November 21, 2010 (Christ the King)
1. So did you hear the good news? If you didn’t, you may be living under a rock! Prince William is getting married to his long-time girlfriend, Kate Middleton! Barring some unforeseen circumstance, William and his new wife will eventually ascend the throne of the United Kingdom. William will be king, and his wife Kate will be Queen. Our perennial interest in the British monarchy is fascinating—it would seem that our American democratic character cannot help but be intrigued with the romance and tradition of royalty. We’ve all seen too many movies! Biblical kings were more likely to be exploitative autocrats than ultra-suave, polo-playing dandies. So what do we make of this strange Sunday at the end of the liturgical year? What are we supposed to think about this idea that Christ is King? Does he wear an ermine-lined cape and jeweled crown? Does he live in a palace? Does he rule with absolute authority, or does he leave most everything up to some celestial parliament? And, perhaps the hardest question of all, can you accept/believe that you are subject to a monarch, no matter that it is Jesus? Our scripture readings this morning can help us think some about what it means that Jesus Christ reigns as king.
2. In the letter to the Colossians, our Savior Christ is described in terms of cosmic power. The writer of this letter refers to Jesus as:
· the image of the invisible God;
· the firstborn of all creation;
· head of the body, the church;
· the beginning and the first born of the dead.
The passage declares that all things were created through Jesus Christ, meaning that you and I, the natural world around us, the air we breath, and the infinite expanse of the cosmos were all created in some mystical way through the person of Jesus. Moreover, in this Jesus our King, the entire fullness of God has been pleased to dwell, and all of us can find reconciliation with God and with each other through him.This vision of Christ is amazing, astounding, astonishing. He is so far from the humble babe in the manger, far from the scruffy carpenter, far from the executed teacher and healer. In my imagination, after reading this passage from Colossians, I imagine Jesus getting bigger and bigger until he fills my entire field of vision, until he fills the entire universe. Even for a dyed-in-the-wool anti-authoritarian, it is not that difficult to feel like a subject of this larger-than-life Lord of Life. It reminds me of another of my favorite New Testament passages: the hymn about Christ in the 2nd chapter of Philippians:
“Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord”!
3. But you may find yourself squirming with all this talk of an Almighty King. Your relationship with Jesus isn’t like that maybe. You don’t like the idea of bowing and scraping. Jesus is your friend, your brother, your confidant. Or, even if that’s not completely how you feel about him, he’s not some cosmic overlord! If you feel this way, you are not alone. Theologian Sallie McFague has been one of the most trenchant critics of this way of thinking of Christ, or even God the Creator, as some Almighty Royal Figure. She writes, “My criticism of [this monarchical model] focuses on its inability to serve as the imaginative framework for all of creation….
“The relationship of king to subject is necessarily a distant one: royalty is ‘untouchable.’ It is the distance, the difference, the otherness of God that is underscored in this imagery. God as king in his kingdom—which is not of this earth—and we remain in another place, far from his dwelling. In this picture God is wordless and the world is Godless: the world is empty of God’s presence, because it is too lowly to be the royal abode.”
Some of you have said something more or less like this to me, if not with McFague’s exact words. You don’t like a king Jesus. Thinking of Jesus as king makes him distant, out there, un-relatable.
These criticisms suggest that Christ the King seems, at best, old-fashioned. At worst, it takes away our own God-given human dignity and expects us to genuflect mindlessly as a way to keep us in our place. As a lifelong Protestant, I remember how shocked I was the first time I saw news footage of the ordination service for a Catholic priest. At one point in the service, he doesn’t merely kneel but rather complete prostrates himself face down on the floor before the altar at the front of the church. I mean, in our churches, we don’t even have kneelers in the pews! Our understanding of Christ simply does not call for this kind of self-abasement. How can good democrats (lower-case “D”!) ever find any sort of comfort in a God who treats us like subjects of a king?
4. The thing is, as our Gospel reading makes abundantly clear, Jesus is no ordinary king. He is not far away and up above. He is Jesus. He died with criminals on the cross. But even in his most agonizing moment, he was reaching out to them and inviting them into his kingdom, into his community. This king is someone who, when confronted with earthly kings and powers, receives nothing but mocking. They make fun of him! “If you are the king of the Jews, then do something! Save yourself!”
When the author of the letter to the Colossians describes our Lord Christ as a Cosmic Lord, he must hold that vision of Jesus in tension with the King Jesus who rules from the throne of the cross with a crown of thorns. We must also hold these two visions of king in tension. One is the Lord to whom every knee must bow. The other is the king who offers grace even to the criminal at the hour of his death. If we bow to our King Jesus, we do so because he is with us and loves us. He is not in some distant royal abode, but nor is he someone we can tuck away in our back pocket. He is mighty, and he is kind. He is merciful, and he is just. All things were created through him, and he wants to know you personally.
5. Perhaps the best wisdom I have heard concerning our celebration of Christ the King is from preaching professor David Lose. Lose emphatically explains that when we make Christ our King, this is not just regime change. We are not just replacing our worldly presidents and bosses and lords with Jesus. Lose writes, “But the kingdom – or, maybe better, realm – of God that Jesus proclaims represents a whole new reality where nothing is the same – not our relationships or rules, not our view of self or others, not our priorities or principles – nothing. Everything we thought we knew about kings and kingdoms, in fact, gets turned right on its head.” Lose continues, “If we believe that Christian faith isn't just allegiance to a different sovereign but rather is entrance into an entirely new realm, then who knows what God will expect from us. No longer can we keep our faith a private affair and ignore the need of our neighbor. No longer can we sing robust and rousing hymns about God's glory and majesty and ignore the plight of God's good earth. No longer can we pray that God's kingdom come and yet manage our wealth as if it actually belonged – rather than was entrusted – to us. And no longer can we relegate the realm of God to a comfortably distant – or for that matter frighteningly near – future. The realm and rule of God is all around us, beckoning us to live by its vision and values even now.”
6. So, in this last week before we must absolutely get caught up in Advent and in Christmas, remember again that we exist in this church because Christ is our Head. He defines who we are and how we are to act. He welcomes us and sends us out. He feeds us at this table, and calls us to feed others.
I will conclude with words of praise from the book of Revelation:
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing! Amen.
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