Reign of Christ Sermon 11.24.13 Scripture: Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 Given that it s the last Sunday of the church year, we might well wonder why the gospel reading points to the past rather than to the future some promised, glorious future. What s more, we might well wonder why the reading points us to this past, this event, which really is more suited to Holy Week than anything. Really, shouldn t our minds be set on Christ glorified rather than Christ crucified? Given that it s Christ the King Sunday, we might well wonder why we re to imagine Jesus on the cross rather than on a throne some beautiful, golden throne. What s more, we might wonder at the sort of people who serve as courtiers thieves, one even unrepentant. Really, where s Christ the King s diadem? And, returning to the real world now, we might well worry that Christ as king smacks of triumphalism and we know how this plays out. The proclamation that every knee shall bend before the throne of Jesus, that every kingdom and nation shall bow to our Lord these might well sound as menacing as they do promising. The war drum beats at words like these. The banner of Christ goes before a crusading army with words like these hanging in the air and because it s so easy, an old-habit dying hard, to hear this promise as a command. It s so tempting to take these words as marching orders rather than as simple assurance that Christ as king doesn t take by force but attracts by grace and self-giving love. Incidentally, this Christ the King Sunday is now as often called Reign of Christ Sunday the latter answering to two concerns. But neither are of particular concern to me. The first is that the name, Reign of Christ, removes the gender of the Cosmic Christ. This isn t a king we re talking about; this is a reign. And this is a real concern in some contexts, among some manifestations of Christ s Church. Male language in reference to God is so profuse and exclusively used, it s something of a pollutant; it distorts people s ability to imagine God in all God s fullness something that s impossible to do no matter how wide and broad and varied the language we use to name God (this which truly cannot be named), but we should ever-broaden the 1
terms nonetheless. So, not to get stuck thinking in exclusively male terms when it comes to thinking about God: this is a good thing, even if it s not an urgent need here. The second reason to change the name from Christ the King Sunday to Reign of Christ Sunday is because kings seem largely obsolete. These days, our notion of what a king is, is greatly diminished from what it once was. Really, the most powerful and inspiring and terrifying kings we likely can think of are characters on Game of Thrones (a show I don t watch, so I m just guessing here; a show I don t watch because the two episodes I did see were just too brutal for me to take). Consider, the once-most-dominant kingdom in the Western world, Great Britain, doesn t even have a king, hasn t for 61 years. Consider too that, if there were a king of England (which there will be again, and soon), he would likely make more headlines in Us Weekly than in the New York Times. Consider that most kings these days exercise ceremonial power more than actual power. So, the name Christ the King is retrograde. Whatever. I still prefer it. The people of God wanted a king. Long ago, back when the people of God were just becoming a people at all were just establishing themselves as a people under the Law and were just settling into the Promised Land they wanted a king. They d been led by Moses and then by priests. They d been governed by judges and then by Samuel, one of the earliest prophets according to Scripture. But, when Samuel s sons were appointed judges so to take the mantel of leadership into the next generation, it was clear the sons weren t up to the task and maybe the position itself had become obsolete. The people wanted a king. They clamored for a king. What s more, there were forces beyond Israel and Judah that spurred the people into making such a change. Egypt in the south, Babylon to the east, Syria to the north, and the Hittites still further to the north, all had long vied to rule the people s tiny strip of land. But now, each power was distracted by its own internal strife. So, now was the moment for Israel-Judah to get its act together, to become a United Kingdom which means they needed a king. Yes, now was the moment for them to become a nation among nations, perhaps even an empire among empires. 2
So they told Samuel, insisted to Samuel: appoint for us a king to govern us, like other nations. They didn t want to be the chosen people of God; they wanted to be like other nations. They didn t want God to be their king; they wanted a man for that role. Samuel was not in favor of this, but God wouldn t stand in the people s way. When Samuel brought the people s request to God in prayer, God responded: Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them Now then, listen to their voice; only you shall also solemnly warn them of the ways of kings. And so he did. He told them, This is what a king is good for. He will take your sons and make them either soldiers for his war-making or slaves for his wellbeing. He will take your daughters and make them either concubines in his harem or slaves in his household. He will take your property for his court and your livestock for his stable; he ll tax you to fill his treasury. Perhaps worst of all, he ll become king instead of the Lord your king, and on the day when you cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, the Lord won t answer you. The people s response? Sounds good! Sign us up! God s response? Apparently, let it be so, for now. Saul, then David, then Solomon would be king and it would make for a good century or so. The Temple would be built. The Ark of the Covenant, now with the conquering Philistines, would come back home. Jerusalem would become an enviable city. Other kings would follow and they would make for a good enough three centuries. This United Kingdom would indeed become a nation among nations, negotiating with foreign powers, waging war when that didn t work. Yes, things would then eventually fall apart. Yes, first Israel, then Judah, at last Jerusalem, would all fall. But it was indeed good enough for now. As for forever, God had another king in mind. ***** I find myself in a foreign place in my life. As a mother of two growing sons, I find myself thinking of power in a new way, or at least more frequently than before. I come from a girl-world. With a sister, with female cousins, with a strong mother, 3
