this one and then I was like, why I have my phone out? I don't remember. But I had a reason that I pulled it out, but but being presented with all those choices was immobilizing or at least Caused me to be less productive.

It's exhausting all the choices we make, right? And it impacts our worship. We choose what denomination, our church is. And even the church, you go to within a denomination. And sometimes that choice is simply a choice of preference. We pick a church where we like the pastor or as sermons or we like the music or the Aesthetics or we like the Liturgy.

And in the face of all these choices that we make all the time, Here we are in the last Sunday of the church here. Proclaiming something loud and clear. Jesus is King. And you didn't choose that. All right, that's not a choice that you or I made. Jesus is King.

The truth is, it's great news because as our readings and the entire really in the entire scriptures, like all of it and virtually all of world history shows us, human rulers are often if not always immoral corrupt and unjust, right? In our scripture readings, compare them to the Raging Seas.

And it's an app comparison. So today on Christ, the King Sunday, we'll reflect on. How, although the Seas are stirring and raging with the Raging tyrants, God is mightier. And Jesus is reigning over all the Raging Seas as the true God and king of all. And just and just before we turn toward Advent, we commit to being loyal subjects of the returning King.

So we see the Seas stirring. The seas are stirring. The Psalms had words in it that are this Psalm today, Psalm 93 had words that I've always read wrongly, I think In Psalm 93, in verse 4 it says the floods have risen O Lord the floods have lifted up their voice.

The floods have lifted up their waves and I've always read that and it's I mean I've I read this every month, you know. Um I read this Psalm every month and I've often read this as a A lot of times, the Psalms will talk about how the Earth is praising God, right?

Like the, ER, like, uh, the creatures lift up their voices, the the things that don't talk at all, like, the sea lifting up its voice and singing, praise to God. All of it is praising God, but that's not what's happening in Psalm 93. When it talks about the sea is lifting up, its voice or the sea is?

Raging it's talking about rising up in opposition to God and it actually presents the Lord as mightier. Which we'll talk about more later. But it's it's actually this the, the sea Is a sign of chaos and fear. It's a big dark place and we know that, right. Have you ever been out like on a boat at night in the ocean?

You know, um, It's fun. I I've been deep sea fishing with my grandpa and it's fun. But like, it'd be, it'd be fun for Two seconds, if like it broke. If the boat broke down and we were wondering how we were gonna get out of there, you know, like like then it would immediately no longer be fun.

Like it would be a nightmare because you're in the middle of like you can't see anything. You're like the water's deep, like would you when you're letting you're lying out in the water? You know, how far it just goes so far before you hit the bottom right? When you're fishing off the bottom you're like my gosh, that's water's deep and it's vast and it's scary and there's a whole lot.

There's more, we don't know than we know under there, right? When you look under the surface and so because the ancient people are smart like we're smart. They uh, they they knew that's kind of scary, you know, uh, when there's this vast and measurable expanse of water and we don't know what's under there, that's scary, right?

And so that often was associated with And the powers of chaos. And so, The pairing with the Book of Daniels probably instructive, too. There are four beasts being judged in our Old Testament reading today. The number four isn't mentioned Because it was mentioned earlier but there are four beasts being mentioned and verse two tells us where they came from.

Daniel declared I saw in my vision by night. And behold, the Four Winds of Heaven were stirring up, the great sea. The beasts that came out in opposition to God, in in verse two, our be our um, powers of The powers they end up being being linked with governments different, human governments, or civilizations and they're rising up in opposition to God out of the water.

The Seas have lifted up their voice. The Seas have lifted up their voice, they're raging the powers of dark. The, the powers of the Nations, which are linked with powers of Darkness are rising up in opposition to God. That's what's happening in the Book of Daniel. The Seas lifting up its voice.

Political powers are coming out of the water like beasts and they're causing chaos. And obviously, this is at the center in Daniel of judah's experience during Exile, right? So, um, judah's experience during the Exile The fourth Beast is thought to correspond with Antiochus Epiphany, right? But understand something. This was nothing new for them.

To have a ruler in power, who is causing chaos. It was nothing new for the people of God to be dealing with ramifications of being led by Wicked rulers and although it's different to be doing that under Exile, they were led by Wicked rulers all along. Right. First Kings 8 10 when they asked for the King, Samuel said to them, this Samuel told them all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king.

