Christ
the King
November 21, 2004
What are your most important
dreams?
There was a laywoman, name Jean Donovan.
Like many college students, she went on a service trip. Unlike many, she went
to El Salvador during a time when the country was in upheaval. She fell in love
with the place and her work, and stayed on. Finally, she came back home briefly,
for a visit to the doctors and to do some fundraising. She resolved to return
to El Salvador. Her friends all tried to dissuade her. “You’re crazy,”
they said. “It’s too dangerous. If you go back, you will be murdered.”
“How can I not return? They are my people now. I cannot abandon them, I
cannot leave them behind.” “But you’ll die.” “There
are some things worse than dying. There are some dreams worth dying for.”
And so she returned, and soldiers trained at our own ‘School of the Americas’
in Bennington, GA killed her and seven others. …
What are the dreams that really matter to you? What are the dreams that are worth
dying for? You see, this feast of Christ the King places those questions directly
into our consciousness. As we honor Jesus as our sovereign king, we are invited
to let his dreams take hold of our hearts, find a place in our lives. To proclaim
Christ as King (a title that doesn’t do much for us these days) is to acknowledge
that there is a value and meaning to our lives that is not our own. And, like
Jesus, to know that there are worse things than dying, and dreams that are worth
dying for.
Fortunately for the thief, Jesus had such a dream. We don’t know much about
the one that tradition has named “Dismas”. We don’t know anything
about his hopes, his dreams for his life. We do know that he had committed a serious
crime, more than just being a petty thief. Crucifixion was saved as punishment
for severe crimes. But there on the cross, all his dreams coming to an end, he
notices Jesus. He notices a nobility there, a truth there, and a kind of hope
springs in his heart. “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”
And though it is hard to imagine that Jesus would have smiled through all the
pain he was undergoing, you had to believe that an inner smile must have come
to Jesus. This was his one dream, “to reconcile all things to himself by
the blood of his cross” as we heard in our second reading today. And there
on the cross, he had another opportunity, another chance to do just that –
to bring another home to the embrace of his father. For there are dreams worth
dying for, dreams that are worth the giving of your life. “This day, you
will be with me in paradise…”
What are the most important dreams of your life? The invitation of this feast
is to not settle for anything that is less than you, anything that is unworthy
of your deepest and truest self. Perhaps the dream shines clearly before you now.
Or perhaps, like it took me, it is taking a while for it to emerge for you. I
struggled for a long time, trying to know what God wanted of me and what I wanted
of the world. Finally, in that long process of asking questions and seeking answers,
someone phrased the question in a way that I could hear it, or was ready to hear
it. “Bill Kempf, what do YOU want to BE with your life?” That was
easy to answer. “I want to be close to God. I want to love his people. I
want to be a place where people are reconciled to God and to themselves. I want
to preach the word that I have come to know and love and study. And I want to
be a connection to this church that I have come to love so well.” And I
looked at that response, which came from the deepest part of me, and realized
that looked an awful lot like “Priest”. And it looked an awful lot
like a dream worth living for and dying for. And I knew I could do no less for
God, for my brothers and sisters, and for myself than what I knew that day.
You see, there are some things worse than dying, and some dreams worth giving
your life for. Jesus knew that. Jean Donovan knew that. I have come to know it.
On this feast of Christ the King, may we commit to pursuing our dream, our place
of service and gift to the world, and never stop till we have reached a place
where we live the deepest truths. There are some things worse than dying –
settling for less than our truest self. And there are some things worth giving
our lives for – the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia.