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Christ the King Cycle C (Children)

Object: Picture of your loved ones

Good morning, boys and girls. What holiday is coming up soon? That’s right, Thanksgiving. Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? To thank God for loving us and taking care of us. You know, God is so good to us. We should be thankful all the time. We are kind of like the birds. Most birds sing their prettiest songs in good weather. That’s us. We thank God when things are going well, when we are happy. But there is a bird called a missel thrush that sings its prettiest song when it is caught up in a tree in the middle of a really bad storm. Most of us wouldn’t feel like singing if we were caught in a storm, but that’s exactly when a missel thrush sings the best. We need to be like that bird. We need to thank God in good times and in bad times.

(Hold up picture) Here’s something I’m thankful for. I’m thankful for my family. What are you thankful for? (Suggestions: church, family, friends, food, health, home, school, etc.) We really are blessed, aren’t we? Let’s remember that Thanksgiving isn’t about food, but it’s a time to thank God for all He’s given us. And let’s thank Him in the storms as well as on the beautiful days

Good morning, boys and girls. Can you tell me what this is? That’s right, it’s a coin bank. And what do you do with a coin bank? You put your pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in it, don’t you? That’s how we save up money. We store up all our spare change in these coin banks, so that when we see something we really need to buy, we’ll have the money all saved up. We just keep saving the coins, saving the coins, filling up the coin bank until that special day when we take the coins out and use them for something.

You know, sometimes we treat Thanksgiving like a coin bank. We save up all our “thank yous” all year until Thanksgiving, and then we tell God “Thank You” for all the wonderful things He’s done for us. We have all these things to be thankful for loving family and friends, food to eat, fun things like kickball and puppy dogs. What are you thankful for? (Allow the children to name some things) Those are all good things. We have a million things to be thankful for! But we forget to tell God “Thank You” every day. Instead, we save up all our “thank yous” until this one day a year, Thanksgiving, and then we tell Him. Let’s remember not to save up our “thank yous” until Thanksgiving, but to say “Thank You” to God every day.

I want to introduce you today to a man whom we would not want for a friend. That’s different. I do not introduce you to people like this very often, but today we are going to pretend that we are listening to a thief. This is not an ordinary thief, but a very special thief. This is the thief who died on a cross beside Jesus when Jesus was crucified. Church tradition tells us his name is Dismas and because scripture tells us he is in heaven we call him Saint Dismas. Will you now please pretend that the thief is here, and that he is ready to speak to you?

[Raise the mask.] I am a thief. If you had lived next door to me, you would not have liked me. But I don’t care, or at least I didn’t care then. I took whatever I wanted from anybody when I wanted to. If you had something I wanted, I would wait until you went away, or when you were not looking, and then I would take it. I was that way until the day I died. I want you to know that I changed at the last minute and I mean the very last minute.

The first time I saw Jesus, I was standing on a hill with my hands tied behind my back. Jesus was walking and sometimes stumbling up the hill. Another man was carrying his cross. We knew that he was supposed to die with us, but I had never seen him before. I say “us” because I was not the only thief who was supposed to die. There was another one. We had done many things which were against the law, and we knew that if we were ever caught, we would be crucified.

I remember how bad it was waiting for Jesus to come up the hill. The soldiers called Jesus “crazy.” They laughed and said that some people called this poor man a king. Some even said that he was the Savior, and the Son of God. I wondered what kind of a man this was, but most of all I was afraid of dying. When Jesus arrived, he looked awful. His back was bloody, he had a crown of thorns on his head, and the people were screaming at him like animals. I was afraid for myself, and I felt extra sorry for him.

Shortly after Jesus arrived, they put me on my cross. I will never forget the pain. There is nothing in the world that hurts as much as when you are being crucified. I forgot about Jesus because I hurt so much. I must have passed out because I do not remember seeing them lift Jesus up in the air on his cross. The next time I remember seeing Jesus, he was hanging on his cross between me and the other thief, and the thief was shouting at Jesus. He said, “Prove that you are the Savior, help yourself and me down from the cross.” Then he began to curse at Jesus and say the most terrible things you have ever heard.

