“The Royal Voice”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 18:33-37
“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Dear sisters and brothers, we have just heard Jesus say to the one he
suffered under, that his kingdom is not of this world, and that he came
to testify to the truth. God’s
ways are not our ways, and the truth of God in our lives is deeper than
what we know and see in this world.
We live in this world, but we are not of this world.
We see and recognize and talk to each other about things in this
world, but the real truth that we need to know in our hearts is deeper
than what we see in the world.
Pilate and Jesus, in our gospel passage that we read, question each
other until they finally reach the point where they truly communicate.
We may all be able to relate to this kind of activity when it
comes to interpersonal communication.
To truly connect in communication, it takes questioning and
seeking understanding until we finally connect.
When we first come together, under any circumstances, we have different
thoughts in our minds. We
may have a different level of emotional feelings and certainly our
emotions are unique to who we are.
So, as we begin to communicate, we use words, questions, and
observations with each other before we truly touch and make a heart felt
communication.
When we come together, one of the best beginnings is to truly listen and
think about what is being said, and then try to see it from their point
of view. That is the
beginning of coming together.
I think the true desire for a final heart felt communication is one of
the reasons wives like their husbands, when they get home, to ask them,
“How was your day?” It is a start that may end at a level of communication that
touches on truth that is deeper than this world.
We might start talking about small events that happen, serious personal
issues at work, all kinds of things; but, as we listen, relate to where
the other person is emotional, take time to give and to care, there will
finally be interpersonal communication that we experience as love.
This type of communication may take place in every kind of personal
relationship you have in your life.
And when we reach the place where our hearts touch each other, we
are sharing in the love within God; we are belonging to God’s truth
and actually hearing the royal voice of Jesus Christ.
This is not merely a human experience; this is a share in the
relationship of the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
You know I love to refer to Karl Barth.
His writings have been one of the greatest influences in my life.
Many scholars classify him as the greatest theologian of the
church in the last 500 years. Barth
was a Protestant and yet even Pope Paul, of the Roman Catholic Church,
used to say that Barth was the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas
in the thirteenth century.
Barth was German, and he only came to the United States one time
about ten years before his death. He
spoke in Chicago for about a week, and US theologians came from all over
our country to hear him and interact with him.
And one graduate student thought that he would ask Dr. Barth if
it was even possible for him to boil down the essence of his theology
into one simple sentence. The
questioner admitted later that he really did not think Barth would be
able to. Barth thought for
a moment, and then said he believed he could.
And here was his sentence: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for
the Bible tells me so.”
Today is Christ the King Sunday. And
what God is wanting for us to believe is that when Christ tells us that
his kingdom is not of this world and that everyone who belongs to the
truth listens to his voice, he is showing us that one of the main roles
that he plays in our lives, as our King, is that he knows how to
communicate with us on a spiritually royal level.
Even in our personal human relationship, with our family, our friends,
and maybe especially, our Christian brothers and sisters, when we seek
to listen and to care and reach heartfelt interpersonal communication,
we share in the very eternal life of God.
We experience the truth of God’s kingdom that is not of this
world, and we do experience it here and now.
Another way to be encountered by the interpersonal communication of the
royal man in our lives is within our own private prayer life with God.
Speak to God the Father. Speak
to Jesus Christ. Speak to
the Holy Spirit. Address
each one of them! Know that
they are all one and the same God, but at the same time they each help
us approach God truthfully based in how we are feeling at the time.
God is not embarrassed by our humanity.
God became human. And
our prayers to God do not have to reach some formal standard that the
church’s mistaken religion has placed in our consciences.
If you are sad, tell God. If
you are angry, share your feelings with God.
If you do not even know what to ask, tell this to God.
Be real. Be free.
Be who you are in your private prayers to God.
And the God who hears you in secret will reward you openly; will
answer you in a way that you may hear His voice.
What does this mean? We
have a brother, who is our Lord, our Savior, and the King of our lives.
And because he is human, he knows how to relate to us, just as we
are. He understands where
we are in our own communication level.
He knows exactly what is going on in our lives.
He knows us better than we know ourselves.
But, he relates to us as a brother, who listens, who cares, who
moves himself to even see things our way, and then uses his own love for
us to communicate to us what we need in order to have a heart felt
connection with the King of our lives.
And then, as we learn to connect with Jesus in the Holy Spirit, Christ
takes us in our spiritual lives to where we then learn to connect with
God the Father through Him. We
are being grown in spiritual interpersonal communication by the royal
voice of Jesus.
Let us pray…
Amen
|