CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: The Power of Commitment

Pentecost 24, Proper 29 | November 24, 2019

By the Rev. Chip Edens

CAMINANDO WITH JESUS is a series of reflections on the Sunday Gospel by clergy and laity from across the Diocese. 

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When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. The people stood by, watching Jesus on the cross; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

- Luke 23:33-43

 
Today the hard issues of our day test our resolve and the integrity of our faith. Today we look to Christ the King as the exemplar for how we are called to live. Today Christ the King shows us his crown is not one of diamonds and rubies but of thorns. His throne is not a gold chair but a cross. Jesus turns our thinking upside down, so in the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, we can live in a way that turns the world “rightside up.”
 
Because Jesus died on the cross, countless Christians throughout time have followed Jesus’s example and have been willing to go against the grain to do the right thing, the hard thing, the important thing - even in the face of their own death. 
 
Not every Christian is called to die in service to Christ. But every committed Christian - following the example of Jesus, using the cross as their guide of life - is called to die to self so that world might be changed.
 
When it comes to issues like poverty, violence, and human rights, we must ask, “Will we take the safe approach?” Will our disposition be, “I’ll just go to church. Pray. Be a good person. Get God’s favor and then go to heaven?” Will we take that approach and practice a faith seeking what it gives us and not what it asks of us? Or will we continue as is the tradition on this church - to get outside our comfort zones and do something?
 
As Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King’s mentor, once wrote:
 
“In every human life there are a few special moments that count for all the rest because they meant the taking of a stand, a self-commitment, a decisive choice.
 
It is commitment that creates the person. It is the pressing need to find some meaning for one’s own life, to subordinate the whole of life for that meaning.”
 
Today, Jesus subordinates his entire life to the will of God so that the world might know the power and importance of commitment. 
 
May Christ’s commitment challenge us to make our own commitment - to explore that way of the cross and practice it not merely as an occasional act but to be the ultimate way of life.
 
For it is only through commitment and countless acts of courage, and only through them, that God works through us and brings hope out of suffering, freedom out of social and economic bondage, and life out of death.

The Rev. Chip Edens is rector of Christ Church, Charlotte.