I looked at Jesus, and I knew that he was different. He was not like us now, and he was never like us. He looked at the other thief and gave him a sign of love and hope. But the thief screamed more curses, so many that I had to stop him. I told the thief to be quiet. I told Jesus that we were different and I hoped he would remember me not as a thief, but as a man who was dying beside him that day. Jesus looked at me and told me that I should remember this, “Today, you will be with me in God’s Kingdom.” I felt forgiven and loved for one of the few times in my life. Jesus was the Lord. He did forgive, and he understood me.

I didn’t stop hurting. I even died on the cross that day. Jesus died first, but I will never forget how much I loved him. I gave my life to Jesus, and I tell everyone I can how much he means to me. Dying on Calvary was awful, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. That’s where I met Jesus and it is the day that I became a follower of Christ.

[Remove the mask.] That was the way that the thief who followed Jesus wanted you to remember him. I hope that you will remember him and his story for a long time. All of us need to be forgiven for our sins and this man certainly was forgiven for his on the day he died. He loved Jesus and Jesus loved him. Jesus is like your parents. They love you no matter how bad you are and they are always willing to forgive if you are really sorry. (This doesn’t stop you from being punished but it helps the relationship of love.)

Christ the King Cycle C (4)

Actor Kevin Bacon had a conversation with his six-year-old son after the boy had seen the movie Footloose for the first time. Bacon’s son said, “Dad, that was really cool how you jumped up on the roof and swung from the rafters. How did you do that?”

“Well, son,” said Bacon, “I didn’t actually do that part. A stunt man did.”

“What’s a stunt man?” asked his son.

“That’s someone who dresses like me,” said Bacon, “and does things I can’t do. Things that are too dangerous.”

“Oh, well, what about that part in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet,” persisted the boy. “How did you do that?”

“Well, son,” said Bacon, “that was the stunt man again, not me. He’s really good at gymnastics.”

“Oh,” said his son. Then there was a long pause. “Dad,” his son asked, “just what did you do in the movie?”

Bacon sheepishly replied, “I got all the glory.” (1) Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Someone took his place, that he might receive the glory.

Now we are only a week from the beginning of Advent and yet the church lectionary takes us back to Good Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross. On either side hangs a thief. Soldiers gamble for his clothing. They mock him, crying out, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” A sign is nailed above his head: “This is the King of the Jews.” Even one of the thieves scoffs at Jesus: “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself–and us, too, while you’re at it!” The other thief rebukes his colleague in crime and makes a request of Jesus: “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” At least this one miscreant has been won over, and Jesus instantly rewards his plea of faith. Jesus replies, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Today is the celebration of Christ the King. Next week we will begin the cycle of the church year all over again. We will look forward to Christ’s advent into the world. We will gaze into the face of the babe of Bethlehem. But today is the day we sum up what Christ means to humankind. And what he means to us is that someone has taken our place so that we can get the glory. What he means to us is what the thief upon the cross discovered Christ meant for him personally: salvation. Jesus Christ came into the world for one purpose: that the world might be saved.

Jesus didn’t come into the world to found an institution, though we are grateful for this institution which we call the church. He didn’t come to impose Western values on the rest of the world, though we have often been accused of that. Jesus came to save the world–with all the ramifications of what that word “save” means.

Are there children still dying of AIDS in Africa? Jesus came to save them. Are there children dying of gunshot wounds in schools in America? Jesus came to save them. Are there people living in penthouses who have no purpose for life except to deaden their senses with drugs, alcohol and meaningless sex? Jesus came to save them. Are there people living under bridges with rags for a pillow? Jesus came to save them. Are there families torn with abuse and adultery? Jesus came to save them. Are there entire countries sinking under the weight of poverty and pollution? Jesus came to save them. When we crown Christ King, we do it not with a Cartier assortment of precious jewels. We do it with thorns pressed upon his brow and nails driven through his hands. He did not come to reign triumphant. He came to lay down his life as a ransom for our beleaguered souls. Why did Christ come into the world? One reason and one reason alone: he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Jeffery Ginn and his family of Colonial Heights, VA served as Maryknoll missionaries to Cali, Colombia. One morning Jeffrey entered his office to find that a map of the world that he had taped to the wall had fallen during the night. A corner of the map had remained taped to the wall as the rest fell. Jeffrey took the torn piece from the wall and knelt to repair the map. At that moment his toddler daughter came in. She plopped on the floor and watched her father intently. Jeffrey’s wife, noticing that their toddler had grown quiet, called, “Anna, what are you doing?” Their daughter replied, matter-of-factly, “We’re fixin’ the world, Mama!”

