(This sermon was given at Central Lutheran Church on Christ the King Sunday, November 25, 2012. The gospel for the day is from John 18:33-37.)
Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, a relatively new
festival in the church calendar. Christ the King Sunday was created in 1925 by
Pope Pius XI, as a response to growing nationalism and secularism in Europe. So
we hear readings, like the ones you just heard, that lift up God as powerful
ruler, mighty king and lord of all. When I hear such readings, like the visions
described in Daniel and Revelation, I think of cartoonist Gary Larson and his
Far Side comic images of God: a long beard and phenomenal cosmic powers. God dusts his opponent in a game show, or adds a few jerks to the earth for fun.
While I appreciate Larson’s humor, the truth is, it doesn’t
always seem like God is in control. It doesn’t always seem like Christ is king
and lord of all. We experience brokenness in our bodies, lives and families. We
see wars rage in Syria and Gaza. We see hunger and poverty here at home and
overseas. We just came through a national election cycle that left some of us
disappointed, some of us cautiously optimistic but all of us keenly aware of
the problems in our nation that desperately need solutions.
In Confirmation class a few weeks ago, we studied the kings
of ancient Israel. In most Bibles, there’s a chart of the kings, years served
and if they were good or bad. It looks something like this: bad, bad, bad, bad,
bad, good, bad, bad, bad, bad and bad. I explained to the students that a king
in ancient Israel was judged “good” based not on political or military strategy
but by faithfulness to God. I explained that God didn’t want Israel to have
kings in the first place. A king takes valuable resources for armies, chariots,
courts and palaces that could have been given to the poor. A king with absolute
power can become corrupt. Most importantly, a king creates unity under a
national identity instead of under God. People put their faith, security and
trust in the king and the empire instead of God. One of the students shot up
her hand; I could almost see a light bulb above her head, and said, “Like we do
today!”
Yes, yes we do. We don’t have kings but we are tempted to
place our identity, trust and security in all manner of things that are not
God. We trust political parties or leaders and place our identity there. We
trust money, investments and possessions. We create an identity for ourselves
based on work or accumulation of wealth. We believe the messages that
advertisers tell us about the things we need to purchase for the sake of
identity or security. We put our trust in all kinds of things that are not God.
In today’s gospel story, Pontius Pilate is trying to figure
out who to trust: Jesus or the Jewish religious authorities. This section is
part of a larger narrative in John’s gospel, a back-and-forth where Pilate
moves between Jesus, who is in Pilate’s headquarters, to the religious
authorities who wait outside. Pilate is trying to figure out the truth or at
least trying to get out of this tangle.
The question of kingship arises right away. Pilate asks, as
he does in all four gospels, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Ironically, Jesus
actually is the king of the Jews and the ruler of all, but not in the way that
Pilate thinks. Later, Jesus will get a crown of thorns and a purple robe as a
mockery. He will be lifted up on a cross and three days later his real power
will be revealed. He is a different kind of king than Pilate imagines. The king
of kings and lord of lords is standing right before Pilate and Pilate cannot
see it. Pilate asks, “What is truth?” without realizing that The Truth is
standing right in front of him. Jesus says that everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to his voice. Pilate missed it. Do we?
This text and this festival Sunday asks us to examine where
we place our identity, our security and our sense of truth. Do we, like Pilate,
go back and forth between Jesus and the competing voices in our world? Where do
our loyalties rest?
Thanksgiving came early this year. Usually the Sunday after
Thanksgiving is Advent 1, not Christ the King. It’s an interesting
juxtaposition. We celebrate Christ as King today, though in the secular world
Christmas started on Black Friday and with it the excesses. Too many
advertising fliers, too many sweets, too many gifts people don’t need, too many
parties, too much busy-ness. In light
of this, what does it mean to proclaim Christ as King? What does it mean to
place our primary identity and security in God?
This is what it means to proclaim Christ as King: We claim
that we belong to Christ; our most important identity is child of God. We claim
that no matter who is president, God is at work in this world. We claim that
the love and presence and power of God are everywhere, whether we can see it or
not. We claim that forgiveness, mercy and peace are possible. We claim that
love is more powerful that hate and that non-violence is stronger than weapons.
God rules, God reigns, even if and especially when we cannot see it. Just like
the power of God wasn’t obvious on the cross, love and truth won, three days
later on Easter Sunday. It may seem the powers of this world are in control,
but God is working and moving and loving, in hidden and surprising ways. Jesus
was a different kind of king than Pilate expected. Might Jesus be working and
moving and reigning in your life in a different way than you expect?
In his ministry on earth, Jesus said and showed what the
kingdom of God would look like. There would be peace making instead of
war-mongering, liberation instead of exploitation, mercy instead of vengeance,
care for the vulnerable instead of privileges for the powerful, generosity
instead of greed and embrace instead of exclusion.
This is the work of the church, our part in the kingdom of
God. We come here, week after week, to remind each other that hope is possible
and that the love and power of God reigns. We need to hear this, and so does our world. Then
we get to work, making this world look a little more like the kingdom of God.
Amen.
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