A Sermon for Christ the King
The Church of the Transfiguration, New York
November 22, 2015
Rt. Reverend Andrew St. John
Broadway is doing well this year with Kings and Queens! Audiences flocked to see Helen Mirren play Queen Elizabeth of England in The Audience earlier this year and now tickets are hard to come by to see Tim Pigott-Smith play a future Charles III. BAM next year are showcasing a series of Shakespeare plays under the title “King and Country”, Richard ll, Henry IV and Henry V, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. So even in this proud republic of the United States the fascination with kings and queens, past, present and future continues.
While my own country with the Queen as its head of state as in Canada there are rumors of and movements towards a republican form of government. But nevertheless if a recent visit to Australia by Prince Charles and Camilla is any indication there is still a real fascination with the British monarchy.
The ancient Israelites shared that fascination. After the long rule of the Judges, a series of divinely inspired leaders who led the people in difficult times, the people clamored for a king like the other nations around about them. They admired the power and glamor that went with kingship. Kings seemed so much cooler than dreary old judges whose leadership came and went. They wanted something more permanent, more lasting. The trouble with this desire for earthly kings that it contradicted their understanding that there was only one king and that was God.
In any case the prophet Samuel intervened on behalf of the people with God and eventually got his way. And so we hear in the first Book of Samuel of the appointment as Saul as the first King of Israel. Well you know the story how he started well and then became consumed with jealously at the upstart and brilliant soldier, David. Eventually as we all know David succeeded Saul as king and had a long and glorious reign over Israel. Well that is how it was seen looking back. But we also know that David had to deal with his own shortcomings let alone the treachery of others. But today’s first reading comes near the end of the Books of Samuel and purports to be David’s last words. “The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land. Is not my house like this with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things secure.” After David came Solomon, his son by Bathsheba, who built the temple and a grand palace and generally set himself up as a real middle eastern potentate. But after his death the whole thing went pear-shaped! The kingdom suffered division and there were many bad and corrupt kings alongside the occasional good one. In the end the dual monarchy was wiped out by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Theologically speaking the root of the failure of Israel to be God’s people was that they forgot who was their true leader. Rather they put their faith in earthly kings and rulers rather than the King of Heaven, God himself. That if you like is a good chunk of the Old Testament in a nutshell. But for all that the hope of Israel remained with a return to a former glorious age, the kingship of David in particular. The great hope was that God would send a Messianic king, like David, who would lead the people of God once again to glory.
It is that hope and expectation in contemporary Judaism that lay behind Pontius Pilate’s anxiety demonstrated in his questioning of Jesus. He as the local Roman governor was well aware of the threats to Roman authority by people claiming religious rationale for their actions. “Are you King of the Jews?” Pilate asked Jesus. That is what the Jewish authorities were claiming Jesus had said. But Jesus never really answered his question. For Pilate was concerned with the emergence of political rivals to Roman rule. But Jesus finally said in today’s gospel passage: “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is my kingdom is not from here.”
Jesus was not interested in political kingship, that is, kingship in the world with real political power and clout, but rather in the kingdom of God which had to deal with truth and eternity. It is the kingdom of God which he embodied or incarnated in his birth and life. In that we call Jesus King as on this day, we are always talking about the kingdom of God, God’s reign, which has no claims of territory or earthly power. To Pilate’s follow-up question: “So you are a king?” Jesus answered: “you say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Yes Jesus is surely King but God’s King who reigns over God’s Kingdom of truth and love.
The events of recent weeks have been deeply disturbing to all civilized beings no matter what their religious background or none. Every one of good will would have been outraged by the
Atrocities perpetrated on the Russian aircraft over Sinai, or the mindless shootings in Paris last week, as well other terrible incidents in Lebanon and Mali. Most have been carried out by ISIS or its offshoots claiming political power in the Middle East and to wreak vengeance on their perceived enemies, basically anyone who does not agree with them. ISIS certainly claims an earthly kingdom or caliphate in the name of God. As we have seen in some of the more extreme reactions to these events many blame Islam in general for them. That is about as helpful as saying the atrocities perpetrated by the IRA in Ireland and England in the 1979s and 1980s were to do with Catholicism. Religious claims can always be made to cover up blatant criminal activity used for political ends as in recent cases. As religious people we need to be able distinguish good religion from bad. It is insulting to the average Muslim to say these atrocities were carried out in the name of Islam. Indeed Muslim leaders have been denouncing them along with most other people of good will.
But does our claim that Christ is King this day assist us in any way with our uncertainty, our confusion, our fear and pain, in the light of these recent events? Here I would draw your attention to that second lesson from the Revelation to John. Father Clair expounded very helpfully on that often misunderstood final book of the Bible several weeks ago. As he said then Revelation has far too often been interpreted either by fundamentalists who claim it is literally true or by those who see it as one big metaphor and detract from its powerful message. What we need to keep in mind reading Revelation is that it is written in specific circumstances to seven churches in Asia, the sites four of which I have visited. It is a primarily a pastoral letter written to people like us who were facing times of upheaval and persecution. While the latter may not be the case for us we can identify to some degree in these unsettling and threatening times.
“Grace to you and peace from Him, who is and who was and who is to come…and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” In other words God the King and God’s Kingdom are present now as they have been in times past and will be in times to come. That assurance of God’s kingly presence, of God’s reign, needs to be heard by us today. God does not abandon his people; God does not abandon his Church; God is present now as he has been in the past and will be forever. And through Christ and our baptism into his death and resurrection we are part of God’s Kingdom now. “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
As real as our distress, our fear or confusion may be by recent events never forget we are already part of God’s kingly reign of love and truth. We celebrate that participation and involvement as we share eucharist together. And furthermore Revelation states loud and clearly: “Look! He is coming on the clouds”; and at the end of Revelation “Even so come Lord Jesus.” And “so it is to be. Amen.” “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Thanks be to God for Christ our King. Amen