Christ the King, YrB 18 25 November 2018 Daniel 7:9-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:1-8; John 18:33-37 The Rt. Rev. Michael Williams @ St. George s Anglican Collect: Christ the King Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. ********************************************** Opening: Today marks the final Sunday of the Christian year. The day is known as Christ the King Sunday. And the occasion provides us with an opportunity to give special attention and emphasis to the present reality that Jesus the Messiah is King: Crucified, Raised from the dead, Ascended into heaven, and Seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is sovereign King over heaven and earth. The Christian Year ends on the same note with which it begins: Joy to the World The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King! Before we turn the church calendar pages back to the beginning next Sunday (1 Advent) and begin again our annual pilgrimage Today is the day to Emphatically acknowledge and proclaim that our gracious Savior and Lord is seated upon his heavenly throne, and He is ruling over His Kingdom. His Kingship is established: the Righteous and Eternal Kingship of the one whose faithful obedience inaugurated the Kingdom of God. After his resurrection and before his ascension Jesus said, All authority in heaven and earth has been given me. Matt 28 Jesus now reigns over and is highly exalted Above all other powers, kingdoms and authorities. His Kingdom has come in heaven; And is, indeed, continuing to come on earth; And the way that has been happening and continues to happen is through the Spirit-enlivened lives, testimony, service, and offerings of the faithful members of His body, the Church. The recognition and proclamation of these realities should draw us overwhelmingly into the joyful praise
of our sovereign King Jesus. Joy to the world indeed! He is Holy and transcendent; and he is very much with us now in his Spirit; inhabiting His Holy Word, the praises of his people gathered; and His sacramental body and blood received by his faithful people; he in us and we in him. I. N.T. Wright s descriptions of how the Kingdom of God was inaugurated by Jesus the Christ, and how he became King. For the last couple of weeks & in anticipation of this sermon I ve been making my way through Bp NT. Wright s 2012 book, How God Became King. Bp Wright makes a profoundly compelling case for a number of truths that we all need to hear and take to heart and mind, but especially those in the church who serve as teachers and preachers. There are three teachings about Jesus s Kingship and His Kingdom that Bp Wright synthesizes and highlights from the 4 Gospels - and I d like to emphasize them because they relate directly to the focus of our worship today. I think they need to be recognized and renewed in the teaching of the faith of the Christian Church; in other words, in our Catechesis; But, before enumerating those three truths; I want to summarize Bp Wright s personal testimony that served as his motivation for the entire content of his book because I think it lends credibility to his teaching as a clear testimony from Holy Scripture. He says that when he was in high school he & his friends formed a small Christian studies group, and they decided to do a series of studies about Jesus, each beginning with, Why. Why was Jesus born? Why did he live? Why did he die; rise again; etc. Wright ended up assigned to prepare and present on the question, Why did Jesus live. And he says he soon realized he drew the short straw; - That there is obviously a wealth of content and theology written relating to the meaning and significance of Jesus birth (the incarnation); and Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. These topics {he thought} generate plenty to talk about, to chew on, to make us think hard and to get excited about. But what about this question in the middle, between
Jesus birth and death, between the stable and the cross, i.e., the question: Why did Jesus live? During Jesus s earthly life and brief, intense ministry does it matter that he said all those things; did all those things? If so, what s the significance? (p.3-4) Wright says he remembers being puzzled, - and that he realized his puzzlement was no accident. He writes, It wasn t that most Christians knew the answer and I just hadn t grasped it yet. I had stumbled, without realizing it, on a weak spot in the general structure of Christian faith as it has come to be expressed in today s world. In other words he discovered a deficit in the teaching of the faith as we ve received it. Here is all this material in Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. Why? What are we to make of it? What is the gospel message within the Gospels? And here is his statement that I find so compelling because those who know his heart and mind through his writing know he is a man held captive by Christ: Bp Wright writes, The puzzle of {about} Jesus s lifetime what was his life all about has become the puzzle of mine {my life}. (p.9) So to give a synopsis then of the three overarching teachings from the Gospels that Bp Wright synthesizes and highlights: 1. Jesus Kingship was inaugurated through his faithful obedience to suffer and be crucified for the sins of the whole world; - and that Kingship was then validated by His resurrection; - and his enthroned authority over heaven and earth was instituted with his ascension, i.e., he was seated at the right hand of power, (Mk 14) with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. (1 Pt 3) 2. Through his earthly life and ministry Jesus was ushering in the beginning of His Kingdom; Through 1) his teaching and ministry, 2) through the visible exercise of his sovereign, Godly power - healing, casting out evil, raising people from the dead - his Kingdom was witnessed to be coming on earth as it was soon to be established in heaven. As written in the book of Hebrews: Now in putting everything in subjection to Him God left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Heb 2:5-9) 3. And the third of Bp Wright s overarching teachings
