First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

 ⁹As I watched,
 thrones were set in place,
  and an Ancient One took his throne,
 his clothing was white as snow,
  and the hair of his head like pure wool;
 his throne was fiery flames,
  and its wheels were burning fire.
 ¹⁰A stream of fire issued
  and flowed out from his presence.
 A thousand thousands served him,
  and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.
 The court sat in judgment,
  and the books were opened.
¹³As I watched in the night visions,
 I saw one like a human being
  coming with the clouds of heaven.
 And he came to the Ancient One
  and was presented before him.
 ¹⁴To him was given dominion
  and glory and kingship,
 that all peoples, nations, and languages
  should serve him.
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion
  that shall not pass away,
 and his kingship is one
  that shall never be destroyed.

Psalm: Psalm 93

 ¹The Lord is king, robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty    and armed with strength.
  The Lord has made the world so sure that it cannot be moved.
 ²Ever since the world began, your throne has been established;
  you are from everlasting. 
 ³The waters have lifted up, O Lord, the waters have lifted up their voice;
  the waters have lifted up their pounding waves.
 ⁴Mightier than the sound of many waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea, mightier is the Lord who dwells on high.
 ⁵Your testimonies are very sure,
  and holiness befits your house, O Lord, forever and forevermore.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

^4bGrace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
  To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 ⁷Look! He is coming with the clouds;
  every eye will see him,
 even those who pierced him;
  and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
  ⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Gospel: John 18:33-37

³³Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” ³⁵Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” ³⁷Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON: 

Queen Elizabeth 1 famously said, “I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”  Turn to your neighbor and share how you would describe a king.

PRAYER: Lord, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

We have come to the end of the liturgical church year.  Next week we start Advent and tell our faith story looking through the eyes of Luke.  But today we stand in Pilot’s palace and listen to the trial of that babe in Bethlehem who has grown to be a man and is being brought to trial.  Who is Jesus and what has he done?  Is he a king?  We say today is “Christ the King” Sunday but what does that mean?

          Somehow this trial feels a bit similar to cases being described blow by blow on our news today.  Is Steve Bannon guilty of defiance of a congressional summons and hiding information pertinent to January 6?  The trial of Kyle Ritttenhouse is having closing arguments as I write this sermon.  Did he act in self-defense or did he entice the victim into the confrontation?  Then there is the continuing debate about who is guilty for global pollution and what should be the penalty?  My head spins listening to the news each night and listening to the cases being tried in the court of public opinion. I suspect Pilot might have had similar feelings.  The Jews have come to Pilate wanting him to crucify Jesus, that is to say they are accusing Jesus of treason, a capital offense deserving death.  We know the Jews can kill Jesus because later they stone Stephen.  There are many things in their laws that can result in death by stoning.  But John specifically says that prophecy is being fulfilled. The Messiah will die a horrible death. The Jews must have claimed Jesus was calling himself King of the Jews.  The Jews don’t want just death.  They want death on the cross by the Romans.  Crucifixion is a public death by public law for public offense.  Pilate turns and confronts Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Are you the King of the Jews?

         Jesus turns the question back to Pilate and suddenly roles are reversed.  Jesus is questioning Pilate.  “Who says so?”  Who actually called Jesus King of the Jews?  Who is accusing? 

         I looked up where Jesus was first called “King of the Jews.”  Do you remember who first called Jesus “King of the Jews”?  Jesus did not use that title for himself.  It was the wise men who passed through Jerusalem those decades before and asked Herod in Matthew 2:2, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  Did you catch that?  Kingship and worship are connected.  Herod did not call his politicians to answer the wise men but called his priests.  Herod called his priests and teachers of the religious law and asked where the Messiah, the Christ, was to be born.  They quoted Old Testament Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

         Who says Jesus is King?  Prophecy and prophecy known by the wise men.  Prophecy predicted Jesus’ birth as a King.  Isaiah 9:6 also predicted the birth and a whole list of titles.  In fact, many believe going back to creation and the entrance of sin that the arrival of Jesus would crush the head of the serpent even as the serpent would bite his foot.  Foreigners, the wise men, called Jesus “King of the Jews” and now the Jews have claimed he called himself a king.  Our psalm today declares that from eternity “the Lord is king” and nature rises up like waves of the sea to acknowledge him.  Our religious history is full of clues to this claim.

         But ultimately it does not matter “WHO called Jesus King of the Jews.” It matters what you call Jesus.  What do you call Jesus today?  This is Christ the King Sunday and we are all accountable for whether we acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, and the Sent One from God, our Savior, and Our Lord or do we see him as one of the great Gurus like Buddha or Mohamed or Confuses.  Who is Jesus to you today?  Is he your king?  We have journeyed through a liturgical year welcoming Jesus during Advent as the prophesied one who will come again, whose life we studied during Epiphany, with whom we walked to the cross during Lent, and whom we celebrated as resurrected and ascended during Easter season.  During Pentecost we focused on how he changes lives even today.  So now we come to Christ the King Sunday and we bow.  Who says Jesus is King of the Jews?  Christians confess Jesus was not only “King of the Jews” but he is also our King, the Son of God, who rules our everyday actions and who will rule our lives for eternity.  “Who says so?”  We say so!

