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November 23

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Sunday, November 23, Christ the King

LUKE 23:35-43

The Good Thief

Prayerthoughts

a. Picture yourself witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus. What would have been your thoughts at that time?

b. There are people who “jeer” at other people in our world. How can I help those people who are being ridiculed?

c. “The King of the Jews” is probably the official reason why Jesus was condemned. Is it true right now that Jesus is the “King,” the leader of my life?

d. “The good thief” as recounted only here in Luke’s Gospel is a very good source of meditation. When I am not feeling good for whatever reason, do I still think and pray for those who are hurting in our world?

e. Is my faith as strong as the “good thief’s”? Perhaps a prayer of faith is in order at this time.

f. Can I truthfully say that I am working to bring about Jesus’s “kingdom” in my world right now?

Today I will read Colossians 1:12-20 and write an important thought from it.

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Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

OVERCOMING THE EMPTINESS

+ You may be familiar with this person:

- he was called the “hatchet man” in President Nixon’s administration

- he had an office next to the President, a 6-figure income, all the comforts of rich living

- then after he had been caught in an illegal action, something deep inside of him began to bother him

- some emptiness, “a gnawing hollowness” is how he later described it

- and he understood that he was nothing more than a common thief

- his name: Charles “Chuck” Colson, confidant to President Richard Nixon

“Born Again”

+ His autobiography—one of many that came out of Watergate—is called “Born Again”

- his book is different from all the others because he admits his guilt and asked God to help him

- he writes: at that time, “I prayed my first real prayer: ‘God, I don’t know how to find you, but I’m going to try. I’m not much the way I am now, but somehow I want to give myself to you. Take me.’”

- and he gave himself completely to God, accomplishing incredible things with his life

- by way of a footnote, he wrote another book called Loving God and in it he spoke of his vocation (after he had received a lot of accolades for what he had done with his life) this way:

“The real legacy of my life was my biggest failure—that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation—being sent to prison—was the beginning of God’s greatest use of my life: He chose the one experience in which I could not glory for His glory.”

- he died in 2012, and is a modern example of a person we have come to know as the good thief

+ The good thief who was crucified with Jesus knew he was wrong

- he was likewise experiencing an emptiness, hoping that this man Jesus who was being crucified with him had something to help with his mental pain,

- he addressed Jesus with words that are filled with faith and hope

Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

+ This feast of Christ the King presents the Someone who was responsible for taking away the emptiness in the good thief’s and Colson’s lives

- a person prefigured by King David (first reading)

- a person who is the image of the invisible God (the beautiful hymn in Colossians, the second reading)

- a person able to forgive others even as he is wrongly convicted (Gospel)

- Jesus, Son of God, King

- this is the king that you and I have chosen as someone to follow

+ Our problem comes in how much we have chosen the Lord

- the fact is that there is some “criminal” in all of us

- not completely maybe, as was the case with Charles Colson and the good thief, but we become so involved and engrossed in our world that we forget about God

- and eventually some kind of emptiness begins to develop in our lives

- what might be described as “something wrong,” the title of the first chapter of Colson’s autobiography

- incidentally, it is the topic of the number 1 pop song in America right now (2022) called “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift

- singing about the “monster on the hill”, that is all the bad stuff that makes up her life

The solution

+ To overcome that feeling of emptiness, we need to pay attention to the good thief in the Gospel and to Chuck Colson as he reflected on what he had done

- and follow their path

1 - admit the possibility of a wrong

- whether big or small, there is always something that needs corrected in our lives

- the chances are that there is some evil there, usually having something to do with how we act toward others

2 - do some soul-searching

- take the time to look at ourselves in light of what we read in the Gospels

3 - call on the Lord to help

- the good thief said the words: “Remember me”

- Colson said, “Take me”

4 – respond to the moment: do something

- the good thief did the only thing he could: he gave himself to the Lord

- Chuck Colson was eventually released from prison, but it was a long process

- the judge that sentenced him gave him a longer time in prison than any of the other Watergate criminals

- at first quite disappointed since he thought he would be released, he looked upon it as an opportunity, and founded one of the most important Christian ministries in the Christian world—Prison Fellowship, a means for prisoners to convert to God

- in general, following the path of the good thief and Chuck Colson means reaching out to the Lord with real worship in here, and real worship out there by proclaiming him to be our king with our behavior toward ourselves and others

+ According to a recent survey, one quarter of all adults suffer from chronic loneliness and depression,

- my guess is that most of us feel loneliness and emptiness at one time or another

- much of it happening around Thanksgiving and Christmas

- we celebrate the answer to that emptiness right now: Jesus is with us

- our prayer must be to accept him a little more into our lives

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Interstellar" -- final session

WHAT CAUSED THIS?

The Gospel

LUKE 12:54-56

Jesus also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that it is going to rain, and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot--and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Gospelthink: You are able to read signs for nature. Why are you not able to see that you must repent?