That’s why Jesus came into the world. To fix it. Not to build a Christian empire. Not to make the world safe for capitalism. Jesus came to save that which was lost.

Many years ago, Lutheran Pastor Erwin Lutzer and his daughters were visiting Washington, D.C. While there, they met a man who served on former President Bush’s secret-service security team. The gentleman offered to give them a guided tour of the Oval Office. Pastor Lutzer and his daughters passed through many security checkpoints the next day on the way to the Oval Office. At each checkpoint, they expected to be searched and questioned. But instead, the guards took one glance at the secret-service man and announced, “You are with him, go on in.”

Pastor Lutzer wrote that he expects our entrance into heaven will be like that. We will have no credentials of our own that could possibly get us in. But Jesus will be walking along beside us. And at each gate, the angels will take one look at Jesus and announce, “You’re with Him, go on in.” (2)

Evangelist Tony Campolo says that in his teenage years he was terrified by a visiting pastor’s depiction of Judgement Day. This pastor claimed that one day God would show us a movie of every single sinful thought, word, or action we ever committed. And he ended his lurid description with the announcement, “And your mother will be there!”

But Tony claims that Judgement Day will more closely mirror what happened during the trials over the Watergate scandal. The prosecutor brought in a tape of a conversation between Nixon and his aides. Just at the most crucial part of the tape, the section that revealed their crimes, there was an eighteen minute gap of silence. Nixon’s faithful secretary, Rosemary Wood, had erased the incriminating evidence! In the same way, Campolo says, Jesus will erase all the incriminating evidence against us. (3)

Jesus had one purpose in coming into our world: salvation. Salvation for you, salvation for me, salvation for every person ever born into this world. So, what does this say about our lives?

It means, first of all, that there is a lofty purpose for our existence.

An old folk legend has it that, scattered throughout the earth, there are twenty-eight people on whom the future of the world depends. These twenty-eight people do not know who they are–you could be one. But their actions determine whether the world will continue or not. (4)

Well, suppose the future of the world did depend on your actions. Would that fill you with hope or with dread? Suppose the future destiny of your children depended on you–their values, their happiness, their eternal well-being? How about the well-being of your neighbors and the people you work with? Do you see where I’m heading?

Jesus came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. Then he returned to the Father. But before he did, he gathered around him a select group of men and women to carry on his work. There was nothing special about these men and women. In fact, they were quite ordinary. There was only one thing that distinguished them–they had been touched by the Master’s hand. And when Christ left them, he gave them a charge–that they were to reach out to touch others with his love until the day comes when every person on this earth knows himself or herself to be a child of God.

That’s what it means to be Christ’s body. Our task is his task–salvation. This is not a social club or even a Bible study society. We study our Bibles and we enjoy fellowship together, but these activities only help to sustain us as we carry out our main reason for being: reaching out to dying people in Jesus’ name.

Sometimes we forget who we are and why we are here, and that is sad.

You have probably heard of nondenominational churches/. They were originally all independent if each other. One of their ministers sent a letter to a meeting of other church leaders telling them that he was pulling out to start a new denomination. The church they are a part of, he says, has too many contacts with the world around it. The church should be off by itself, separated from the rest of society, living its own little life in its own little corner. Here are his words: “The Church, the Bride of Christ, is a garden enclosed, a well shut up, and a fountain sealed.”

“Do you get the picture?” “The Church is a nice little community off by itself, doing its own thing, untouched by the world. It’s as pretty as a garden full of flowers, but it puts a high wall around itself so nobody else can get in. It’s a well of refreshing water, but stopped up so nobody will get it dirty by taking a drink. It’s a fountain of surging excitement, albeit sealed within concrete barriers so its power won’t slip away.” (5)

It is critical that we understand what the church is about. We are not merely a shrine where people come to offer up prayers in order to attract the attention of a disinterested deity. We are Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, healing the hurting, lifting up the fallen, calling the world to faith and repentance.

