Sermon: Christ the King: Who are we waiting for? John 18: 33-37

Transcription

1 Sermon: Christ the King: Who are we waiting for? John 18: Opening Prayer: Today as we think about Christ as our King, help us to reflect on how Christ is King in our lives, and help us to follow him more faithfully. Amen. Today is the last Sunday in the church year which, since the 1970s has been called Christ the King. Next Sunday is Advent Sunday, the start of a new church year, and of the season when we are encouraged to take a reflective look at our lives, and at the world around us, as we prepare to welcome the infant Christ into our lives afresh at Christmas. I like the focus on Christ as our King at this time of year, as I think it is very fitting that just before we start our Advent season of preparation, we have a look at Christ the King, in the glory of all his completed kingship, and ask ourselves, Who is this King that we follow? Who is this king that we are preparing to welcome? When Jesus was born, the Bible tells us that his people had been waiting for a Messiah, for a king sent by God, for a very long time, for hundreds of years. So what were they expecting? What do we expect from the king we are waiting for? And how should we welcome properly him when he comes? I don t know what your experience is, but I have never had to welcome a real live king, properly or otherwise. But I was in Leicester Diocese as the people, and the city, and the Church in Leicester discovered that they had to welcome home a king. Maybe you remember the discovery of Richard III. At first, in August 2012, I think most of us in Leicestershire, if we noticed anything at all, just thought we had an archaeological dig in our midst, driven by an enthusiast with something of an obsession about a battle long ago. The dig started at a car park outside the offices of what had been the County Council Child Protection Department. And as it became apparent that the dig was going to be searching for Richard III, who had

2 allegedly murdered the princes in the Tower, you can probably imagine some of the jokes that were soon being told. But the car park was also thought to be the site of the Greyfriars monastery, where the body of Richard III was reported to have been buried after his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth. All the people who had scoffed at the absurdity of the project fell silent when, on the very first day of the dig, archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a man in his thirties with severe injuries, and with signs of a severe curvature of the spine, who had been buried very close to where the altar of the Friary church was through to have been, possibly even under the altar itself. Very quickly, Leicester Diocese and Leicester Cathedral went into feeling their way through unknown territory, as further discoveries and tests showed that it was more and more likely that the skeleton was indeed that of Richard III. DNA tests of the bones were carried out, intensive searches uncovered those who today are Richard III s closest living descendants, and they were DNA tested too. In February 2013, the University of Leicester announced that beyond reasonable doubt, we had the skeleton of Richard III, and Leicester Cathedral began to prepare for a reburial and a service of remembrance suitable for a king. A week before Palm Sunday in 2015, Richard III s remains again left the site of the Battle of Bosworth, this time not thrown over the back of a horse, but in what looked very similar to a state funeral cortege, to retrace the route his body would originally have taken into Leicester in After 3 days lying in repose in the Cathedral, with waiting times of 4 hours for people to file past, his remains were reburied under a tomb that the interior of the cathedral had been remodelled to accommodate. On Palm Sunday that year, I think virtually every sermon preached in Leicester Diocese contrasted the entry of Richard III into Leicester with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We expect a king to make a grand entrance. We expect it to be hard for ordinary people to get to see them. We expect to

3 have to make them look and feel special. So what about Jesus? What about his entry into our lives, and his kingship? Of course, we all know the Christmas story. We all know that at that very first Christmas, Jesus arrived in Bethlehem, heralded only by God s messengers, and welcomed only by shepherds, by society s rejects. Poverty instead of power, obscurity instead of pageantry. My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus told Pilate. So what is his kingdom about? I came into the world to testify to the truth, Jesus again tells Pilate. I believe Jesus kingdom is about transformed hearts and minds and lives, about God s holiness confronting human sinfulness. And, as all four gospels tell us, when human sin confronted God s holiness, in the kingship of Jesus, Jesus was mocked and humiliated and crucified. Yet we are here because the story is not one of defeat. From the very first disciples on, there have always been those who recognised Jesus very different kind of kingship, who recognised and welcomed the kingdom of God that Jesus came to bring. And to all those who recognise his kingship, Jesus says, as he said to the criminal on the cross beside him, truly you will be with me in paradise. So as we celebrate Christ as King today, and as we begin to prepare ourselves again to welcome him afresh into our lives as king at Christmas, I believe we need to ask, where is God being mocked and crucified in our world today? In 1912 Canon Henry Scott Holland, who was working in the slums of London, said that the more you believe in God being born in human form in Jesus, the more you care about drains. For Canon Henry Scott Holland, living as a believer in the kingdom of God, meant working in the slums to eliminate the health problems brought about by overcrowding and poor sanitation. I wonder what living as a believer in the kingdom of God means for you today? I wonder where you see God being mocked and humiliated and crucified today? I see God mocked when we fail to take steps to combat the climate change that is destroying the livelihoods and the lives of the

4 world s poorest. Or when we try to reduce our personal tax bill, or make money out of housing in a nation that has an ever increasing number of homeless. Or when we fail to speak out against our government s arms sales fuelling the conflict in the Middle East, or to regimes condemned by the United Nations for repression or genocide. So for me, living as one who believes in the kingdom of God, the kingship of Jesus, means looking daily at how I live. For me, it means caring about our planet as well as about God s people. It means seeking to tread lightly through this life, seeking to avoid doing harm, and if possible to do good, by the things I buy and the way I live. So, for example, on a large scale, I have chosen as my energy supplier the company that seems most committed to investment in renewable energy, and I support campaigns against the arms trade and against fossil fuel use. On a very small scale, I crush cans and cut up elastic bands or any plastic loops before I throw them out, to try to prevent them harming wildlife. And in between, I try to wear clothes and use objects until they wear out, and I try to remember to ask myself before I buy anything, how much do I really need this? And because I know I make mistakes and because I know our understanding of how we affect one another and our planet is always growing and changing, I try to be a learner. I try to listen to others who can help me improve my understanding of what ethical living means in our world, our nation, today. And I constantly remind myself that God calls me to care because God cares, calls me to love because God loves. I am not suggesting that my way of following Christ as King is the right way or the only way. But I am encouraging each one of us to ask ourselves what difference it makes to us that we follow a King who calls us to love one another and to serve one another. And I am encouraging each one of us, myself included, to take some time to reflect on how we could follow him more faithfully. Let us pray: Lord, give us grace to kneel in our hearts before Christ the

5 King, who gave up his life to serve us, and help us to live our lives in faithful love and service to one another and to you. Amen Louise Petheram