JEREMIAH 23:1-6

PSALM 46

COLOSSIONS 1:11-20

LUKE 23:35-43

Sermon – November 21, 2004

Living in the Presence of Christ

Sometimes people may say to themselves, “It’s so hard to stay spiritually focussed and centered with all the responsibilities and distractions that each of us deal with. If only I could be in the presence of Christ for a moment, I would be so much more spiritual."

Well, let’s consider that idea in the light of this morning’s Gospel. Christ and two criminals are in their last hours of life, dying on three crosses next to each other on a hill just outside of Jerusalem.

The two criminals literally couldn’t get away from the presence of Christ if they had wanted to. They had literally nothing else to do but be in his presence – a few feet or perhaps yards away, close enough to be able to carry on a conversation of sorts, no doubt a much slower and more labored conversation than it sounds when we read it in the Gospel according to Luke.

The two men were in the presence of Christ – not for minutes but for hours, hours when they had little else to think about except their lives, suffering and approaching death, a situation which also can sometimes bring someone to be spiritually focussed.

One criminal, however, chose to use his time in the presence of Christ to “dis” him, or as Luke puts it, he “Kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” This is sarcasm and taunting, not an appeal.

The other criminal, equally guilty in the eyes of Roman law, chose to use his time to “defend” Christ verbally from his neighbor, to proclaim Christ’s innocence, and to simply ask to be remembered “when” Christ came into his Kingdom. Under the circumstances, that was a huge affirmation of faith.

So being in the presence of Christ by itself does not make someone more spiritual, or obedient, or loving: after all, those who crucified him were in his presence too. It’s all about the attitude and actions that people choose.

We too have the same choice everyday that those two criminals had: how to react to being in the presence of Christ. For we are in the presence of Christ right now – and also at home, at work, at school, in the community, anywhere in the world or above it.

We are in the presence of Christ when quietly meditating, or when stuck in a traffic jam; when making decisions about commitment to the well-being of others, or of ourselves; when delighting in the presence of someone we care for deeply, and when talking with the most annoying person we know. In all circumstances, we are in Christ’s presence, for he said, “I will be with you always.”

So the question is, what attitudes and actions do we choose when our Lord and Master, our “coach” and our King, is close enough to us to have a conversation with – which is always? Do we ask for mercy, for help, for guidance, for a listening ear when we just need to vent – or do we just make sarcastic remarks as though he wasn’t really within earshot, wasn’t really there for us and with us, wasn’t really real at all? Are such remarks – or simply forgetting about him – fresh wounds to his tortured body?

There is so much we can receive if we but ask, as the astonished second criminal discovered. He just wanted to be remembered. He just asked for a postcard; instead he got the ultimate invitation: to be with Christ in paradise.

Oh, to hear those words when our time on this earth comes to an end! But in the meantime – which is today and every day of our lives until our last breaths – we can be with Christ here and now everywhere we go if we look with the eyes of faith.

And we can live as his servants under his authority now. As St. Paul writes in today’s wonderful excerpt from his letter to the Colossians, God the Father “has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” By faith and with that personal

relationship with our loving savior, whatever our outward circumstances look like – and that second criminal’s outward circumstances couldn’t have been any bleaker than they were – our spiritual rescue has already occurred from the power of darkness and our transfer to Christ’s Kingdom under his leadership has taken place if we simply accept God’s rescue and Christ’s lordship of our lives.

There are people who have endured harrowing ordeals, perhaps on airplanes or ships, who kneel down and kiss the ground with thanksgiving when they reach a place of safety. If we have committed ourselves to Christ, we can do that now.

It doesn’t mean that life will be easy, because the powers of darkness and brokenness still have some power, and that “some” is plenty scary and plenty painful. But the powers of darkness and of brokenness do not have ultimate power: God does.

And that power can trickle into our lives in quite wonderful ways, as St. Paul himself well knew. This is why he writes “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience” – yes, there will be hard times and challenges, guaranteed – “while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

As the Psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

So let us choose to use our time in the presence of Christ to ask for his forgiveness for our sins, his guidance for our lives, his strength for whatever we have to endure, his joy and his love to share with others to lift them up.

How can we “keep it all together” while trying to do all this and merging all this into our daily lives? Well, as Paul says, “In Christ all things hold together.” If your life sometimes feels like its coming apart, hand it over to Christ and let him hold you, and hold your life together.

Christ is close enough to each of us to have a conversation with, just as he was to the two criminals, close enough to each of us to hear us and to respond to whatever we choose to say or do. He is our King, and his first throne was the cross, where he took on his shoulders all the suffering and sin of the world and broke their ultimate power over us. And now he is with us and for us as we face the challenges, sorrows and joys of this world and invites us to be citizens of his Kingdom now and to help him build that Kingdom of peace, healing and joy loving deed by loving deed by what we choose to do in this world now.

“Glory, glory hallelujah, his truth is marching on.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church