He said this is what the king who will reign over, you will claim as his rights, he will take your sons and make them serve his Chariots and horses and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and others to, plow the ground and reap his Harvest and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

Looks like to have a king. He doesn't. It looks like someone is Make your sons go fight Wars. That's what that's what having a king looks like you want a king like the other nations. This is what you don't want to trust Yahweh to protect you. You want a king to protect you, then what it looks like is that he's gonna send your sons to go fight Wars, don't we?

No, that's true. You have a civilization. One of the things you can measure civilization by is they're going to raise up your sons to fight Wars. Because because your options are or at least for it, we don't really have that option. But for Israel, the option was, you can trust Yahweh to keep you safe.

Or you can have a king and a military and that's who you can trust. And those are the those were the options and they chose a king and a military like the other nations had. Right? And he told them what that would mean. Some of the some of your sons are gonna fight your Wars and the King's Wars and some of the sons are going to plow his Fields.

But they're all serving the king now, right? And the entire books of Chronicles and kings are a long line of wicked leadership. And the effects and ramifications of what takes place because none of them are following God. This is how it always has been always has been or always and will be with Kings and with rulers in our current world system, it shouldn't surprise us.

Because just like we prayed in our collect, the peoples of the earth are divided and enslaved by sin. The rulers are sinful and Fallen, they always have been, they always will be. Right.

The waves have lifted up their voice. The Seas have lifted up and caused chaos, and we've seen it. We've experienced it. And we live in a In a time, in our nation politically where we're polarized and divided as ever, right? The Seas of raised up their voice. But we're told in the psalm and in all the readings that the king is mightier.

King is mightier than the Raging of the sea. Mightier than the sound of many Waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord who dwells on high is mightier. That's what the psalm says. And then in our Daniel reading today, We have behold with the Clouds Of Heaven.

There came one like a son of man. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all people's Nations and languages should serve him. His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This. Many commentators. And I like to see this is, um, Then you'll be giving being given. Um, revelation of the Ascension before the Incarnation, which is kind of neat. Uh, but um, but you have, you have the son of man being presented, the kingdoms, and the powers and the authorities of all the world.

He's seen before. Even the son of man has come in the flesh. He's seeing When when when does it happen that all the kingdoms of the world are given to the son of man? It happens at the Ascension of Christ right? When the son of man ascends and it's this coronation service, it's his coronation day.

He wait like he is handed the kingdom of and he is handed all rule and every Power and every Authority. Ascension. And the Beast who got judged and destroyed came from the sea, right? That's right. There was the weight rate. It was the Seas raging but listen. We when we recognize the Lord is miter, we can see that if we look back at that verse in Daniel, It's that it's the heavens that stirred up, the sea.

Hold on. So even these powers of the world that are raging or raging only with power that God gave them God, Reigns over them, God is in authority, over them. God Stir the powers of Heaven, are the powers that stirred up the sea. They're the ones who even gave the power to these rulers who then rise up and use that power to do wickedness and the beasts are as bad as they can be, but listen.

Is over all of that. They the the beasts only rage with power that God gives them. In God's, destruction of them. Is immediate? In Daniel, when the seas are raging and all this activity is happening, the Ancient of Days is sitting He's not in a, he's not in a fist fight with the, with the powers that come from the sea.

He's not having to like really gird up, his strength to destroy them. He's sitting. He pronounces judgment. He hands the kingdom over and the Beasts are judged. That's the story. God is mightier. So when it looks like everything's Raging we it's good news. It's good news that we have a king that we didn't choose and put into Power.

Why? Why? How could that be good news? Because he Reigns over all the numb skulls that we put in power, which we like which we're just really good at putting Numb skulls in power. The reason that is the case is because everyone's numbskulls, you know. I mean it's just like just there's no one else to put in power, you know they're all just like us, you know.

And like so there's there's no one else to put in power besides morons and, uh, and people that aren't faithful and uh, and people that aren't because that's all that's around. If anyone's gonna, it's why you want a king. This is what it looks like. It's because these are the only people you have to choose from right.