is that this message about Jesus Kingship and Kingdom is the teaching of the four voices of the gospels in concert with one another: the message and truth that needs to be included as an essential, formational element of our biblical and creedal catechesis: *Incarnation, Kingdom, Suffering and Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Sending of the Holy Spirit thus providing for the fullness of our understanding of - the revelation of God s plan of redemption and the restoration of His creation -- through Jesus Christ the King. Transition: In his life-long study of the gospels, - Bishop Wright supplies a wealth of other rich insights towards supplying this full, renewed, and balanced understanding of the message of the gospels; - to include additionally 4 foundational themes common to the gospels. The fourth of these 4 foundational themes is of special interest to us this morning because it is at the heart of today s Scripture readings: And that is that the gospels describe the reality and nature of the Clash of the Kingdoms, i.e., - the kingdoms of this world clashing with the Kingdom of God. The story of the Kingdom of God clashing with the Kingdom of Caesar. II. The Clash of Kingdoms: Jesus Power vs Worldly Power The gospel stories of JESUS testify that His Power was demonstrated through his faithful obedience to proclaim the Truth in every earthly context, sometimes gently (as with his final words to the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more), sometimes forcefully (as in his turning over of the money changers tables in the Temple); sometimes indirectly (as in his telling of parables), sometimes very directly (as in his rebuke of the storm on the Sea of Galilee); but always the Truth, because that s who He is, the Truth/the Word of God incarnate; and His telling of the Truth and demonstration of the power of the Truth is of the essence of the coming of His Kingdom. But Jesus s Truth telling and demonstrations of his authority clashed with those who were corrupted by political power whether it be the political power of the empire or that of the Jewish authorities. The clash between Jesus and Pilate described in today s gospel reading serves as the consummate case in point.
The Kingdom that Jesus was ushering into the world clashed head on with those whose egos were eager to maintain personal control and their positions of power and authority; and such people, the gospels make clear, are people ultimately under the power & allure of the forces of the evil one, rather than under the power of an abiding faith in Christ the King by the power of His Spirit. Bp Wright reminds us, It is only when we take fully into account the gospel writers belief that Jesus was involved in the ultimate battle against the ultimate spiritual forces of evil that we can begin to see how the four Gospels combination of kingdom and cross and, looking wider, of incarnation, kingdom, cross, and resurrection makes sense. III. Jesus Christ is King And so today s message is that Jesus Christ is King! The Kingdom he established is not of or from this world, but for 2000 years it has been, and continues to be, present and active in this world through his faithful people/the church and their steady & courageous witness to His Name. Our life in Jesus Christ and witness together to His Incarnation and Kingdom, his crucifixion and resurrection, to our King s ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit - is the incarnation of our heavenly King s power and authority in this world here and now. And the clash of His Kingdom with the kingdoms of this world will continue, until Jesus s Kingdom has fully come on earth as it is in heaven. Dr. Ian Paul in his commentary on the book of Revelation writes, True hearing means obedient action in response. The Apostle James wrote, Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1) It is for us then to be the front line of our King s servants - actively and aggressively faithful to get off the bench (as the Rector said in his sermon last week), - eager to demonstrate and proclaim God s Truth through our faithful and sacrificial obedience to serve Because there is still much work to be done! We have an abundance of opportunities as members of St. George s to enthusiastically and substantially invest in the eternal work of ushering in our Lord s Kingdom here and now. The breadth and reach of the Kingdom ministries of St. George s is significant, and the Spirit of God is leading us even now to opportunities for furthering Christ s Kingdom through continued strong support of these very good works, as well as the forthcoming
new work of the Anglican Institute And all of this constituting our obedience to the Lord s command to be Watchful until Christ the King comes again. Conclusion He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has conquered (Rev 5:5); He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29); who redeems the souls of sinful humanity, men & women who have the courage to look into their hearts to see and to face the Truth He reveals - regarding their hubris and rebellion against his Kingship - to count the cost, to Repent and to enlist, with the help of His Spirit, to serve as faithful believers and obedient soldiers who then witness by word and deed to his wonderful reign. Jesus Christ is King. to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev 1:5-7) **************************** He is the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,