Christ the King Sunday

By The Rev. Deacon Christine McCloud

How many of us are comfortable with the notion of kingships or kingdoms? As Americans and those of us have become "Americanized," the language of kingship is a little problematic for us. Our history as a nation was founded and shaped around the democratic principles of government and the idea of replicating a monarchal type of government was soundly renounced and rejected. Aside from our insatiable curiosity of the comings and goings of the British Royal Family, the idea of kingships and monarchies don't really matter much to us at all.

Today, the church sets aside this last Sunday of the church year to celebrate Christ as King. It is more than just a transition of the church seasons; it is also a time when we pause and stop to acknowledge the reign and kingship of Christ. Some find this day meaningless and unimportant – a colossal waste of time. Others find it odd that the Gospel focuses on the crucifixion story at a time when we're getting ready to prepare for the birth of Christ. I think quite the opposite. More than ever, in our war-torn, polarized and demoralized world, we need to take each and every moment we can to remember Christ as our King. It's a time for us to restore our spiritual wholeness in remembering that Jesus' death upon the cross was not some terrible accident or miscarriage of justice… it was the exclamation point of his ministry here on earth.

In Luke's Gospel, he shares with us his understanding of God's radical love and grace for us. It is in this Gospel that we have Jesus being crucified in the city garbage dump of Jerusalem where in his excruciating pain and final breaths of life, we still find Jesus reaching out to the despised and the rejected.

In moving towards restoring our spiritual wholeness we need to explore exactly who was this King of Kings hanging on a cross in the local city dump. When we take a little time to compare and contrast the Epistle and Gospel readings for today, we get a full picture of Jesus from two absolutely opposite views.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians shares with us a profound spiritual view of who Christ is. "…all things have been created through him and for him …in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…" Luke on the other hand gives us the gut wrenching picture of Jesus hanging on the cross in-between two convicted criminals. The religious leaders scoffed at him, the soldiers mocked him and the people stood by watching and jeering. Even one of the criminals being hanged along with Jesus takes some of his last breaths to insult him.

I imagine that back then, the long awaited Messiah was expected to have a kingdom and rule much like King David did. King David ruled by reclaiming the independence of his people through his mighty armies. Fast forward… here comes Jesus. He's dressed in garments that were more likely closer to pauper's clothing than clothing akin to royalty. He lived among the poorest of the poor… he didn't even have his own home… and he spent most of his days with the despised and least popular folks of his time. And to make matters worse, instead of making his entry into Jerusalem on the back of the "Cadillac" camel, he comes in riding on the back of a donkey. No wonder the crowds mocked him and felt vindicated and content to watch him suffer on the cross.

In some ways today, we still mock Jesus' kingship. The notion of Christ as King in a democratic society seems threatening. Even though many in this democratic society are forever calling for "Christian moral values" to take precedence, there are those of us who ask, whose Christian moral values are we embracing and pushing to the forefront? These so called moral values depicted by the religious right sound neither Christian nor moral to me when they are planted firmly in the language of intolerance and bigotry.

The kingship of Christ and the rule of God is not about earthly power or political authority, revenge or judgment. It is about restoring all of creation to the fullness of peace and justice and to the truth and love that God intended for us. It's about all lands and all people – not just a select few. It's about the interconnectedness of all humanity -- loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus' kingship is and always has been vastly different than the worldly kingship. When we celebrate and embrace Christ as King, we are holding up a king who is, first and foremost, a reconciler, a redeemer, a servant. This is a king who not only comes to show us how to live as a people of God in the kingdom of God, but who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save us from our own sins. This is why it is important that we end our church year not with a story of triumph and vindication, but one of humiliation, pain and vulnerability.

Christ's kingship, the love he offered and proclaimed was too radical, too inclusive and far too dangerous to the status quo, then and now. The battle he fought, and still fights, is that of fear and ignorance. He chose as his weapons, words of mass reconciliation, truth and justice, peace and love. How is it then that the very Jesus who gave his life for us to show us how to love one another has had his message of reconciliation co-opted and transformed into a way to polarize us? We need to understand that when we allow others to take Christ's kingship and turn it around to be a rule of law rather than the reign of love that God intended it to be, we grieve the heart of God and Christ's crucifixion becomes far removed from the reconciling act of love it was intended to be.

Why is Christ the King Sunday important? It is important because it is the day that we reclaim and proclaim the Good News of the Gospels for ourselves and the world. This is day that we stand, not in our own self-righteousness, but in Christ's righteousness and share his enduring, sacrificial love at all times, for all reasons. It is a time that we remember that Christ's kingdom wasn't about exercising dominion over people, but instead to transform our lives through his redeeming love and grace.

In spite of Christ's pain on the cross; he forgives. In spite of His suffering, he promises paradise. He gives us hope for better tomorrows when today looks so bleak and hopeless. If you still have problems with understanding or accepting the whole Christ the King idea, it doesn't matter. What we think about Jesus is not as nearly important as what He thinks about us. Be blessed to know that you and I are the objects of his complete, unconditional and sacrificial love at all times.

Amen.

© 2007 The Rev. Deacon Christine McCloud

Not a hair of your head will perish

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

The Gospel of Luke describes disturbing realities that Jesus tells his disciples will take place. From the destruction of the temple to wars, plagues and persecutions, it is a fearsome litany of pain and misery. And yet in the midst of that list, even the part that includes their death, Jesus says , "But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."