Does this mean that we turn a blind eye to the ills of society? Far from it. In every social cause that seeks to better the lot of humanity you will find members of the body of Christ actively engaged. We are the world’s “do-gooders”–more so than any other movement on earth. Because Christ was a “do-gooder.” Because Christ cared about the people who couldn’t help themselves. And so we must care–for the victims of AIDS, for those addicted to drugs, for those who are homeless and those whose lives have been ravaged by abuse. But we are interested in more than their bodies. We are interested in their eternal souls. For you see, we believe there is a spiritual dimension to life every bit as real as the physical dimension. Christ came into the world to introduce humankind to that dimension. He called it The Kingdom of God. “You are not far from the Kingdom,” he said to one. “The Kingdom of God is within you,” he said to another. There is a spiritual side to life. And though it is good and noble to bind up physical wounds and to ease emotional and mental traumas, until we touch that spiritual need in people’s life, we have not helped them to know who they are and what life can be for them.

We long to touch the inner man, the inner woman, and so we teach them a name, a name above any other name. I love the way songwriter Gloria Gaither expressed it years ago: “Jesus. The mere mention of His name can calm the storm, heal the broken, raise the dead. At the name of Jesus, I’ve seen sin-hardened men melted, derelicts transformed, the light of hope put back into the eyes of a hopeless child . . . Emperors have tried to destroy it; philosophers have tried to stamp it out. Tyrants have tried to wash it from the face of the earth with the very blood of those who claim it. Yet still it stands.

“And there shall be the final day when every voice that has ever uttered a sound–every voice of Adam’s race–shall rise in one great, mighty chorus to proclaim the name of Jesus–for in that day “˜every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!'” (6)

No wonder we celebrate Christ the King Sunday as we prepare to begin a new church year. We need to be reminded of who Christ is and what Christ has done. And we need to be reminded of who we are and what Christ has called us to do. We are not our own. We are ambassadors for Christ in a fallen world.

Wayne Rice, Still More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks (http://www.YouthSpecialties.com/mall/browse/#illus).
“Do Many Paths Lead into God’s Presence?” by Erwin Lutzer, Preaching Magazine, Mar./ Apr. 2001, p. 20.
Tony Campolo. Let Me Tell You a Story (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), pp. 19-20.
Wear Clean Underwear by Rhonda Abrams, Villard, New York, 1999, p. 169.
“Does Anybody Notice?” Preaching, Jan/Feb 2000.
Cited in Mike Trout. Off the Air (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pp. 177-178.

Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan

Christ the King Cycle C (3)

In one of my favorite Peanuts comic strips, Lucy’s feeling sorry for herself and she laments, “My life is a drag. I’m completely fed up. I’ve never felt so low in my life.”

Her little brother Linus tries to console her and he says, “Lucy, when you’re in a mood like this, you should try to think of things you have to be thankful for; in other words, count your blessings.”

To that, Lucy says, “Ha! That’s a good one! I could count my blessings on one finger! I’ve never had anything and I never will have anything. I don’t get half the breaks that other people do. Nothing ever goes right for me! And you talk about counting blessings! You talk about being thankful! What do I have to be thankful for?”

Linus says, “Well, for one thing, you have a little brother who loves you.”

With that, Lucy runs and hugs little brother Linus as she cries tears of joy, and while she’s hugging him tightly, Linus says, “Every now and then, I say the right thing.”

Right now I’m going to say the right thing to you: We have a God who loves us. Remember that on Thursday and every day.

Have you ever gotten really upset with the ending to a book or movie? If the ending is too unexpected, or too weak, or if they kill off your favorite character, it can ruin the whole story for you. In other cases, the ending might be offensive to some people, but that’s a risk you take when you go to the movies.

Here’s something you may not know. Movie censors in China are allowed to change the ending to movies to protect Chinese citizens from “scenes that might disturb social order or impart criminal methods.” If you’re familiar with the movie Fight Club, which starred Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, it’s got a violent ending. Edward Norton’s character kills Brad Pitt’s character, and then a bomb explodes, causing a bunch of buildings to burst into flames. The burning buildings are visual images of Norton’s desire to destroy modern civilization.

Well, this ending did not make it past the movie censors in China. Before they would show the movie in theaters, they changed the ending. The last few minutes of the movie are cut out. The movie ends with a screen image of a large sign that says the police caught all the bad guys, they prevented the bomb from exploding, Edward Norton’s character spent time in a sanitarium where he received psychological treatment, and he was discharged from the sanitarium in 2012. (1) So if you’re a big fan of Fight Club, now you know the Chinese version has an unexpected happy ending.