         Pilate now responds with a question for Jesus.  “What have you done?”  Has Jesus done something that has brought about the legal accusation and has he thus lost the right to claim self-defense. Is he a victim of “the system?”  Is he a victim of a mob or is he guilty as charged?   What set this process in play?  We know his death was prophesized, though “lamb of God” was not so understood by the disciples.  That may not make Jesus, himself, the prophesized one, though.  The disciples were excited about a Messiah to overthrow Rome, but maybe they were wrong.  The Passover feast, the snake raised on the pole by Moses, the scapegoat  killed for sin all pointed to a death but sometimes it is not easy to draw a line from A to B.  Do his actions convict him?  As we traveled through the Liturgical year we could have predicted a confrontation as spies were sent to listen to Jesus teach.  Others were engaging Jesus in trick scenarios.  If a woman were married to seven brothers, to whom would she be married to in eternity.  Really???  They asked about paying taxes?  All these encounters built up tension but his actions of teaching and healing do not necessarily point to kingship. John shares the beginning of the plot to kill Jesus in John 11 when Jesus raised Lazarus from death. 

         “Then, the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the     Sanhedrin.  ‘What are we accomplishing?’ They asked. ‘Here is this      man performing many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone    will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away        both our temple and our nation. (John 11:47,48)’”

         What did Jesus do?  He threatened the security of the religious system.  What does Jesus do today?  Jesus threatens the rule of culture in our lives and threatens those structures in which we place our trust.  If we acknowledge Jesus as “Christ the King” today we face a new political and spiritual authority in our life!  Ouch.  We do not jump to our feet and say “AMEN!” to that. 

         Do we really want to live forgiving that guy who cuts us off in traffic?  Do we want to live sharing our wealth with the church? Or the government? We do not want to give up sleeping in on Sunday morning to listen to a possibly boring sermon.  We do not want to share the truth of our lives, those personal spiritual moments, with others who might laugh at us and reject us.  The temples of our lives will be threatened.  Health, wealth, and prosperity may be false idols that faith does not guarantee.  In fact, we might have to experience persecution, torture and death.  We don’t mind youth programs and fun events and great praise music for our faith but when it comes to living by the rules of the kingdom Jesus is King of, we begin to feel a rub.  

         Jesus assures Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world.  It is in eternity that we will truly see Jesus ruling as THE King.  Jesus returns to prophecy and his mission statement.  “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”  The truth is that Jesus is the Messiah that God and Scripture prophesized.  God says so.  What has he done?  He has preached, healed, freed, and resurrected those needy people who came to him.  We know he has died to demonstrate that he is the King who will walk with us through death that has no eternal power over us.  What has Jesus done?  He has acted as God and threatened the Romes of our lives.

         Jesus closes our text today with the identification card of those who live in the Kingdom he, the Christ, reigns over.  “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Now that is a mouthful.  Jesus is not claiming to be “King of the Jews.”  He is claiming to be king of “everyone.”  That is you and me, not just the Jews.  It includes people from all tribes and nations who come to him. Jesus is bigger than the U. S. American government,  the U.N., and the global summits we hear about today.  I also feel a tear coming to my eyes for it does not say he is king of the perfect, the good guys, those who do good for he was the king of the thief on the cross who pleaded, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus said, “TODAY you will be with me in Paradise.”  Our deeds do not qualify us because it all depends on what Christ did on the cross.  It depends on his actions…for “everyone who belongs to the truth.” And what did Jesus say?  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

         “Listens.”  This is an active, present verb!  Salvation is not like our drivers license that we keep in our wallet.  It is not a decision we made at camp in our youth.  It is a relationship.  Listening is different that hearing.  Listening implies to me a two-way conversation that I am actively involved in.  I think it is more than putting in our prayer requests as if we were at McDonalds, our Christmas gift wish for what we would like God to do.  If I am truly listening, I am willing to submit my will to the other.  It does not mean I always obey making the other a dictator but it does imply I am open to the other’s wisdom for issues in my life.  I open my heart to Christ’s kingship in my life.

         “My voice.”  To me that implies it goes beyond obedience to the commandments.  Just loving my neighbor and doing good to others is not the same as listening to Christ’s voice in my life.  Going to church can be like going regularly to Thanksgiving family feasts but we know that meal does not guarantee relationship or love of family as many families have deep issues and conflicts but gather for events.  Listening implies an openness and relationship.

