Subjects in Christ’s kingdom of Truth

Holy Spirit...  Take my lips and speak through them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  

[intro remarks…] Good morning, good people of St. Thomas (in Garden City, KS).  Greetings from Bishop Wolfe in the Diocese of Kansas (on whose staff I serve) and from Bishop Milliken here in Western Kansas (who I spoke to briefly on Wednesday); your own Sadie Pile at Emporia State is one of our campus peer ministers;  visiting Pastor AJ Striffler, pastor of St. James Lutheran (ELCA) – they welcome you, particularly for Holy Eucharist any Sunday at 10am (ref: ELCA and TEC concordat “Called to Common Mission”)

Today’s lessons offer a radical reorientation for our allegiances in a day and age when our loyalties are so often subjected to commercial temptation and political seductions.  We’re here today in a transition from one season of the church year into another… we’re here today with a choice of kings of kingdoms.

We’ve made it through a long political campaign season and survived, more or less, the national elections.  There was so much talk this past year about what type of nation we want to live in and who is worth to lead us through the challenging days ahead, grappling with outrageous national debt, pervasive unemployment, lack of affordable healthcare, etc..  Despite all the squawk of seemingly hopeless political and economic challenges, just days ago, we gathered as a nation in “Thanksgiving” to celebrate our many blessings; many people gorging themselves on processed foods while surrounded by ads in the paper, on TV, and on radio generating anxiety and/or inciting near riotous excitement about where and when to “line up” to be first in the commercial frenzy of “Black Friday” – an occasion for us to abandon all godly patience and financial prudence as we storm the retail establishment, wild-eyed, wielded our credit cards, seeking to ‘capture’ the best deals on things to relieve perceptions of inadequacy, alleviate fears of being ‘without’, and otherwise show others how much we love and care for them.  Oh, to see us over these past few weeks… which kingdom does it appear we’re wanting to inhabit?  To what rulers do our calendars and checkbooks bend and kneel?

Here near the end of this frenzied month, the days are getting shorter as cool weather takes hold and it gets darker earlier.  The gardens and fields have dried up, died off, and been blown away.  The soil is being prepared to bare new life months from now.  There’s something almost instinctive that instructs us to huddle close by the embers of a warm hearth and reflect on the year that is passing away while quietly imagining the possibilities of a year ahead.  As nature tells us that we’re in transition from one season to another, so does the liturgical calendar of our church. 

This is the last Sunday of the Christian church calendar.  A week from now is the first Sunday of Advent.  We’re transitioning from ‘ordinary’/’proper’ time following Pentecost when we’ve been remembering the mission and ministry of our messiah, into a season of spiritual expectation as we start over again in our church year together, anticipating the new birth we’ve all been promised through faith in the incarnation of God’s love coming into our world and living among us.  We will call the holy fruit of Mary’s womb our new born king. 

But, what sort of king will Jesus be for us?  Do we really want to be Christ’s subjects?

In today’s Gospel lesson (John 18:33-37), Pilate asks the arrested Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”, not so much out of intellectual curiosity or the desire to discover real truth about the nature of Jesus’ authority, but motivated by a need to hear something scandalous that would enable him as a Roman provincial leader, concerned about quelling the growing unrest of the Jewish mob, to legally justify further punishment and possibly elimination of this irritant and threat to the civic order in his jurisdiction.

In their ensuing brief conversation (unique to John’s telling) Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate's question directly nor does he deny being a king per se. Instead he invites Pilate, and us, to re-consider that his kingdom “is not from here” and to listen to the “truth” so as to belong to it.  Pilate doesn’t accept the invitation… and, frankly, some who claim to follow Jesus haven’t either. 

He invites those who hear his truth with the promise that his yoke is lite and also the instruction that living into this kingdom will not be easy and will even cause them to endure suffering. To be clear, being subject to his rule will put them/us at odds with the rule of Caesar and many of our principalities in power today.

Just weeks ago, in a reading from the Gospel according to Mark (Mark 10:42-45), we heard Jesus contrast His rule to the rule of traditional earthly kings when he said, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus has made it clear that the kingdom he represents is conventional in geo-political terms.  As one commentator put it, “Jesus knew the oppressive nature of secular kings, and in contrast to them, he connected his role as king to humble service, and commanded his followers to be servants as well. In other passages of Scripture, his kingdom is tied to his suffering and death. While Christ is coming to judge the nations, his teachings spell out a kingdom of justice and judgment balanced with radical love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. When we celebrate Christ as King, we are not celebrating an oppressive ruler, but one willing to die for humanity and whose "loving-kindness endures forever." Christ is the king that gives us true freedom, freedom in Him.”  (http://www.churchyear.net/ctksunday.html)

Indeed, the king we’re remembering today was born amid a blessed mess of to a rural couple with little societal standing, identifies more closely with the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned than with any royal pomp or regal celebrities… and gives up his earthly life wearing a crown of thorns rather than jewels, and executed aside criminals in public shame rather than coronated aside the powerful in public honor. 