But what if we had the power to change the ending to a true story to make it as happy or as chaotic or as unexpected as we wanted? There is a genre of books in the publishing world that does exactly that. It’s called “alternate history” or “counterfactual history.” The authors of “alternate history” books take one major event or influential person in history and imagine what the world would be like if that event had never happened or that person had never been born. The book Virtual History contains essays from eight historians answering questions like, “What if Germany had won World War II? What if John F. Kennedy had never been assassinated?” And they use a lot of research and their vast knowledge of history to construct a totally different ending to a true story.

That’s a mind-boggling idea, isn’t it? What if? What if one major event in world history had never happened? What if Vladmir Putin had never been born, or had decided not to attack Ukraine? Or, more important, what if Jesus Christ had been unwilling to go to the cross in our behalf?

Think about that question as I read our Bible passage for today from Luke 23, the story of Jesus’ death. This passage begins, “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Three times, the accusation was made against Jesus, “If he is God’s Messiah, if you are the king of the Jews, aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” This is a déjà vu moment for Jesus. He’s heard these words before. In Luke 4, Satan presented Jesus with three temptations in the desert, and taunted him with the words, “If you are the Son of God. . .” Three times, he was given the opportunity to change the ending to the story. Three times Jesus refused. And in Matthew 26, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest. Three times he prayed and wrestled with his calling. Three more times, he was given the opportunity to change the ending to the story. Three times, Jesus refused. And here, as he hung on the cross in agonizing pain, with crowds shouting at him and rulers sneering at him and soldiers gambling over his clothes, Jesus was given three opportunities to change the ending to the story. If you are the Messiah, save yourself. And he refused. Why? The people in the crowd that day were questioning the power of the Messiah because they didn’t understand the purpose of the Messiah.

Our actions define us. Not what we say, not what we intend to do, not what we feel. It’s what we do that reveals our true character and values and priorities. And we are also defined by what we choose NOT to do.

In 1966, a young British woman named Jackie Pullinger became a missionary in the Walled City of Kowloon, a place in Hong Kong that was notorious for high rates of poverty, drug addiction and crime. The city was practically run by criminal gangs. Jackie, without any supplies or support of a mission agency, began walking the streets of Kowloon and sharing the message of Jesus with the addicts and prostitutes she met. Over the next 40 years, she brought thousands of people to Christ, and established drug rehabilitation centers in Hong Kong that have helped thousands of people escape their addictions.

Jackie claims that in the early days of her ministry in Kowloon, her limited language skills may have worked in her favor. Instead of being able to preach the gospel effectively, Jackie had to show people who Jesus was by her actions. As she said, “. . . I found out that the people there were not listening anyway, they were watching to see how I acted, whether I really did love them. And if I really did love them, maybe God really did love them.” (2)

It’s what we do, and what we choose not to do, that reveals our true character and values and priorities. This is never more true than in times of crisis. What we choose to do or not do in that crucial moment reveals who we really are. Our choices, to act or not to act, can literally change the ending to our story. On Christ the King Sunday, I’d like us to examine what Jesus chose to do and not to do when his life, and the salvation of the world, hung in the balance.

On the cross Jesus chose to offer forgiveness and mercy for those who didn’t deserve it. Jesus had already undergone beatings and humiliation by the soldiers before they nailed him to the cross and hung him there to die. Our passage goes on to reveal that the crowds were watching him, the rulers were sneering at him, the soldiers were mocking him, and one of the thieves hurled insults at him. We can’t even imagine the horror, the humiliation, the agony and the abandonment Jesus suffered in these moments. God in the flesh looked on the worst of His enemies and He chose to forgive them. He set aside wrath in favor of restoration.

Carolyn Maull McKinstry grew up in Birmingham, Alabama in the ’50s and 60s, during the painful struggle for civil rights. She remembers that her home city was nicknamed “Bombingham” for the frequent bombings that targeted Black homes and businesses. Carolyn’s parents tried to shield her from the hatred and violence that were so prevalent at the time. Her family attended the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church where they were surrounded by a loving community of fellow believers. Carolyn was baptized there at age 13. Her best friends were there.

September 15, 1963 was Youth Sunday at her church. As Carolyn walked into the sanctuary that morning, a bomb went off. The next thing she remembers was the sound of police sirens and screams as people ran into the streets to escape the explosion. Four members of the Klan had planted a bomb in the church that morning. Later, Carolyn would learn that her four friends—Addie Mae Collins, age 14; Carol McNair, age 11; Carole Robertson, age 14; and Cynthia Wesley, age 14—died in the explosion.