            I go back to the quote by Queen Elizabeth the 1^st,  “I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”    Jesus stood before Pilate as a humble human being, not at all looking like a king.  Jesus did not embody anything our world would consider kingly.

         But he had “the heart and stomach of a king.”  God proclaimed that Jesus was the embodiment of all it meant to be God.  He had the heart, the love of his creation and would even walk through death for it.  He had the stomach, the guts to do that which was so contrary to human thinking and admiration.  He would walk through death for “everyone..”  And unlike Elizabeth, he would not just be “King of the Jews” but would be the Christ, the King of everyone who belongs to the truth and listens to his voice.

         WHO SAYS SO?   We do!

         WHAT HAS HE DONE?  Saved us broken people in a broken world.

         We need a savior and a King.  We listen to his voice as truth. 

Christ is our King!  AMEN!

First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3

¹“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. ²Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. ³Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

Psalm: Psalm 16

 ¹Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you;
  I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.”
 ²All my delight is in the godly that are in the land,
  upon those who are noble among the people.
 ³But those who run after other gods
  shall have their troubles multiplied.
 ⁴I will not pour out drink offerings to such gods,
  never take their names upon my lips. 
 ⁵O Lord, you are my portion ^| and my cup;
  it is you who uphold my lot.
 ⁶My boundaries enclose a pleasant land;
  indeed, I have a rich inheritance.
 ⁷I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
  my heart teaches me night after night.
 ⁸I have set the Lord always before me;
  because God is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 
 ⁹My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices;
  my body also shall rest in hope.
 ¹⁰For you will not abandon me to the grave,
  nor let your holy one see the pit.
 ¹¹You will show me the path of life;
  in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are     pleasures forevermore.

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] 19-25

¹¹Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. ¹²But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” ¹³and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” ¹⁴For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. [¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
 ¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them
  after those days, says the Lord:
 I will put my laws in their hearts,
  and I will write them on their minds,”
¹⁷he also adds,
 “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
¹⁸Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.]

  ¹⁹Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Gospel: Mark 13:1-8

¹As [Jesus] came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” ²Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
  ³When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” ⁵Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. ⁶Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. ⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. ⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON

Turn to your neighbor and see if you can describe a railroad crossing sign..

What color is it?

Is it round, square, rectangular, circular?

Are there letters on it?

There might be words.  What words do you associate with a railroad crossing sign?

According to the Internet, the sign is rectangular, or round.  It is yellow with a black line around the edge.  There is a circle center to the sign. There is a black crisscross .  There are two big Rs in left and right quadrants.

Under the circle may be the words: STOP AND LOOK BEFORE CROSSING,

“STOP, LOOK both ways, LISTEN” are words our parents taught us when crossing a street and words that help us look at our text today.

LET US PRAY:  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight for you are my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Stop!  Look! Listen!  We are coming to railroad crossing!  Next Sunday, November 21^st is Christ the King Sunday and that ends the Pentecost season and year B in the liturgical calendar.  We will change from looking at our faith through the eyes of Mark to looking through the eyes of Luke.  November 28^th is the first Sunday of Advent. As we come to the end of the church year, we looked last week at death and resurrection in the raising of Lazarus.  Today’s text attempts to look into the future. The text is called the “Little Apocalypse” because it talks about end times.  Yup, we better Stop, Look, and Listen.  There may be a train coming!

According to the Internet  an anonymous engineer thought about immigrants who did not speak English well and needed a warning at railroad crossings.  Crossbars were put in the shape of an X and the words “stop, look, listen” were posted. Today we have electronic gates and signals to warn us but even as a child I remember being told to take a parent’s hands, stop, look both ways and listen before crossing a street.

         Where are we in this text?  It is the last week of Jesus’ life.  He and the disciples are in Jerusalem and are leaving the Temple. They stop to gaze at the Temple.  It is not the magnificent Temple of Solomon that was destroyed.  This is the temple that was rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah.

Simillarly, our world is not the garden of Eden and life as God planned but we love it. To the disciples the temple they were gazing on was magnificent!  They stopped to admire.  Interestingly Jesus admonishes them because like our parents, he knew the events that were to unfold and the disciples’ misplaced trust.

Why stop?

         We stop before potentially dangerous situations to ponder our options and to assess our situation. We need to learn caution.  Caution does not come naturally.  As children we do not know the safe from the dangerous.  Children chase balls into the street.  Children race to catch the school bus, and may well run in front of a car.  The story is told of the secretary of Winston Churchill, thinking about her roommate she had just left in the ER with a severe asthma attack and due to the deep fog that had settled on London. walked right in front of a bus.  She was distracted. She didn’t stop and look both ways.  Like our sly Fox from last week, we need to learn to sit in front of the cave and proceed with caution.  We hear the stories of youth who like to play chicken with the approaching train and challenge death only to have the car stall or a foot get caught in the tracks. Some actions can have very serious consequences.

