Notes From A Sermon: Christ The King Sunday

Notes From a Sermon: Christ the King Sunday

Notes From a Sermon: Christ the King Sunday

Christ the King Sunday ( John 18:33-37) is a special day on the Church calendar, like Lent or Holy Week leading up to Easter or Advent, the weeks before Christmas. Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Advent have been part of the Christian community for more than 1,000 years.

Christ the King Sunday has only been celebrated for around 100 years.

In the days after WW I, when millions had died carrying out the will of the Kaisers and Kings and Czars, the church wanted to reassert that while the Czar in Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany, and King George in England were kings in this world, Christ is actually the true king.

Christ is the king. And this final Sunday before the beginning of Advent, we join with millions of Christians around the world to stop and acknowledge that Christ is king.

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus says. Jesus did come to earth to establish a kingdom; just not a kingdom like we expect, or what the disciples expected. A kingdom not of the world, but a kingdom of the heart. A kingdom not maintained with violence, but a kingdom dedicated to love.

This was radically different than what people were expecting.

People in Jesus’ time and region were living under a puppet king, Herod, appointed king of Judea by the Roman government.

Scripture tells us Herod learns of the birth of Jesus and orders the massacre of all male babies like Jesus, which sent Mary, Joseph and their child into Egypt.

People around the world continue to flee violence and abuse, seeking safety for their children like Mary and Joseph. And the Bible says to help them.

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” — Deuteronomy 10:19

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” — Leviticus 19:34

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.” — Zechariah 7:9-10

Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. — Romans 12:13

And Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” — Matthew 25:35

This is what the Scripture tells us today, and it’s what scripture told the people of Israel 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 years ago.

There is every Biblical reason to help the foreigners living among us. Deporting foreigners is how the empire and the Romans behave. Deporting foreigners isn’t Christian and should be opposed by Christians.

Jesus was born into the Kingdom of Herod – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Roman Empire, which spanned the world from Europe to Egypt, and everything in between.

Kings rule with power and violence. Kings build statues of themselves. Or wear fine robes and sit in the place of honor in the synagogue or at the banquet tables. Or they have their faces etched on coins or flags.

In Matthew 4 and Luke 4, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain, and shows Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor … All this I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’”

The temptation Jesus rejected was the temptation faced by his disciples. It’s the temptation of the world that we all face.

But Jesus gave us crystal clear instructions concerning leadership, in the Gospel of Mark 10:42-44: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them,” Jesus said about the Roman rulers. “But it is not so among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

So, on Christ the King Sunday, we have a king who tells us to live like servants.

Jesus lived in a culture where men were men and women were women. Where might made right. Where violence was the way to solve your problems. A world where people looked up at the big buildings and the big shots in the fine clothes, and looked down on the poor and the needy.

This is how the kings and the wealthy lived then, and this is how the kings and rich live in the world today.

The world respects power and sees peace as weakness.

“My kingdom,” Jesus says to Pilate, “is not of this world.”

Some believe that we can use the world’s methods to accomplish a good result; that the end justifies the means. People are tempted to use Herod’s power to achieve Jesus’ goals.

This is what the Roman emperor Constantine did in 337, when he converted to Christianity and made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman empire – enforced at the point of a spear.

This is what the Christians did to the non-Christians during the Crusades in the Middle East.

This is what Spanish Conquistadores did to the native people they encountered in the Caribbean and North and South America.

This is what the United States did, when it took Native American children from their homes and shipped them to schools to convert them to Christianity.

This is what Christian nationalism is doing today.

Just a reminder, because people have to be reminded, government enforcing religion is wrong.

It was wrong in 337.

It was wrong when Columbus said that the natives he encountered needed to be converted to Christianity before they were enslaved.

It was still wrong in 1786, and that’s why Thomas Jefferson wrote, and the Virginia General Assembly passed, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, to stop the government from supporting one religion over another.

And it will always be wrong for the government to endorse one religion.

People must understand the love of God of their own free will, or else it is useless. A faith or a religion forced on you by the government or society, or your parents, or friends, or priests or an imam, or a preacher, or anyone else, is worthless. Little more than ashes. Living a lie.

The One True God offers one true connection and that power doesn’t come from this world. The Power of the Sun is found in the power of the Son.

Jesus says true power comes from releasing power. We are filled by God when we empty ourselves for God to refill us. We become first when we become last. We find ourselves by losing ourselves. We save ourselves by sacrificing ourselves.

Winston Churchill said: “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

We make a life for ourselves by giving of ourselves.

If God’s plan was for Christians to be the rulers of the world, then perhaps God wouldn’t have created a plan that included Emanuel, God with us, murdered in a public execution, nailed to a tree, powerless.

We are given the choice between power and authority verses love and servanthood. People love power. But Christ the king shows us the power of love.

Thanks be to God.