So, we're on the last Sunday of Advent. The last Sunday or the last Sunday, before Advent? Sorry, the last Sunday, the liturgical year. The churches invites us to reflect on the fact that Jesus is the unrivaled king of the universe. In the in the Incarnation his deity is concealed right?

And we're getting ready to celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation. That's what Evan's about. We're getting ready to look at Christmas and Christmas. You see those beautiful? Nativity scene. Sometimes you see them played out like in Christmas, pageants They always find a cute little baby to be Jesus, right.

Cute little beautiful baby. Boy of sweet baby. Never hurt anybody. It's baby Jesus, right? The sweet little Jesus to sleep on the hay. You know, this is this is the picture and this is true when Jesus came. He came in weakness. Um, he A trip down his mom's fallopian tube like everybody else like like he came in as we as much weakness as you can come, right?

So he came in absolute, utter, dependency and weakness. But it's tempting for our thoughts, to think of sweet baby, Jesus. But when he returns, He's not returning as a sweet little baby in a Manger. He's returning on the clouds. And he's judging the beasts that have raged against him, all the world systems, who have set up rival powers He's the absolute King.

He's the absolute King. So our Revelation reading said Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the Kings on Earth. You know, a lot of times, we'll talk about King of Kings. Right, we'll talk about King of Kings but that, but John here, in the Revelation, Puts a little different.

Um, construction together. He uses a verb, a participle Arcone ruler, you know? Um, and almost to give a picture of like he could have said, King of Kings, but he's like, the one ruling the Kings, the ruler of the Kings, the one who's already right now, standing over all the Kings, the ruler of the Kings.

Everyone will know him to be ruler of all and their relation to him in this life, will not change that recognition. It says that they were recognized him with weeping, even the ones who pierced him, even the ones who were wrongly related with him will recognize him as king and ruler over all Your beliefs about Jesus change, nothing about him.

Right. What whatever personal beliefs you bring about Jesus change. Nothing about objective reality. He's King. Or not King. Whether you recognize him King or not King. Does that make sense? So like your beliefs don't change anything. We live in a world where we because we vote on people in power.

We think that we have so much power that like our my personal beliefs impact reality in some way. They don't at all. Like we and we use that language, right? Have you made Jesus the Lord of your life and you don't make Jesus anything. You can't you're not capable of making Jesus anything.

He's either the Lord and King of all or he's not regardless of what you've done, right? He's the king over all. And this can comfort us and it can challenge us. It can challenge us because we don't get to pick and choose the aspects of the story that fed our sensibilities, like we're at a buffet line.

I like what Jesus had to say about the poor. I don't like. Some of his ethical statements, you know? Um, so like, you know, I'll just pick this and leave that and I'll like I can treat it like a Buffet line. So it's challenging for us that way that he can't be like our mascot for whatever our pet issues are.

You know. You know, like we don't we don't want We don't need pictures of Jesus behind. Our president like holding up his arms like, like, like he's not our mascot, he's not like, Uh, he's not our, he's not, he's not for us only, you know, he's for the whole world, right?

So he's the king of the whole world. So we don't, we don't, we can, like, get rid of all that, so it can challenge us that way, but it also can comfort us. Because listen, nothing can keep Jesus from extending his righteous Reign over the face of the Earth.

Let me say that again. Nothing. Can keep Jesus from extending his righteous Reign over the face of the Earth. All the time. In public discourse, you're going to hear like About threats to the ex like oh, the gospels threatened and Um, all that if this person gets in power, The Christians will be losing you know or like the gospel will go.

Listen. No ruler can get in power. That can thwart Jesus from extending his Reign over the face of the Earth. That doesn't mean that we can't have someone get in power. That could make things more difficult for us. Okay, that's happened all the time through his tree. The wrong person, gets in power.

Christians are being fed to lion. So you know like so that I mean, that can happen. Absolutely. But nothing can ultimately stop the extension of the kingdom of God and his righteous Reign nothing. So, you like, When there's like an election and everyone's freaking out, you can just sleep well just sleep.

Just go to bed. Nothing can stop Jesus. Righteous rain from extending over the face of the Earth. Just go to bed. Just relax. Because the seeds will stir up and they'll they'll always will and they're always bad, guys, they're always bad. But God is mightier. And he sits enthroned overall.

