Sunday, November 25, 2018

Sermon - Christ the King Sunday


John 18:33-37    

                                                 Christ the King 


“So, you are a king?”

This is a very troubling question.  Or is it really a statement?  There is a question mark at the end of the sentence, but it seems as if Pilate is reaching a conclusion.  He had previously asked Jesus if he was “the King…”  It is after a bit of back and forth that Pilate again attempts to get to the heart of the matter regarding who Jesus is or at least who Jesus thinks he is.

Is Jesus a king?  
Is Jesus “the” king? 
Is he your king?

Christ the King Sunday is positioned at the end of the liturgical year in order to confront and challenge church-goers to answer this question.  Christ the King Sunday comes after fifty-one weeks of hearing the Jesus story.  In these fifty-one weeks we have gone from looking for a savior, to speaking of a spectacular birth, realizing that many won’t want to follow, seeing the one in whom we were beginning to find hope hung on a cross, receiving the witness of some who saw a resurrected Jesus, and then twenty-six weeks of looking more intently at the stories which flew by too fast between Epiphany and Easter.  Fifty-two weeks.  And now it is time to decide. 

Is Jesus a king?  
Is Jesus “the” king? 
Is he your king?

There is nothing more which can be told you on this Sunday, there is no new information or insight to share.   It is simply decision time.

And I will be the first to acknowledge that it isn’t an easy or simple decision.

It has never been easy, or simple.

The Church has not always had a “Christ the King Sunday.”  It is really a rather recent addition to the liturgical calendar.  Anyone able to recall the year when the “Feast of Christ the King” was introduced?  Well, it was 1925 when Pope Pius XI instituted this observance.  He felt that folks might need help in deciding, or at least acknowledging, who they looked to for their ultimate hope and assurance.

1925 – the mood of the times was one of rising nationalism and autocratic rulers.  Pope Pius XI saw the need for the Church to confront itself as to where it finds its most compelling allegiance.

Understandably, Christ the King Sunday has its critics.  In the most recent years, it has been the need to interpret “King” language.  I realize that most of the sermons I have preached on Christ the King fall into the category of trying to draw a distinction between the types of persons the world identifies as a king and the type of king Christ seeks to be.  The kingdom of Christ is marked by compassion and service, with self-sacrifice and self-denial.  “Christ is no ordinary king!” has been a popular refrain in many sermons.

Another criticism is rooted in the well-worn notion of two-kingdoms.  The critic being that there are kingdoms of this world, then there is the heavenly kingdom.  Preachers fixated on this notion will often minimize our engagement with temporal or present day kingdoms; telling us instead to look to the kingdom to come.  “What does it really matter?” they may ask, “How the kingdoms of this world configure themselves?”

What have you heard, over the years?  Of course, those of us over forty-four years old might remember a time when there was no Christ the King.  It wasn’t until the 1974 COCU Lectionary (forerunner to the Common Lectionary ((1983)), which preceded the Revised Common Lectionary (((1994))) ) that Protestant Churches regularly included Christ the King.  Think about 1974 and 1983 and you can start to understand why most presentations regarding Christ the King were attempts to speak of an alternative “kingdom to come” in the “sweet by and by.”

And thus, we might have missed the challenge inherent in Pope Pius’ efforts; we might have successfully avoided the questions set before us by Christ the King Sunday.

Is Christ a king?  
Is Christ “the” king? 
Is Christ your king?

For the record, let’s acknowledge how confusing all of this was for the earliest of characters.  Pilate knows full well the challenge which Jesus presents to his authority and reign.  Never ever forget that it was on a Roman Cross that Jesus is crucified.  He may be handed over by the Temple leaders, but Rome is the one who condemns him to death.  While it may not have been lawful for the religious types to condemn someone to death, they do it.  Remember the martyrdom of Stephen, in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ Resurrection.  That execution was carried out by the folks in the Temple, without concern for what was legal or lawful.

When Pilate interviews Jesus (our Gospel lesson for today), Pilate asks him “Are you the King.”  I want you to look at your bulletin, and if you have a pen or pencil, I would suggest you go through this reading and everywhere you see “Jew”, strike it and write “Judean.”  One of the difficulties in reading the story in English (even Latin for that matter) is the failure to remember that “Jew” and “Judean” are two separate Greek words.  Pilate asks Jesus if he is the “King of the Judeans.”

The “Judeans,” to Pilate, were the folks with political and social clout living in and around the region of Jerusalem.  The “Judeans,” to Pilate, were a political entity rather than a religious affiliation.  Pilate isn’t asking if Jesus is the spiritual leader of a religious people.  Pilate is asking if Jesus is seeking to be known as the ruler of the people of Judea.

What we know, from having just completed fifty-one weeks of readings from the Gospel of Mark, is that Jesus is a Galilean.  In the north, in the region of Galilea, he has some bumps along the way.  But it when his message comes into the territory of Judea that the religious types began to condemn his presentation of the faith of Abraham and point out how he isn’t living in accordance with the traditions of the Judean Jews.

Pilate doesn’t care. “Pray to whomever you want!” may have been the unspoken thought.  But he won’t tolerate Jesus setting before the residents of his territory those questions which bedevil any who hold power and want to continue to hold power:
Is Christ a king?  
Is Christ “the” king? 
Is Christ your king?

Pope Pius XI wanted to remind the followers of Jesus that ethic identity or country of origin was of little consequence to us.  We are citizens of a kingdom established on Golgotha; our allegiance is to the teachings and doctrines of Holy Scripture and the Creeds of the Church.

The Kingdom of Christ is a kingdom which does differ greatly from the kingdoms of this world.  It is also a Kingdom whose time has come and is as much a part of our daily existence as it will be when we are gathered with the saints of old.

I want you to hear me say that I know it is tough to choose the Kingdom of Christ over the kingdoms of this world.  I will confess how difficult (and at times seemingly impossible) it is for me to choose rightly.  You have called me as your pastor.  You have given me the luxury of studying theology and church history.  In faithfulness to that call and in attempting to share what I have learned, I set before you those three telling questions:
Is Christ a king?  
Is Christ “the” king? 
Is Christ your king?

Amen.

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