Christ the King. Today on our Christian calendar we come to the end of another liturgical church year. The season of Pentecost, which began on

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1 Christ the King Many, if not most of you, might be unaware of my undergraduate work that I completed at Kansas State University back in the early 80 s. My Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science scratched an itch in my brain that arose out of a childhood frustration, which started with seeing the evening news on television. I didn t get it. I remember seeing Walter Cronkite on the television speaking very plain English, but I didn t understand anything he was talking about. And through my teenage years I was mostly a B/B-minus student while being consumed with my involvement in sports. So, I decided that college for me was going to be an experience that filled in that gaping hole in my brain. The biggest mystery to me was politics and government so Political Science was at natural choice. You see, some people say you go to college to prepare for your future I went to college to fill in my ignorance. As a sophomore at Kansas State University, I was surprised to learn that the style of governance in the United States a republic that chooses its leaders democratically was NOT a tried and true system of government. Democracies, history teaches us, have always been, well, temporary. Overwhelmingly the most popular form of government of the past was the totalitarian style with a monarch, usually a male monarch a King at its head. Kings, before the thinking that they had a divine right to exist were actually military heroes who won battles that had the people pledging their everlasting devotion to them. Today there are still many countries that have a titular King or Monarchy; there are a few still in Europe but most of them are in Asia, the South Pacific, and the Middle East. Today on our Christian calendar we come to the end of another liturgical church year. The season of Pentecost, which began on

2 May 20, comes to its conclusion today. Next week we ll start the whole cycle over again with the season of Advent. But today, on the final hurrah of Pentecost, we celebrate what we call Christ the King Sunday. It s a relatively recent addition to the liturgical calendar a 20th Century kind of thing that was moved to THIS day the last Sunday of the church year before Advent 1 in 1960 by Paul VI. Christ the King, interesting. We don t do much with Kings today. As kids I can remember when someone got a little too full of themselves, we d say something like, Who died and made you King? Advertising used the idea of King to sell stuff like margarine remember Imperial margarine? Or mattresses what s the biggest size mattress you can buy? That s right King Size! Or that huge bag of dog food King Size. Or burgers Burger King! The idea of King has been so relegated to the arena of cartoon that we don t have a lot of room in our liturgical spiritual baskets for the idea of King. Think about it, why would we? Kings are an outdated form of governance that has been surpassed by the democratic republic especially in the Western hemisphere. For most of us when we think of Kings we think of tyrants and dictators; but, in Jesus day the idea of King was a very big deal. If you re not familiar with the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and more importantly the theology of it, I highly recommend you do. I don t have a lot of music on my ipod (only about 72 songs) but THIS musical, in its entirety, I do. This 1970 rock opera retells the final week of Jesus life and ministry with a particular keenness toward the idea of Jesus as King. In the play, Judas motivation to betray Jesus fully arises out of his fear that, due to Jesus popularity, the people would want to make him king, knowing full well that if they did, that would mean the end of Israel....AGAIN. And if there s any nation that did

3 NOT have a history of being independent and autonomous, it was ancient Israel. Jesus popularity could result in death and destruction. In fact, Death and destruction because of one man sing the high priests who plot with Judas to take Jesus into custody. So, our gospel reading, for today unique to John s Gospel, the conversation between Pilate and Jesus, well, it is dramatized in Jesus Christ Superstar as well. In its depiction, and I hope you heard this in the reading, Pilate is obsessed with the charge that Jesus is claiming to be a King because, remember, back then, Kings weren t just popular teachers or philosophers or people who born into a family thought to have a divine right who got hoisted onto a throne adorned with a robe, scepter and crown, but they were military leaders who rose to power through leading armed revolutions. Back in that day and age you didn t get to be king without getting blood on your hands. Pilate had to decide whether or not Jesus was a danger to Rome s power and authority in the region. So, getting back to that 1970 musical, the first time we hear the popular Jesus Christ Superstar refrain is in a song that goes back and forth from the peoples proclaiming their praise Jesus Christ Superstar, with the religious leaders uttering the dirge, he is dangerous. Well, we know how the whole thing comes out, afterall, we ve been here for Good Friday and Easter. But the idea of Jesus as dangerous, interesting I doubt many of us who live in Scottsdale USA feel Jesus as very dangerous at all. I mean, if anything, Jesus has become quite, well, anything but dangerous he s actually very safe, secure and harmless. And this should be troubling to authentic Christians, especially Christians who are committed to living a life of transformation into the image of God s Son.

4 Think about it. You don t get to be king without getting blood on your hands, but Jesus didn t want to get anyone s blood on his hands. Jesus wasn t out to divide and conquer. Jesus was setting a new standard for leadership. Jesus was paving a road to a new kind of rule a new kind of King. Jesus was setting a new course for how being powerful in the world should look, and it was by becoming powerless. Oh, Jesus, indeed by the end of his ministry when he is raised up, as John s gospel puts it, would get blood on his hands... but it was his own. Yes, Jesus kingship is totally a product of his willingness to give of himself sacrificially, and lovingly to the exigencies of life that nail you down and suck the life out of you, by bleeding it out of you. This is the new model of love, my friends, that Jesus created. This picture of Christ on the cross is a picture of what love, true love, divine love, looks like when it is exposed to what this world has to offer. This cruciform Christ is our model of sacrificial giving of ourselves. This has a huge impact on us and our lives and how we choose to live our lives. Today is the formal end of our annual Stewardship campaign; and in a few more minutes we re going to dedicate our pledges to the work of God through this church. Please don t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to play a part in what God is doing in the world through Nativity. One of the best things about pledging your tithes and offerings and sacrificially giving to the work of the church is that you get to participate in the best good that God has to give through this body of believers. For me, I can t NOT do it. If YOU ve never pledged and don t know where to start, well, start with what you know you can give and let THAT be the beginning. I remember hearing sermons in

5 the Baptist church growing up that said if you re not giving ten percent of your income to the church then you re robbing God. I can t say that. What I CAN say is that, for me, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of Glory died, I can t withhold my love, my life, my all. I personally started where I started and then devoted myself to increasing my pledge by at least ten percent a year year after year after year. Now I know that I m not paying for my salvation. I know that Jesus demonstration of love doesn t demand my money, God doesn t want your money ; but what else besides my money can I give to God that puts gas in the tank so this Nativity ministry in north Scottsdale can live and thrive and reach the world for the good of love? In our Gospel reading we heard Jesus tell Pilate basically, that if he were a King its not the kind of King that the world has ever seen before. His job was to testify to the truth, to tell the truth about how it is that God loves us even in our imperfections. To be the truth that is willing to die for love. Everyone who belongs to the truth hears my voice. Do you hear it? Our Christ, our King IS a king with blood on his hands, but it s his own and he loves us THAT much. We gather today on this festival of Christ the King with a grand opportunity to give a tangible sign of the reality of our highest priorities. Please don t miss out. The hope of glory is real, my friends. The hope that IS the love of God in Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world IS REAL. Invest in that to the good of God s church and people. We ARE in this together we march to the sound of our Hosannas. Save us O Lord. Now to him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to present us flawless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy, to

6 the only wise God our savior (and King) be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.