And so, what we're called to do is submit to Jesus. As a good King. So although we don't elect a king and we can't make Jesus Lord of anything. We do relate with this King. As as individuals, we see that in what Jesus does with pilate, right? Jesus has this interaction with pilate and he just refuses To let pilot wiggle out of taking a stand, right?

He can't pilate tried everything to keep out of taking a stand. He says, handle him yourself. But what, but but what happens. Is when he says, are you a king? Jesus says, do you say this on your own or does someone else to have you say this? He's asking, what do you think?

Pilot. What do you think? Am I a king and pilate tries to say, am I a Jew? Why do I care whether you're the king of the Jews or not? You know, and so he's trying to say, I don't need to, I don't need to take a sight on this.

I'm going to stay neutral. And Jesus refuses to let pilate off the hook. And the guy who most tried to wiggle out of taking a stand, a personal stand on who he says, Jesus is Became the guy that we mentioned in our Creed every Sunday. Right. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

Yep. And so the one guy that tried to be like, I'm not taking a side in this, he's the one that gets mentioned every time as the governing Authority. Over the crucifixion, right? Cuz we have to shatter the my Of neutrality, people love to say to pastors. You shouldn't talk about politics.

They don't mean that. By the way, they mean, you shouldn't say anything. I disagree with, that's what they always mean. When they say you shouldn't talk about politics they're fine talking about politics if it's in line with what they think. Right. But the minute you talk about it and it's not in line with what they think then they're like hey you pastors shouldn't get involved in politics, right?

And to the truth is pastors, probably shouldn't be partisan. Um because the political parties are part of the Seas. That are raging like we shouldn't be that that aligned with them. But Jesus's King isn't necessarily political statement. You guys know that if we say Jesus is King it's necessarily political So, President John F Kennedy said at one point There are some dispute over a Roman Catholic, being a president, right?

And whether the bishop of Rome hath jurisdiction in this realm, that was what the fight was about. Because there was a Roman Catholic, who was going to be the president, right? And he said, I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private Affair. Whatever issue might come before me as president on birth control divorce, censorship gambling or any other subject.

I will make my decision in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be National interests and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in America. I guess, right? But the, but the truth is he couldn't do it. Of course, like no one can.

We can't go to some neutral place to decide on issues. Where we can like turn off religion. Right. Or we could turn off the hey, before you make decisions, can you turn off the the things you believed was most fundamentally true in the world? Like that's not a thing so no one can do it right.

And more than that, we shouldn't want to. Either Jesus is King of the universe or he's not. But if he's King over the universe, he's certainly King Over America. And he certainly King over our families and he certainly right. Jesus is King is unnecessarily political statement. It wasn't its day as well.

When the, when the Christians early claim was Jesus's, Lord. They were saying that. In contrast to the powers around them that said Caesar is Lord. So when they said Jesus is Lord, they were saying Caesar is not.

And so in Acts, you have Jason being Drag before authorities. And it says these men who have turned the world upside down, have come here and Jesus received them. And they're, it's acting against the decrees of Caesar saying there's another king. Jesus, they're acting against the decreases either saying there's another king Jesus.

We are the people who insist, there's another king, Isn't transformed by one more election, by one more Democrat or republican in Senate by one more false promise, by one more conservative, Supreme Court Justice, or or liberal Supreme Court Justice. We, we're the Christians who persistently declare, the good news.

There's a good King, Jesus, and he's good. And he rains fairly.

And this means he's King over all personal decisions. If Jesus is the unrivaled, King of the universe and he is There's not a moment we get to take off, there's not a moment where you are the ruler of your life. There's not a moment where you get a break from his lordship, there's no political stance or grocery transaction or interaction with someone on the road or heated discussion where you get to ignore, that Jesus is King.

Where I get to ignore. That Jesus is King. So as Advent approaches the question, we can. All ask ourselves, is this, are you submitted to the rule of King Jesus? Cuz Advent's the right season. Before we look at his return. To look at our lives and submit freshly. To the lordship of Jesus.

Submit today to the unrivaled king of the universe. Almighty and everlasting. God whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved, Son the king of kings and the Lord of lords mercifully, grant that the peoples of the earth divided and enslaved by sin. Freed and brought together.

Under his most gracious rule. Who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit. One God now and forever. Amen.