Have you ever known someone who is just a wee bit out of step? You know, a family member or friend who enjoys marching to the beat of their own drum. Who seems to be the odd one out more often than not and is totally fine with it. If everyone is cutting their hair they’ll grow theirs long. If everyone is wearing blue they’ll wear yellow. If everyone goes low they go high…that kind of person? Well, this Sunday is kind of like that person.
While in the secular world we celebrate New Years in January in the church today is our new years eve. It’s like more or less close to New Years…but not quite? Today the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year and it all begins again next week with the First Sunday Advent. Advent is our fresh start. But today…today we hit the breaks and we take a moment to look back.
I feel I’ve shared before how Reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday as some churches call it a rather new liturgical phenomenon instituted by Pope Pius the 11th. But we’ve never really dug into why it came into being or made the splash that it did. What was it that prompted the Pope at the time to come up with a new Church Holiday when there hadn’t been a new one made for hundreds of years? Well, it was 1925 nearly 100 years ago and there a lot was going. The United Church of Canada would come into being that year…not that the Pope would have been paying too much attention to that. He was, to be fair, preoccupied.
World War 1 which ended in 1918 and had left Europe in shambles and the people were distraught. The desire for strong, secular leaders ran deep and the shift away from the church that had started long before in the times of the French Revolution was only gaining momentum. In 1922 a man named Mussolini came to power and in 1925 he declared himself “il Duce”…the Leader…the Fascist Dictator of Italy. He would remain in power until he was deposed in 1943.
Meanwhile in 1919 Hitler entered the political scene as he joined the German Workers Party. In 1920 it changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party, AKA the Nazi Party. And in 1921 he became its sole leader.
So we’ll forgive the Pope at the time for not celebrating the birth of our beloved church he was clearly concerned with other things and for good reason. It was in response to the rising secularism and growing nationalism he was seeing in the world that inspired the new feast day. It was to serve as a reminder to the people at the time and for future generations that no matter what is happening in the world on the pollical stage, no matter who believed themselves to be the highest level of power and authority, no matter who crowned themselves king, or dictator, or Emperor…the simple truth was, they were nothing…they are nothing…when compared to the power and authority of Christ.
Now we good UCC folk tend to shy away from such royal descriptions of Jesus, or God. We prefer titles like The Good Shepherd or The Light of the World. They are more gentle, more welcoming, more I dunno, united churchy. But for some unknown reason, this year, I find myself drawn to the concept of Jesus as king…or more to the point how his vision and way of being king stands in stark contrast to the powers that be in our current context.
The Biblical scene will likely be familiar to most of us. Jesus has been arrested and brought before Pilate were the two have a back and forth conversation that is central to the Passion Narrative. As Nadia Bolz Webber wrote “Pilate was governor in a b-list province and just trying to cover his backside when Jesus was dragged in before him. “Are you king of the Jews?” he asks, basically saying “Are you or are you not trying to overthrow Caesar?” To Pilate, Jesus was just some itinerant Jewish teacher, a bedraggled nobody with some questionable followers… So the question must have felt absurd.
[The problem was that] Pilate didn’t know to ask the right question. He didn’t know to ask “Are you the human incarnation of the God who created the universe?” Pilate didn’t know to ask “Have you or have you not come to proclaim release to the captives and freedom to the oppressed?” And Pilate for sure didn’t know to say to Jesus “be honest… if we kill you, are you just gonna go and rise from the dead 3 days from now and change the course of history?”
So instead, he asks if Jesus fancies himself a political leader who might threaten Rome with a violent revolt. Which is basically like asking typhoid Mary if she’s trying to steal your boyfriend. Typhoid is a threat … but not to your romantic relationship.” (the Corners).
Jesus tries to answer Pilate’s questions and ends up pointing to a greater truth that simply went over his head. There was no way Pilate nor the people of his time were going to understand that Jesus’ Kingdom was not an earthly one. It was too out of step with the norm. It did not fit into what they thought they wanted or needed. It certainly did not conform to the way people in power ruled. And so unwilling to make any big decisions on his own Pilate turns the crowd and says “I find no case against him. You have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
As World War Two loomed I wonder if the people of the church at the time who first honoured this feast day saw it for what it was…a line in the sand. A statement that proclaimed in the face of these earthly Kings we proclaim that our true is King different. This year, as we honour this day we also find ourselves watching tensions rising in Europe, leaders in the middle east being charged with hate crimes, criminals taking high profile roles in powerful governments all over the world. I wonder…do we still see this day for what it is?
As far as I can tell the line in the sand it hasn’t moved. On one side of the line stands earthly power, money, weapons, fear mongering, fake news, wars, hunger, anger. But on the other side of the line stands a King who says the greatest commandment of them all “is love the lord you God with all your heart, all your soul all your mind and love your neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 22).
Our King says if you want to be great, if you want to be THE greatest, you must be a servant to everybody (Matthew 20). Or King says “let the weak ones come to me for the kingdom of God belongs to them” (Matthew 5). Our King says, “I will endure this suffering before you have to so you no longer need to be afraid” (1 Peter 2:21). Our King says “peace I leave with you my peace I give to you. Do not give as the world gives.” (John 14)
The funny thing of course is that for the most part this is not the kind of king people want. The people in Jesus day certainly didn’t. When Pilate offered to free someone for them that day they chose Barabas…a criminal. And 2000 years later? Well, you don’t have to dig too deep before you find a politician with a criminal record.
In just six days you and I will return to this place and we will slide gently into the much loved season of Advent. We will bask in candle light and traditions that comfort us as we are pointed towards a time when God’s love was born into this world. Together we will recall how his birth was enough to cause the King at the time to fall into a paranoid rage even as angels sang and wise ones rejoiced.
But for now we linger here and as we do so may we think of the man that Baby grew into. A Man who walked out of step with the rest of the world from the very beginning, who marched to the beat of his own drum, who spoke truth to power, held Kings accountable, fed everyone, welcomed everyone…especially those he wasn’t supposed to. And in a moment as we say together the words he taught us, prayerful words “which have been spoken every single day since our Lord taught it to the first of his faltering friends, [may we remember how they] just might be the most subversive of all declarations: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Nadia Bolz Webber wrote “Because we who live and pray this way have a very different agenda than Caesar’s, we have pledged our allegiance and submitted to the reign of the unresentful loser, The prince of peace.
Whose throne is but two pieces of wood and a few rusty nails, whose crown is jeweled with thorn, and whose judgement is one of forgiveness and mercy…A servant King. A crucified enemy-loving King. In whose kingdom, there is nothing to earn. There are no Google reviews to wring your hands over. All notions of supremacy are crushed under his feet.”
Let us honour and celebrate that King today.
Amen.
