Today is the last Sunday of the present Church Year.  Today is the Feast of Christ the King.  Today we complete the cycle of remembering how the Lord God Almighty has “delivered us from the dominion of darkness,” as Saint Paul puts it; … has rescued us from the darkness of human sin and “qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light,” Saint Paul says; . . . has made us His sons and daughters by water and the Holy Spirit.  . . . The Lord God Almighty effected our deliverance not by means of the supernatural; . . . He did not send angels or specially gifted heroes to effect our deliverance.  . . . The Lord God Almighty effected our deliverance from darkness by coming to us Himself!  His Word became incarnate and appealed to our reason, will, and imagination to turn away from darkness and toward Him!  . . . Do you remember how this present Church Year began?  . . . There were shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock in the darkness of night, . . . and suddenly they were bathed in the glorious happiness of heavenly light, surrounded by angels, one of whom spoke to them and said,

behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the [King].

In fulfillment of the promise spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, “Behold . . . [the Lord God Almighty] will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king;” . . . in fulfillment of that promise, the Lord God Almighty came to us Himself, . . . born of the Virgin Mary, as the left hand panel of the stained glass triptych above the Altar reminds us; . . . born of the Virgin Mary to be given the holy Name of Jesus.

    But humanity, out of envy and indifference . . . and out of sheer ignorance, I guess; . . . humanity, enslaved to the darkness of its original contempt for God; . . . humanity refused the invitation of Jesus to turn toward the Light, and they killed Him, only at His death acknowledging Him as King:  “there was an inscription over [the crucified Jesus],” we read today, “there was an inscription over him, ‘This is the king of the Jews.’ ”

    There, above the Altar in the right hand panel:  behold your King!  . . . Not a very desirable king is He?  I’ll bet if God asked you to suggest to Him some of the attributes a righteous Branch should have in order to be raised up and reign as king you probably wouldn’t come up with that.  At least the rulers of the Jewish people didn’t think much of their King, . . . nor the soldiers who tormented Jesus as He died by stages.  . . . No, for such people as that a king must have the reins of power completely under his control, expertly manipulating them so as to get his own way . . . so that even though his people suffer exquisitely at his hands, . . . they don’t know it.

    There are two kinds of human being in this world:  those who desire competence, . . . and those who desire love.  . . . And even though you might want to tell me that everyone needs love, . . . think about the astonishing market success of Viagra.  Viagra isn’t about love; . . . it’s about competence.  Everyone may need love, . . . but not everyone desires it.  And so, crucified at the same time as Jesus, Saint Luke tells us, there are two thieves, . . . one on Christ’s right and one on His left.  And the one thief rails at Jesus, challenging His competence:  “Are you the king of the Jews?  Then prove it.  Save yourself and us!”  . . . And there is the bottom line to the love of competence:  . . . “Save yourself and us.”  The love of competence is the consequence of self-absorption.

    But the other thief is a different sort of fellow.  The other thief says to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  The other thief understands himself to be in the presence of a Power that sees beyond the moment; . . . he understands himself to be in the presence of a Power that can overcome darkness and manifest Light!  And so, that second thief, on the brink of dropping into the darkness of Death, surrenders himself to the mercy and grace of Heaven; he surrenders himself to the love of God which patiently forgives sin in order to reconcile humanity so that we might come to our senses; . . . so that we might come to our senses, emerge from our darkness, and desire God.  . . . Coming to his senses and desiring God, the second thief -- the second kind of human being -- says to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  . . . And without equivocation or dissembling, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  . . . “Truly,” Jesus says, “truly, you shall not die, but live.”

    Today is the last Sunday of the present Church Year.  Next Sunday shall be the Christian New Year’s Day.  Next Sunday we shall begin to consider the meaning of the central panel of our stained glass triptych above the Altar; . . . we shall begin to consider what it means for Christ the King to come to us at Time’s completion to judge the living and the dead.  I have suggested that the two thieves represent two kinds of human being; . . . one kind of human being is acceptable to Jesus, . . . the other is not.  But the “type” of human being you are is not indelibly stamped into your DNA.  None of us are foreordained to desire competence more than God’s love.  . . . None of us are foreordained to reject Jesus.  In fact, Jesus came to us -- and comes to us still in Word and Sacrament; . . . Jesus comes to us to liberate us from self-absorption so that we might desire Him more than darkness; . . . so that we might desire Him and be with Him in Paradise.  . . . Because the festival we celebrate today suggests . . . that, in the end, Judgement will not concern itself with how competent you are, . . . but with how well you love; . . . how well you allow the Light of Christ to illumine and inflame your heart and soul and mind so as to dispel darkness and manifest Heaven’s grace . . . with endurance, Saint Paul says; . . . with endurance and patience and joy.