Carolyn’s family rarely talked about the bombing. Grief counseling wasn’t widely available then. So Carolyn learned to suppress her fear and confusion and grief into adulthood. But she struggled with depression and blunted her feelings with alcohol until finally her husband encouraged her to get some help. She visited a psychologist who suggested that she needed to deal with something from her past in order to free herself from the grip of depression.

When she got home from the psychologist’s office, she went to her closet and pulled out a box of childhood mementos. On top was the Bible her parents gave her for her baptism. Carolyn began shaking as she reached into the box. She says she prayed, “God, I am in so much pain. Please fix my body. Take away my cravings for alcohol. Please touch me with your healing so I can go forward.” And as she picked up her childhood Bible, a bulletin fell out. On the front was the date September 15, 1963. And inside was printed the sermon title and Scripture verses: A Love that Forgives, Luke 23:34. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

Carolyn began a journey of forgiveness and healing that day. She prayed that God would let her see the bombers as God saw them. She prayed that God would forgive them as God had forgiven her. Carolyn went on to attend Divinity School so she could preach and teach about God’s love and forgiveness and reconciliation to others. And In 1978, Carolyn and her family moved back to Birmingham and rejoined the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a church that symbolizes to Carolyn “God’s infinite grace and love for all his children, and how we are given that love in order to forgive what seems unforgivable and release our burdens to Him.” (3)

Our actions define us. What we choose to do, or not to do, reveal our truth. In Jesus’ worst and most agonizing moment, he chose to forgive his enemies and grant salvation to a dying thief. And on the cross, Jesus—the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—chose not to save himself, but to save humankind instead. In Matthew 26, when Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” All power in heaven and on earth was available to him. He could have changed the ending to the story. But he chose to suffer and die in our place to heal our broken relationship with God. The King of Kings took our place so that we could have eternal life with God.

Brennan Manning was an author and Franciscan priest who served in the Korean War. He tells the story of how he and his best friend, Ray, enlisted together and served in the same Marine platoon. One night a grenade landed in the foxhole where Brennan and Ray were sheltered. Ray threw his body over the grenade and died to save his friend.

Years later, Brennan visited Ray’s mother in Brooklyn. In the course of their conversation, Brennan asked her, “Do you think Ray loved me?”

Mrs. Brennan stood up, shook her finger in Brennan’s face and shouted, “What more could he have done for you?”

Brennan said that at that moment he pictured himself standing before the cross of Jesus wondering, “Does God really love me?” And Jesus’ mother Mary pointing to her son, saying, “What more could he have done for you?” (4)

And that’s what I want to ask you this morning: what more could Jesus have done for you? He had the choice to destroy his enemies. He had the choice to save himself. He had the choice to change the ending to his story. And he gave it all up to save humankind from the penalty of sin and death. Our actions define us. And in his worst moments, Jesus chose to suffer and die because of his love for us. When you look at the cross, can you really ask the question, “Does God really love me?” And if God really loves you that much, what is keeping you from giving your life to God today? If you understand the love of Jesus Christ, then I hope you will pray and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. And in that prayer, you will change the ending to your story too.

“China Censors ‘Fight Club’ With New Ending, but Some Execs View It as Bizarre ‘Win-Win’” by Patrick Frater Variety https://variety.com/2022/film/asia/fight-club-china-ending-censored-1235162643/.
“We’re going to feel stupid for eternity if we waste this life” interview with Jackie Pullinger by Sam Hailes, “Premier Christianity,” January 2019. https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2019/January-2019/Jackie-Pullinger-We-re-going-to-feel-stupid-for-eternity-if-we-waste-this-life.
“The Power of Forgiveness Was Stronger Than Her Addiction,” by Carolyn Maull McKinstry Sept. 10, 2018, Guideposts magazine. https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/health-and-wellness/addiction-and-recovery/the-power-of-forgiveness-was-stronger-than.
Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: adapted from James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God(IVP, 2009), p. 142). Cited by Pastor Joe Wittwer, “Love is a verb,” https://lifecenter.net/sermons/2014/love-is-a-verb/.

ChristianGlobe Network, Inc., Dynamic Preaching Third Issue Sermons, by King Duncan

Christ the King Cycle C (2)