Surrendering Our Lives to Christ the King

Today is the last Sunday in the Church year, the last Sunday before we begin a new cycle of seasons to help us to grow in the faith and learn more about this Lord who loves us so; so that we can set aside our fears, put our trust in Him, and take up our lives in hope and love.

For many centuries, this Sunday has been known as Christ the King Sunday — a Sunday to remind us one last time about the core of our faith and about the reality of Christ’s lordship over the Church and over our lives. It’s always interested me, then, that at the end of the Church year ae find ourselves at or near the cross of Christ, so, this morning, we find Christ before Pontius Pilate. Apparently Christ’s Kingship is connected to His death and resurrection, and so, represents a different kind of authority for our lives than we normally associate with rulers, who usually expect to be served rather than to serve.

It’s no wonder then, that Pontius Pilate keeps asking Jesus, “Now what kind of king are you? I know kings and how they wield power through violence and raw politics but here you, a king, stand before me and I have power over you.”

But the One we call King is a Lord who came to serve; who came by setting aside all His heavenly glory and power to reveal the face of the God who loves us, who wants us, who forgives us; who came to take away our sins and the fear and the power of death so that we may have life and have it in abundance. The One we call King has power over us and over our lives but only when we’re willing to give that power over to Him; only when we believe in Him; only when we give our hearts to Him in some way; only when we’re willing to set aside our fears at losing control of our lives, and place our lives in His hands; only when we surrender to the King who only has our best interest at heart.

What’s the Point of Surrendering?
Now surrender is not a word we often associate with a sense of goodness; It’s usually associated with failure or losing or being overpowered. I can remember as child being tickled mercilessly or wrestled to the ground with some other kid sitting on my chest until I called out, “I surrender!”

But in God’s upside down and sometimes backward way to real life surrender is the start and the basis for all of our life with God. In fact, if we won’t surrender, then we can’t experience all that God has in store for us because God is gentle and will never overpower our free will; never overwhelm our ability to choose Him or not. Because the relationship God desires with you and with me requires a free choice on our part. God has chosen to surrender Himself to you and me and we may or may not choose to surrender to our lives to God.

Some of you know that I like a good evangelist and it’s not just the hair; I like when a woman or a man has a gift for telling the Christian message with grace, with good stories, with clarity, with purpose. Now, I don’t go out of my way to watch them on television, but I have; and while they make me uncomfortable with their directness at times and with some of the ways they take hold of the scriptures;
I always love what comes at the end of their talk – an invitation. An invitation into the Christian life or into a deeper surrender of our hearts to God. They always ask the listener to surrender their lives to God; to set aside their fears and give their lives over; to answer Jesus’ call, “Come, follow me.”

It’s a life changing moment for some of us who’ve never known that personal and intimate experience of God with us. But even though I expect that I am following Christ the King in my life, I always love bowing my head and do it every time I’m asked to because it helps me remember that surrendering to Christ needs to happen day by day for every one of us. Sometimes I feel a warmth taking hold of my heart. Sometimes there are tears as I realize how I’ve taken too much control of my life and need to give my life back over to God. Sometimes, I feel nothing, but expect that I am changed.

Surrender doesn’t happen all that often, in your life or in mine; because we want to maintain our sense of self-destiny and self control and we want to be in charge of our own lives. But mostly we won’t surrender because we’re a little afraid that God might actually come into our lives and touch us or change us or call us to tasks or to ways of living that are way beyond our comfort zones and our life’s plans; I mean life is pretty good for the most part, why would I want to change?

I have pretty regular conversations with parishioners and friends outside this church who are being touched by God in some way, people who sense that God is stirring something up in them. It may have been you at one point or someone sitting near you this morning. They come to me to talk about it, which is a very exciting part of my life, by the way and the conversation usually goes something like
"Frank, I’m having these feelings of God’s presence and they’re great, but I need your help so I don’t get too weird."

I tell them that this is very exciting and wonderful and then assure them that God usually draws us closer in our every day lives and rarely changes everything at once; That God has been near you up to now and wants to let you see all the blessings and goodness have come from Him. That usually gives them reassurance, but then I have to tell them the truth. And the truth is that I can’t guarantee them that God won’t call them to a new life and that they might get a little weird as God calls them to a deeper spiritual and physical commitment that is often a little out of step with the world around them.

When the Lord of all that is, the Lord who loves us and forgives us, comes to call on our lives and we surrender to His call, then our lives are filled with a grace and a sense of well being and a peace that is beyond anything we can imagine because these are the gifts of the King.

The Decision to Fall Into God’s Hands

Even in life’s most difficult moments, when our worlds are falling down around us, God brings a love and a peace and a grace and a power to endure and overcome because we’re willing to make Jesus Lord or King of our lives. One of the illustrations of surrender to God I’ve found compelling through the years come from C. S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity. Lewis is probably one of the most popular Christian writer of the last fifty years but you may not know that he was an active atheist for most of his life and came to surrender his life to Christ rather late.

In this book, Lewis writes about his personal conversion and says that you cannot say that Christ was merely a good man, or a prophet or a great teacher because some of the things he claimed were outrageous like: “I am the light of the world, those who believe in me, walk in the light,”
or “I am the resurrection and the life,” or from this morning’s Gospel, “My kingdom is not of this world.” According to Lewis, then, we are left with three choices: One, Jesus is a mad man.
Two, Jesus is wicked. Or, three, Jesus is who He says He is and we have a decision to make.

Now, no world religions or scholars have ever claimed that Jesus was a mad man; and from the Gospel accounts of healing and forgiving and loving and sacrifice, we know that He’s not wicked and so we are left with the choice that His claims are valid and we have the opportunity to safely surrender our lives to the God who loves us, protects us and cares for us in good times and bad.

Becoming a Christian involves more than coming to Church every once in awhile or doing something good for others and for God during the week. What it really involves is realizing that God’s love for you is such that you don’t have to do anything at all to earn it. We are saved by the grace of the living God who is with you and me at every moment of our lives. What God wants for us first and foremost is to surrender to Him; To be still and to acknowledge that He is God, to make a commitment every day to live for Him and with Him to acknowledge that Jesus is indeed our King.

It’s a struggle every day for us to make Christ our King, but if it’s a life of fearlessness, a life of hope we long for; if it’s life and love and peace and real power that we seek, then I invite you take a moment
and pray some kind of prayer of surrender to God today and every day to say something as simple as “God, I give my life to you.” And then accept the saving grace of God’s love for you and for me
And follow Christ the King into a life that is really life.

Amen.

WFA