A thought that continually surfaces throughout the movie "Interstellar" is the thought that there was something that has caused all of this. It was part of the very first moments when "ghosts" seem to exist in the Cooper home. It was present with questions of "Who chose me" and the like as Cooper was led back to NASA. It was on the astronauts' minds as they experienced up close and personal what "worm-holes" were and what they did. It was especially clear as Coop's computer "friend" TARS tells him about his being sent back to him by fifth dimensional beings to lead Coop to his now older daughter Murph in order to allow Murph to solve the gravity equation. It all seemed to be part of a plan that eventually led to the completion of Part A to have a temporary location for Earth leading now to Part B. Part B was the re-location of Earth that he and his fellow astronaut Amelia Brand would actually begin. The answer which is given without saying it in the film is that some Higher Being was directing all of it.

How vast our universe is and what it consists of now that we have ways of measuring these things are completely incredible. We cannot even envision what they mean and what we have discovered yet. It makes even a movie like "Interstellar" actually make sense in light of the things that we now know.

In Jesus's33 time, there was very little knowledge of the universe as such, but Jesus alluded to it in a general way during one of his sermons. He wanted to lead the people to see that there is so much more to the spiritual life than merely following a law or just "hoping" that things could be better. Look at the universe, he says, study the patterns that you are familiar with--you can easily see that knowing some things about that universe can help you as you live. Applying the teaching to the spiritual life, as you study what is happening in your personal lives, you can easily determine what you should be doing in order to live better.

For Jesus, of course, the presence of a Higher Being--his Father in heaven--was an automatic. Of course, it is the Higher Being who is directing the wind and the rain and the whole world. For the Christian, it is likewise a fact. We may not be able to completely understand it yet, but we know it is true. God made our world and everything in it, and its magnificence is nothing more than the statement of how wonderful our Creator is. Many people are not ready to accept the fact but even they must marvel at the intricacy of the universe as they study it.

What should all of this do for the Christian? Belief in the Higher Being, God, is a "given" for us. Maybe our application of the fact should lead us to a greater care of the environment in which we reside. Or as Jesus taught--maybe knowledge of the universe is a means to make us recognize how we know that we can be better by studying ourselves a little closer.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, you are our Higher Being, as Your Son acknowledged you--His Father. May we continue to marvel at this universe that you have created, and learn more about ourselves as we study that universe. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Studying our universe can easily lead to a belief in a Higher Being.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 78 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why?
2 The signs that Jesus gave were obviously rudimentary for understanding the universe. The fact that God is responsible is not mentioned here. In general, do Christian people consider God's presence as they study the universe today? Yes or no and why?
3. Analysis: As you study the world as a whole right now, do you think that many Christians are correct in saying that it is not a good world, and we should change? Yes or no and why?
4. The presenter may want to give some facts about what we know about the universe right now.
5. St. Thomas Aquinas gave 5 "proofs for the existence of God":
          - proof by motion: it is necessary to arrive at a First Mover which is set in motion by no other; this we understand to be God.
        - proof by causality: every cause and effect can be traced so that there is a beginning; the Something that started it must be a Being who owes power to bring about such an effect to no one; this is God, the first efficient cause.
        - proof by contingency: there must exist some being which differs from contingent beings by possessing existence in its own right: it simply has existence; we call that being God.
         - proof by degrees of perfection: since all things have a limited degree of perfection, it clearly cannot be the source of all that particular perfection; therefore it is a received perfection; we call the possessor of that inexhaustible and infinite perfection, God.
         - proof by design: any object, no matter how useful, does not have the power to think or to plan, and therefore could not have designed itself; outside intelligence must have planned it; if that intelligence is limited, it was given intelligence by another and so forth, one must ultimately admit the existence of a Being whose intelligence was not acquired from another; we call that intelligence God.
Which of these proofs are most convincing for you? Why?
6. How can we respect the environment better than we are?
7. Scene analysis: the nitrogen levels on the earth are getting worse. If you knew that the end was relatively near as in the movie, how would you behave?
8. Scene analysis: the Endurance crew go to Mann's planet and Mann tries to kill Cooper in order to save himself. Do you believe that humankind in general is this selfish? Yes or no and why?
9. Scene analysis: Cooper tricks Brand into allowing her to be the one who will make it to Edmond's planet while he goes into the black hole. This is an act of martyrdom since he probably would die and Brand would live, at least for a while. Who are some modern day martyrs that you are familiar with?
10. Scene analysis: Murph completes the gravity equation with Cooper's help. There are no doubt many discoveries that we have not made yet because we do not know enough. Do you feel that God wants us to acquire more and more knowledge as we are at the present time? Yes or no and why?
11. Scene analysis: Earth's population has been moved to the space stations (thus Plan A actually did happen), and in time will be sent to Edmund's planet with Cooper and Brand setting it up. If you were in charge of setting up a new life for people, what would be the first three rules that you would enact?
12. What does the movie "Interstellar" teach young people?