Scholars estimate that the Gospel of Luke was written at the end of the first century AD. This estimation comes from different forms of literary criticism and comparing the several Gospels that we have. Taking that estimate, the writer of Luke may have accounts of Jesus predicting the destruction of the temple, or the writer may have woven these predictions into Jesus' speech as a way of addressing the issues faced by Christians in the later part of the first century. By that time, Christians were in fact being persecuted and killed. There were wars and plagues as the period known as Pax Romana (the Roman Peace) was coming unglued. And the temple had already been destroyed in the year 67AD by the Romans who were punishing the Israelites for a rebellion.

Christians had been expecting the second coming of Jesus during their lifetime and looked to these catastrophic events as signals and were disappointed each time and for some it was cause to doubt that Jesus was in fact coming at all.

Luke employed a well known form of writing at the time called Apocalyptic to address these matters. Writers throughout the Old Testament had used this literary form to make points and so do the Gospel writers. They describe end times in bleak, horrific ways. The purpose is to encourage believers that God will come when things seem to be at their worst. We've all heard a phrase similar to, "Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse..." , something worse happens." Apocalyptic writers described in detail the things that would get worse before the end. And somehow it always seemed worse than what was being experienced.

Yet, no matter what happened, or was predicted would happen, there was always the assurance that God would be there n the midst of the suffering to help the believer through, even if the suffering included death. "Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."

There are a lot of ways we can read into this Gospel lesson. We can look at it in relations the trials and tribulations of the early Christians who watched their beloved temple torn down, and indeed heard rumors of war and plague. Those who suffered persecution and needed reassurance that they had not been abandoned by God at their time of pain and need.

We can measure this story against the times in human history since that people have predicted the end times up to and including some who thought the end was coming when we entered this new millennium. Cries of Y2K (remember that one?) echoed larger fears that our technological infrastructure would come crashing down and paralyze the planet which has become so dependant on this machinery. I remember that night of December 31, 1999 staying up and listening to commentators interviewing many people, some fearful, others hopeful that the end was coming. Well, at one minute past midnight when it became apparent that all the fuss was unnecessary some were relived and others disappointed in the smoothness of the transition.

The rector of my parents' church in Rhode Island had been preaching the end of the world and the coming of Jesus at the millennium with such fervor that she advised them to store food and water in advance of the disaster sure to come. She in fact resigned and moved with her family to upstate New York to wait for Jesus. What she was doing in the Episcopal Church I have no idea.

It was a confusing time for people of faith, especially those whose literal faith told them to expect the worst that never materialized. And here I'm not only speaking of people whose faith was in God, but those whose faith is in other gods such as computers and technology.

We pay people to think up worst case scenarios and solve them in advance. Often they are woefully inadequate in their expectation and their response. 911, Hurricane Katrina and the current war are examples of disasters in a scope no one predicted or was prepared for.

Yet the point of the Gospel lesson is that no matter what the trial that occurs, no matter how bad it may get, hope survives and life continues. God lives and so does the human family. Even those who have died do so in the loving care of God who does not lose anyone. What a comfort it is to hear the words, "Not a hair of your head will perish." In pain, we are God's beloved. In dire circumstance we are God's beloved. In death we are God's beloved.

Another dimension of the Gospel lesson reaches out to us in personal ways. Regardless of what else happens in the world, we each have our own worlds in which we live and move and have our being. Our family, our friends, our work, our neighborhoods. None of us know or can predict what may or may not happen. Each of us can, however, recall times when our lives as we knew them were threatened or in fact ended. Loved ones die, jobs are lost, illness occurs, homes are lost or devastated. I have yet to talk to anyone who can't think of something readily they would have done differently if they know their actions would have caused or precipitated negative consequences.

Yet, no matter what has happened, or in fact what may happen in the future, God's love will be there to sustain us, heal us and lead us beyond whatever trials may befall. Jesus told his disciples that they would be arrested and accused of horrible things and brought before kings and governors to be persecuted. This was a time to testify to God's goodness, not a time to worry or worse, give up hope. He said, "By your endurance you will save your souls."

Sometimes we see people who look as though the weight of the world is on their shoulders and the hard knocks that life has given them has taken the light out of their eyes. They are broken and beaten down. They have in one sense lost their souls. It is true that those whose faith stays with them survive even the worst tragedy. In this sense they gain their souls.

I read a lot of books on healing and faith and once in a while will come across a study done where it's demonstrated that a significant percentage of people in hospital suffering chronic illness, or recuperating from injury or surgery will have a higher rate of successful recovery if they have faith, pray or believe in a higher power that will sustain them. These studies transcend all faiths and to me point out the power of God who also transcends all faiths and the need each of us have in cultivating a significant faith and spirituality.

These lessons of "end times" are part of the lectionary cycle as this liturgical year ends. Whether the Old or New Testament, the readings point our attention to the coming of God into the world. The season of Advent begins in two weeks and brings that anticipation even closer in the expectation of the birth of God among us in the form of Jesus. But at this time in the year, at this time in our lives and in this time in history, God is here among us and God does come among us in times of need and regardless of what happens we are loved by God who tells us in so many ways that "not a hair of your head will perish and by your endurance you will gain your souls." Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