and two very strong grandmothers, I realize now that the boys I knew early in my life were few and the men were mild-mannered; I realize that the games I played or heard of others playing were seldom about power, were more about relationship; and that the assumed aim in life was seldom about having power or gaining power. I don t want to overdraw the gender difference, but I have to admit I am struck by it, and by my own ignorance of how so many boys and men organize their lives. I m really sorry to be coming to this realization so late in my life not least for the many fine people it has had me fail to understand. But not understanding it isn t really an option now, or at least not recognizing it isn t. It s my every day. Toby and Jack are interested in power, as are their friends with whom they mostly play games of power. They are interested in becoming men of power. They dream of inventing things that solve big problems. They dream of discovering things that excite and inspire. They dream of governing, and in such a way that makes wrong-doing illegal; they dream of policing, and in such a way that makes wrong-doing impossible! They dream of exploring and laying claim to; they dream of spying and saving the day. They envision themselves being strong and confident, super-men really. They imagine themselves having six-pack abs. They don t even know what a six-pack is. (We buy bottled beer or four-packs of Guinness.) But they know what six-pack abs are, and they want them. And, to be quite honest, I want them to be men of power, too. Lord knows I know that we ve got problems in need of solving. Lord knows I know that our collective future lies in the discovery of new possibilities amidst ever-present realities and limitations. Lord knows I know we need more justice in our governance. And I do sometimes wish very hard for someone to save the day. I tell them all this. But I also tell them, Please don t be gym bunnies. Please don t mistake muscles for strength. I tell them, Power dwells in its readiness to serve. Strength is self-giving. I tell them, Power exists, not for its own sake, but in its availability to be poured out. We get this wrong all the time. From the ancient Greek concept of the deus ex machina, the god who rushes in from off-stage to rescue those in distress, to the 4
contemporary myths of superheroes that crowd the screens of multiplex after multiplex, we fantasize of beings whose power is invulnerable, yet whose goodness is unassailable and so who will keep themselves in check. Unlike the reality the Lord warned the people of, in our dreams super-power keeps itself ever in check. The one licensed to kill never goes on a shooting spree. The one who broods over the city by night never has his way with a citizen or two. The one who can see through everything but lead never becomes a peeping tom. We dream of someone who will be mighty and good, all-powerful and all-good, ever-protective and never-exploitative. We beg for such a king, or we hope to be such a king. The Church has even imagined God to be such a king. The letter to the Colossians might have us so imagining. Probably not written by Paul, this letter seeks to correct some corrupt teaching that has taken hold of the faithful in the city of Colossae, which was in what is now Turkey. Though the exact content of this corrupt teaching is unclear and much debated, the correction is very clear: to meditate on the centrality of Christ he who is before all things and who holds all things together; he who is the beginning and also the living end as first-born of the dead; in whom all the fullness of Go was pleased to dwell and through God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself and redeem all suffering and wrong from the trash-heap of history. Whatever all this might have meant to the Colossians, it might have us thinking about Christ in terms of power and strength. And as well we should. After all, in the first sentence of the reading, in the first phrase, there are two mentions of strength and one of power: May you all be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power But is this is our expectation, then the gospel might then have our heads cocked, our brows furrowed. Christ hangs from the cross, bleeding, suffocating; and this is somehow glorious power? Christ is helpless and mocked; and this is strength by which we might be made strong? Christ is described as a king, but the cross is a far cry from a throne. unless this time we re to receive not the king we wish for but the one God knows we need. 5
unless this time we re to receive not a king that will do for now but one that guides us into forever. Dietrich Bonheoffer suffered under one of recent history s most notorious kings. Adolph Hitler promised salvation for Germany, vindication for its humiliation following the First World War and all it would cost them was the systematic extermination of 6 million people, and the transformation of German citizens into accomplices to mass murder. Bonheoffer, in opposition to this, arrested for his participation in an attempt to assassinate Hitler, wrote from the cell of the concentration camp in which he was imprisoned: Man s religiosity makes him look in his distress to the power of God in the world; he uses God as a deus ex machina. The Bible, however, directs us to the powerlessness and suffering of God; only a suffering God can help. Only a suffering God can help this would come to encapsulate all of Bonheoffer s theology. Only a suffering God can help this would come to correct a Church that had for centuries insisted in its orthodox theologies that God does not suffer. Only a suffering God can help. Only such a God can help those who suffer: offering compassion, promising redemption, assuring that those who suffer even suffering their own sin and unwisdom and self-destuction will indeed be remembered in the coming kingdom. And this is no small thing. To be remembered is no small thing. To be remembered isn t just to thought about from time to time the way I remember to get milk at the grocery store even though I forgot to put it on my list. To be re-membered is to be reattached to that from which we have been dis-membered or cut off. Yes, only such a suffering God can help those who suffer those who feel forsaken, even Godforsaken that all will be held together, that all will be made and revealed as coherent and complete, indeed that all will be made one. And only such a God can help the suffering world in which many people much of the time aren t suffering really at all, but are enjoying the beauty, the power, the abundant blessings to be found in life for only such a God can teach us what to do with all the ways in which we re powerfully blessed. 6
Consider: there is anxiety in working to secure ourselves and safeguard all the stuff we have; and there is toil in grasping after more of what we ve got; and there is frustration in not getting ahead as fast as we d like, and there is resentment in regard to those who ve been getting more than what they deserve, and there is bitter envy of those who ve caught up to us, by-passed us, or got an unfair head-start. But there is joy and peace in letting things go, in giving things up, in offering ourselves, in beginning each day with the question, this powerful question, How can I help? ***** So this is it. We ve reached the end. Yet in the middle of things, we come also to the end. Look back and consider how we got here, what brought you here. Look back and consider how God might have been at work. Look forward, also, to the final end to which God might be guiding you, and to the new beginning that next Sunday will bring, the new adventure that the season of Advent promises to bear forth. Finally, look here, within and among, and rest. Thanks be to God. 7