Opening a New Door and a New Way
November 23, 2025
Today is the last Sunday in a long series about how seeking a vision for what might be a new congregation and it is also Reign of Christ Sunday. These two things are related. They are related because just as Jesus is a very different kind of king, in a world that has known many kings. The church is called to be a very different organization, in a world that has known many organizations. So, if we look at why Jesus is such a different king, I think we begin to understand the kind of vision that the church ought to be about.
Let’s, take a look at that. On the one hand, it seems to be that the kingship of Jesus comes through humiliation. His final day, his final hours are spent in the company of and dying with a bunch of thieves.
And the punishment of crucifixion was sought to be not only a painfilled warning of what might happen if you step out of line, but it was also the most humiliating of punishments. You’re basically stripped naked for all to see as you slowly and agonizingly die on the cross. But those last moments are also a snapshot of how we and the church might live in the world as well. In fact, I think Jesus’s last moments become a kind of parable of why he stands apart from every other king. These two thieves represent, not only two different reactions to Jesus, but also two different ways of using the most precious commodity that humans possess, and that is the commodity of time.
One thief demanded that Jesus uses power to save himself, and of course, the thief that was beside him. The other simply asked for forgiveness. And in this parable of the last moments of Jesus’s life, Jesus, kind of puts an exclamation point on his understanding of the kingdom of God. Jesus has spent his whole life living his image of the kingdom of God. Indeed, most of his sayings and parables and teachings are about the kingdom of God. Here at last is the final piece of the puzzle about what the kingdom of God is like.
Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is being like a loving father who gives his child, his inheritance early and then, when the child foolishly squanderers it all, the father welcomes the child home again. He not only forgives the child but loves the child. This father celebrates the wayward child’s return even when he is penniless and broken. The kingdom of God is like a Shepherd who forsaking 99 will seek out the one that is lost, because even the foolish sheep that wanders from the flock is worthy of time and effort and risk.
The kingdom of God is like a widow, who after losing a single coin sweeps and sweeps, and seeks for that lost coin until she finds it. Then she calls in the neighbours to celebrate that the lost was found because the lost was worth searching after.
The kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed that grows to a large plant that gives shelter to all manner of animals great and small. The kingdom of God is like a child.
The kingdom of God is like a rich person who throws a feast but gets all these “sorry I can’t attend” notices back. But instead of having an empty table at the feast, that rich person goes out and invites, the lame, the blind, and the marginalized, who never get invited to the feast, to come and enjoy the feast and the goodness of life that so many pass up.
Jesus speaks again, and again, and again, about what the kingdom of God is like. And it was obvious that even though the societies of the earth have different rules and different expectations that Jesus believed with all his heart, that we could if we chose, to live God’s rules and expectations here on earth even among the thieves, the foolish, the lost, the penniless and the broken. All whom the world marginalizes. There are thieves on both sides of Jesus, but Jesus shows us that final image of the kingdom of God by forgiving, accepting and inviting the one who asks for forgiveness to join him in heaven. The commentator The Rev. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield says, “We stumble in living this out, mostly because to believe in the forgiving power of God’s grace and mercy means that we would have to believe that all people are deserving of the hope of that mercy. But we are too addicted to judgement for that. We want to judge who gets into heaven. Just as we want to judge who deserves our mercy, our coins and our time.
It’s not even about whether heaven can be lived on earth. It’s who gets to be in heaven on earth.”
God will have no problem, forgiving, accepting and inviting, but we might. And there is the stumbling block. We are much more like the other thief, who actually disagrees with Jesus and this forgiveness stuff.
He would rather Jesus use his power to make our lives easier. Yes, yes, yes, save yourself but more importantly Jesus, save us. Make sure hardship doesn’t come to us. Protect us and keep us safe from the harsh realities of life. That thief, like us, wants power not forgiveness.
The biggest problem that comes with power is that it negates the need for hope. If you have power, you don’t need hope. If you have power, you don’t need others. If you have power, you don’t need to lean on shoulder of God or collapse into God’s arms. But for most of the last 1500 years that is what is what we have done. The seeking after power and not the seeking after of the lost, the foolish and broken has led Christianity to brink of collapse. The masses have decided that the church is not worth their precious commodity of their time. Now our focus has become the fear of losing the power that has led us to this place. We are afraid that we will have to change either because our churches are dying or because, how we have done church in the past, isn’t working today. I attended an online event two week ago that focused on the loss of hope because of these fears. The advice given was that we ought to pursue our dreams and not to focus on the problem. Its’ kind of like driving a car forward by only looking in the rearview mirror. The presenter asked us, “What do we long for in a community?” If you focus on the past the Holy Spirit can be no use but if you. But if you turn your heart what you long for the Holy Spirit rushes in to help us create the Kingdom of God.
As we seek a new vision may we need to open a new door and a new way of being the church in the world. This means resisting the temptation that we should have all the power and instead put on the humility of Christ’s way. Maybe then we can become a church that forgives, accepts and invites all creatures, great and small, into the kingdom of God here on earth. Amen.