Surely, this is not the long-awaited political, warrior messiah in the family line of King David who was supposed reclaim Israel from those who has dominated and oppressed her people? Is this the sort of lord any of us want to bow before… the kind of king we want to be subject to?

And, yet, here we are on “Christ the King” Sunday, the final feast before we begin the expectant journey of Advent.  In the 1920’s, this special feast day “Christ the King” was established by Pope Pious the XI as antidote to the rising primacy of secularism and a noted decline in respect for Christ and church of that era (sound familiar?).  Naming this Sunday “Christ the King” is intended to remind faithful Christians, amid an ever-more prevailing secular culture, that Christ is to reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies.  

About the establishment of this special feast day, PiusXI wrote, “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ. It will call to their minds the thought of the last judgment, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education… The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal. If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God.”  (Quas Primas,32-33) 

From our readings of the Revelation according to John, we are greeted with peace and grace and reminded, in vivid imagery, that Christ’s kingdom is at hand, in parallel with our sense of reality – his reign was, is and will be.  Written during a time that it was not just counter-cultural, but downright dangerous to live as a Christian, the author reassures his readers they (and we ) are radically free from what has held them captive and that their ultimate place in a heavenly realm in contrast to the corrupted world they now perceive around them.  This corrupted kingdom and Christ’s kingdom will collide eventually in an awesome moment of transformation.  God’s will be done on earth as in heaven – God’s kingdom come!

In this meantime, Christ’s reign is already over hearts and minds… a reign of compassion, justice, mercy, charity, peace and love.  We are free to serve Him.  We are expected to serve Him.

As we leave church this morning, we’ll again be among the busy secular world preparing for the stressful holidays and the cunning commercial demands for our time and attention.  When you feel yourself getting caught up serving other lords, worshiping idols, and eating of the bread of anxiety, step back, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and remember our Lord’s supper and the true kingdom he calls us live in. 

Amid the noise and haste of a sin-filled marketplace around us where material things tempt and taunt us, promising to pleasantly distract us from the pangs of our deeper yearnings and longings, what if we dare to surrender to sweet silence, even if only for few brief moments when we gather with friends. What if, in our momentary, prayerful death to the distractions of this world, it’s possible to taste paradise with Christ and the saints?  What if we surrender the game of political gain and embrace the reign of sacrificial love?  How might this even brief experience of Christ’s kingdom come, change our wills for what must be done in our world here and now?

As we enter this Advent season, is it not authentic life with each other that we’re really longing for?  The beauty of the twinkling lights at night; the smell of crackling wood burning warm inside; the table prepared for us with loving care… are these not merely signs that invite us to the feast that we’re really hungry for – more perfect communion with God and our loved ones.  How can we make our gatherings this season more of a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that has been prepared for us by Christ our King? 

from SoichiWatanabe Portfolio

Christ our King is not removed from us, upon a throne somewhere distant.  He is, through the Holy Spirit, with those in greatest need – the least among us, those who we might prefer to avoid, those who might prefer to avoid us – the hungry, ill, imprisoned, forgotten, pushed aside, any who feel outside the gates… not welcome at the feast. It’s with those ‘lost’ that Christ our King can be found. We experience Christ in/through our reconciling interactions with each other.  Growing in knowledge and love of God through growing in knowledge and love each other, particularly the neighbors we’ve yet to welcome, is the work of the Christ’s kingdom.  Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people. 

Let us pray.

Christ, you are our King of redeeming justice, leading us in a principality of peace and charitable love.  Christ, our king, we are thankful for the mercy and peace you have freely given us – compel us to share these with our family, friends, and neighbors.  Help us surrender to your rule of justice and charity in our hearts.  Strengthen us as we boldly seek to help build your kingdom by being unexpectedly generous in our compassion, forgiveness, charity, and love toward others - particularly toward the “least of these” who are in most need -  and to graciously accept kinds acts from others when they’ve seen, through your Spirit, our deeper needs. 

AMEN.