Transcript
Jesus answered, my kingdom is not from this world. Please be seated.
Welcome back. It’s good to see you all again, especially those of you who were here last week and heard the first half of this sermon. For those of you who weren’t here last week, you should go back and listen to the doom and gloom. Because, as promised, today is the good news sermon. Last week, Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple and the end of the world, the beginning of the birth pangs, As Jesus called them of the eschaton. His prediction was definitely doom and gloom, and to be honest, so was my sermon.
This week, though, this week is the good news, the promise that in the end, despite all the destruction, it will not be the end for us. For those of us who follow Christ to obey God, who know when our hearts and our minds and our souls, that Christ is the one who is and who was and who is to come, that Christ is King. No matter what happens here, what we lose, what we suffer, what we experience and fear and pain and anger and loss. Christ is King and reigns forever and a kingdom not like anything we’ve ever imagined or dreamed of. A kingdom that mirrors the small glimpses of perfection we witnessed when Jesus was here the first time, when illnesses were cured and death overcome, and the children and the poor were uplifted. When the hungry were fed and the naked were clothed, and those who truly believed received the gifts from Jesus that Jesus so freely gave to anyone willing to risk their status, their position, even their fear to be with Jesus, to follow Jesus, to obey Jesus. If last week was all about the destruction we experience, even in our own lives, the intimate and very personal losses of what it is, we hold on to, this week is the comfort that even in that destruction, Jesus is still the one who is, who was, and is who to come. The one to heal. To give hope. To give love.
In today’s gospel reading from John, Pilate keeps asking Jesus, are you a king? Specifically, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Because at this point, Pilate knows that Jesus really didn’t do anything wrong. And the kingship that Jesus is talking about is not some political overthrow of the current system at that time. And yet Pilate has people who are angry, who want Jesus to be punished by offe- for offering a different kind of life, a life of hope and of faith. So Pilate asks again, so are you a king? I counted, by the way, there are five question marks in this passage: four from Pilate and one from Jesus. And honestly, I’m not sure we get a real answer from either of them. Except we do get this.
This answer from Jesus who says, my kingdom is not from the world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. I’m sad to say there is one more line in this exchange that, for whatever reason, was cut from the reading. After Jesus ends with this message about those who belong, listening to his voice, Pilate asks one more question what is truth? What is truth? The answer is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior who is and who was and who is to come. The one who has dominion over all, all creation, all cosmos, all humanity, and all those systems we create to organize our lives socially, economically, legally, politically, no matter what.
Christ is King and Christ Kingdom isn’t just like all the other kingdoms we know. It’s not like a medieval kingdom or colonial kingdom. It is a kingdom that is not of this world. It is a kingdom that puts on the throne to rule all a man who would rather ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, a man who eats with sinners and tax collectors, who heals the broken and mind, body, and spirit. A man who would rather hang on the cross and die than exhibit his all powerful ness. Because in dying he exhibits far more power than any act any one of us could have done or even imagined. The very act of overcoming death.
And when that kingdom comes, the kingdom ruled by Christ, all pain will be gone. All fear will be gone. All anger and sadness and hurt will be gone. What a glorious kingdom. What a glorious promise.
Now I’m going to take a moment and say this. Because although I promised a sermon of good news, what I’m about to say might not sound like good news. At least not the kind of good news that would make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, which is the honoring of Christ as King and a kingdom that is to come when Christ returns. And that is a wonderful idea, a great concept, and also very, very dangerous. Because it is this concept, this idea that today our lives, it all might be really hard and really not good, but it’s okay if we just survive, then in the next kingdom, when Jesus is King, we’ll all be so much better off. That sounds fine for those of us who don’t have perfect lives we want, but have some pretty good lives as it is. But it’s very dangerous for people who do not.
It was this theology that kept slaves enslaved. They kept those who were in poverty and as social outcasts on the edges of society. That continues to keep those who feel injustice on the sidelines of any major conversation that could change the very systems that keep them on the edges of said society. Don’t let this concept, this theology that Christ is King and his kingdom is coming be an excuse to keep pushing those who are on the edge closer to the edge. Don’t let this be an excuse for why we might be helpless, or maybe more accurately, unwilling to help those who otherwise wouldn’t be helped, wouldn’t be heard, wouldn’t be honored for who they are. Humans created in God’s image as God’s beloved, just like each and every single one of us.
As I bring this sermon to a close, I want to share a little bit more about the history of Christ the King. Sunday Christ the King Sunday was formally established in the Catholic Church by Pope Pius the 11th in 1925. Yes, 1925, 99 years ago. If you know your history, you probably have a slightly better understanding of this holiday and its theology now. You see, in 1920, Pope Benedict the 15th, that’s the Pope prior to Pius, wrote about a fear he was experiencing, especially coming out of World War One, that tyrannical leadership could easily emerge. Benedict saw hungry people hating each other, seeking enemies among themselves, as well as seeking quick and easy ways to better their own lives. And while his lesson was to try to refocus the global citizenry on love, what it did was focus the Holy See (that means the Pope) on the risk and the chaos that was about to unfold around the world.
And so once Pius was seated, that’s what it’s called. When the next Pope comes in, he established Christ the King Sunday to remind people that even in the midst of hunger and hatred, even in the midst of rising political powers who promise the world and then some, they can’t and they don’t. Keep in mind, this was around the time that fascism, that would be Mussolini; National Socialism, that was Hitler; and communism, that’s Stalin, were starting to get a lot of social attention and political success, making promises that only Christ could keep. So even in the midst of what felt like the world was coming to an end as we knew it, no matter what anyone else says or claims to be or does, Christ is still the one and only true King of all creation, and only Christ has true sovereign over all. That is what Christ the King Sunday is all about.
No matter what is promised to us in this world and this life, Christ is the only one who can deliver what we truly need a kingdom of true peace, a kingdom of true love for all people, no matter who they are, no matter what they do, no matter where they are in society. Christ as King loves everyone, even you and me. Christ is King. Amen.