         How do we stop?  I would suggest prayer slows us down.

   Perhaps seeking peer advice slows our roll.  We are told we need to learn to distinguish between the urgent and the necessary.  The decisions that must be made right now, now, now are seldom wise.  The salesman who tried to sell us new windows to our house finally said, “This super, duper deal ends if I walk out the door!”  We let him walk.

         So what stops you and calls you to reflect?  The railroad tracks are only one situation that holds potential dangers. For Bethany, it may be the storm clouds gathering and drop of temperature that tells us that winter is coming and it is time to close down the growing season.  Perhaps it is a visit to the doctor and that unwanted diagnosis that is given. Perhaps it is a drop in the stock market.  Maybe Covid.  We learn to STOP because we see railroad tracks ahead, potential danger.

We stop to admire.

         In our text the disciples did not stop because they perceived danger but because they were admiring the Temple.  That which dazzles their eyes, calls to their ears and to their appetites distracts the disciples. Jesus knew the disciples were placing their trust in that which would not last.  The temple would be destroyed. Our culture dazzles us with beauty, health, wealth and fame and we tend to trust these things to guarantee a future.  My teenage son was convinced that if we could buy him Nike tennis shoes, he would be a better basketball player and he would be more noticed!  Judging from all the different types of insurance policies for almost any contingency, we too know that these dazzling aspects of life are valued but also can be wiped out in a moment and fade with time.  Not all that glitters is gold. Jesus responds, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”  Jesus knows the fall of Jerusalem is coming.  Jesus knows that at some point in time he will return and there will be an accounting.  He knows that all people must walk into the cave of death the lion guards, hopefully with him, and nothing this world offers can change that journey.
 

The disciple engages Jesus, “LOOK. Teacher!”  The group stops to admire the Temple.   I am wondering what Bethany would like Jesus to stop and look at today with them?  Do we want him to look at our accomplishments?  Do we want him to look at our problems?  Perhaps we would like him to fix our environment or stop Covid.  For many seeking refuge, they can only worry about getting across the railroad tracks for they know the train of starvation, of homelessness, of addiction, of abuse is barreling down on them. 

         Perhaps looking at the point of pride, the point of pain, the focus of culture is putting our attention in the wrong direction.  We are not seeing the big picture.  Jesus calls the disciples back to the reality that the things of this world will pass away.  That is very hard to say “AMEN” to.  Empires come and go.  Wealth comes and goes.  Health also.  Children come and grow up.  In the end, what is left?

         “Look both ways” is the advise of parents at the railroad tracks.  We do not know if the train is coming to our town or leaving.  So perhaps the advice to look both directions could be interpreted to mean that when we come to points of reflection, when we stop, we need to look to the past and to the future, both directions.  As the Jews look to the past they continually retell the story of the flight from Egypt and God’s faithfulness in the midst of struggle.  As we look to our past, can we identify God’s hand of deliverance in difficult times?  As we look to the future we can anticipate similar presence.  We look to God’s promises. Reading the Bible tells stories of God’s faithfulness and testimonies tell of how God meets us. We read, listen to others and share because it gives us courage to face the future.

         The disciples ask the next question, “When?”  When will all this take place?  Not only which direction is the train coming from but how far down the tracks is the train?  Maybe we can sneak across or circle around the barrier.  I know I have thought about it.  Jesus does not tell the disciples to listen but he does tell them that there will be many voices to listen to.  Many people will come in God’s name with sermons that can lead us astray.  Many will come claiming to be Jesus or at least speaking in his name.  We are not to be deceived.  We will hear rumors of wars.  There will be national conflicts, environmental problems, and famines.  Hhhmmmm.  Sounds like the evening news minus any mention of God.  Like every generation before us we wonder if the social, environmental, economic, psychological and whatever else problems mean we are in end times.  This was popular talk in the 60s and 70s and is out of vogue now but the signs are still there.  We are broken people living in a broken world that needs a savior.  I should hear a loud “AMEN” to that one!  We are broken people in a broken world!

         Jesus speaks:  DO NOT BE DECEIVED and DO NOT BE ALARMED!

         As we come to discussions of end times our text encourages us not to trust in the things of this world like the Temples built with hands, do not trust that people are truly going to do what only God can do, and we must keep our eyes on him.  He knows the times.  He knows the hours. He knows us.  When difficulties come, we must STOP and take his hand.  Seek his advice.  We must LOOK at his faithfulness in the past and his promises to hold the future.  And we must LISTEN to his word – do not be deceived and do not be alarmed.  This is only the beginning of the birth pangs and he will see us through the delivery to a whole new world where God reigns.  That is a beautiful thought.