The Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
November 24, 2012
The Reverend Amanda A. Akes
Appointed Readings:
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 46
N/A
Luke 23:33-43
Earlier this week I began watching Monarchy on Netflix.
Monarchy is a British TV series hosted by academic David Starkey.
The series charts the political and ideological history of the English
monarchy from the Saxon period in the Dark Ages through to modern
times.
There’s something about the British monarchy that is
fascinating to me. It may have something to do with the fact that I
lived in England as a teenager. While there, I visited various castles
and museums, soaking in British history. As I watch Monarchy I that
history vividly returns to me and comes alive.
I’m learning from the TV series, that the ethos of kingship has
shifted over the ages. Our understanding of kingship today is not the
same as the British subjects’ understanding of kingship in the 1600’s
or the 1100’s.
And those understandings differ from the idea of
kingship in other eras and among other peoples and nations.
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This transforming notion of kingship takes on an additional layer
of meaning when we transfer it to God.
Today in our church
calendar, we celebrate a day called Christ the King Sunday. Our
readings and music center on the theme of kingship. Christ the King
Sunday is a special day to remember Jesus’ mighty power, authority,
and kingship.
Today, 2 millennia after Jesus lived, died, resurrected and
ascended, we who are Christians proudly proclaim him as king. After
all, we have 2000 years of history, tradition, and theology to help us
understand Jesus’ life and the nature of his kingship. But his first
followers, who walked beside him and learned from him had to
discern for themselves who and what this prophetic man was. During
Jesus’ lifetime there were other prophets, other religious leaders of
fame and renown. And remember in most of our gospel accounts of
Jesus, he didn’t go around proclaiming he was the messiah, or a
king. Rather Jesus let his actions speak for him and he let others
decide for themselves who he was.
Jesus didn’t look or act like what people expected a king to look
or act like. That’s because he came on earth to bring about a total
paradigm shift in our understanding.
He came to help us think
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outside the box, to broaden our horizons, and show us God in the
flesh. Jesus was born into a time and place in which people were
oppressed and ruled by a foreign power – stronger and mightier than
any before it. The Roman Empire represented what kingship and
lordship was. Its power and might were displayed in a wealth of
military, cultural, and engineering prowess. Its economy favored the
rich and broke the backs of the poor.
In sharp contrast, Jesus came into this world and proclaimed
the coming of a kingdom in which the exact opposite was true.
Blessed are the poor and peacemakers, he said. Blessed are those
who weep and mourn. Blessed are you when you are hated and
looked down upon. The kingdom and power Jesus proclaimed was
vastly different than the kingdom and power our world recognizes.
Our King Jesus didn’t wear royal robes or an ornate crown in his life
on earth. He wore shepherds robes and a crown of thorns. And his
throne wasn’t a golden jewel encrusted one…
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan reminds us
that our King is, “a living Lord who led the crusade for a transformed
creation, not from a throne, but from a cross; who directed operations
from the back of a donkey’s colt, not from an executive chair; whose
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position of authority was not only above the followers’ heads, but at
their feet with a towel and a basin in his hands, and even now makes
himself known to us in the breaking of very fragile bread.”
To name Jesus as “King,” is to proclaim a belief in an
alternative view of kingship and leadership than the one portrayed in
documentaries like Monarcy, different even than the example of
kingship that exists today. To name Jesus “King” is a recognition that
Jesus’ purpose in this world, his legacy, was not to gain riches and
glory. It was not to colonize nations and subject the peoples of the
world. Rather Jesus’ mission was to transform hearts and minds.
Jesus’ kingship was focused on reconciliation that we may live lives
of love that reflect his own life and the life of our Creator God in
whose image we are made.
And we, as followers of King Jesus, are called to continue
preaching and living into the paradigm shift Jesus proclaimed. We
are called to participate in the reign of God that Jesus issued in. We
are invited to believe what he said, that the kingdom of God is here,
within us and around us - in the here and now – in the midst of this
messy mixed up world we live it. The kingdom of God immerges
anew when we live lives of transforming love. This is the ministry we
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are called to live into. This is the life we are invited to engage in.
This is our work.
We are called to join Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection.
We are called to join Jesus in his kingship. And we are called to join
Jesus in participating in the paradigm shift he began in his earthly life
among us. As part of our baptismal covenant we make promises.
We promise to continue in the apostles’ teaching, to preserve in
resisting anything that opposes the love of God, proclaiming the good
news of Christ, seeking and serving Christ in all persons, while
striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the
dignity of every human being.
This is what it means to be subjects of King Jesus, to be
followers of Christ the King. And unless we do this with integrity
Christianity and our church become merely a compartment of life, a
club for do-gooders who enjoy a religious experience. King Jesus
invites us beyond a religious experience. King Jesus invites us into a
life altering experience with him who was and is and is to come. If we
believe that Jesus is Lord, that he is King, if we take that seriously,
this world will never be the same.
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