24 Nov 24 Christ the King (Christ Church, St. Lucia)
Readings: Daniel 7; 9-10, 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1: 4b-8; John 18: 33-37
When I was at theological college, we were told it wasn’t usually such a great idea to begin a sermon with a question, or with an apology. But today's celebration of the feast of Christ the King really begs us, I think to ask a question. The question is, “What picture in your mind does the word "king" evoke?” How do we really picture Christ as King? I hazard that it’s a very different picture for us than it was for the Jews of Jesus' time or for the early Christians. Our understanding of kingship today varies tremendously. Older Australians whose memories go back prior to the early 1950’s will remember a king. Others have no experience at all, particularly many who have emigrated from non-Commonwealth countries. Others have a very romanticized one. Think of how fascinated many are with royalty, be it English or Danish, their fascination fed by popular magazines. And is the fascination with royalty, or has it become mingled with the cult of celebrity as well. Yet for many the world over the repression of vindictive and capricious royalty has driven them to migrate to opposite ends of the earth to be able to live in freedom and with dignity, without a king. Kingship and royalty mightn't really mean as much to us as it once did. I can remember Archbishop Keith Rayner telling a group of us some years ago now how he and fellow ordinands at St. Francis College in 1954 lined up on Baroona Road dressed in their cassocks and cheered “Vivat Regina” as the then Queen drove past on her way to Government House. King Charles and Quen Camilla visited Australia for a week or so recently. I suspect there we a lot of people hardly aware of this. Yet this Feast of Christ the King, as well as being our Feast of Title, is shared with most other mainline Christian denominations. There's something about seeing Christ in this role as king that continues to be important to us as Christians today.
So, what exactly do we do with this celebration of Christ as King? And why, when we're just about ready to start preparing for Advent and the Incarnation, are we reading in the Gospel about events just prior to Jesus' crucifixion? Maybe the answers to these questions will become a little clearer as we reflect some more.
Today's passage from Daniel is a recounting, in part, of a dream or vision that Daniel has. Just prior to the beginning of our reading, Daniel has seen in his dream a beast with ten horns, when a much smaller horn appears, a little one. Three of the earlier ones are plucked up by the roots, the little horn has eyes and a mouth speaking arrogantly. But Daniel then sees “one like a human being” who is presented to God, the Ancient One, and who is given glory and kingship, a universal kingship which shall never be destroyed. We are in the realm of apocalyptic again. The reading is allegorical. The best with ten horns is probably refers to the Hellenistic (or Greek) empire of Alexander the Great. The little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes who the Jewish people of the time named Epimanes, or "the madman," when it became apparent that his policies were violently anti-Jewish. So, the message in Daniel is a denunciation of those who would use royal power to dominate, control and destroy. They are supplanted by a kingly figure who will usher in the new age of peace and justice. This heavenly figure of the Jewish tradition is possibly the one Jesus speaks of in some gospel passages when he refers to a heavenly figure who will come e.g Mark 8:38 refers to the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Daniel was expressing the people's hope for an end to their suffering under tyranny and the hope for a new and just leader. When we look back on this passage and others like it as a New Testament people, it’s possible to see Christ, the glorious and universal king emerging from Daniel’s dream.
John, in his Revelation writes from a similar experience to that of Daniel - one of suffering under persecution and antagonism. He has his vision while he is in prison on the Island of Patmos. Our reading is part of the introductory salutation. John in this salutation borrows several titles. Alpha and Omega, the one who is and who is to come, and the Almighty are all divine names taken from Jewish and Greek speaking cultures of the time. In the society of John’s day, deities and rulers were given strings of extravagant titles. Some things haven’t changed. John wants to underline the majesty and power of God in the face of the oppressors by using these titles of dignity drawn from royal sources.
Yet when we come to the Gospel, we have a very different figure. We have the figure of a man on trial for his life. A man who has been abused, beaten, humiliated by agents of the ruling power. Yet he is involved in a dialogue about kingship with the representative of the same ruling power. It soon becomes apparent that Jesus is speaking of a different kind of kingship altogether. The kingship of Jesus is vastly different from a worldly kingship. The issue of power emerges in Jesus’ encounter with Pilate: Jesus asserts that his realm is not of this world. This is not a call to escape embodiment or social involvement; but to recognize that the way of Christ and Caesar, and Jesus and Pilate, are radically different. We might think of the contrast between liberating and coercive power. Jesus’ power is grounded in divine values of grace, transformation, and relationship, not destruction and domination. We are invited to explore types of power that heal rather than destroy, include rather than exclude, and inspire rather than dominate. We need to acknowledge we all possess power in one way or another and we can’t abandon our responsibilities to use power justly as agents of transformation in the church and the world but we must consider ways to include others in the creative use of power In recent times on the international stage we’ve become all to aware of the corrosive effects of strength and power used to humiliate and dominate, but we see it closer to home as well in the awful rates of partner violence particularly directed against women. When we celebrate Christ the King, we are holding up a king who is, first and foremost a reconciler, a servant. This is not a king who comes to exercise domination over people and over the earth. This is not a king who lashes out when his authority is challenged. This is a king who comes to show us how to live as a people of God in the kingdom of God. We have a king who has reconciled us to God, who calls us to make peace-and yet we celebrate this kingship with a Gospel passage on the trial that precedes his crucifixion. Doesn't that seem strange?
It would indeed be strange if the crucifixion were the end of the story, but we all know it wasn't and isn't. The crucifixion leads to the resurrection-to the great hope found in the resurrection. In Christ we see not only a king who suffers and dies to reconcile us to God, but also a king who rises again. Jesus’ kingship encompasses all of that and more as both our offertory and final hymns today suggest. And that resurrection hope is the beginning and the great power of our story.
That hope touches on the other very important part of the Gospel. Jesus didn't suffer and die just for me or just for you: he did it for us, for all people. His kingship is universal. He lived out his kingship within the community. We are all loved by God and we are all forgiven by God in community. We are a part of a people of God that includes the past, the present, and the future. We are linked with countless others who have lived hope filled lives faithful to the king of glory, however they have understood the term. Think on our hymns today and their kingly terms – “Galilean King”, “chosen king” Crown him with many crowns”, “king and Lord of all the earth”. Other hymns speak of “king divine”, prince of everlasting peace, king most holy, king of truth”, “shepherd king” “king of glory, king of peace”. Our language struggles to describe the kingship of Christ precisely, but we can’t. You can see the same kind of struggle in the scriptures read this morning. All of us will pick up different metaphors. For me the over-riding one is the servant king - the one who calls us now to follow him. But there is a cost. The price of Jesus’ kingdom is the cross. Graham Kendricks hymn “The Servant King” firmly links Jesus’ kingship with the cross. It includes the words “Come see His hands and His feet, The scars that speak of sacrifice, Hands that flung stars into space, To cruel nails surrendered“ but concludes “So let us learn how to serve and in our lives enthrone him; each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving” As we come to the end of our liturgical year, may this be our prayer.
© The Reverend Bill Crossman