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Sermon - The Festival of Christ the King (B) - 22nd November 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 and 10am
Readings: 2 Samuel 23:1-7, Psalm 132:1-12, Revelation 1:4b-8, John 18:33-37
With the festival of Christ the King we come to the end of another pilgrimage through the Christian year. As some of you may know, Christ the King Sunday was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI as a means of addressing the rise of totalitarianism and atheistic communism. In 1969 it was set on the last Sunday of the Church’s year and our lectionary continued the tradition. The issues that the church was concerned about when this festival began are can be seen to be represented in our world today. The Pope wrote:
"… the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretence of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men and women seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men and women have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin."
In 1933, just eight years later, a group of German pastors, theologians, professors, which included Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonheoffer came together to discuss and approve “The Declaration of Barmen”. The Barmen Declaration was an appeal to the Evangelical Churches of Germany to stand firm against other Christians' accommodation to the ideals of Hitler's National Socialism. The Barmen declaration proclaimed that Jesus Christ is Lord of the church and of every area of a Christian's life. It rejected the false doctrine that the State could become the single and totalitarian order of human life. It rejected the false doctrine that the church should become an organ of the State. Though its purpose was to address a specific crisis in Germany, the Barmen declaration is very much in keeping with the spirit and concern of Pope Pius' Encyclical. In the face of much opposition it proclaimed that Christ alone is King and Lord of the Church and its members.
We do not have Hitler, Mussolini or rampant atheistic Communism to contend with today but it is no easier for us in our society today to live in a manner proclaims that Christ is King. Actually living our lives as though Christ is sovereign over every aspect of them is just as challenging today as it is in any other era of history. There are many other influences and desires that pull at us and affect our actions and decisions. We are both people of this world and part of Christ’s kingdom that is not of this world, it is this world's temptations that we constantly have to weigh and that makes it difficult to discern the truth and the way of the kingdom of God.
The ideal of the Davidic monarchy is the closest we have to an understanding of the messianic king, but we know that even David and every human king that came after him fell far short of what God intended. In the first reading, we at least have a picture of the ideal kingship, which we are told are David's last words. It is a poetic summation of David's life and vocation. It tells us what God's intentions were for the anointed one: God’s king.
David's kingship is from God and it is God's spirit that speaks through him. David is not self-made. The ideal for David's kingship is, "One who rules over people justly, or with righteousness”. Righteousness in the Old Testament has everything to do with justice, justice for those who are oppressed, for the poor, for widows and orphans, even for the strangers in the land. As the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann says,
(Biblical) "Kingship is not merely a gift of power. It is a concern for public wellbeing. Royal theology at its best summons the king to attend to issues of justice and righteousness, to the administration of public power for the sake of the weak, powerless, afflicted and marginal."
The king, who rules in this manner will be a ray of hope, will bring life to the land and people. The king who rules justly will be like the sun rising on a clear morning, its light glistening from rain on the grassy land. It is an image of wellbeing and hope, sun rising on a fertile land that has just been nourished by a rainfall. We know that the kings of Israel failed to live up to this ideal. Even so the people trusted in the Messianic promise of a just and righteous king. As Christians, we believe that Christ the king is the fulfilment of that promise.
Christ doesn't come in a way that the people of Israel expected. "My kingdom is not of this world," he tells Pilate. His kingdom is not of human origin, but of divine. It is not an earthly power. He is not going to overthrow Roman rule and establish an earthly, political realm. His sovereignty, his power, comes from bearing the truth, being the truth and bearing witness to the truth: the truth of God's kingdom and its ways. The truth of love, righteousness and eternal life that ultimately is the only power.
"Are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate asks. Pilate has no concept of kingship other than political. If Jesus is claiming to be King of the Jews, then he is indeed a threat to Pilate and to Rome's political power. "My kingdom is not from this world," he says. Jesus is not leading a band of rebels who have taken up arms and will fight to set him in power. He is not a political threat to Pilate. He is asking Pilate to choose the light of truth, but Pilate chooses to remain in the dark.
Jesus speaks of a kingdom that is not from this world. Jesus continues, "and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." It is a challenge to Pilate. "Do you belong to the truth?" Pilate rejects the truth. His famous retort, "What is truth?" is not deep philosophical speculation on Pilate's part. It's his rejection of Jesus and Jesus' truth.
John portrays Pilate as one, who does not really want to find Jesus guilty, but wants to remain neutral, wants to find a way out without really making a decision. There is no way to do that. You can't remain neutral in the face of truth, you either decide for or against it. You accept it and follow it, or you reject it.
We are here today because we have chosen not to remain neutral; we have chosen to follow Jesus, believing that he is "the way, the truth and the life”. We belong to the truth and listen to his voice. As we celebrate two baptisms this morning, we believe that in our baptisms we have been clothed in Christ and that is something that can never be undone. Yet, we are challenged by what it means to live into and live out of our proclamation of Christ as King every day. Every one of us has been chosen and has responded to God's choosing. We are asked to choose over and over who and what we will serve. Will we serve the truth? Will we live as though Christ is our king? We are faced with that challenge every time we make a decision about how we will spend our time, our energy and our money. We face that challenge each time we interact with someone around us, each time we are presented with an opportunity to participate in the righteousness of God by speaking out for and reaching out to those who are poor, without a voice, hungry, in prison, on the margins of society, homeless, refugees, oppressed, lonely, or lost. Proclaiming and living as though Christ is king means that following him and listening to his voice, informs the way we participate or refuse to participate in the institutions of the world.
In Revelation, John proclaims that Jesus is the faithful witness "and the ruler of the kings of the earth”. In loving and freeing us from our sins, Christ has made us to be a kingdom, priests serving God. We are all a part of God’s kingdom not of this world, but of God. We are priests in that realm, mediators between God and this world. To celebrate Christ the King means to take our place in that kingdom of priests, to be those through whom God carries out the work of his kingdom, not of this world, but most definitely in this world. It means living here and now, each day, from moment to moment as followers of the only Lord and King of our lives, followers of the truth, followers of the one who rules with righteousness.
On this festival day of Christ the King, may we re-commit ourselves to make Christ the sovereign of our lives, to listen to his voice as those who belong to the truth. Christ must reign in our minds, … Christ must reign in our wills, … Christ must reign in our hearts, … Christ must reign in our bodies and in our members, …"
When the Festival of Christ the King was first instituted and celebrated, proclaiming that Christ alone was Lord and King was a dangerous, counter-cultural choice to make. Those in power in our world often do not choose the truth or the way of righteousness. If we proclaim Christ as King and if we are to live out our God-given vocation as priests of God's realm, then there is no other path for us than Christ's way of truth and righteousness. Neutrality is not a choice. We either serve the world or serve the truth that is Christ. It is the only way to life.
This sermon based upon one written by the Reverend Beverly Bartlett, The Madison Avenue Pulpit, www.mapc.com